It looks like our Wikipedia profiles will be done long-distance. That's not ideal, but maybe that will balance out with really good subjects.
This is a good time to think about qualities to aspire to in a profile.
Here's a link to the winner of the 2004 Distinguished Writing Award for Profile Writing by the American Society of Newspaper Editors:
http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=5590
The two profiles are by Tommy Tomlinson of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
The two stories -- "Michael Kelley's Obstacle Course" and "A Beautiful Find" -- each focus on one aspect of the person to tell a story. Not just an article, but a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. The description and background is woven into the story.
It's almost a movie, except it's true, and it's not on the screen. It's in the words that the writer uses. It's in the writer learning enough about the subject that you, the reader, can see it, hear it, feel it, as if you were there. As if you were on the quest, with these men in their troubles and their triumphs.-- figuring out the math, and facing down the obstacle course.
That's one way to think about profiles -- telling somebody's story, directing a movie in the reader's mind. Finding focus and panning out. Flashing back to the past and circling back to the present.
