The viral social media sensation comes to Edinburgh armed with a plethora of facts about our favourite online encyclopaedia…
The on-screen images as we gather in the Cowbarn give a good taste of what’s to come: a curious manatee, a cat with delusions of grandeur, bread versus toast. Annie Rauwerda has devoted her time to Wikipedia as an editor but is now best known for her Depths of Wikipedia account; whether sexually active popes, the Wingdings font’s troubled relationship with terrorism or cow-tipping, Annie digs up the real gems of the site.
We sometimes forget that humans are at the heart of Wikipedia, and Annie does a brilliant job of illustrating this; we meet the prolific editors, the housewives dedicated to eliminating copyright violations, and the pedants arguing in the Talk pages over such petty topics as whether a dog wearing a human hat should represent the pet fashion page. Volunteers come from all walks of life, and Annie has journeyed to meet them. Even the faces of articles have been tracked down, with some truly sweet stories behind them.
Annie is initially a little nervous but soon relaxes into nerdy, bubbly enthusiasm. There’s enough Wikipedia contributors in the audience to keep things rolling along, and even if you’re not aware of the more viral moments like the high-five demo models, you’ll be looking them up on a big Wiki binge afterwards!
We can’t change the big things going on in the world, but Rauwerda reminds us that even a small edit on a 25-year-old website’s article about aardvarks will brighten someone’s day.
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Depths of Wikipedia is at Underbelly Bristo Square from Aug 5-30 at 12:00