Who is going to Wikipedia for health information?Pete ForsythPrincipal, Wiki Strategiespete@wikistrategies.netUser:Peteforsyth

Lane RasberryWikipedian in Residence, Consumer Reportslrasberry@consumer.org User:Bluerasberry

Where did Wikipedia come from?

• Wiki software invented in 1990s• Wikipedia founded in 2001, as experiment• Hundreds of thousands of volunteers,

inspired by a shared vision:

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share

in the sum of all knowledge.

Why is Wikipedia important?

• Fifth most visited web property worldwide

• Rare among the top 100 sites:o volunteer-driven project (only other - archive.org)

o non-profit (only others - archive.org and BBC)

• Most widely read publication in history (?)

• Sophisticated decision-making model

• Anyone may participate

How does it work?

Wikipedia's principal software functions:

How can organizations engage with Wikipedia?

• With a clearly expressed dedication to

Wikipedia's values, policies, and norms

• Transparently

• With an open mind and a giving spirit

What organizations have benefited from Wikipedia-related projects?

• Museums, libraries, archives: updating

practices and reaching new audiences

• Philanthropic foundations: improving coverage

of topics related to program areas

• Academic and professional societies: fulfilling responsibilities to their disciplines

• For-profit companies: improving accuracy and

breadth of their own coverage*

Why are people going to Google for health information?

Does Google matter?

Does online media matter?

Alexa Rank (readership) & revenue for 2011-12:

1.Facebook

2.Google

6.Wikipedia10.Twitter

$5,100 million

50,180 million

28 million

350 million

You can check any article's traffic!1. Click "View history"!

1.

2. Click "page view statistics"!

2.

Does this monthly traffic mean anything to you? 130k, June 2013

Who is responsible for ensuring that Google's health results are accurate and useful?Google? The government? Health

organizations? Volunteers? No one?

My offer to you

Who wants to communicate through the

top Google results, for free, right now with 15

minutes of work?

The catch - Wikipedia has its own rules:

• Wikipedia is an encyclopedia

• It is written from a neutral point of view

• It offers free content that anyone can use, edit, modify, or redistribute

• Editors should treat each other with respect and civility.

• There are no firm rules.

My advice to organizations -

1. No advertising

2. Citations for every statement

3. Respond to feedback

4. Join the community

Are you still with me?

Then consider your community!

• Wikiprojects• established editors• personal online

training• better human

response to questions than any bank

• cool people

Let's tour the health community!

Wikipedia has 23,000 health articles.

2,000 have been evaluated as rather good. All need work.

Volunteers meet and do things!

type WP:MED into Wikipedia's search box

Is Wikipedia a popular source of health information?

To what extent is health content development like anything else?

Some services like the Teahouse and other training support is for everyone. Some things, like guidelines on "Reliable sources for medicine", are specific.

Type WP:TEAHOUSE or WP:MEDRS into search

Example project - Choosing Wisely

• Organizations which want to do health education consider Wikipedia

• What were the costs and benefits?

• What could and could not be done?

How is it that someone comes to access the Wikipedia article on electrocardiogram?One theory - went to Google and

misspelled "Bieber"

Choosing Wisely impact through Wikipedia -

Three month impact and beyond -

• 60 articles received Choosing Wisely content• Traffic to those articles - 11 million• complaints - several had to be addressed!• no fame, no self-promotion - what do

readers really want?• content was stable at 3 months• at six month check, all content remained and

traffic went up

Consider this class's collaboration!

• Is your goal to share health info?

• Is your goal to promote the org?

• To what extent are these goals exclusive?

• What are your options?

Who is your audience?

When should you make a decision about responding to Wikipedia?

Wikipedia might be a fad!

Text on the Internet may go obsolete!

What options do you have?

Any of these!• Begin to consider Wikipedia traffic• Look at article traffic on Wikipedia• Share sources on Wikipedia talk pages• Consider whether any Wikipedia article

matters during outreach campaigns• Convince other people, like students, to edit

Wikipedia• You are welcome to edit anything yourself!

Why are people going to Wikipedia for health information?Pete ForsythPrincipal, Wiki Strategiespete@wikistrategies.netUser:Peteforsyth

Lane RasberryWikipedian in Residence, Consumer Reportslrasberry@consumer.org User:Bluerasberry