Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become the central repository for human knowledge, but Charlottesville isn’t very well represented. Many of the basic historical figures and central geographic locations of our area are only given a cursory description, if they’re listed at all. There are predictably informative and lengthy entries for Thomas Jefferson, UVa, DMB, etc. But there’s nothing at all about the Jefferson School, the Charlottesville Pavilion, Barracks Road, or our own mayor (for instance). And the entries for the Downtown Mall, WINA, the Daily Progress, CHO, Lane High School, The Corner, and the Southwest Mountains are pretty anemic. And given their profile, Ash Lawn-Highland and Montpelier should have way better entries.
I’ve made a list of a bunch of entries that I’d like to create or improve, though no doubt folks can think of plenty more. It took two of us just a couple of days to create a decent entry for Paul Goodloe McIntire. I hope that y’all in the habit of contributing to Wikipedia will take a few minutes to add some information to local entries. And those of you who are new at this, I encourage you to give it a try: just click on the “edit this page” link at the top of any one of those entries, add any information that you think should be there, and save your changes. (See Wikipedia’s guide to editing a page.) Collectively, I’m sure that we all know enough about the area’s history to make a considerable contribution to its chronicling.
Waldo–
If we think of other possible articles, would you like them to added to your list, or should we all start separate lists?
There’s something to be said for having one list which Charlottesville Wiki-ers could refer, but there’s also something to be said for having a short list for oneself.
On a related note, the dearth of Charlottesville buildings on Google Earth makes me sad. I commit to improving this.
Huh. I dunno. I didn’t think that far ahead. :) As a start, no doubt we can just add them here, in the form of comments. Maybe somebody smarter than me can figure out what to do. :)
That blasted Google Street Map car will be driving through soon enough. It has already hit many cities in Va. Don’t go outside in just your underpants.
Well, hell’s bells…there goes my weekend.
How about an article about Milton, the community that once existed at the head of navigation on the Rivanna? I’ve read that before the War of 1812 it was bigger than Charlottesville!