Project grants/Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools Application 1

Basic information

Project Title (If applicable)

Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools Expansion to North America- Application 1

Proposed by

Nour Geres

Are you currently a member of Wikimedia UK?

Yes

Project description

Briefly describe the issue or problem that motivates this application. What needs are you meeting?

Background: We successfully started the Dundee Wikipedia Editing Group (led by myself) in January of 2016. We have taught students to edit and they have successfully been working on dental content since. Due to growing interest from the dental community, in February 2017 Dundee began the Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools which includes Glasgow, Aberdeen and Manchester (UK) and Tufts, Harvard and NYU (USA).

Dental articles on Wikipedia are largely deficient, inaccurate and for some topics altogether absent. This is due to the low number of active dental editors. Most dentists/dental students are aware of this issue but do not know how to edit and are not aware of the types of citations required on dental articles.

Aim: The aim of the Collaboration is to create an international community of dental editors from across the globe. We will achieve this by educating and setting up dental editing groups across in dental schools the globe that will be continuously running in order to update, expand and improve dental content using evidence based information. We also aim to translate pages (as we have already begun to do) in order to make information available in third world countries to address inequalities in access to information. A secondary aim is to contribute to Wikimedia Commons. Overall, this initiative will benefit the general public, dental students as well as professionals.

Describe project activities. What will you use the funding to do?

The funding will be used to travel to the United States from Canada (I am travelling to Canada at my own expense) to train Harvard, Tufts and NYU dental schools. I will train the American dental schools to carry out what has proven to be successful here in the UK. I will teach them how to set up and run an editing group committee, how to edit Wikipedia and collaborate with the British schools to ensure diverse contributions on pages as well as an organised dynamic of a very quickly growing community.

The schools will then edit for approximately 5 months. We plan on holding an event in March of 2018 in Dundee, Scotland, at which point all schools will present their edits to ensure accountability, discuss the edits, give students the opportunity to showcase their work and advertise the initiative. All schools will be present in person or online. (An event was held in February 2017 on a smaller scale, during which the Dundee students presented their edits to Aberdeen, Glasgow and Manchester. We succeeded following this event in recruiting those three schools, in addition to others, to join the Collaboration).

Describe your plan for evaluating this project. How will you measure success? What types of things will you measure (e.g. content, participants)?

Methods of evaluation: Both qualitative and qualitative analysis for this project will be carried out:

1. We will assess success of the events based on the number of participants who attend and the number of participants who join Editing Groups. Those who attend will benefit from learning how to edit, even if they do not join the group. Although this will not be encouraged, they will be able to contribute individually to Wikipedia. Those who join the Editing Groups will participate in achieving the aforementioned objectives.

2. We have already begun and will continue to develop data on excel to analyse the pages and specific sections edited. We will look at the quality of the edits and the views per page. This will allow us to gain a perspective on the impact of the work done.

3. Feedback form will be collected at events.

Identify key people involved in this project. How will or could the wider Wikimedian community be involved?

I have been leading the Project since 2016 and have been reporting progress to Richard Nevell. Richard has been providing support by directing us to helpful resources/training events.

Support is also obtained from Stuart Prior who also provides ideas and useful resources.

Mr Doug Taylor as been asked to provide support and resolve any issues encountered by new editors. His username will be distributed at training session and placed as a contact on the WikiProject Dentistry page.

The Wikimedia community could be involved in the planning of our March 2018 Collaboration Conference by offering guidance, based on experience of running large scale events, to help in the planning and execution of the conference. The Wikimedia community may also contribute to the identification of any dental-related pages on Wikipedia that require development by bring them to our attention via the WikiProject Dentistry Page.

If applicable, identify partnering organisations for this project (not essential)

1) Primarily the University of Dundee, but also all dental schools who are currently involved or will become involved in the Collaboration (Glasgow, Manchester, Aberdeen, Harvard, Tufts, NYU, Arizona)

2) Cochrane Collaboration (Oral Health)

3) The International Association for Dental Research (IADR)

4) The International Dental Federation (FDI).

5) There has also been an expression of interest from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow whose current Dental Dean Professor Graham Ogden has acknowledged the value of Dental Wikipedia to improve evidence base.

Estimated cost: £250

To travel from Canada to Boston and New York in one combined trip will cost approximately £250.

Email address: n.geres@dundee.ac.uk Phone number: 0742 846 9446 however I am currently using my Canadian number. If you wish to discuss matters over the phone, please e-mail me and I will give you a call.

If you feel that there is more information that could be for example resources needed, how successes can be measured, and how it fits in with the aims of Wikimedia and Wikimedia UK. Please note that these answers don't have to be definite now, and can be expanded on in conversation with the programme team.

What contribution will the project make to our strategic goals?

Strategic Goal 1: Increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects The Wikipedia Collaboration of Dental Schools addresses the currently deficient aspect of Wikiepdia’s dental content. Please note, our committee is mostly led by female dental students/dentists/academic staff who tend to be an underrepresented group of editors. This UK-based Collaboration ensures a diverse representation of content by widening our editing community to include editors from North America and Africa.

Strategic Goal 2: Support the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing the understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level Through this initiative we have involved many partnering organisations who believe in and are strongly supporting our vision through their involvement. For example, the Cochrane Collaboration regularly updates us with the latest evidence based information and provides certificates of recognition for those involved. Furthermore, our partnering organisation are raising awareness of about Wikipedia and the work we do through their media outlets, like the Cochrane Oral Health Blog.

Strategic Goal 3: To support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in the UK By working with various dental institutions across the world, The Wikipedia Collaboration of dental schools advocates for open access to high quality, evidence based information to be disseminated through Wikipedia. Since, one must pay to access high quality information through journals, putting this information onto Wikipedia translating it into variou

What meeting or other space is needed?

Meetings will be held at dental schools.

Are other resources needed (such as computers, books, camera equipment, food, contacts, infrastructure)? How will they be sourced?

Resources will be provided by the individual dental schools.

If any partner organisations have been identified, have they been contacted and are they committed?

Please see above

Are external funds needed that we can apply for? If so where will they be sought?

Please note, the Project has been funded by volunteers and the University of Dundee (through a research grant) up until now. The grant has run out and University is trying to allocate some funding. We are however struggling to acquire funds as we are unable to approach companies that usually fund dental student activities (such as toothpaste and dental material companies) due to conflict of interest.

Based on the recommendation from the Evaluation Panel, the budget holder has approved this grant.

Agnes Bruszik(WMUK) 10:36, 05 September 2017 (BST)