Public scholarship can combat misinformation and prejudice surrounding disability healthcare
Enhancing the disability healthcare information on Wikipedia is a powerful way to combat misinformation, discrimination, and prejudice around disability and disability healthcare. The online encyclopedia is the most utilized healthcare resource in the world with a reach of 500 million readers per month. Policy makers, doctors, and others need to understand the diverse communities they … Continued
Family planning doesn’t stop during a pandemic, so neither do the experts
We’re all quickly learning that in a global pandemic, non-COVID-related healthcare looks very different from what we were accustomed to. This is a new age of telehealth, where people access health services through communication technologies rather than in-person visits. As we hear from our Society of Family Planning (SFP) Wiki Scholars, a group of reproductive … Continued
Join the second cohort of WITH Wiki Scientists
This is a republishing of a WITH Foundation blog from May 7, 2020. As many of you know, the WITH Foundation and our grantees are working toward inclusive and transformative healthcare. A facet of this work involves making information about disability and healthcare accessible for people who are looking for it. which is why we’re … Continued
Becoming a Wiki Scientist
Dr. Lilly Eluvathingal is an Instruction + Science Research Specialist at Occidental College. She recently completed one of our Wiki Scientist courses, in which she learned how to add content to Wikipedia pages in her area of expertise. As someone who grew up in the 90’s I definitely looked to Wikipedia for a quick introduction … Continued
From your Instagram to the encyclopedia: photos for the greater good
I never thought I could use my travel photos for an encyclopedia. Whenever I travel for a conference or vacations, I snap a picture or two from the scenery, architecture, food. To my surprise, this is something that Wikipedians also do, not for the gram, but for Wikimedia Commons, an online repository of copyright free … Continued
How Wikipedia shows disability matters
Kathleen Downes is a licensed social worker and a trained Wiki Scientist from our recent Wikipedia training course sponsored by the WITH Foundation. From the time I first learned how to use the Internet in early elementary school, I have always wanted to find out as much as possible about my disability and in turn, … Continued
“Where are the women in STEM?” We’ve always been here
Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist, science writer, and member of the 500 Women Scientists leadership team. Here, she invites women scientists to help achieve our goal of writing 500 biographies of women in STEM into Wikipedia. Inspired by my brilliant friend Jess Wade, I started writing Wikipedia biographies for women scientists to tackle … Continued
Everyone can help build one of the wonders of the modern world
Dr. Lydia Le Page is a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, where she images brain metabolism with MRI to understand Alzheimer’s disease. In our recent Wiki Scientists course sponsored by the National Science Policy Network, she was excited to improve Wikipedia pages that will help voters and policy-makers make the best use … Continued
Changing Wikipedia for the better
Katherine Lopez is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. After completing our recent Wikipedia training course sponsored by the National Science Policy Network, she’s ready to take her new science communication tools into her career. Wikipedia is my go-to location for quickly finding an answer to those random questions I have throughout … Continued
Why members of the Society of Family Planning are getting involved with Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the most popular internet health content, more than NIH, Web MD, Mayo Clinic, and other sources (according to a 2014 study). Doctors use it. Patients use it. Policy makers use it. Thus, the volunteers who curate Wikipedia’s content take the quality of medical articles very seriously. But keeping content accurate, complete, and … Continued