The idealists, the optimists, and the world they share

Wikipedians are a varied group, and while they may not know one another except online, most share two things: comfort with computers and the online world, and delight with the idea of contributing to a free encyclopedia for the entire world. Here are some faces and voices of Boston-area Wikipedians.

Brandon Stafford, 33, of Cambridge, works in information technology for a local company.

''In about 2002, I started noticing it in Google results and thought, 'This is stupid -- an encyclopedia that anyone could edit?' -- and dismissed it. About two years later, I started noticing [Wikipedia articles] are pretty comprehensive, better than most online references I have seen. Recently, I had a relative who might have Crohn's disease. I searched on Google, and the fourth item was the Wikipedia page.

''It might not be reliable, but I know that people are generally [contributing] because they want to provide accurate information. They're not getting anything out of it -- no money. I don't think disseminating false information is satisfying to people, but distributing useful information is.

''I've realized there are smart people contributing, not just weirdos on the Web -- this is actually a community. People have been very welcoming. . . .I'm fairly idealistic and do believe in Jimmy Wales's idea of bringing universal access of all human knowledge to everyone."

Emily Dunn, 18, of Lexington, is a senior at Lexington High School.

''I love it. I think it's great. I use it in place of what I used to use Google for. A lot of times, if you Google something, you won't find a basic explanation.

''I'm interested in Boston-area articles, Boston music and bands. I started the Amanda Palmer article. I've started a number of articles. The one I'm most proud of is Dinah Cancer and the Graverobbers. The coolest thing is to watch how an article changes. If you look at the first edit [i.e., the original version], it's like, wow, look what it became!

''I have 123 articles on my watch list. I look to see if the changes are cool. If there's vandalism, I will revert [delete] it. I'm watching the death rock articles, Lexington articles, gay pride, the Dresden Dolls, and living statues.

''If someone had said to me that they were going to create an encyclopedia that anyone could edit, I would think it would be completely destroyed. There is a lot of vandalism -- people do it as a joke, it's not malicious, it's 'Look what I can do.' . . .But if they have enough people who are dedicated to it, that keeps it from being overrun with vandalism."

Chun-Shek Chan, 24, of Somerville, was born in Hong Kong and has a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's in broadcast journalism.

''There are different language versions [of Wikipedia], but some have only a handful of articles. My major contribution is to find articles in English, German, or French and compile them into a Chinese [article], trying to inject something relevant to Chinese culture. If you pull them all together, you get a bigger picture.

''I created an article on wasabi in Chinese, and an article about an Argentine comic strip called Mafalda, published between 1964 and 1973. I did major work on one English-language article: US television news. I went to this article and thought, 'This is bad; I could do better.' I did several days of research and completely rewrote it.

''When I did [a television news] internship in Missouri, Wikipedia became a research tool -- background research; I wouldn't quote anything. . . . The beauty of it is that if something is bad, and you know you can do a better job, the creators of Wikipedia encourage you to be bold, and change it completely."

Jeff Raymond, 24, of Millbury, works for a book publisher.

''I was aware of the site before I started to add to it. You start looking at it and before you know it, you think, 'I can add to this or that.' It's an addictive thing. Once I got into it, I started working on independent [rock] bands that didn't have entries. Before you know it, it snowballs.

''It's a neat concept. You get the feeling you might be informing someone about something they might not have known about before. That's the fun of it. Sometimes I think, 'Why do I bother?' but then I realize, 'Who knows who will ever see it, but I'm leaving a mark.'

''. . .The one major downside is that people can put in anything they want, and it's up to others to correct it. It's a definite problem in the arts that I pay attention to. There are people whose whole life on the Internet is to disrupt things. It's something you learn to expect and accept after a while, and it's our job to fix it."

Aaron Swartz, 19, of Cambridge, is a Chicago native who works for a Massachusetts software startup company.

''I set [wikipedia.org] as my homepage. I contributed what I could by cleaning up articles, adding a bunch of articles, and contributing to a bunch more. A lot of it is computer-related, some politics, people and issues.

''Probably I started actively three years ago. I was one of the top 1,000 editors, based on the number of edits, a couple of thousand in my case.

''Whenever I read a book of interest, I add whatever I have learned to a Wikipedia article. It forces you to think, 'What have I learned?' and makes me think that reading a book hasn't been a total waste. It feels great; makes you feel you know a bit more. I spend a couple of hours reading Wikipedia pages, editing stuff, and it's enjoyable."