Ser Amantio di Nicolao
Ser Amantio di Nicolao
Photo of Steven Pruitt taken while outside of the Capitol Building.
Steven Pruitt known by his username Ser Amantio di Nicolao, is a Wikipedia editor based in the United States. Ser Amantio di Nicolao is currently the leading editor on the encyclopedic platform on the internet known as Wikipedia.
Early Life
Ser Amantio di Nicolao is a native of the state of Virginia who's mother emigrated from Israel after being allowed to leave Russia due to the Leonid Brezhnev, an era weakening of emigration restrictions for Jews. He was born and raised in the city of Alexandria, Virginia. His father was a college professor and later a Russian linguist for the Navy. Pruitt is a graduate of St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School.
Education
After High School, Pruitt moved to Alexandria where he attended College of William & Mary. He graduated with a degree in art history, criticism and conservation. As an art history major, he was able to spend three weeks of independent studies in Poland.
His time in college was when he began to make edits on the Wikipedia platform.
Wikipedia
One of the very first edits he made was in June of 2004. By 2006, he created the username, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, on the site. He focused on edits regarding
art history as it was his central areas of studies in college. He would also cover topics such as Opera Music as the next passion of his on the site with other topics such as science, mathematics, and sports. He has an interest in obscure geography.
He is quoted as saying the following in regards to his early work on Wikipedia: “To be honest, I didn't think Wikipedia was going to take off; the idea of a ‘free encyclopedia that anyone can edit’ struck me as rather far-fetched”.
“Wikipedia is changing the world.
It's giving me a chance to change the world, and others like me...
The beauty is that anyone, anywhere can have that power, and it's magnified so much because of that.”
He has written articles on 212 influential women to help correct Wikipedia’s gender imbalance.
Thus far, he is first at the top of the list of editors with the most edits.
He currently has more than 2,300,000.
Since June 2015 he has been an administrator.
He has created 30,000 articles on his own.
He built an artificial intelligence bot to improve the map functionality on tens of thousands of pages devoted to the National Register of Historic Places.
He’s in favor of generating automated articles about geographic areas or species.
Career
For most of his life he has held government positions in Washington DC.
One of his very first jobs after college was a Administrative Assistant for Historic Tours of America.
After his work with Historic Tours of America, he would go on to work at DSA for nearly 6 years. In his later years working there, he became the team lead and trainer for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department. He was essential in teaching and leading people in his team to perform removals, instructing them in the federal regulations regarding immigration law, and teaching them how to process removal requests.
He is currently a contractor for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Personal Life & Activities
His Wikipedia user name stems from his love for opera, Ser Amantio di Nicolao is a minor role in Giacomo Puccini‘s opera Gianni Schicchi.
He has a passion for opera music and is a singer.
He is part of a choir called the Capitol Hill Chorale.
He enjoys traveling to Europe as most of his favorite cities in the world are there.
He still lives with his parents as a way to save money and to help them in their later age.