Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight#Awards and distinctions

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Dame

| name = Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight

| other_names = Rosiestep

| image = Rosie Stephenson at Wikimania 2023-070A3650 (cropped).jpg

| alt = Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight in front of the Cardboard W in Wikimania 2023. She is a middle-aged white woman with blonde hair wearing a red dress.

| caption = Stephenson-Goodknight at Wikimania 2023

| birth_name = Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|12|5}}

| birth_place = Gary, Indiana, U.S.

| education = {{#statements:P69}}

| occupation = Business administrator

| children = 2

| relatives = David Albala (grandfather)
Paulina Lebl-Albala (grandmother)

| known for = Wikipedia editor

| awards = Wikipedian of the Year (2016)

| module = {{Listen voice

| filename = Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight voice en.flac

| name = Stephenson-Goodknight

| recorded = July 2018

}}

Dame Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight (born December 5, 1953){{Cite news|last=Allen|first=Rachael|title=Wikipedia is a world built by and for men. Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight is changing that.|newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.thelily.com/wikipedia-is-a-world-built-by-and-for-men-rosie-stephenson-goodnight-is-changing-that/|access-date=2021-10-14|date=2020-04-11|language=en-US}}{{Cite tweet|number=805706893045956608|user=WikiWomenInRed|title=Happy Birthday @Rosiestep - Thanks for all your work last year.|date=December 5, 2016}} is an American Wikipedia editor, known on the site under the pseudonym Rosiestep, who is noted for her actions addressing gender bias in the encyclopedia by running a project to increase the quantity and quality of women's biographies.{{Cite news|url=http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Adding-women-s-voices-to-Wikipedia-12344424.php|title=Wikipedia editing marathons add women's voices to online resource|work=Houston Chronicle|access-date=November 25, 2017|archive-date=November 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109200641/http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Adding-women-s-voices-to-Wikipedia-12344424.php|url-status=live}} She has contributed thousands of new articles.

Stephenson was named co-Wikipedian of the Year in 2016. In May 2018, she was honored with a Serbian knighthood as a Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism. She was elected to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees in October 2021.{{Cite web |last=Trustees |first=Wikimedia Foundation Board of |date=2021-10-13 |title=Wikimedia Foundation welcomes new Trustees Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, Victoria Doronina, Dariusz Jemielniak, and Lorenzo Losa |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/10/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-new-trustees-rosie-stephenson-goodknight-victoria-doronina-dariusz-jemielniak-and-lorenzo-losa/ |access-date=2022-05-04 |website=Diff |language=en-US}}

Early life and education

Stephenson-Goodknight is of Serbian descent. She is the granddaughter of Paulina Lebl-Albala, an active feminist who was the president of the University Women of Yugoslavia.{{cite book|last1=Haan|first1=Francisca de|last2=Daskalova|first2=Krasimira|last3=Loutfi|first3=Anna|title=Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe: 19th and 20th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsgQjbgBOAkC&pg=PA297|year=2006|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=978-963-7326-39-4|pages=297–|access-date=November 1, 2016|archive-date=June 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629092804/http://books.google.com/books?id=hsgQjbgBOAkC&pg=PA297|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Vučetić|first=Radina|title=The Emancipation of Women in Interwar Belgrade and the "Cvijeta Zuzori ć " Society|url=http://www.udi.rs/articles/genderRV.pdf|publisher=Yugoslav Association for Social History|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=March 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309000942/http://www.udi.rs/articles/genderRV.pdf|url-status=live}} David Albala, her grandfather, was a physician and Zionist leader, who served for a period as president of Belgrade's Sephardi community.{{Cite web |url=http://web.arhiv.rs/develop/vesti.nsf/feaee540dc011162c1256e7d0032cb98/c0b102b20bee7af8c1257128005d8e8a?OpenDocument |title=Evokacija Srpskog Feminizma S Početka 20. Veka |last=Radović |first=Nadežda |date=April 3, 2006 |publisher=Medijska Dokumentacija |language=sr |access-date=June 30, 2016 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225133/http://web.arhiv.rs/develop/vesti.nsf/feaee540dc011162c1256e7d0032cb98/c0b102b20bee7af8c1257128005d8e8a?OpenDocument |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=http://embassies.gov.il/beograd/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Marking-the-25th-anniversary-of-Israel-Serbia-diplomatic-relations-and-the-.aspx|title=25 Years of the Israel-Serbia Diplomatic Relations|date=December 25, 2017|website=Embassy of Israel|access-date=February 2, 2018|archive-date=November 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118203112/http://embassies.gov.il/beograd/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Marking-the-25th-anniversary-of-Israel-Serbia-diplomatic-relations-and-the-.aspx|url-status=live}} At a young age, she displayed a keen interest in world culture, but was discouraged by her father from pursuit of a career in anthropology; instead she completed a Master of Business Administration degree.

