Shabab and others,
Previously, Doc James (user:jmh649), a Canadian medical doctor and contributor to Wikipedia health content, had asked me if I could explore options for him to visit Bangladesh and present Wikipedia to doctors and medical students there. He talked about doing this on the way to Wikimania. I must close this offer - it is not going to be possible this year because of an impossibility in his schedule. We both still are interested in working with Bangladeshi Wikipedians in some way.
Doc James is not going to be able to come to Bangladesh on the way to Wikimania as he had hoped, and I also will not be able to do this. We are both still interested in Bangladesh and I certainly will return, hopefully in 1-2 years. Please do not plan any event on any schedule, but remember that some people here have interest in doing something in Bangladesh eventually.
In answer to your questions - 1. There are two projects and they have confusingly similar names. WikiProject Medicine is a typical WikiProject which seeks to improve articles about health. It is unusual compared to other projects because it is especially active and because its guidelines for sourcing are well-policed and enforced because members feel that bad health information must be prevented from appearing on-wiki. Wiki Project Med Foundation is the name of an incorporated organization founded by members of WikiProject Medicine (English). The idea is to support health projects in all languages and do things beyond Wikipedia, such as add images to Commons and participate in Wikidata, as well as to partner with external organizations like government health organizations and non-profit organizations. 2. English Wikipedia users already appreciate the health content on English Wikipedia. It seems to be the case that Wikipedia is the most consulted source of health information in the world, and health articles are among the most popular articles on Wikipedia. Much of this information comes from doctors and medical students who seem to think that they get value from adding content here. The public likewise seems to want health information on Wikipedia. 3. Improving health content in Bangla seems to be a good opportunity because the Wikimedia Movement wants to develop languages in developing countries. Since Bangla is one of the world's most spoken languages, and since Bangla Wikipedia is underdeveloped, and since there are projections that the number of Bangla speakers who are using the Internet is increasing a lot, it seems like Bangla Wikipedia would be a great target for the movement to develop. 4. The project of targeting health information on Bangla Wikipedia is my own proposal. Other people are interested in general translation to any language, such as in the Translation Task Forcehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Translation_Task_Force. The entire Wikimedia movement wants more interconnection between countries, and if I were to propose a place with a small Wikipedia community and big potential for impacting a lot of people, I think that Bangla Wikipedia is a great candidate. See other options at List of Languages by number of speakershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers. There is a new Wikipedian in Residence at the World Health Organization. I think he also would be sympathetic. 5. It may be the case that Bangla-speaking doctors prefer to read information in English. However, typical people have a right to have some information also. In the United States, people who are diagnosed with a disease or condition often want to look online to get more information about it than their doctor gives them. Sometimes also they want to read about effects of drugs or medical procedures. Sometimes they want to share this information with friends and family members as they make health decisions. Because health information in English has been so popular, we presume that it will be popular in other languages, but have no proof of that.
I am still interested in doing something to develop health content in Bangla. There are lots of ideas of things to do. One benefit that I could imagine is that there might be researchers in Bangladesh who cannot afford to purchase subscriptions to academic journals at Western prices, and perhaps we could apply for a grant to fund journal subscriptions to any university that would spend part of their time putting information information - perhaps health information and perhaps other information - onto Wikipedia to promote general public education. Whatever happens it should come with support from local Bangla speakers. Local people understand public need much better than any outsider, but if some kind of health information is wanted, I think that there are people who would like to support Bangladesh in getting it.
Thoughts? thanks,
On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Shabab Mustafa shabab.mustafa@gmail.comwrote:
Hi Lane,
Hope you are doing well.
As I saw your mail the other day, I started to make some phone calls and trying the get in touch with some people in Medical Field. Soon I have found that I know far too little about the Wiki Medicine project than I thought I knew of. You know, talking to an expert about his/her own field it very difficult when you have too little about it.
Here I need to know answers of some non-technical questions that I was asked,
- What is the goal of WikiProject Medicine?
- Who will be benefited from this project?
- How it can add some value to the mass?
- Who are working behind this project?
- Why one should care to have these information in his own language when
the English version is available and he knows that language?
Well, I thing that's all I need for the time being. I will keep posted about feedback I receive.
PS. Please give me your Google id that we can be connected in Google Talk.
Best,
Shabab Mustafa