Doctors use, but don’t rely totally on, Wikipedia

According to recent research that has been shared with Wikimedia UK, use of Wikipedia for medical information is almost universal among a sample of doctors. Many of them praise its accuracy, but they are aware of its faults and that it needs to be read critically.

The investigators conducted an online survey of medical staff at two large hospital trusts in England. Nearly all the 109 responses included free-text comments.

Unsurprisingly, the respondents all consult Wikipedia. The survey was concerned with whether they consult it for medical information and whether it affected their clinical practice.

Ninety percent said they look up medical information on Wikipedia, citing its ease of access and clear, concise layout among its advantages. Among those who denied using it, some commented that they only used Wikipedia for background knowledge: in other words, they were using it.

Even the keen users of Wikipedia stressed that they never base clinical decisions on Wikipedia alone. They saw it as a starting point, to be read critically and consulted alongside other sources. Representative quotes include:

“I use Wikipedia to gain a quick overview of a subject/topic that I am unfamiliar with or to jolt my memory of a subject. I would never base management or treatment of a patient I find there – for that I use my own knowledge, hospital protocols/guidelines, textbooks and advice from colleagues.”

“Most Wikipedia articles explaining diseases/disorders have been copied from a credible source such as a book or journal. Hence for the most part disease descriptions tend to be accurate and can be trusted. However I would nevertheless check it from other sources.”

The research, “Doctors’ use of Wikipedia in clinical decision-making” by David Matheson, Catherine Matheson, Nicholas Campain, Tom Price, and Patrick Collins, was presented as a poster at the Association for Medical Education in Europe conference 2011.

Contrary to what you might expect given that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at all, a look at the list of Wikipedia users who focus on medical articles reveals a great many with some sort of medical or bioscience qualification, or who are studying for one. An event in Coventry at the end of August will bring together Wikipedians from this group with medical practitioners and researchers who are interested in contributing. Wikimedia UK has been working with the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and individual medical academics to get experts checking and improving Wikipedia’s medical articles. Last year, The Times observed that patients use a combination of Wikipedia and official sources to inform their choices about treatment (article behind a paywall). The newspaper praised experts who improve Wikipedia, saying their work helps to empower patient choices and give them confidence in their treatment.

This summary by Martin Poulter. Thanks to Suzanne Hardy of Newcastle University for bringing the research to our attention, and Dr David Mathieson of the University of Nottingham for help with this summary.

Changes to the Wikimedia UK board – A message from Roger Bamkin

Roger Bamkin (right) with Stephen from Wikimedia Kenya
Roger Bamkin (right) speaking with Stephen Wanjau from Wikimedia Kenya

One year on from our previous AGM, I have decided to stand down as Chair of Wikimedia UK. I’m becoming a consultant and as I’m proposing to take Monmouthshire County Council (Wikimedia UK partners for the Monmouthpedia project) as a client, I feel that the conflict of interest is too high for me to remain as Chair, hence my decision.

I have actually served for one year and Fae (Ashley van Haeften) will be taking on the Chair’s role until the AGM, while I remain as a Trustee.

In other board news, Andrew Turvey has sadly stood down as Treasurer. Andrew has done a fine job as Treasurer, as well as taking a leading role in ensuring we achieved our goal of recruiting four staff members this year. John Byrne is assisting as a temporary treasurer.

You will soon see from our annual report that the board has delivered on what it set out to achieve a year ago. I hope to see you in Monmouth, but if not, at our AGM in May.

Wikimedia UK’s Communications Organiser

We’re happy to announce our fourth employee at the UK chapter – Stevie Benton. Stevie will be taking on the communications role for the charity. He has worked in non-profit communications for over eight years in a variety of disciplines, including internal communications, press, online and multimedia. He believes that education and access to information are fundamental to the development of humanity.

He’ll be working from the office in Old Street, but believes in being very hands-on and is looking forward to getting out and meeting as many Wikimedians, volunteers and partners as possible. Stevie is interested in all kinds of art, literature and music, enjoys video games and is a long-suffering fan of the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team.

