Wikipedia, easypedia?

Wikipedia is an institution. When you think of the Internet nowadays, Wikipedia is one of the first things that springs to mind.
I'm quite the Wikipedia user, I find it very simple to use. You just type a word on the Internet and have a full definition of it in just a matter of seconds, no need to browse through the dictionnary pages.
But bizzarely I never I thought I would get to be a contributor because I don't feel like I'm an expert on a specific matter.
And it seems like every topic has been covered these days.
So I thought I could write about something closer to me.
One of my best friend's mother is a great painter doing a great deal of exhibitions. I had just seen one of her exhibitions last sunday at Bastille, in Paris.

Encountering the challenge:
So why not write about her? Well because there is a number of important facts to take into account. I guess I thought once you made your article it would stay there permanently. That was a foolish first thought because wikipedia is the most participative website there is. You can edit every texts and above all flag the users who don't respect the rules. I was surprised at how ethical and responsible Wikipedia is in the sense that reminders are everywhere to elevate the value of this online encyclopedia and appeal to your good judgment to be a good contributor.
This is why I was scared my article would be deleted in just seconds, judged irrelevant by the moderators because the person I was talking about was not well known enough. The importance of links is also to be highlighted. It is a technique for not getting your article suppressed: you must link to other verified wikipedia articles. I must say writing in Wikipedia is also harder than writing on Blogger: you must use a little header bar but not all icons are very clear. You must experiment a little before getting your article to fit the graphic terms of other wikipedia article. I took a shot.

Result:
Well, it seems my article has passed the night. There is a tool to watch it changing, its trail in the wikipedia world: the watchlist. Apparently two wikipedia contributors (big contributors, judging by their profiles) have edited my text. One placed the article in the category "french artists" and the other edited one of the links I had put.
Its quite a pleasant sensation to see that unknown people have already consulted my article and not flagged it. You really feel you've made a difference in the Internet world.

My article here