Scientist Launch Worldwide Bid To Make Wikipedia More Accountable And Accurate

A poster presented at the 11th Annual Scientific Meeting for the European Association for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (EACLPP) in Saragossa, Spain looks set to have wide ranging implications for the way knowledge is organised on the Internet.

The recent work carried out by Dr Marley, a psychiatrist from Rotherham, England has shown a way forward that is likely to prove especially significant for the knowledge based website Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a great resource and a model for how information can be freely shared on the Internet and has become the seventh most popular site with over 57,000,000 visitors every month.

Its great advantage is that anyone can place information with Wikipedia on any subject and so the knowledge base is vast. This however can also be a problem.

People with no expertise can place articles just as can those with real knowledge, while companies and vested interests are often tempted to place information favourable to themselves in order to 'misinform' the public's perceptions.

Working in the field of psychiatry within a hospital environment Dr Marley investigated the way Consultation-Liason Psychiatry was portrayed on Wikipedia.