What is HistoWiki?
HistoWiki.com is a site that is presently biting off more than it can chew… at HistoWiki.com we are trying to archive, or curate, the history of everything interesting in the categories of Science, Technology, Sports, Politics, World News, Health, and Finance. It’s an impossible job, and we are contumacious enough to attempt it. The concept was initially inspired by this interesting observation… the established perceptions of controversial mainstream stories often were shattered by facts later after the news cycles had passed. Persistently tracking a “narrative” in a timeline fashion often illustrated just how incorrect early assumptions were, or even how facts were truly assumptions in the first place.
How is the content at HistoWiki.com created?
We do that by what’s called Curation. Great content, in our case summaries of important and interesting events, are gathered together from all kinds of resources to create one heck of an interesting blog post, or in our case, a timeline page. Each timeline is curated by either our staff, or a member of our exclusive HistoWiki Curator membership. While we maintain full and complete editorial control, we leave most of the content choices up to each Curator member.
I found something: incorrect on the page / significant with the topic that just happened , shouldn’t that timeline be updated?
If it’s incorrect or a significant addition, absolutely! Please let the page’s Curator know right away by mentioning it in the comment section of the timeline page. The Curator should be watching the comment section just for such things.
What are those little numbers inserted in some timelines that link to the bottom of a timeline?
Those are “citations”. We encourage our Curators to create those as a thank you for someone taking the time in a comment section to make a suggestion that is used in the timeline. They are usually a link to someone’s social media profile. We think that’s a nice gesture for someone who takes the time to help us make great interesting and up to date timelines. But they are optional, and not everyone wants one, and that’s great too! If you make a suggestion in the comment section, be sure to leave a link to your social media profile for the Curator to include, if you like. It could also just be your name, without a link, if you like.
I think the page’s Curator has a bias, and it shows in the content, how do you handle that?
We trust our Curators to be fair and unbiased, to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion . However, everybody has a unique point of view, and therefore, a unique bias. It’s human nature. If you have a problem with a particular page for bias purposes, please let us know in the comment section. We moderate the comment section, not the Curator, so it will be seen. We rely on our visitors and the “wisdom of crowds” to perfect each timeline. It is our hope, that this will produce a continually growing archive of database of collected knowledge. Maybe, even lead to greater understanding.
I see advertising everywhere, doesn’t all that Profit-Seeking affect the facts presented in a timeline?
It absolutely could! But again, we rely on our visitors to point that out to us, so we can correct any omissions because of bias, regardless of motivation. HistoWiki.com was inspired as a social experiment. Other reference sites like Wikipedia have done a terrific job and had tremendous growth going the other route, but the premise on this site is that “following the money” actually makes it easier to spot bias, not less. There are always people with ulterior motives and personal agendas, and many of those can be even harder to discern, particularly in the realm of Politics, but it can even happen in Science. Indeed, anyone curating a timeline here has the ability to personally profit right off the page, and we hope they do beyond our wildest imagination. We retain full editorial control of the content, and can remove a curator if we find egregious bias. We also hope to profit wildly, but to do so by providing an amazing social media powered fact-checking and history-archiving source for all humanity to enjoy. We are shooting high, and hope you join us!
What is “Crowdsourcing”?
According to the Collins Worldwide Dictionary.com “…to outsource work to an unspecified group of people, typically by making an appeal to the general public on the internet.” There’s a wide array of fun ways we see this in our world today. Here’s a recent crowdsourcing experiment you can join in on that also is illustrative: One Book, One Twitter
I have a topic that should absolutely be on HistoWiki.com, what can I do?
You should consider being one of our beta testers, and go to the How To curate A Timeline page right now! What are you waiting for, history is happening and your missing it!
Is curating a timeline page tough?
Not really. If you can write an interesting informative paragraph full of passion about your topic, and you can Copy and Paste, your “in like Flynn”. Inside the HistoWiki Curator membership, we show you just how easy it is. We also have a lot of other tutorials on doing all kinds of other neat stuff, like how to blog better, how to promote a website, how to make money with a website, and much much more. All using the same things we do here at HistoWiki.com You can find out more by going here.
I have a question that you haven’t addressed here, how do I contact you?
Leave a comment in the section below. Not only will we see it, but will even optionally give you a citation on this very page if it’s outstanding. We appreciate you taking the interest, and thank you so much for coming to HistoWiki.com.