Over the next few weeks Stevie will be working with Wikipedians to promote the Monmouthpedia Project in April and our AGM in the Science Museum in early May.

Wikimedia UK’s new Events Organiser

We are really pleased to be able to introduce Daria Cybulska to the Wikimedia community as the Events Organiser of Wikimedia UK.

Daria was selected after a highly competitive recruitment process: 61 people applied for the job, and Daria impressed the interview panel with her understanding of what makes Wikimedia UK tick and her experience of supporting volunteer-led events. She has worked for a number of charities tackling such diverse issues as sustainability, unemployment and diabetes, and was focusing on increasing volunteer involvement and building lasting relationships with supporters.

Her interests include music, philosophy (especially aesthetics), Edinburgh and derelict buildings. She is also fluent speaker of Polish!

She will be based in the office in Old Street but hopes to get out as much as possible to meet the community.

British Library is looking for a Wikimedian In Residence (6 months)

The British Library is recruiting an experienced Wikipedia editor with a good understanding of Wikimedia and GLAM projects. The post has funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the programme of activities will be run as part of the on-going partnership with Wikimedia UK. As the official Wikimedian in Residence, the post offers the opportunity to make a considerable contribution to the public’s knowledge of the British Library’s unique collections and AHRC-funded projects by engaging with the widest possible international community of Wikipedians/Wikimedians and GLAM “e-volunteers”.

The position has been specified in consultation with Wikimedia UK and is an ideal opportunity for an experienced Wikimedian with strong communication and organisational skills. The key outcomes will be to promote and establish collaboration between staff and Wikimedia volunteers, in addition to arranging Wikipedia (and sister project) training sessions and events at the Library.

For further details, and to apply, please visit www.bl.uk/careers

If you would like to discuss the UK GLAM programme and our cultural partnerships, please contact Fæ <uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Fae>

Closing date: 23 February 2012

Did you know there is a QRpedia code on the oldest computer in Bletchley Park, the Magna Carta and on the Domesday Book?

Launched in April last year, QRpedia was developed out of the partnership with Derby Museum and Art Gallery by Wikimedia UK member Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden, a mobile web consultant. This idea has now been shortlisted for the SMART-UK awards. On 23 January, the judges were deciding on the final six. QRpedia codes are installed in Indianapolis, London, Barcelona and St Petersburg. New projects are underway in Wales and the Netherlands.

Now Monmouthshire Council have agreed that we can document a whole town. Monmouthpedia has already led to over 40 new articles on the small Welsh town of Monmouth. We intend to have 1,000 QRpedia codes installed by April and many of you have helped already – Thank you!

Why Wikipedia was blacked out for a day

Below is an opinion piece written by Steve Virgin, a UK Wikipedian. It was originally published in the New Statesman.

Over the last few weeks, the Wikipedia community has been discussing proposed actions that the community might take with relation to proposed legislation in the United States called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, and the PROTECTIP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, these would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia. With more than 2,000 Wikipedians commenting on this legislation from all over the world, and a clear majority in favour of taking action, this was the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made.

It was felt that both SOPA and PIPA are pieces of clumsily drafted legislation that are dangerous for the internet and freedom of speech. It provides powers to regulatory authorities to force internet companies to block foreign sites offering ‘pirated’ material that violates U.S. copyright laws. If implemented, ad networks could be required to stop online ads and search engines would be barred from directly linking to websites ‘found’ to be in breach of copyright.

However, leaving to one side the fact that there are more than enough adequate remedies for policing copyright violations under existing laws, in most jurisdictions, these draft bills go too far and in the framing SOPA and PIPA totally undermine the notion of due process in law and place the burden of proof on the distributor of content in the case of any dispute over copyright ownership.

Therefore, any legitimate issues that copyright holders may have get drowned out by poorly-framed draconian powers to block, bar, or shut down sites as requested by industry bodies or their legal representatives. Copyright holders have legitimate issues, but there are ways of approaching the issue that don’t involve censorship.

Wikipedia depends on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. This needs other sites to be able to host user-contributed material; all Wikipedia then does is to frame the information in context and make sense of it for its millions of users.

