Lars van der Heide has been writing on Wikipedia about his city: Den Helder for over ten years. The 29-year-old Spatial Planning student has already added new information hundreds of times. He did this so often and so well that the article about the city is one of the 360 so-called ‘shop window articles’, the best articles selected from more than two million Dutch Wikipedia pages.
Media partner The Noordkop region visited Van der Heide. He started editing the online encyclopedia at the age of seventeen. In his own words because he often used the website for school assignments and regularly encountered errors. The great thing about Wikipedia is that you can correct those errors yourself, provided you have a reliable source for it.
After making several contributions to pages about sports and music, Van der Heide then turned to Den Helder. Over the past ten years, that page has grown into a major source of information: politics, history, culture and art, it’s all there.
From famous person to work of art
In addition to the main page about the city, Van der Heide started several related pages, such as about Willemsoord, the Housing Association, the Mariëndal and about famous people from Den Helder, such as Jorina Baars and Jan in ‘t Velt. He also keeps a list of all works of art in public space and all sculptures that have ever been there.
There are now dozens of works in that list. To take pictures of these works of art, he crosses the entire municipality by bicycle and car. Van der Heide spends several hours a week on his Wikipedia work, although his attention to it sometimes changes.
Sharing and checking knowledge
In addition to adding information and creating new pages, Van der Heide also keeps track of what is added by others. He does this especially with the pages in which he has a hand.
The information on Wikipedia is the result of a collective effort, so he especially invites everyone to share their knowledge. However, the information must of course be correct.