Wikipedia editing

Stephenson-Goodknight began editing Wikipedia in 2007. Her son had edited an article about a town in Ukraine where he was working with the Peace Corps, and told his mother that Wikipedia can be edited by anybody. She began editing later that year when she looked for books published by the Book League of America and found a gap in the site's knowledge resources. She found the encyclopedia to be a suitable outlet for anthropology, citing Margaret Mead as an influence:{{cite web|url=https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/06/24/wikipedians-of-the-year/|title=Jimmy Wales names Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight as Wikipedians of the Year|author=Erhart, Ed|publisher=Wikimedia Blog|date=June 24, 2016|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=December 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225145330/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/06/24/wikipedians-of-the-year/|url-status=live}}

{{quote|quote=Some of you know that I am a cultural anthropologist at heart. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Mead and study cultural anthropology at Barnard (my mom's alma mater), like Margaret did. I wanted to travel to Papua New Guinea and do research on its people, like Margaret did. But my dad said 'no' to majoring in anthropology—he wanted something more practical for my university studies. So now, years later, I get to live the life of an armchair cultural anthropologist, writing articles about Goaribari Island and its cannibals. To all the girls out there with impractical dreams, this article is dedicated to you.|author=|title=|source=}}

File:Wikimania 2016 - Opening by Jimmy Wales 19.jpg]]

Stephenson-Goodknight worked at creating articles on geography, architecture and various biographies for several years, but has more recently concentrated on women's biographies. By 2013, Stephenson-Goodknight was featured in the UK Huffington Post for having written over 3,000 new articles for Wikipedia, and at that time, over 1000 articles of hers had appeared at the "Did you know?" feature on Wikipedia's main page; she was the first woman to have over 1000 "Did you know?" entries on the English language version of Wikipedia. {{As of|2016}} she has created over 4,000 new articles,Total excludes redirects {{cite web|url=https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/pages/?user=Rosiestep&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&namespace=0&redirects=none&limit=1000|title=Pages Created|website=WMFlabs|access-date=July 8, 2016|archive-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212083717/https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/pages/?user=Rosiestep&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&namespace=0&redirects=none&limit=1000|url-status=live}} and has made over 100,000 edits.{{cite web|title=X!'s tools|url=https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools-ec/index.php?user=Rosiestep&project=en.wikipedia|website=wmflabs.org|access-date=July 9, 2016}} The 2016 Wikipedian of the Year awards, granted by Wikipedia trustee Jimmy Wales in recognition of outstanding achievement, named Stephenson-Goodknight as a winner, sharing the award jointly with fellow editor Emily Temple-Wood. At the time of the award, it was noted that over 1,300 of her articles have appeared on Wikipedia's "Did you know?". She also co-founded WikiProject Women, WikiProject Women writers, and Women in Red. These projects have increased Wikipedia's percentage of articles on women from 15.5% to 16.35%.{{cite news|url=http://www.theunion.com/news/localnews/22749884-113/nevada-citys-rosie-stephenson-goodknight-named-co-wikipedian-of-2016|first=Teresa Yinmeng|last=Liu|title=Nevada City's Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight named co-Wikipedian of 2016 for addressing online gender gap|work=Western Nevada County Union|date=July 3, 2016|access-date=July 6, 2016|archive-date=August 26, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826085139/http://www.theunion.com/news/localnews/22749884-113/nevada-citys-rosie-stephenson-goodknight-named-co-wikipedian-of-2016|url-status=live}} She has taken part in related projects such as the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon in April 2016.{{cite web|url=https://www.library.unlv.edu/newsblog/2016/02/artfeminism-wikipedia-edit-thon.html|title=Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon|publisher=University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries|date=February 2016|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331190247/https://www.library.unlv.edu/newsblog/2016/02/artfeminism-wikipedia-edit-thon.html|url-status=dead}}

Stephenson-Goodknight believes there is information to write stronger biographies, provided people are prepared to search for it.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/19/women-in-science-on-wikipedia-will-we-ever-fill-the-information-gap|title=Women in science on Wikipedia: will we ever fill the information gap?|first=Molly|last=Redden|work=The Guardian|date=March 19, 2016|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=November 8, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108145205/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/19/women-in-science-on-wikipedia-will-we-ever-fill-the-information-gap|url-status=live}} She also suggests it is possible for women to contribute greatly to Wikipedia, explaining, "What Wikipedia needs is you, the female editor, with your unique aptitudes and interests and talkpage tone. Without you, gender imbalance and systemic bias continue on Wikipedia."{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain/rosie-stephenson-the-woma_b_6302636.html|title=Rosie Stephenson: The Woman Who Wrote Over Three Thousand Articles on Wikipedia|last=Hussain|first=Netha|authorlink=Netha Hussain|work=Huffington Post|date=February 9, 2015|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=November 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118204821/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain/rosie-stephenson-the-woma_b_6302636.html|url-status=live}}

