Friday, October 26, 2012

The Humanist Manifesto Project

This baby is all Lei Pinter's. Humanist Manifesto Category Page.

A couple months ago Lei came up with the idea to start a category called the Humanist Manifesto.  We got one volenteer, Terry from the UK.  Terry hadn't edited before but was game to learn how on this project.

I've been watching Terry and Lei's progress for the last couple weeks, and it looks like they have mostly finished.  I've been waiting to write this blog but keep thinking that it will be done any day now.  Finally I spent some time on Lei's Google spreadsheet tonight and decided that they won't be completely done for ages.  And not because they aren't working on the project, but because of the way that Lei organized it.  With each edit they make, the to-do list grows.

Lei and Terry have been visiting every name on the list of the three manifestos.  Some do not have Wikipedia pages which is noted on the spreadsheet.  If they do have a page, then the citation for the manifesto is added, and at the bottom of the page the category is left. 

Here is a good example of a page that now has a mention of the manifesto as well as at the bottom is a link to the category page.  Philip Warren Anderson

They are also looking over each page and making notes on the condition of the page, does it need a photo?  Is it a stub?  Does it need a rewrite?  And so on.

The Atlantic newsletter/blog announced yesterday that Wikipedia is almost complete, most of the big subjects like WWII, and most sports heroes are written and don't need revision.  In my opinion, Wikipedia has a lot of work left to do, just click though some of the names on this category list and you can see why I said that Lei and Terry have created a to-do list for the rest of us. 

On a sad note, the death this week of Paul Kurtz gave quite a boost of views to the manifesto's pages.  Kurtz was the writer of the Humanist Manifesto II (this page is in need of some work also by the way) and after his death was announced, his page received a few hits.  Over 18 thousand views in 5 days, when normally he would receive about 500 views in that same 5 days.  Someone else can figure out the math.

This brings on the ripple effect, we have been working on the Paul Kurtz page and thankfully we got it in shape in time for all the views. 

Humanist Manifesto had a 85% hit increase
Humanist Manifesto II experienced a 800% increase in views on one day (over the previous day) 
Humanism and Its Aspirations jumped 285% over normal





There is a lot of work remaining to be done.  Here is one that is similar to this project.  The Amsterdam Declaration from 2002,  great potential for a category page.

I would love to do the same thing Lei has done with the Manifesto, to the Project Steve list.  Maybe even contrast and compare it to the list of scientists that signed on to the creationist project.  Now that would be interesting.  All I need is you and you and you.  Contact me at susangerbic@yahoo.com if you are ready to get started.


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