Encouragement for scientists to contribute to Wikipedia, a few facts and a few ideas on how to use Wikipedia in teaching.

1. Wikipedia – the missing link in science outreach?
Siv Midtun Hollup
Department of Informatics
University of Bergen
29.10.2009

2. Googling
Site Hits Percentage
en.wikipedia.org 5266 97%
species.wikimedia.org 2934 54%
animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu 2890 53%
commons.wikimedia.org 1515 28%
www.itis.gov 1418 26%
ctd.mdibl.org 1288 24%
www.bioone.org 1101 20%
www.uniprot.org 1086 20%
encyclopedia.farlex.com 1007 19%
www.thewebsiteofeverything.com 955 17%
iphylo.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-wikipedia-and-eol.html

3. Page ranking
iphylo.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-wikipedia-and-eol.html

4. The war of the encyclopedias
Internet encyclopaedias go head to head, J. Giles, Nature 438, 2005

5. Can the Wikipedia be used as a citation source?

6. Can the Wikipedia be used as a citation source?
No...

8. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Overview of research fields

9. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Overview of research fields
• Good introductions to specific subjects

10. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Overview of research fields
• Good introductions to specific subjects
• References

11. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Overview of research fields
• Good introductions to specific subjects
• References
• Overview of disputed questions

12. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Overview of research fields
• Good introductions to specific subjects
• References
• Overview of disputed questions
• Bridge gap between research and books

13. What can you do for Wikipedia?
• Overview articles

14. What can you do for Wikipedia?
• Overview articles
• Detailed explanations of
specific concepts

15. What can you do for Wikipedia?
• Overview articles
• Detailed explanations of
specific concepts
• Updated references to
papers and books

16. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Information on your research field for others

17. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Information on your research field for others
• Improve outreach and teaching skills

18. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Information on your research field for others
• Improve outreach and teaching skills
• Relevant coursework for students

19. What can Wikipedia do for you?
• Information on your research field for others
• Improve outreach and teaching skills
• Relevant coursework for students
• Add knowledge to public domain

20. Case study
• Evaluation?

21. Case study
• Evaluation?
• Which Wikipedia?

22. Case study
• Evaluation?
• Which Wikipedia?
• Which contributions?

23. Things to think about
• Audience

24. Things to think about
• Audience
• Point of view

25. Things to think about
• Audience
• Point of view
• Language and terms

26. Things to think about
• Audience
• Point of view
• Language and terms
• Structure of the article

27. Things to think about
• Audience
• Point of view
• Language and terms
• Structure of the article
• References and sources

28. Things to think about
• Audience
• Point of view
• Language and terms
• Structure of the article
• References and sources
• Examples

29. Beware
• No references

30. Beware
• No references
• Subjective text

31. Beware
• No references
• Subjective text
• Anonymous contributions

32. Beware
• No references
• Subjective text
• Anonymous contributions
• Publish results

33. Beware
• No references
• Subjective text
• Anonymous contributions
• Publish results
• Copyright and licencing

34. Wikipedia in teaching?
• Outreach for PhD students

35. Wikipedia in teaching?
• Outreach for PhD students
• Contributing to articles in advanced courses

36. Wikipedia in teaching?
• Outreach for PhD students
• Contributing to articles in advanced courses
• Verification of references

37. Wikipedia in teaching?
• Outreach for PhD students
• Contributing to articles in advanced courses
• Verification of references
• Searching for references

38. Wikimedia Foundation

39. Acknowledgements
• Edvin Fuglebakk
• Anne-Kristin Stavrum
• Pawel Sztromwasser
• Suse Balzer
• H˚vard Henriksen
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