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.
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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 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 in 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,
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Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia