Wikipedia:Academy/NIH 2009



The first Wikipedia Academy in the United States took place on July 16, 2009, at the NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.

Wikipedia Academies are public outreach events aimed at engaging academics and other subject-matter experts who are not familiar with wiki culture or online communities. In presentations and workshops, experienced Wikipedia authors teach the participants how to contribute to Wikipedia and orient the audience to Wikipedia’s structures and community policies.

Involved on our side
In alphabetical order:


 * Core volunteer team
 * Awadewit
 * Hannibal
 * John Broughton
 * Mathias Schindler
 * Proteins
 * Stevenfruitsmaak
 * TimVickers


 * D.C. volunteers
 * Mindspillage
 * MZMcBride
 * Staeiou
 * Swatjester


 * WMF staff members
 * Eloquence
 * Frank Schulenburg
 * Jennifer Riggs

A special thanks goes to Jay Walsh, Wikimedia Foundation.

Other acknowledgements
A team of roughly 25 volunteers — scientists, physicians, science writers and librarians — volunteered to assist the NIH participants in their first steps of editing, not only on the day of the Academy, but in the weeks and months to follow. Their volunteering was recognized warmly by Marin Allen of the NIH in her opening remarks, and by NIH participants of all ranks throughout the day. Their gesture was taken as symbolic of the cordial relationship between the NIH and Wikipedia, for which we are grateful.

Several volunteers provided critical software for the workshop. Mr.Z-man produced "Popular pages" for several WikiProjects, which were highly praised by the participants. Cacycle made crucial improvements to his editor, wikEd, that made editing scientific and medical articles much easier by condensing references and long templates. Pyrospirit developed an extension of his article assessment script that allowed the NIH members to create their own lists of articles and assess their quality in batches. ClockworkSoul developed a powerful new version of his tool, Igor, for assessing and interacting with Wikipedia's articles and WikiProjects. Finally, TechSmith provided a free copy of their screencast software, Camtasia Studio, which was used to develop tutorials for the NIH participants.

Press release and press coverage

 * July 14, 2009
 * NIH and Wikimedia Foundation Collaborate to Improve Online Health Information (NIH press release)
 * NIH, Wikimedia to team on health info (Washington Times, Mark Kellner)


 * July 15, 2009
 * NIH, Wikimedia work toward better online health and medical information (iTWire, Steven Withers)
 * NIH and Wikimedia Foundation Collaborate to Improve Online Health Information (DOTmed News)


 * July 16, 2009
 * Wikipedia hosts forum to improve online health info (itnews for Australian Business, Liz Tay)
 * NIH and Wikimedia Foundation team up (Federal News Radio, interview with John Burklow, associate director for communications and public liaison at the NIH)

“Those still skeptic about the reliability of the content on Wikipedia will have one less argument now that a new partnership between the US National Institutes of Health and the Wikimedia Foundation was put in place.”
 * July 17, 2009
 * Wikipedia and NIH Will Collaborate on Future Online Health Information (Softpedia, Catalin Cimpanu)


 * July 20, 2009
 * NIH and Wikimedia Foundation team up – part 2 (Federal News Radio, interview with Frank Schulenburg, head of public outreach at the Wikimedia Foundation)


 * July 21, 2009
 * Wikipedia Teaches NIH Scientists Wiki Culture (Wired, Alexis Madrigal)


 * July 22, 2009
 * NIH Scientists Learn How to Contribute Content to Wikipedia (Softpedia, Lucian Parfeni)


 * July 23, 2009
 * NIH and Wikimedia Foundation Collaborate to Improve Online Health Information (NIH Radio, Wally Akinso) (Available at Commons)


 * July 28, 2009
 * Wikipedia Signpost/2009-07-27/Wikipedia Academy


 * July 28, 2009
 * NIH Staffers Get Into the Wiki World: Scientists Learn Online Etiquette (Washington Post, Ibby Caputo)
 * NIH Gets Schooled on Wikipedia (nextgov, Gautham Nagesh)

“The Wikipedia of the future, it seems, looks set to become a far more reputable place.”
 * July 29, 2009
 * Should you trust health advice from the web? (New Scientist, Lisa Grossman)

“The volunteer instructors, or “Wikipedians,” were not just techno-geeks; they also included scientists who could appreciate the questions NIH staffers might have.”
 * August 2, 2009
 * Institute making Wikipedia good for your health (journalgazette.net, Ibby Caputo)


 * August 3, 2009
 * NIH staffers get into Wiki world (Press of Atlantic City, Ibby Caputo)


 * August 6, 2009
 * Scientists encouraged to post on Wikipedia (courier-journal.com, Ibby Caputo)


 * August 10, 2009
 * Wikipedia shows NIH scientists the basics of adding to site (American Medical News, Pamela Lewis Dolan)

Twitter & Blogs

 * Twitter
 * Twittersearch #nihwiki – tweets about the event, including live tweets
 * Tim O'Reilly: “Awesome: NIH and wikimedia commons working together to improve quality of health info online […] HUGE step.”


 * Blogs
 * Welcoming medical research experts to Wikipedia (Frank Schulenburg, Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Wikipedia Training for US Health Department (Dana Oshiro, ReadWriteWeb)
 * Medical research experts on Wikipedia (Bertalan Meskó, Science Roll)
 * Shared Kismet: Wikipedia and the NIH (Susannah Fox, e-patients.net)
 * NIH Urges Employees To Post Health-Related Topics on Wikipedia (iHealthBeat)
 * NIH to Edit Wikipedia – A Slippery Slope? (Roger Strother, OMB Watch)
 * Scientist Meets Socialite: NIH and Wikipedia Begin to Date (A. Lynn Grossman)

Quotes

 * A good citation is like a god-class weapon on Wikipedia. (John Broughton)
 * As scientists it is our calling to provide knowledge to the world. I hope you answer that call. (Bill Wedemeyer)
 * An online encyclopedia can never replace the physician-patient relationship – that would be absurd. (Tim Vickers)
 * We hope to infect you with our enthusiasm. (Frank Schulenburg)

Talks

 * Tim Vickers - Wikipedia as a source of health information
 * Bill Wedemeyer's talk on Wikipedia's articles and contributors
 * John Broughton - Wikipedia's quality

Photos

 * Picasa web album Mathias Schindler

Participants

 * Participant list (for those with Wikipedia useraccounts)