Wikipedia and Health InformationReadership • Quality • Production process

Pete ForsythUser:Peteforsyth@PeteForsyth

wikistrategies.net@WikiStrategies

Prepared for:

Summer Institute on Digital Strategies for Health Communication

Tufts University School of Medicine

July 18, 2012

Follow online: http://enwp.org/WP:TUFTSMED

Wikipedia readership

Article Monthly views

1 Bicycle safety

2 Bicycle helmet

3 BH laws by country

4 BHs in New Zealand

5 BHs in Australia

6 BHs in the US

7 BH laws

8 BH Safety Institute

Guess: how many times is each of the following articles viewed in a month?

Wikipedia readership

Article Monthly Views

1 Bicycle safety 2120

2 Bicycle helmet 7324

3 BH laws by country 869

4 BHs in New Zealand 518

5 BHs in Australia 626

6 BHs in the US 219

7 BH laws 1334

8 BH Safety Institute 114

Readership during April 2012, as reported at stats.grok.se

Factors that impact readership

● Search results● Incoming links● Internal links● Article quality (drives each of above)● News events

Are these numbers low? High?

Free license–many views are not counted:

● mobile apps● offline uses● Facebook/Google republishing

Are these numbers low? High?

Source: wikistrategies.net/wikipedia-traffic-news

Pew Research on durability

Source: ethicalwiki.com; used by permission

Pew Research on durability

Source: ethicalwiki.com; used by permission

Quality of content

Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica.–Nature, 2005

● Claim has been disputed, but even being close is signifi cant.

● English Wikipedia has 8x as many articles in 2012 as in 2005.

● Proportion of Featured Articles (top quality, peer reviewed content) remains about 1/1000.

● Peer review process has become more rigorous, and found to be robust.

● International and multilingual focus has grown.

Source: news.cnet.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html

Quality of content

Study: Curious people use Wikipedia as scaffolding.

–Ed Chi, 2011

● Subjects were asked to research a topic.● Most spent a lot of time on Wikipedia in the

fi rst few minutes, later gravitating toward more thorough or more authoritative sites.

Source: j.mp/EdChiWS2011 (slide 21) • wikistrategies.net/tying-it-all-together/

Quality of content

Source: j.mp/EdChiWS2011 (slide 21) • wikistrategies.net/tying-it-all-together/

Peer production

Wikipedia construction guided by strong values.

The Five Pillars:● Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.

● Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.

● Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute.

● Editors should interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner.

● Wikipedia does not have fi rm rules.

Talk pages: a key innovation

Readers and editors are invited and encouraged to discuss editorial changes, on a separate, but linked "talk page."

Example: Talk:Bicycle safety, 2005

Talk pages: a key innovation

Example from Talk:Bicycle safety, 2005:

I acknowledge that this [article] might contain elements of [bias], I have strong opinions. I aim to reference more of it in the near future. —JzG

Here's a suggestion… present one side as [unbiased] as you can. … I like the idea of presenting as many sides as feasible, and letting the reader decide. Informative over persuasive. --Christopherlin

Yes, you are right I know. … —JzG

Edit history: Perceiving activity

Software supports following actions of your fellow editors very closely.

Example: "Bicycle helmet" history page

Production: WikiProjects etc.

Analogous to a “talk page” for a topic area●WikiProject Medicine is a very active project●WikiProject Health & fi tness is not

●Many refinements to Featured Article system

Production: Further discussion

● Confl icts of interest (WP:COI)

● See: Evolution of an article (case study) enwp.org/outreach:Evolution_of_an_article_(Celilo_Falls)

How do Wikipedians define quality?

The short answer: METICULOUSLY.

Wikipedia readership

Article Monthly Views

Quality

1 Bicycle safety 2120 Start

2 Bicycle helmet 7324 B

3 BH laws by country 869 Start

4 BHs in New Zealand 518 B

5 BHs in Australia 626 Start

6 BHs in the US 219 stub

7 BH laws 1334 Start

8 BH Safety Institute 114 stub

Quality as determined by the “Wikipedia 1.0” system

Context

●Open research video:enwp.org/File:Open_research.ogg

●Citizen science example:Personal Genome Project site and related blog post

Context

BBC News Magazine features Wikipedians

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763

BBC News Magazine features Wikipedians

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763

Discussion

Please add your questions online!

enwp.org/UT:Peteforsyth/Talks/Tufts_School_of_Medicine

Pete ForsythUser:Peteforsyth@PeteForsyth

wikistrategies.net@WikiStrategies