Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight
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Stephenson-Goodknight at Wikimania 2023
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Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight
December 5, 1953 Gary, Indiana, U.S.
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| Other names | Rosiestep |
| Education | California State University, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Los Angeles |
| Occupation | Business administrator |
| Known for | Wikipedia editor |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | David Albala (grandfather) Paulina Lebl-Albala (grandmother) |
| Awards | Wikipedian of the Year (2016) |
Dame Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight (born December 5, 1953) is an American Wikipedia editor. She is known online as Rosiestep. Rosie is famous for helping to fix gender bias in the online encyclopedia. She does this by working on projects to add more and better articles about women. She has written thousands of new articles for Wikipedia.
In 2016, Stephenson-Goodknight was named co-Wikipedian of the Year. This award recognizes people who have done amazing things for Wikipedia. In May 2018, she received a special honor from Serbia. She was named a Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism. In October 2021, she was chosen to be on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. This board helps guide Wikipedia.
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Rosie's Early Life and Learning
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight has a Serbian family background. Her grandmother, Paulina Lebl-Albala, was an active feminist. She was the president of the University Women of Yugoslavia. Rosie's grandfather, David Albala, was a doctor and a Zionist leader. He was also the president of the Belgrade Sephardi community for a time.
When Rosie was young, she loved learning about different cultures. She wanted to study anthropology, which is the study of human societies and cultures. However, her father wanted her to choose a more practical career. So, she earned a Master of Business Administration degree instead.
How Rosie Started Editing Wikipedia
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight began editing Wikipedia in 2007. Her son was working with the Peace Corps in Ukraine. He edited an article about a town there. He told his mom that anyone could edit Wikipedia.
Later that year, Rosie looked for books published by the Book League of America. She noticed that Wikipedia was missing information about them. She realized that Wikipedia was a great place to explore her interest in anthropology. She was inspired by Margaret Mead, a famous cultural anthropologist.
She once said:
I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Mead and study cultural anthropology. I wanted to travel to Papua New Guinea and do research on its people. But my dad said 'no' to majoring in anthropology. He wanted something more practical. So now, years later, I get to live the life of an armchair cultural anthropologist. I write articles about Goaribari Island and its cannibals. To all the girls out there with impractical dreams, this article is dedicated to you.
For several years, Rosie created articles about geography, buildings, and different people's lives. More recently, she has focused on writing biographies of women.
Making Wikipedia Better for Women
By 2013, Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight was featured in the UK Huffington Post. She had written over 3,000 new articles for Wikipedia. At that time, more than 1,000 of her articles had been shown on Wikipedia's "Did you know?" section. She was the first woman to have over 1,000 "Did you know?" entries on the English Wikipedia.
As of 2016[update], she had created over 4,000 new articles. She had also made over 100,000 edits. In 2016, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, gave her the Wikipedian of the Year award. She shared the award with another editor, Emily Temple-Wood. It was noted that over 1,300 of her articles had appeared on "Did you know?".
Rosie also helped start several important projects:
- WikiProject Women
- WikiProject Women writers
- Women in Red
These projects have helped increase the number of articles about women on Wikipedia. The percentage went from 15.5% to 16.35%. She also took part in events like the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon in April 2016.
Rosie believes that there is enough information to write strong biographies about women. People just need to look for it. She also thinks that women can contribute a lot to Wikipedia. She explained, "What Wikipedia needs is you, the female editor, with your unique abilities and interests. Without you, gender imbalance and unfairness continue on Wikipedia."
On January 23, 2020, Wikipedia announced a big milestone. Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight created the 6,000,000th article on Wikipedia. This article was about the Canadian author Maria Elise Turner Lauder.
Awards and Special Honors
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On December 14, 2017, Rosie was a special guest at an event. It was hosted by Israel's ambassador to Serbia, Alona Fisher-Kamm. The event celebrated 25 years of friendship between Serbia and Israel.
On May 29, 2018, Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight received a high honor. She was named a "Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism" by the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs. This award was for her work on Wikipedia. She helped preserve the memory of Serbs from the "hundred years since the Great War." Her work on her grandfather David Albala was specifically mentioned. He was a Serbian military officer and Jewish community leader.
Rosie's Personal Life
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight works as a business administrator. She works for a healthcare company in Las Vegas. She has homes in Las Vegas and in Nevada City, California.
See also
In Spanish: Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight para niños
- List of Wikipedia people
- Serbian Americans
