Semester 3 Week 4: Wikipedia and Medical Wikis

To be honest, this is my favourite topic in the field of medicine 2.0 as I’ve been a Wikipedia administrator for 2 years now.

• Facebook + Google + Flickr (=) Wikipedia
• How to build an encyclopedia? Pay professionals? Certainly not.
• I believe in the power of masses…
• Wikipedia statistics, history (Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales)
• 10 most visited websites in the world: Wikipedia is the 6th one.
• Why is Wikipedia great? (Free, fast, comprehensive, discussions, easy to edit, objective, etc)
• Why it isn’t great. (Almost the same reasons)
• Vandalism and how we fight it: Huggle
• Basics of editing an article; page history, talk pages
• A Wikipedia article minute by minute:

• Basic guidelines: Be bold, objective, no hoax, don’t copy and notability issues
• A few controversies (Seigenthaler in 2005; Congress in 2006; Essjay in 2007)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica vs Wikipedia; my analysis
• Medical Wikiproject, Medicine Portal, article assessment
• Editing process: from a Good Article to a Featured Article
• Sister projects
• Uncyclopedia

Take-home message:

Wikipedia is a great place to start your research, but should never be the last source you finish your research with.

Second slideshow was dedicated to medical wikis.

• We need wikis.
• Definition of wiki
• Wikis in plain English:

• Medical wikis, featuring two examples: Askdrwiki and Radiopaedia
• How to launch a wiki on Wetpaint
• Semantic Wikis? Wikiproteins
• Classification of diseases, WHO project
• 3D Wiki = Second Life?

Take-home message:

If you want to share and create content online, a wiki is a great tool to use.

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