Press releases/Cancer Research UK

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Cancer Research UK teams up with Wikipedia to improve online health information

Cancer Research UK focuses on improving quality of existing Wikipedia pages and adding more up-to-date and accurate information.
Wikipedia authors (Wikipedians) hold a 'Wikipedia Workshop' to teach wikipedia's culture to workers and scientists.

25th March 2011, London: Wikimedia UK, the organisation behind Wikipedia in the UK, today announces it will be running a 'Wikipedia Academy' at Cancer Research UK's headquarters to introduce scientists and employees to wikipedia's culture and teach them how to improve the quality of existing pages and upload new information and images about health related diseases and conditions.

The academy is split into two sessions. The first session took place early February and consisted of a 2 hour long comprehensive introduction to Wikipedia, including what makes a good Wikipedia article and how to interact with 'editors' and other contributors to Wikipedia. The second session will take place all day on Monday 28th March 2011, and is more of a 'hands-on' session where a group of Wikipedia editors (Wikipedians) will attend and guide attendees through their first edits to Wikipedia.

Henry Scowcroft, Online Manager (Health & Science Communication) at Cancer Research UK, comments: "Wikipedia is more often than not the first port of call for people looking for information about Cancer. Either they go to the site directly or they Google a term and Wikipedia links appear high in the search rank. We believe it is vital for the information available on these pages to be accurate and easy to understand."

"We are extremely grateful to Wikimedia UK and its volunteers for sharing their expertise and dedicating time and resources to helping us with this project. It is going to really help us get to grips with how to edit the site quickly and appropriately", continues Mr Scowcroft.

Michael Peel, Secretary at Wikimedia UK comments: "Wikipedia is one of the largest websites on the internet, and is used by hundreds of millions of people world-wide every month. Contributing to Wikipedia helps Cancer Research UK ensure that Wikipedia's readers can easily find reliable, accurate and comprehensive health-related information, no matter where they are in the world."

The 'Wikipedia Workshop' is a bespoke workshop designed to help an organisation appropriately add or edit information on Wikipedia. To learn more about the Workshop or to apply to work with Wikimedia UK to host one at your organisation, please contact us at infoatwikimedia.org.uk.

- Ends -


About Wikimedia UK

Wikimedia UK (incorporated under the name “Wiki UK Limited“) is the local Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is a separate organisation from the Wikimedia Foundation, and has no control over the contents of Wikipedia or any other projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation. It exists to help collect, develop and distribute freely licensed knowledge (and other educational, cultural and historic content), which we do by supporting the charitable activities of the Wikimedia Foundation. For further information about Wikipedia UK, please visit:


About The Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization which operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive 398 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide (Sept, 2010). Available in more than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 16 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.


Contact information

Michael Peel, Secretary, Wikimedia UK

  • Tel: +44 (0)7890 142 394
  • Email: michael.peelatwikimedia.org.uk
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