As Wikimaniacs gather at, well, Wikimania, an annual conference held this year in Cambridge, Mass., The Globe and Mail publishes a nice profile of Ottawa native Simon Pulsifer, whom the Globe crowns “King of Wikipedia.” Three cheers for Simon!
Prolific Canadian is king of Wikipedia
With more than 80,000 articles under his belt, Ottawa man is the on-line resource's busiest contributor
ALEXANDRA SHIMOSimon Pulsifer has never really blended in with the crowd. In kindergarten, he began building elaborate, fantastical buildings out of Lego, already bored by the construction plans on the back of the box.
In Grade 8, he, attired as Stalin, and other friends re-enacted the Yalta conference on the balcony of a friend's house. In university, he became the Trivial Pursuit champion at his college, and even won when the whole residence took him on.
Today Mr. Pulsifer, 24, is known internationally as the world's most prolific author on the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, with 78,000 entries edited and 2,000 to 3,000 new articles to his name. He can't remember the exact number.
“I'm always doing something for Wikipedia, even when I'm not writing entries,” he said from his home in Ottawa. “I'm always planning and thinking about how I can make the site better.”