[Wikimedia-l] Any studies on economic impact of community-produced open data?

[David Richfield]

On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4 June 2012 13:57, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> AIUI, weekdays office hours are our peak access period, and Wikipedia
>> generally isn't blocked in offices the way Facebook, etc. often are.
>> This suggests it's good for *something* economically.
>
> It's good for lowering the productivity of offices! I occasionally
> look things up on Wikipedia at work that are actually about my work,
> but usually it's to settle a debate that has nothing at all to do with
> work.

Maybe that's true for you, but I often look up work-relevant stuff in
Wikipedia.  Where it's important, I can follow references and look up
other sources.

Also, think about the way doctors use it: it's a very useful
aide-de-memoire for most doctors when it comes to stuff they don't use
on a daily basis.  They have the knowledge and skills to determine
whether the information is correct, and don't rely on it for critical
decisions, but if a doctor needs a remindor of which receptor is
affected by the autoimmune system in myasthenia gravis,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasthenia_gravis#Pathophysiology will
help.

-- 
David Richfield
[[:en:User:Slashme]]
+27718539985