Hey Guys
Would like to make a plug for a scholarship we have available here in Canada
for post secondary students. Applications begin Sept 10th, 2011 with the
award being given to the student who makes the greatest contribution to a
disease related article. Am looking for people wishing to get involved with
spreading this. An overview can be found here
http://wikimedia.ca/wiki/Projects/Medical_student_outreach Have put together
a bit of a press release:
Wikimedia Canada is offering a $1000 dollar scholarship to the Canadian post
secondary student who makes the greatest improvement to a disease related
article on Wikipedia. Applications open Sept 10th 2011 and run until Feb
28th 2012 and can be found online at
http://wikimedia.ca/wiki/Scholarship_application
Wikipedia, as most are aware, is the free online encyclopedia that covers
nearly everything, almost anyone can edit, and nearly everybody reads. As of
Aug 2011 it had over 3.7 million articles in the English language alone, of
which approximately 23,000 pertained to the practice of medicine. These
medical pages in a given month receive between 150 and 200 million page
views and are being used extensively by medical professionals and the lay
public alike.
While Wikipedia has significant quality information, further efforts are
needed. Of the top 100 most viewed medical articles, only a quarter are
deemed high quality. Thus those at WikiProject Medicine invite you to join
us in our attempt to provide the people of the world with free access to
reliable, understandable, and current health information and maybe win a
scholarship while you are at it.
Comments? Anyone else looking at this sort of initiative? This is being run
as a pilot project and hopefully will present at next years Wikimania on the
results.
--
James Heilman, MD, CCFP(EM)
Wikipedian, Wikimedia Canada