Hi folks,
Re: Wikipedia and scientific literacy/information diffusion, perhaps this
is relevant:
"Amplifying the impact of open access: Wikipedia and the diffusion of
science"
On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 7:00 AM, <
wiki-research-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Request: Studies of external impacts of Wikipedia
(Leigh Thelmadatter)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 09:47:22 +0000
From: Leigh Thelmadatter <osamadre(a)hotmail.com>
To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities
<wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] Request: Studies of external impacts of
Wikipedia
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This is an area I am interested in also. I run two groups of Mexican
students who work with Wiki project for their "servicio social," a
community service requirement for all Mexican undergrads. There was some
question this semester as to whether the program should continue as they
were looking for evidence of "social impact"... which they were defining as
students having direct contact with beneficiares (think reading to children
or serving food at a soup kitchen). We did convince the powers-that-be that
while there may not be face-to-face, we can provide numbers as to how many
people access the materials that students create/improve (but cannot break
it down as to how many of those are from Mexico).
________________________________
From: Wiki-research-l <wiki-research-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org> on
behalf of Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 7:23:17 PM
To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities
Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l] Request: Studies of external impacts of
Wikipedia
I have a few thoughts.
Thinking financially here: while I'm not aware of studies, the rise of
Wikipedia coincided with the demise of Encarta. Also, I think that you'd
want to take into consideration the impacts that Wikipedia has had via its
appearance in Google search results and in Google's information summary
panels; I'm sure that Google has reaped substantial financial benefits from
Wikipedia. (This is a mixed blessing.) You might consider making an
estimate of how many millions of dollars university and school libraries
have saved by not purchasing proprietary encyclopedias.
You might consult with WikiProject Medicine and WPMF to learn about the
public health impacts of their efforts in content development and
translation efforts, which they seem to think have been substantial in the
developing world.
I believe that the education folks in WMF and WEF have done some analyses
of how Wikipedia assignments have may have yielded improved student
engagement with material than traditional course assignments.
There are probably also financial benefits that others have reaped from
using open source MediaWiki software. Perhaps the folks in WMF Tech would
be able to provide some analysis of the benefits of MediaWiki to external
organizations.
HTH,
Pine
On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 2:19 PM, Aaron Halfaker <ahalfaker(a)wikimedia.org<
mailto:ahalfaker@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
Wikipedia has probably had some substantial external impacts. Are there
any studies quantifying them? Maybe increased scientific literacy? Or
maybe GDP rises with access to Wikipedia?
Are there any studies that have explored how Wikipedia has affected
economic or social issues?
I'm looking for any references you've got.
-Aaron
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