Knowledge freely shared has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it.  Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikipedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, will mean that the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to

All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

Wikimedia UK community supports worldwide Wikipedia black-out

This is a statement issued by Roger Bamkin, Chair of Wikimedia UK:

As I am sure you know, the English version of Wikipedia will be taken down for 24 hours from 0500 UTC tomorrow in protest at the US SOPA and PIPA bills.

Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of the Wikimedia movement. We regard the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the United States as a threat to the current operation of Wikipedia. This could also affect Wikimedia’s other projects, which operate under U.S. law.

The members of the Wikipedia community have been balloted to determine whether they wish to blackout Wikipedia on Wednesday and agreed that this should happen. Wikimedia UK is an independent British charity that defends the decision of our community.

For more information contact our office on 0207 065 0990, or read the press release from the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco.

Could you help lead one of Britain’s newest and fastest-growing charities?

Wikimedia UK is on the lookout for Trustees to join the Board in May.

This year, we’ve achieved charitable status, raised over £1 million in our annual fundraiser, and run a bigger-than-ever programme of outreach work. However, we have also started to go through a major change. While before we were a purely volunteer organisation, our work is now supplemented by a growing number of staff.

The new Board of Trustees elected in May will need to build on these successes. It will also need to overcome the challenges that come with continuing growth and professionalisation. To this end, the current Board will soon be starting to advertise for expressions of interest in becoming a Trustee.

Presently, the Board is mainly composed of people who are active editors of one or more of the Wikimedia projects. However, we would particularly like to encourage new trustees who have valuable skills and experience – regardless of whether they are currently involved in the Wikimedia movement. The only essentials are commitment to our vision of making the world’s knowledge freely available to all, and an understanding of the dynamics of a charity that relies on a community of volunteers for its impact. We value increasing Board diversity and in particular encourage female candidates to apply.

The Board currently holds four weekend meetings a year and four evening phone conferences between those meetings. All Board members are expected to attend these meetings, and work in between meetings is generally a minimum of five hours a week. Trustees are currently elected for a period of one year, though there will be a motion at our AGM to increase this to a two-year term.

Anyone interested is invited to look at our website for further details of our work, and to contact either Roger Bamkin (Chair) or Jon Davies (Chief Executive) for an exploratory discussion. Potential candidates are invited to our Board meeting on 10th Saturday 11th Feb in London to observe, and for a discussion about future growth and the role of Trustees. The AGM will be in May.

Wikimedia UK raises over £1 million

Wikimedia UK is delighted to announce that it has raised over £1 million in the recent annual Wikimedia fundraiser.

This is our highest ever fundraising total – a truly remarkable 81% increase on the £560,000 raised in Autumn 2010. Over 43,000 people contributed.

This year also saw the widest variety of fundraising messages. Alongside fundraising banners featuring Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, we shared the stories of over a dozen men and women from all over the world who help create Wikipedia articles.

We are really grateful to everyone who has donated. More and more people believe Wikipedia is a cause worth supporting, and there is growing awareness that Wikipedia is a volunteer movement supported by a network of charities worldwide. The global fundraising campaign has raised over $20 million, with donations in more currencies than ever before.

We became a registered charity on November 3rd, just in time for the start of the Wikimedia fundraising season, and so were able to benefit from Gift Aid. We expect to be able to claim about £88,000 of Gift Aid back on the gifts we received, and by the end of the fundraiser, 60% of donations were being Gift Aided.

Also for the first time, Wikimedia UK offered donors the chance to donate by Direct Debit, with nearly a third of the total being donated in this way. The generosity of our Direct Debit donors will help keep us on a strong financial footing for years to come.

The donations we received range from £1 to several thousands. The average cash gift was £16 and the average Direct Debit £43. A number of supporters also pledged their support in ways we haven’t seen before, for instance by offering to leave a gift to Wikimedia UK in their will.

Once again, many, many thanks to everyone who has supported us in this year’s fundraiser. We are also looking forward to building on our successes in future. The Wikimedia movement continues to grow in size and impact every year and we look forward to playing a major role in raising vital funds to support this work in future.