On January 23, 2020, Wikipedia announced that Stephenson-Goodknight was the creator of the 6,000,000th article on Wikipedia, namely the article on Canadian author Maria Elise Turner Lauder.[https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/23/wikipedia-english-six-million-articles/ Wikipedia now has more than 6 million articles in English] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207005645/https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/23/wikipedia-english-six-million-articles/ |date=February 7, 2020 }}, Manish Singh, January 23, 2020, techcrunch.com.

Awards and distinctions

File:Knight of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism ceremony 2018 - Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (cropped).jpg

On December 14, 2017, Goodknight was the "honored guest" at an event hosted by Israel's ambassador to Serbia, Alona Fisher-Kamm, to commemorate 25 years of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Israel.{{cite web|title=Interview with Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight: Everyone in Serbia made me feel like 'this is your home'|first=Žikica|last=Milošević|url=http://www.diplomacyandcommerce.rs/interview-with-rosie-gojich-stephenson-goodknight-everyone-in-serbia-made-me-feel-like-this-is-your-home/|website=Diplomacy&Commerce|date=March 2, 2018|access-date=May 30, 2018|language=en-us|archive-date=June 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620001041/http://www.diplomacyandcommerce.rs/interview-with-rosie-gojich-stephenson-goodknight-everyone-in-serbia-made-me-feel-like-this-is-your-home/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=25 Years of the Israel-Serbia Diplomatic Relations|url=http://embassies.gov.il/beograd/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Marking-the-25th-anniversary-of-Israel-Serbia-diplomatic-relations-and-the-.aspx|publisher=Embassy of Israel in Serbia|access-date=30 May 2018|date=25 December 2017|archive-date=November 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118203112/http://embassies.gov.il/beograd/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Marking-the-25th-anniversary-of-Israel-Serbia-diplomatic-relations-and-the-.aspx|url-status=live}}

On May 29, 2018, in a ceremony conferring honors on those who deserved high diplomatic recognition, Stephenson-Goodknight was appointed a "Dame of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism" ({{lang|sr|Vitez svetosavskog pacifizma}}) by Deputy Serbian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić,{{citation|title=Serbian Diplomacy Day Marked|date=May 29, 2018|url=https://cordmagazine.com/events/faces-and-places/serbian-diplomacy-day-marked/|work=C or D|location=Belgrade|publisher=Alliance International Media|access-date=June 25, 2018|archive-date=November 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118203116/https://cordmagazine.com/events/faces-and-places/serbian-diplomacy-day-marked/|url-status=live}} for her work on Wikipedia to preserve the memory of Serbs in the "hundred years since the Great War". Mention was specifically made of her contribution towards preserving the memory of the Serbian military officer and Jewish community leader, her grandfather David Albala.{{cite news|url=https://www.blic.rs/vesti/politika/dacic-dodelio-najvisa-diplomatska-priznanja-medu-laureatima-modna-kreatorka/j3w5jjz|title=Dačić dodelio najviša diplomatska priznanja, među laureatima modna kreatorka, humintarac, preživeli logoraši Jasenovca…|newspaper=Blic|date=May 29, 2018|access-date=May 29, 2018|language=sr|archive-date=May 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529203223/https://www.blic.rs/vesti/politika/dacic-dodelio-najvisa-diplomatska-priznanja-medu-laureatima-modna-kreatorka/j3w5jjz|url-status=live}}

Personal life

Stephenson-Goodknight works in Las Vegas as a business administrator for a healthcare company, and has homes in that city and in Nevada City, California.{{cite web|url=http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/14/a-profile-of-rosie-stephenson-goodknight/|title=Finding inspiration from editing Wikipedia: a profile of Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight|first=Zoe|last=Bernard|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation|date=February 14, 2013|access-date=June 30, 2016|archive-date=September 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920204543/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/14/a-profile-of-rosie-stephenson-goodknight/|url-status=live}}

Notes

References

External links

Stephenson-Goodknight's userpage on English Wikipedia
{{official website|https://rosiestep.com/}}
[https://pro.europeana.eu/post/women-in-culture-and-tech-rosie-stephenson-goodknight Rosie Stephenson Goodknight on Europeana]
{{Twitter|Rosiestep}}

Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American Ashkenazi Jews

Category:American biographers

Category:American encyclopedists

Category:American people of Sephardic-Jewish descent

Category:American people of Serbian-Jewish descent

Category:American science writers

Category:American Wikimedians

Category:American women biographers