Shankbone says that he began photography as a "cheap hobby" using a
point-and-shoot camera given to him by his sister in response to a perceived lack of images on
Wikipedia, Colleen Asper, writing in the
Brooklyn Rail, described Shankbone's photographs as "incredibly wide ranging in their scope". Shankbone began contributing to Wikipedia in June 2006, and in 2007 he was noted as a "leading Wikipedia editor" in
Haaretz.
Israel In December 2007, he became the first of
Wikinews's
citizen journalists to interview a sitting head of state, Israeli President
Shimon Peres. Miller was also profiled in the
Columbia Journalism Review in January 2009,{{cite web| url=https://www.informationweek.com/wikinews-gets-big-interview-israeli-president-shimon-peres/d/d-id/1063281| title=Wikinews Gets Big Interview: Israeli President Shimon Peres Shankbone was invited to Israel by the Foreign Ministry and the
America–Israel Friendship League, as part of a delegation of technology writers, including representatives from
BusinessWeek,
USA Today,
PC Week, and
Salon, to review the
Israeli technology sector.
David Saranga, spokesman at the consulate in New York explained, "More than once we have faced editors connected to Israel that appear on Wikipedia in English that do not represent the reality in Israel. We decided to initiate a visit by Shankbone to describe Israeli reality as it is."{{cite web ==See also==