For every Wikipedia article you ’ve read about papa hotshot , historical name , Star Trekraces , or defunctfast food chains , there ’s been a author behind it . And there ’s an outsize likeliness that author is Steven Pruitt . The Virginia occupant has made 3 million edits and author 35,000 articles on the site over the retiring 13 days , have in mind that he has helped shape up to a third of all English - language cognitive content on Wikipedia , CBS Newsreports .
Pruitt made the news show back in 2017 whenTIMEmagazine cite him one of the 25 most influential people on the net . Prior to that , he had been working for the land site for more than a 10 , writing under theusernameSer Amantio Di Nicolao , an homage to his favourite opera house persona ( from Puccini’sGianni Schicchi ) .
He wrote his first clause while learn artwork account atWilliam & Marycollege , and his passionateness for account motor many of his contributions . His firstWikipediasubject was Peter Francisco , a sergeant - at - arm during the Revolutionary War ( who also happens to be Pruitt ’s majuscule - great - great - expectant - great - great grandfather ) .
Today , Pruitt spends at least three hours a day researching , penning , and editing for Wikipedia , but he does n’t obtain any compensation for his work . The time he give to the website on evenings and weekends is strictly on a volunteer foundation . His day job is run for the record and information governance department at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington , D.C.—a gig he believe he landed thanks in part to his experience with Wikipedia .
Pruitt is notable not just for the plain issue of article and edits he has conduce , but for what he chooses to highlight . After learning that cleaning woman were the bailiwick of just 15 percent of biographical articles on the site , he worked to desex that imbalance by write hundreds of articles about influential women . That number has risen to17.6percent in just the past duo of years .
see more about Pruitt and his Wikipedia substance abuse in the video from CBS below .
[ h / tCBS News ]
