Sondra C. Wiki Granny Makes a Mark
You, too can Teach, Communicate, Inform, Write, on Wiki Sites
Sondra C is likely the oldest and most prolific writer in the world of Wiki Webs. To understand how this 76 year-old captured her title and holds it, have a brief look at Wiki’s and what they are.
What's Wiki?
The first thing Wiki writers tell you is, it’s addictive. Wiki, designed to be the simplest online database that could possibly exist, has come to be software that allows users, in theory, to freely write and/or edit material using their own Web browser.
The first Wiki was made for Portland Pattern Repository, a compendium of computer designing patterns, in 1995. After more than a dozen years, it’s functioning. There are a number of Wiki sites today – some hold to the Wiki model, others have drifted into their own set of rules and governors.
Sondra C., pen named Wiki Granny, says Wiki changed her life.
How Sondra Used It to Grow
“The year my husband died, 1989, my kids gave me a computer. An Apple without a hard-drive. You had to put in floppies to change from task to task,” Sondra told me.
At first, like most, she spent time figuring what to do with this beast. The machine cost thousands in the 1980s and was no picnic. For a while, Sondra had a pricey word processor. But she hired someone to give her a single operating lesson and learned to access something called, “The Internet.”
Sondra took off down the information highway, a two-lane back then, like a finely tuned Delorean. She careened into chat rooms and user groups. She joined organizations connecting online friends with real-life activities. She discovered computer dating.
“I was very cautious about that and what information I gave people, but I did a lot of dating. Then I figured out, after being a widow twice, I didn’t want to marry again. That decision moved me in a new direction,” Wiki Granny explained.
The choice pushed Sondra toward her own goals and dreams. Like many women, she had spent her life nurturing – husbands, children, family. And that was fine. But it took a lot of energy.
What if she could nurture through the written word?
She said, “I wanted to write all my life – in fact I had notebooks full of poetry and thoughts and advise.”
Cruising the Web one day, Sondra stumbled across a site called WikiHow, founded by 36 year-old Jack Herrick. She found a compendium of how-to articles on every topic from animation to zero gravity. She began reading, and never left.
Now, Sondra has written well over 100 articles. Informative, straight forward how-tos. Her topics come from life and her instructions evolve from personal trial and error. She’s had many successes and some failures in her long, productive life. She’s always wanted to teach, thought writing had to be the most satisfying endeavor one could undertake, and wanted to touch people’s lives.
And so she has. Major publications like the New York Times, Orlando Sentinel, and Canada’s McClean’s Magazine have written features about her Wiki work. At least one of her articles garnered more than 200,000 readers. She is known world-wide and turns up in search engines on a variety of topics.
“I love Wiki,” she says. “I don’t have much technical knowledge but it’s easy.”
Sondra spends up to 8 hours a day at WikiHow. She has a personal blog that celebrates the wisdom and excitement of growing older. Her pet peeve is people who say, “I can’t do that, I’m too old.”
Once a career-oriented woman making ends meet for herself and her children, Sondra’s background includes being first assistant to a forensic toxicologist. She loved that, but then she seems to love everything she does, throwing herself into projects with energy and commitment.
Sondra explains. “It seems my life turned to satisfying my own desires. My kids say their mom knows everything. That tickles me – I don’t know everything, but I’ve learned a lot through computers and I love filling my brain with good information.”
Wiki Granny nurtures her creativity through painting and ceramics. She earned a college degree at age 65. She says her health is perfect and she stays active, but writing is her first love and Wiki may be her second for the moment.
“I always wanted to leave my mark after I died so someone would know I had lived. And that's happening,” Granny stated without any trace of self-aggrandizement. She laughed out loud and rushed off to finish some writing she had started before our conversation interrupted her train of thought.
If you have questions or want to share an experience you've had with Wikis, go to the discussion.
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