1.
Wikipedia and Health Information
Readership • Quality • Production process
Pete Forsyth
User: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

2.
Wikipedia readership
Guess: how many times is each of
the following articles viewed in a month?
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

3.
Wikipedia readership
Readership during April 2012, as reported at stats.grok.se
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

4.
Factors that impact readership
● Search results
● Incoming links
● Internal links
● Article quality (drives each of above)
● News events

5.
Are these numbers low? High?
Free license–many views are not counted:
● mobile apps
● offline uses
● Facebook/Google republishing

6.
Are these numbers low? High?
Source: wikistrategies.net/wikipedia-traffic-news

7.
Pew Research on durability
Source: ethicalwiki.com; used by permission

8.
Pew Research on durability
Source: ethicalwiki.com; used by permission

9.
Quality of content
Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica.
–Nature, 2005
● Claim has been disputed, but even being
close is signif cant.
i
● 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

10.
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
i
f rst few minutes, later gravitating toward more
thorough or more authoritative sites.
Source: j.mp/EdChiWS2011 (slide 21) • wikistrategies.net/tying-it-all-together/

11.
Quality of content
Source: j.mp/EdChiWS2011 (slide 21) • wikistrategies.net/tying-it-all-together/

12.
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 f rm rules.
i

13.
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

14.
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

15.
Edit history: Perceiving activity
Software supports following actions of your
fellow editors very closely.
Example: "Bicycle helmet" history page

16.
Production: WikiProjects etc.
Analogous to a “talk page” for a topic area
●WikiProject Medicine is a very active project
●WikiProject Health & f tness is not
i
● Many refinements to Featured Article system

17.
Production: Further discussion
● Conf icts of interest (WP:COI)
l
● See: Evolution of an article
(case study)
enwp.org/outreach:Evolution_of_an_article_(Celilo_Falls)

18.
How do Wikipedians define quality?
The short answer: METICULOUSLY.

19.
Wikipedia readership
Quality as determined by the “Wikipedia 1.0” system
Article Monthly Quality
Views
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

20.
Context
● Open research video:
enwp.org/File:Open_research.ogg
● Citizen science example:
Personal Genome Project site and related blog post

21.
Context

22.
BBC News Magazine features
Wikipedians
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763

23.
BBC News Magazine features
Wikipedians
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18833763

24.
Discussion
Please add your questions online!
enwp.org/UT:Peteforsyth/Talks/Tufts_School_of_Medicine
Pete Forsyth
User:Peteforsyth
@PeteForsyth
wikistrategies.net
@WikiStrategies