From: "Steve Bowbrick"
<Steve.Bowbrick(a)bbc.co.uk>
Unrelated question: on Twitter, Chris Vallance, a
producer on iPM,
wonders:
"Wikipedia received most UK traffic from searches for "Swine Flu" -
Should Directgov, NHS, collaborate with the site?"
And links to these numbers from traffic stats house Hitwise:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2009/05/swine_flu_searches_increas
e_58.html
Should we encourage UK public health agencies to expand the Swine Flu
article? To treat Wikipedia as part of the public health communications
effort? If such a large number of UK searches are hitting the Swine Flu
entry, is there a public health argument for branching the entry to
provide nationally-specific material?
Is there a Wikipedia response to crises of this kind?
I'd absolutely encourage UK health agencies to become more involved with
Wikipedia content. The biggest start I can see is releasing under a
Creative Commons license these leaflets to be posted through doors. I
saw photos of them being delivered on TV today, there isn't one here
yet. It could be on Commons, and it would then end up in the Wikipedia
article.
They will have to consider potential conflict of interest issues. Where
that might come up is integrating their own studies or reports into the
article (or articles if it goes that way).
I'd guess the biggest issue at the moment is WMUK is so young, and this
is something that needs organised at flashmob speeds. Basically, an
ad-hoc Wikipedia workshop to bring them up to speed on this.
Interesting vaguely related AP report...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghB7kaUC_cbUE_Y2y7WrZfrjT…
Brian McNeil