Wikipedia In's and Out's
Interview With J.J. Biddinger

He has contributed to, and created, hundreds of articles on the world's largest encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Among these articles are "Kirk Cameron," "Erin Bethea," "Sherwood Pictures," "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry," "Fireproof," "ChristianCinema.com," "HOSFU" and "Courageous." He is the son of two Christian parents and has eight siblings.

J.J. Biddinger: In my opinion, Wikipedia is the greatest research tool of our generation. Browse through the web for a minute; turn on the television; listen to the radio; in all these things, you'll be hard-pressed not to hear "Wikipedia" mentioned daily. It's everywhere, and millions of people use it every day.

A wiki is such a simple concept; a website that allows the easy creation and changing of articles by whoever wants to. The truth is, there are thousands of wikis out there (such as wikiHow and Wikitravel), but none come close to the popularity, widespread awareness and use of Wikipedia.

Christian-Movie.com: Why is Wikipedia important?

J.J. Biddinger: As I said, Wikipedia is used by millions of people every day who want to research topics they are interested in. Similarly, millions of people watch movies every day. Film is of great influence in our culture. Without a basic Wikipedia article, a film will not have as large of a presence in the cyberworld.

In our dark and sinful world, Christians can shine a light and inspire people to live a godly lifestyle. Wikipedia has vastly helped publicize Christian motion pictures.

Christian-Movie.com: How and why did you get involved in Wikipedia?

J.J. Biddinger: Actually, I didn't begin working on Wikipedia with film in mind. I stumbled across it a few years ago, gained some experience, and eventually moved on to writing Christian film articles. Why did I get started? I suppose it was just something entertaining to do with my time. I edited several different projects that the Wikimedia Foundation hosts, including the main English Wikipedia, the "Simple English" Wikipedia, and the now-defunct "Simple English" Wikiquote.

Over time, and after a period of "retirement" from it, I returned to Wikipedia with a new focus: to expand Wikipedia's coverage of Christian filmmakers who are trying to impact the world for Christ.

Christian-Movie.com: How many Wikipedia articles have you created or contributed to? Can you give some examples of articles you’ve worked on?

J.J. Biddinger: I couldn't give an exact number of edits, but it's in the thousands. I've probably created 50-100 articles relating to Christian films, but most of them are short, basic articles. Some of my favorites are "Christian film" itself, "History of Christian film" and "List of Christian films." These three are foundational to Christian film on Wikipedia.

Also, some users and myself created Wikipedia's Christian Films Task Force (CFTF), which has really helped get all Christian movies organized.

Some of my other works are "Kirk Cameron" (a "Good Article"), "Erin Bethea" (a "Did You Know...?" article, featured on the main page), "Sherwood Pictures," "The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry," "Fireproof" and "The Love Dare," "ChristianCinema.com," "Come What May" and "Courageous."

I've created some that aren't related to Christian film also, such as the "National Bible Bee" and "Ron Miller," an article about a Maryland politician.

Christian-Movie.com: Should Christians involved in filmmaking make it a priority to create a Wikipedia page for themselves, their companies and their movies? If so, how should they go about doing this?

J.J. Biddinger: Yes, I believe so. Wikipedia can't be used for blatant advertising, but having a Wikipedia article is great publicity for notable Christian films, companies, etc. The best way to learn to create an article on Wikipedia is just to get started; try your best! The worst that can happen is that the article is deleted, and then you're just back to where you started.

Use caution, however. Many companies choose a Wikipedia username related to their company because registering a username is required to create articles (but not to edit them). This is often frowned upon and the article is deleted.

All articles must be done from a neutral point of view (for example, you can't say, "This was one of the best movies of all time!"). If you're going to create an article on yourself/your movie, it needs to be written as if you have nothing to do with it.

In brief, creating a Wikipedia article on your film/company can be very rewarding, but caution is advised. If assistance is needed, I'd love to help! I've grown accustomed to everything about Wikipedia, so don't hesitate in asking; my username is American Eagle.

Christian-Movie.com: Could you talk a bit about sourcing? Which sources work for Wikipedia and which ones don’t fly?

J.J. Biddinger: This is by far the #1 reason articles are deleted. When I started out, I created several articles that were deleted because of this. In order for an article to remain intact, reliable sources are needed. Sources may include news articles, magazines, books and so forth that discuss one's film/company. I recommend searching through Google News, Google Books and Google Scholar for these sources. Again, I'd be happy to find sources if needed.

Christian-Movie.com: What are the three biggest mistakes people make when creating Wikipedia pages?

J.J. Biddinger:

1. Poor sourcing: I've covered this already. Articles without good, reliable sources will soon be deleted. Many people are surprised to find their article deleted because of this, but it truly happens every day.
2. Advertising: Attempted advertising is very common on Wikipedia. This may be done by way of promotional writing or excessive publicity photos and links to their various websites. Creating articles isn't wrong, of course, and neither are photos or external links, but everything has to be done cautiously. Nothing will get an article deleted quicker than blatant advertisement, so articles have to be written with care.
3. Messy formatting: This is probably the least of these issues, but it still happens often. When first-timers create new articles, almost 100% of the time they are poorly formatted and messy. Wikipedia has some help pages that teach how to learn good composition, but you'll always get better with experience.

Christian-Movie.com: What is the most difficult aspect or element of Wikipedia?

J.J. Biddinger: There are lots of things. One is vandalism; many users try to destroy Wikipedia and mess up the pages. Another would be the difficulty of creating good pages with useful information and reliable sourcing, all the while keeping a neutral point of view.

I suppose another trouble is just working with other users, many of whom have different viewpoints than myself. Most people wouldn't realize it, but a majority of edits to Wikipedia aren't to articles, but are to discussion pages and the like. It takes communication to work with others to build a regular encyclopedia, and it takes communication to build an online one.

Recently, a user proposed the deletion of virtually every article related to Sherwood Pictures (the movies, crew, actors, etc.). It has taken a lot of work to undo and cleanup this conundrum, but with the help of numerous users, we were able to not only clean up the mess, but to improve the articles to reach a higher-standard than before. This is just one case of working together, though not without difficulty, to improve the encyclopedia.

Christian-Movie.com: What other online communities or websites are you involved in, as a writer?

J.J. Biddinger: Besides Wikipedia, I maintain a personal weblog and also write for Blogcritics, an online magazine. I only use the blog for personal reasons and to keep track of my life, but I occasionally write articles on Christianity for Blogcritics. I greatly enjoy writing for Blogcritics because articles I write are not only published to their website, but are also listed on Google News.

My most recent article, "Brothers in the Christian Film Industry", took a look at three sets of brothers in the industry: Jon and Andy Erwin, Rich and Dave Christiano, and Alex and Stephen Kendrick.

Christian-Movie.com: What services do you offer to the Christian filmmaking community?

J.J. Biddinger: For now, I would greatly enjoy writing a Wikipedia article for people in the Christian film community upon request. If there isn't proper sourcing for an article, I'd still love to do a Blogcritics article on them. It is a privilege to serve Christian filmmakers in both ways and I'd be glad to do so (simply email me). As for the future, well, we'll see what God has in store for me.

Christian-Movie.com: Do you have any closing thoughts that you would like to share?

J.J. Biddinger: I have just one more thing to say. We need to remember that Christians shouldn't make films for the sake of making films. What a waste! Everything we do, filmmaking included, should be to the glory of God. Christ can, and does, use film to further His Kingdom. That should be every Christian's ultimate goal. As 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." That's what it's all about.

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