Friday, September 7, 2007

The Facebook/ MySpace of Health Care

From the same people who brought you Wikipedia, we have Wikidoc http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Main_Page. They call themselves the Facebook/ MySpace of Health Care.

When I was teaching I ranted at my students about the evils of Wikipedia, but I have since softened a bit. It is of course not a legitimate primary source, but Wikipedia and Wikidoc are powerful examples of the potential of the Internet as a portal for sharing information. And Wikidoc offers a compelling set of health information for those in the medical profession and lay people seeking information for their own health.

Wikidoc does have more stringent guidelines for editors than Wikipedia, requiring prospective editors to submit a CV. It will be interesting to watch how much they get in contributions, since doctors and academics are usually more worried about publishing in peer-reviewed journals than open-source web sites.

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