JackHerrick 

About me. I started wikiHow in 2005. I love wikis.

I'm Jack Herrick and I'm the founder of wikiHow. While I may have been one of the first editors here, I'm now one of many who share the goal of building a freely available, how-to manual in many languages. I view myself as the steward of this project on a conditional basis. I have and will continue to do all I can to help wikiHow achieve our shared mission. In the event that the community no longer feels I'm the best steward for this project, the community retains the right to fork the content and software to a new host and continue the mission without me.

Please don't feel like you need my permission to make any changes on wikiHow. I trust you and the collaborative process to do the right thing to improve our how-to manual. Be bold in your editing.

Edit Contact me

• My wiki talk page - click here
• Email - jack "at" wikihow.com (I try to reply, but I'm often very, very slow. For faster replies try [email protected] )
• Identi.ca - http://identi.ca/jack
• Twitter - http://twitter.com/JackHerrick
• Phone - 650-492-8008. Email is preferred as I rarely check this number

Edit Some goals for wikiHow

I started wikiHow with the goal that we would one day accomplish our mission of building the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Our long term goal should be to have every article be the single, most accurate, most helpful set of instructions on that topic available anywhere. A freely available, multilingual, and complete how to manual would improve millions of lives in both small and large ways. Indeed it already has. It is an ambitious goal that will take us decades to achieve.

In addition to the pleasure I get from building a great how-to manual, I also take pride in the manner that we build it. Our open editing and community self management challenges old assumptions about how organizations need be built. A successful wiki requires that thousands of strangers assume good faith, collaborate and build trust. It demonstrates that many people want to do something for the common good and will do so if empowered to make changes. It shows that people can self organize productively. And it happens across nationalities, religions, and age groups.

Edit Some things I do on wikiHow

I spend most of my time on wikiHow working behind the scenes. As wikiHow has grown from a small project to one of the most popular websites on the Internet, the back office time demands have grown exponentially. Quite frequently I'm working with Travis to design new features or just make sure our existing ones are still working. On the site, I enjoy doing new article boost, patrolling recent changes, or thanking wiki editors. While I never seem to find time to write as many new articles as I would like, I have been able to patrol 65,478 edits so far and boost 4,535 new articles in New Article Boost. (Click here to show latest numbers.)

Edit Quoteboard

• "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - Dalai Lama

• "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it." - Margaret Fuller

• "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

• "To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert

Edit Photos from wikiHow Meetups

wikiHowians at the RoCoCo Conference in Montreal, May 2007

wikiHowians at Recent Changes Camp in Portland, February 2009

Edit Some things I do when I'm not on wikiHow

Edit My Stats

Edit My Userboxes

This author writes personal notes to other editors, not always templates.