About me

Vera in a cat sweater and a stone owl figurine, smiling at the camera.
Vera with the Illustration WikiOwl 2023, Jan 2024

Hello, I’m Vera de Kok (1989), a passionate Wikipedian from Delft, the Netherlands. Since 2010, I have been contributing to Wikimedia projects under the username 1Veertje. I’ve noticed that English speakers rarely recognize this as anything other than a string of letters, but it’s simply a “1” followed by a shortened version of my given name with a diminutive – which also happens to be the Dutch word for “small feather.”

My involvement goes beyond writing texts – I also focus on creating and sourcing images. You might come across my name as the author of a photo on Wikipedia in articles such as Naomi Klein, Judit Elek, Remco Campert, Lois Smith, or one of the more than 3,000 other articles featuring my photos.

The Illustration WikiOwl 2019 was awarded to me by the Dutch Wikipedia community in recognition of my contributions. With my technical skills, I can also add large sets of images to Wikimedia Commons, the media repository for Wikimedia projects. This has allowed me to upload more than 85,000 files—amounting to half a terabyte! For these efforts, I received the Illustration WikiOwl 2023.

On the Dutch-language Wikipedia, I have written more than 40 new articles and was one of the driving forces behind the municipal monument lists that were published online in the 2010s. As a result, the Project WikiOwl 2015 now sits in my trophy case—a prize awarded to the Wiki Loves Monuments project at the time. On the English-language Wikipedia, I have written 11 new articles, and on the Icelandic Wikipedia, I created one article. In 2023, I participated in the Dutch Wikipedia writing contest for the first time with an article about the doctor’s house in Landsmeer, earning me a shared fourth place.

In addition to my passion for the free knowledge movement, a second form of activism emerged for me in 2024: succesfully opposing the funding of ABA therapy (in Dutch). As an autistic person, I find it concerning that this often traumatic therapy is now also being applied in the Netherlands.

Outside of my volunteer work, I am a programmer. A full-time job is not always feasible for me, but I enjoy working on a project basis or as a freelancer—allowing me to dedicate time to Wikimedia projects and my activism. In 2025, I took the leap and started working as a freelance photographer and IT professional.

My preferred pronouns are she/her, but I have no objections if you use they/them.

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