Davenport talkin.’ Mary Burt from the Chippewa Valley Museum interviews Tangled Up in Hue co-owner Erin Roesler for ChippePedia.org during a recent art showing.

Since its 2001 launch, Wikipedia has grown into one of the largest reference websites. It has attracted roughly 65 million visitors, with over 14 million articles in more than 250 languages. Inspired by Wikipedia’s success and in need of a more accessible way to share cultural information about the area, the Chippewa Valley Museum is now putting the finishing touches on the valley’s own wikipedia: ChippePedia.org.

“Everybody can enter something about something on Wikipedia – that’s the beauty of the internet,” Chippewa Valley Museum Editor Frank Smoot explained. “That was our initial impulse – how can we get more people involved in telling the stories of the Chippewa Valley? One way to do that is to get people at their computers telling their stories and sharing them with others inside of and far beyond the Chippewa Valley. A wiki is the perfect way to do that.”

Set to launch in August, ChippePedia was made possible by a $10,000 grant from Wisconsin Arts Board, which was looking for ways to share information about folk arts with Wisconsinites. The museum jumped at the opportunity to expand upon the stories already being shared through displays and festivals with first-hand memories and personal experiences from residents. Now that a UW-Eau Claire Information Systems class has created the wiki, the museum is currently collecting folk stories from residents so that when the test version launches at the museum in June, readers will find plenty of inspiration for their own stories.

As Smoot explained, the museum hopes to have a variety of stories on the wiki. For instance, there’s already a page on former resident Annette Shaw, a physician and doctor during the 1890s, when both fields were dominated by men. There’s also a page on Walter’s Beer, a local brew that gave Leinenkugel’s some healthy competition until the 70s.

“We think the best way to get (the site) to last beyond the grant period is to broaden it out so people have a very broad definition of what’s interesting to the Chippewa Valley,” explained Smoot. “If you’ve gone tubing at FATFAR, write about it. If you saw a celebrity down at The Joynt, write about it.”

The fact that anybody can contribute to ChippePedia means some validity might be questioned, but Smoot is confident that the majority will be accurate.

“All Wikies run on a ‘hive theory,’ in that all the little bees are working to make the hive the best it can be. So if you see an error in a Wikipedia entry, you’re going to correct it. If somebody else sees an error in your work, they’re going to correct that,” he said. “The same principle will work for ChippePedia, but more than that, I think people will be really motivated to tell a true story, and to tell it to the best of their knowledge.”

Over the next few months, community historians will attend local events to speak with residents and gather their stories. The museum is also asking for e-mail submissions from former and current residents. The more stories they receive, the better the wiki will be.

“One of the things we’ve always been involved with here at the museum is presenting stories … about how people arrived in the Chippewa Valley and their life here,” stated Smoot. “It’s so gratifying to see people coming here and talking about their experiences. Now, they’ll not only be able to expand on the stories we present, but add their own stories from wherever they are, and see them come in for years to come.”

    Those interested in checking out the site (to be completed soon) or submitting their story by e-mail should visit Chippepedia.org. Otherwise, catch a CVM representative at the March 12 art opening at Tangled Up in Hue or V1’s April 1 Pillow Fight.