David Gerard wrote:

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From Danny:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/business/media/25asktheeditors.html

You should all read this (you need to log in, but these things happen). It answers a pile of relevant questions for Wikipedia: notability, how to write a good bio (our best bio articles would a well-written obituary, whether the person is alive or not), research ... fantastic stuff.

Here are some good bits which are applicable:

We will not publish an obituary until we can confirm the death. Someone reliable has to tell us so-and-so is dead — a family member, a family spokesperson, a hospital official, a business partner, someone.

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A Times affiliation is no longer an automatic ticket to the Obituaries page. In fact, as a general policy, we now set the bar even higher for Times people, precisely because we want to avoid even the appearance of favoritism. The thinking now is: You had better have done something special at the paper, or elsewhere, if you want to be buried beside kings, captains of industry and Nobel laureates.

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When we look to see whether someone had made a newsworthy impact in some way — who "made a wrinkle in the social fabric," as Margo puts it — we don't equate significance with fame. In point of fact, 9 out of 10 people we write about are indeed not household names (the 10th is — a movie star, a secretary of state). But that doesn't negate their importance. Most made their marks in quiet ways, out of the public limelight, but they still made a mark, possibly on your life and mine.

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How do you measure impact? How do you determine significance? Not with a ruler or any other device. We use the only tool we have available: our judgment, informed by years of experience in journalism, lifetimes of reading, an awareness of the world, a sense of history.

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Probably more in there, but that will do for now.