Several months ago, Wikimedia Israel conducted a survey on attitudes of the Israeli public towards Wikipedia. 751 respondents, which provides arepresentative sample of the population of Israel, responded to the questionnaire.We paid particular attention to the fact that the sample included a representation of young people and the Arabic-speaking population in Israel.
According to the findings, 84 percent of the respondents said they rely on the online encyclopedia for information, and 60% said they visit the Wikipediawebsite at least once a week. Almost three-quarters (74%) said the information found in Wikipedia articles provides all that they need, and they don’t seekadditional resources.
The survey also showed gaps in relation to Wikipedia between the Arab and Jewish populations in Israel. While around 60% of the population uses Wikipedia once a week or more. Within the Arabic-speaking population, the percentage of daily usage is larger than that of the Hebrew-speaking population (27.9% versus 21.6%). In addition, 54% of the Arab-speaking respondents were interested in editing Wikipedia compared to only 33% in the Jewish population.
41% of the Arab-speaking population said that they search Wikipedia for articles in scientific fields, compared to 36.2% among the Hebrew speakers.
Only 8% of respondents had ever edited a Wikipedia article, even though 20% encountered information they deemed to be in need of amending.
For the results, please see: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Awareness_of_Wikipedia_and_its_usag...
Michal Lester
Executive Director
Wikimedia Israel
http://www.wikimedia.org.il/ 972-50-8996046 ; 972-77-751-6032
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