I have a lot to thank Wikipedia for.
Like many users, the wealth of knowledge that Wikipedia presents on so many topics makes it my first stop in understanding the context of current events and my place in the world. That it is so imperfect and admits that it is but a work in progress only makes it more attractive to me.
But it was what it didn't have that made the biggest difference to my life. For over a decade I lived in the Southern Bay Islands of Moreton Bay near Brisbane in Australia. It was both geographically complicated and at a fascinating point in its history. While only a short ferry ride from suburbia, the ex-farming communities of the islands were under pressure from suburban growth while being a major area of natural biodiversity for South East Queensland.
Consequently, I began to join the dots contributing small amendments, additions and finally being brave enough to start a new page or two--for example Russell.
What I didn't count on was the natural outcome of doing the research necessary to edit entries--creating my own online journal focussing on the Bay. I now edit the BayJournal with a group of others who are trying to get a handle on the growth of this area. Using a bloggy newspaper format, we have managed to average at least one new article per day on the site for the past two years, building a repository of raw information that can by used to construct Wikipedia entries. I am particularly proud of the material we gathered during the 2006 Queensland Election which tracked the local issues of the Bay.
I hope that other contributors to Wikipedia will recognise the resource and mine it for their own articles. That is why it was built.