User:Edonovan
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I joined Wikipedia on October 10, 2005 after reading an article on Wikipedia and trust which used the anomie article as an example of why Wikipedia is inferior to other sources of information. At the time I thought this was an ironic criticism, and asked the question common among Wikipedia-defenders: "Why didn't you just fix it yourself?" The events of the last two years have caused me to be much more skeptical of the viability of the WP project, for reasons related to both the makeup of the community and the fundamental policies. I particularly am disturbed by how notability and NPOV can so be easily used in a biased manner by people with an axe to grind (for more, cf. The Great Failure of Wikipedia by Jason Scott). The analogy with USENET is particularly pointed, I believe.
Though the Essjay controversy was bad, I do see some positive change at Wikipedia, particularly now that WikiScanner has been released. I've started editing again, albeit more on the low-level tasks of proofreading and revising for clarity, rather than checking facts or restructuring articles. Good or no, Wikipedia is here to stay, and it's the first place many people go to on the Web for information, so I might as well as make it as readable as I can. If there was some sort of two-tiered page edit system (static versions, as well as versions in flux), then I might feel more willing to contribute knowledge, not just editing, to the project. But for now, I think it is what it is.
If you wish to find me, my blog is at donovan.covblogs.com. My del.icio.us username is outofegypt. You may also find me on Facebook, a site which is becoming increasingly useful (and less trivial/stalker-ish) with time. Finally, you may reach me in my capacity as Online Publications Editor for TechMission at www.urbanministry.org/user/evandonovan.
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[edit] My Life (as a bulleted list)
- Born June 15, 1984 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- Raised Reformed, in the PCA
- Graduated from Solanco High School in 2002
- Attended Covenant College for undergrad
- Ran cross country, contributed to literary magazine, wrote & worked on graphic design for campus newspaper, the Bagpipe
- Wrote undergraduate thesis (known at Covenant as a SIP) on Marshall McLuhan's media theories and the rhetoric of hypertext: that is, how hypertext documents, and, more broadly, web communities, offer media experiences that transcend McLuhan's dialectical oppositions between hot and cool communication, between word and image. The finished paper (at least insofar as such a paper can be finished) is accessible at my writing wiki.
- Studied abroad in spring of 2006 at Oxford University: main tutorials were on British Romanticism and Christian theology to A.D. 450
- Graduated May 2006 with a B.A. in English
- In fall of 2006, moved to Boston to serve with TechMission via AmeriCorps at an after-school program for the youth of Dorchester
- Started work in July of 2007 as Online Publications Editor for TechMission's UrbanMinistry.org site
[edit] Future Plans
Studying Mass Communication in the Boston University College of Communication graduate program.
After that, who knows?
[edit] Intellectual and Spiritual Influences
- my father
- Athanasius of Alexandria
- St. Augustine
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
- John Donne
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Denise Levertov
- Francis Schaeffer
- John Piper
- Walker Percy
- Marshall McLuhan
- George Lakoff
[edit] Internal Links (within my user namespace)
Bible link discussion from the Village Pump.
Proposals for the future.
[edit] Biased Pages on WP
(With a note of the current slant.)
- New World Translation - appears pro-JW
- I think this puts the NWT on an even plane with translations such as the KJV, RSV, etc., which it does not deserve