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I can't believe you're bothering to read this...
Name : B. R. Speer
Location : California
Profession : Teacher
Hobbies : Central European names and heraldry, Biodiversity, Botany, Paleobiology, Analytic geometry, Science-fiction, Comedy films, Latin pop music, Drawing and painting, and I'm game for almost anything else.
[edit] Wikipedia
I only just discovered Wikipedia (4 Oct 2005), but can see right away that I'm going to be sucked into it for the next few years. I used to write pages for the [UC Museum of Paleontology] web site. It was assembled much like Wikipedia, but with a more narrow focus (just on all organisms that ever lived, not on all knowledge). Unfortunately, the old crew went their separate ways, and getting access to make edits has become too bureaucratic there. The site has stagnated, but I miss writing the articles and posting images. Seems like finding Wikipedia was destiny.
I've found that one way that I can contribute greatly is in cross-linking articles from different language versions of the Wikipedia. Although I can write and speak only a few languages at an understandable level, I've had a lot of practice reading in a wide variety of languages and can brainstorm for cognates better than most other people I know. This comes partly from my interest in onomastics (the study of names), particularly anthroponomastics (the study of people's names). Names transfer across national and linguistic boundaries all the time, and to really understand the history of a name you have to follow it across many borders. I've had to work from texts in all sorts of languages, and that practice has developed a kind of broader sense of language and information patterning that's hard to explain.
In any case, I like making information accessible, which is why I became a teacher and is why I'm here as well. I even try doing a little Wikipedia:Cleanup from time to time. Well, OK, I'm doing a lot of stub sorting lately, but mostly so that I can see what sorts of articles are in need of being expanded.
[edit] Works include
EncycloPetey's edit count
Because I have so many varied interests, I have to set personal limits on which areas I'll seriously work on. Right now, I'm focussed on bryophytes, plant tissue systems, and heraldry. That doesn't mean I won't occassionally foray into other pages to add links, or won't add a new article on an interesting topic, but if I don't stay focussed my quality of work will suffer. I don't want that to happen.
[edit] Botanical taxa
- Hornworts about 60% of the page itself, but 100% of the pages on the genera.
- Hymenaea 100% on this tropical genus of resin-producing trees.
- Marsileaceae except for the Taxobox, nearly 100% of the page content.
[edit] Plant anatomy
- Under heraldic charges, I created the articles on the chief, goutte, and pale.
- Added an heraldic section to the page on the roundel.
- Heavily formatted the articles on tinctures and split out rule of tincture with new images.
- Created tincture series, re-establishing and expanding argent, azure, gules, or, purpure, sable, vert.
[edit] External Links
