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How I wrote a million Wikipedia articles
In this book I will tell you how I collected and managed the data, the way I prepared the articles, and the way I automated the process to finally achieved adding 1 million Wikipedia articles, it won't be a step by step tutorial book, this book is a more biographical story about a period of my life, it's not even the full story, you'll see how through the struggles and pain that I lived and still living, I made something that I'm so proud of, something that maybe exists for centuries, maybe not, at least I made it, this is the story that led me to added 1 million article to Egyptian Wikipedia.
9798716350724
9798716350724
77 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2021
2 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Maher Asaad Baker
69 books53 followersMaher Asaad Baker ( in Arabic: ماهر أسعد بكر ).
Syrian Author, Journalist, and Musician, he was born in Damascus in 1977.
He grew up with a dream of being one of the most well-known artists in the world, and he has been working hard to achieve it ever since.
He started his career in 1997 when he was only 20 years old. He had a passion for technology and media, and he taught himself how to develop applications and websites. He also explored various types of media-creating paths, such as music production, graphic design, video editing, animation, and filmmaking. He was not satisfied with just being a consumer of media; he wanted to be a creator of media.
Music was one of his main outlets of expression. He loved music for its ability to connect people across cultures, languages, and backgrounds. He loved music for its ability to evoke emotions, feelings, and moods. He loved music for its ability to inspire, motivate, and uplift. He made music that mixed emotions so that everyone could relate to it. He made music that was diverse and eclectic, incorporating elements of hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock, jazz, classical, and more. He made music that was original and authentic, reflecting his own personality and experiences. He made music that was self-produced, self-mixed, self-mastered, self-engineered, self-written, and self-performed. He was a one-man band.
Reading was another source of inspiration for him. He was always surrounded by books as a child, thanks to his father’s extensive library. He read books from different genres, topics, and perspectives. He read books for knowledge, for wisdom, for entertainment, for enlightenment. Reading stimulated his imagination and curiosity. Reading also developed his writing skills.
He did not start writing professionally until later in his life, as he was busy with other projects and pursuits. But when he did start writing, he proved himself to be a talented and prolific writer. He wrote articles for various newspapers and magazines on topics such as politics, culture, society, art, technology, and more. He wrote books that were informative and insightful. He wrote books that were creative and captivating. He wrote books that were best-selling and award-winning.
He is most known for his book “How I wrote a million Wikipedia articles”, where he shares his experience of being one of the most prolific contributors to the online encyclopedia. He reveals his methods, techniques, strategies, and secrets of writing high-quality articles on any subject in record time. He also discusses the benefits and challenges of being a Wikipedia editor in the age of information overload.
He is also known for his novel “Becoming the man”, where he tells the story of a young man who goes through a series of transformations in his life. The novel explores themes such as identity, masculinity, self-discovery, love, loss, and redemption. The novel is based on his own personal journey of becoming who he is today.
Maher Asaad Baker is an example of someone who has followed his dream with passion, dedication, and excellence. He is someone who has used his talents, skills, and creativity to make a positive impact on the world. He is someone who has overcome adversity, hardship, and tragedy to achieve success, happiness, and fulfillment. He is someone who has lived a beautiful life and made his beautiful dream come true.
Syrian Author, Journalist, and Musician, he was born in Damascus in 1977.
He grew up with a dream of being one of the most well-known artists in the world, and he has been working hard to achieve it ever since.
He started his career in 1997 when he was only 20 years old. He had a passion for technology and media, and he taught himself how to develop applications and websites. He also explored various types of media-creating paths, such as music production, graphic design, video editing, animation, and filmmaking. He was not satisfied with just being a consumer of media; he wanted to be a creator of media.
Music was one of his main outlets of expression. He loved music for its ability to connect people across cultures, languages, and backgrounds. He loved music for its ability to evoke emotions, feelings, and moods. He loved music for its ability to inspire, motivate, and uplift. He made music that mixed emotions so that everyone could relate to it. He made music that was diverse and eclectic, incorporating elements of hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock, jazz, classical, and more. He made music that was original and authentic, reflecting his own personality and experiences. He made music that was self-produced, self-mixed, self-mastered, self-engineered, self-written, and self-performed. He was a one-man band.
Reading was another source of inspiration for him. He was always surrounded by books as a child, thanks to his father’s extensive library. He read books from different genres, topics, and perspectives. He read books for knowledge, for wisdom, for entertainment, for enlightenment. Reading stimulated his imagination and curiosity. Reading also developed his writing skills.
He did not start writing professionally until later in his life, as he was busy with other projects and pursuits. But when he did start writing, he proved himself to be a talented and prolific writer. He wrote articles for various newspapers and magazines on topics such as politics, culture, society, art, technology, and more. He wrote books that were informative and insightful. He wrote books that were creative and captivating. He wrote books that were best-selling and award-winning.
He is most known for his book “How I wrote a million Wikipedia articles”, where he shares his experience of being one of the most prolific contributors to the online encyclopedia. He reveals his methods, techniques, strategies, and secrets of writing high-quality articles on any subject in record time. He also discusses the benefits and challenges of being a Wikipedia editor in the age of information overload.
He is also known for his novel “Becoming the man”, where he tells the story of a young man who goes through a series of transformations in his life. The novel explores themes such as identity, masculinity, self-discovery, love, loss, and redemption. The novel is based on his own personal journey of becoming who he is today.
