IDEA 20090112 The Chinapedians

Who are these secret Wikipedians in China circumventing the Great Firewall to fix random articles on the worlds largest encyclopedia? The Chinese-language Wikipedia is over a half-million articles strong thanks to the Chinapedians. They aren't pirates. They are common people - Chinese netizens with a passion for sharing what they know with the rest of the world. Since Wikipedia and a constantly-changing list of sensitive words are irregularly blocked by China's Golden Shield Project, aka, The Great Firewall (GFW), Chinese Wikipedians, like most knowledgeable Internet users in China, tunnel through, or go around the GFW.

The Chinapedians is an essay constructed from interviews of key Chinese Wikipedians and Chinese Internet experts about Wikipedia. It explains the irregular filtering of traffic in China and provides glimpses of hope for an unfiltered Wikipedia as witnessed during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, new connections to Academia in China, and the discovery of a high-level government meeting between the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and the Ministry of Information in China.

This essay is a report on the current climate of Internet censorship in China. It is written in a way that does not burn the Chinapedians, the Chinese government, nor the Chinese people. The goals of the essay is to explain to a large audience what is happening with Chinese Internet filtering discussed daily on American TV news and to provide some insight into Chinese Internet culture. This writing also serves as a warning to supporters of Internet filtering. A subordinate goal is to provide, in layman terms, pointers towards anyone desiring to easily (and legally) subvert internet filtering.

Goal

 * Publish this essay in magazine or book: I'm shopping this essay around to magazines as a writing gig.
 * If you are interested in helping or publishing this writing, please contact me.