Hey All
I would like to share the following:
“Wikipedia has been the most widely used single source of information about Ebola in the most affected countries, among people who searched for information through Bing. The use of Wikipedia was greater than that of either CNN, the World Health Organization, or the Center for Disease Control during the time periods examined. The countries in question include: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea."
I have been collaborating with a researcher from microsoft by the name of Elad Yom-Tom who has provided this interesting data. We are looking at submitting something to a peer reviewed journal soon. Journal will of course need to be Open Access, PLoS Medicine or Open BMJ interested? :-)
I think this is a real accomplishment for all the amazing individuals and organizations that have made Wikipedia what it is today including the many dedicated Wikipedians, the Wikimedia Foundation, our collaborators at Translators Without Borders, the Cochrane Collaboration, and the University of California San Francisco College of Medicine among others. I hope this is also encouragement for organizations such as the World Health Organisation among others that are not currently engaging with Wikipedia as a platform for knowledge sharing to do so.