Maher Asaad Baker is an example of someone who has followed his dream with passion, dedication, and excellence. He is someone who has used his talents, skills, and creativity to make a positive impact on the world. He is someone who has overcome adversity, hardship, and tragedy to achieve success, happiness, and fulfillment. He is someone who has lived a beautiful life and made his beautiful dream come true.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2021
واحد من أهم الكتب التي قرأت وأستمتعت بها.. تفاصيل حقيقية صارت أهم التفاصيل التي صارت في ويكيبيديا مصري.. أنصح الجميع بقراءته.
May 7, 2022
I give 3 stars for the interesting topic only. The storytelling is not good, and the book is full of grammar mistakes. Which is a pity, because the topic is really good, especially for someone like me who volunteers on Wikimedia projects, and has some good background knowledge on their technical challenges, and the bureaucracy that formed around the project over the years. The author should have definitely invested some money to hire a professional copy-editor, or even a ghost-writer to improve the language and style of the book, and flesh out its biographical elements a bit more, even if the focus remained on the monumental task of adding 1 million articles to the Egyptian Wikipedia.
Here are a few things the author should have explained more:
- His early education and life: this is strangely explained much better in the afterword "About the author", but not in the book itself, where as a reader, I was confused as to what occupation the author was studying for. Was he planning to become a lawyer, a graphic designer, or a programmer? How did he teach himself programming? When/how did he decide to quit law? What impact did that have on his family?
- The businesses he started, which ultimately failed due to the Gulf War, and then the Arab Spring. What exactly were these businesses he started? The author claims that the projects of these businesses were "awesome", but does not add any details that would suggest the awesomeness of these projects or otherwise. As a reader I would conclude one of two things: the author is lying/exaggerating about how good these projects were, and neglected mentioning any details on purpose since there's nothing interesting there to show. Or he's too lazy and/or lacks the necessary skills to explain himself well. Show don't tell, is a golden rule in this context. I would prefer to have the projects explained, even briefly, and then conclude on my own "oh, this is so awesome! I wish I could do something like this".
- The war and its impact on the author were skimmed through. I can tell that he's upset about them, and especially did not approve of the "Arab Spring", but here again he shies away from fleshing out any actual opinions or details. Self-censorship maybe?
- The author's point of view concerning the Egyptian language (Masri, or as commonly known "Egyptian Arabic") and its relation to Standard Arabic is somewhat explained. He clearly stated that he considers Egyptian Masri and Standard Arabic to be separate languages. But he could have given some brief but clear examples as to what distinguishes the two languages. This is of course not a work on linguistics, but it's important to clarify such important points to uninitiated readers.
- The author could have lingered a bit more on his illness, which was the catalyst that led him to become an active editor on Wikipedia in general, the Egyptian Wikipedia in particular. This is a key turning point, and should have received its due attention.
- Overall, while the author did mention his life struggles, something that makes this book even more interesting given the outcome (more than 1 million articles on the Egyptian Wikipedia), he could have used storytelling more effectively to highlight how his great efforts and the obstacles he met on the way, led to a trimphant outcome. A true hero's journey so to speak. Using cultural references here would have been great.
- Concering the technical part, more details could have been added, especially in the automation section with Mediawiki API.
Ultimately, this book is a perfect example of a great idea/topic, but lacking delivery. I don't think it's slated to become a New York Times Bestseller or such, but it could certainly attract a wider audience, even among lay non-Wikipedians, if the above points are significantly improved.
Here are a few things the author should have explained more:
- His early education and life: this is strangely explained much better in the afterword "About the author", but not in the book itself, where as a reader, I was confused as to what occupation the author was studying for. Was he planning to become a lawyer, a graphic designer, or a programmer? How did he teach himself programming? When/how did he decide to quit law? What impact did that have on his family?
- The businesses he started, which ultimately failed due to the Gulf War, and then the Arab Spring. What exactly were these businesses he started? The author claims that the projects of these businesses were "awesome", but does not add any details that would suggest the awesomeness of these projects or otherwise. As a reader I would conclude one of two things: the author is lying/exaggerating about how good these projects were, and neglected mentioning any details on purpose since there's nothing interesting there to show. Or he's too lazy and/or lacks the necessary skills to explain himself well. Show don't tell, is a golden rule in this context. I would prefer to have the projects explained, even briefly, and then conclude on my own "oh, this is so awesome! I wish I could do something like this".
- The war and its impact on the author were skimmed through. I can tell that he's upset about them, and especially did not approve of the "Arab Spring", but here again he shies away from fleshing out any actual opinions or details. Self-censorship maybe?
- The author's point of view concerning the Egyptian language (Masri, or as commonly known "Egyptian Arabic") and its relation to Standard Arabic is somewhat explained. He clearly stated that he considers Egyptian Masri and Standard Arabic to be separate languages. But he could have given some brief but clear examples as to what distinguishes the two languages. This is of course not a work on linguistics, but it's important to clarify such important points to uninitiated readers.
- The author could have lingered a bit more on his illness, which was the catalyst that led him to become an active editor on Wikipedia in general, the Egyptian Wikipedia in particular. This is a key turning point, and should have received its due attention.
- Overall, while the author did mention his life struggles, something that makes this book even more interesting given the outcome (more than 1 million articles on the Egyptian Wikipedia), he could have used storytelling more effectively to highlight how his great efforts and the obstacles he met on the way, led to a trimphant outcome. A true hero's journey so to speak. Using cultural references here would have been great.
- Concering the technical part, more details could have been added, especially in the automation section with Mediawiki API.
Ultimately, this book is a perfect example of a great idea/topic, but lacking delivery. I don't think it's slated to become a New York Times Bestseller or such, but it could certainly attract a wider audience, even among lay non-Wikipedians, if the above points are significantly improved.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews