Wikipedia Making It Easier For Editors

The non-profit behind Wikipedia has received a grant, and will use it to make things easier for first-time Wikipedia editors.

It seems as if almost everyone has used Wikipedia as a reference tool, and many of us might have found content on there we wanted to change. Submitting an edit to an entry might become easier soon, thanks to an $890,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the online encyclopedia, from the Stanton Foundation.

In a statement, Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said:

"Wikipedia attracts writers who have a moderate-to-high level of technical understanding, but it excludes lots of smart, knowledgeable people who are less tech-centric. One of our key priorities is to attract those people and persuade them to help write and edit the encyclopedia."

A project team will commission research to discover the things first time editors find most difficult, then work to make them simpler, with the project running through 2009.

The Stanton Foundation grant will not count toward the Wikimedia Foundation’s $6 million operating budget for the year.