Notable deaths in 2012, as recorded by Wikipedia

Information designer Jess Bachman created Wikipedia Remembers 2012, an interactive feature about the top 100 public figures who died in 2012 as ranked by the number of words in their Wikipedia entries. There are probably more accurate ways to measure the value of a person's life, but hey, that's a matter for another debate. Jess explains:

I think its a great way to explore and remember the lesser known heroes and is an interesting measure of ones life. Phyllis Diller and Michael Clarke Duncan were 101 and 102 so they didn't make the list, while others like #4, Tale Ognenovski is a lessor known Macedonian clarinetist, but for some reason has a incredibly documented wiki page! So many interesting people here.
It should be noted that I did remove notorious people and those who were solely involved in news events, so there is some editorial by me here. The number one person was actually Treyvon Martin, and there were plenty of serial killers, terrorists, and other folk I didn't think were worth remembering.

Check it out.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: deaths • History • obituaries • wikipedia

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emily ratner

why on earth would she remove treyvon martin??
- ZikZak
  
  He is notable for his death, rather than being a notable person who then died.
  
  That said, Treyvon’s story is more interesting and socially relevant to me than any of the other names on the list – and I’m a big Bradbury fan!
  - http://byJess.net/ Jess Bachman
    
    Agreed, but I did want to set some standards, and couldn’t include Treyvon and omit others because they had less interesting stories.
- cegev
  
  That she needed to remove Treyvon Martin in the first place makes me somewhat confused. I quite understand the reasoning—removing people who were only notable because of their death or some other news event—but there isn’t actually any real Treyvon Martin article at all: the Treyvon Martin page redirects to an article on the shooting.
  If names are considered by the length of the articles they redirect to, I imagine there could be some very odd situations.
  - http://byJess.net/ Jess Bachman
    
    Correct, there were some musicians who were redirected to their band page, which were also removed. Also Treyvon had his own page before it was redirected.
http://twitter.com/ABadIdol Michael Bellack

No Adam Yauch?
- http://byJess.net/ Jess Bachman
  
  Adam Yauch is #426.
  - http://twitter.com/ABadIdol Michael Bellack
    
    Ahhhh I see now how it was compiled, thanks
Claudio Bonifazi

I can’t find Rita Levi Montalcini
- http://byJess.net/ Jess Bachman
  
  Not in the top 100, not enough words. Sorry!
Nash Rambler

Only six of the top 100 were women. Disappointing.
- http://byJess.net/ Jess Bachman
  
  wow, yeah thats terrible.
  - Jake Rennie
    
    More famous women should die this year. Get on it.
- EH
  
  Get typing, then.
TheOven

I’m not on there either.

Oh wait.

Nevermind.
http://twitter.com/laughingcurve the Laughing Curve

For a second I thought Oscar Niemeyer was Abe Vigoda and I genuinely thought ‘Abe Vigoda is actually dead?!’
Daneel

How many were on deathlist.net?
caipirina

Not surprised to see Meles Zenawi … his death was a huge deal here in Ethiopia, rumours about him being dead for weeks were all over the internet. And many articles readily blocked by the state controlled ISP.
Jeff Crow

Biggest omission: Nora Ephron