Hello Wikipedia data enthusiasts!
My name is Lane Rasberry, user:bluerasberry, and I contribute to health
content on English Wikipedia.* I am writing to ask for help from WMF people
and community allies in drafting and backing with evidence a statement for
publication in a medical journal. The statement that I would like to make
is something like this:
*
*"The amount of traffic received by health articles on Wikipedia makes
Wikipedia a significant source of health information."*
When I make this statement, I would like to be able to do so as clearly as
possible and in a way that is backed by authentication by the Wikimedia
Foundation and probably a bit of data, perhaps in the form of a comparison
with traffic to another health website. I happen to work for the US-based
non-profit organization Consumer Reports, and we have thought about
comparing Wikipedia's traffic with WebMD's traffic, as WebMD is sometimes
reported as being the most popular source of health information online or
in the world. At Consumer Reports we get traffic data from Nielsen, so that
would be the source for comparison data.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Holdings>
I need help from other stakeholders from this because if this article is
published - and this is not unlikely because it was requested of me - then
it could be cited by other people doing outreach as supporting evidence of
the impact and worthiness of developing Wikimedia content related to
health. Even if it is not published in this instance the increasing media
attention which Wikipedia health content is getting merits having some
verified statement to share about traffic.
I wrote more about why I need this statement and how it can be reused at
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Project_Med/traffic>
I am writing some individuals in addition to sending this to mailing lists
for the following reasons:
- Dario and Jonathan Morgan, you both are Wikimedia data people and I
have talked with you both about this directly
- Erik Zachte, I talked with you about this
generally<http://bluerasberry.com/2013/02/the-metric-i-want-from-the-wik…
Feb 2013
- Doc James, we both say that Wikipedia health content is popular but
neither of us do this with authenticated data
- Jake Orlowitz, you are managing Wikipedia's relationship with the
Cochrane Collaboration and they also are partnering with the Wikipedia
health community on the premise that traffic matters
- AnthonyhCole, you were asking me for my opinion about what I think the
WMF could do to support people doing Wikipedia outreach in health. I think
lots of people would find a statement about traffic to health articles
useful.
- Matthew Roth, you manage communications at the Wikimedia Foundation
and if you want any input into what I am doing then I would love to have
your advice.
I need this soon - perhaps by October 11? Is that possible? How much work
would it be to make this statement? Can someone with the WMF Analytics Team
and WMF communications help me? Am I in the right forums?
Thanks,
--
Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
206.801.0814
lane(a)bluerasberry.com