On 19 December 2012 17:03, Daniel Kinzler <daniel.kinzler(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
I'd have thought that we'd have one such table
per dimension (such as "length"
or "weight"). It may make sense to override that on a per-property basis, so
2300m elevation isn't shown as 2.3km. Or that can be done in the template that
renders the value.
here and in the entire discussion I fear that the need to support data
curation on Wikidata data for correctness is not sufficiently in the
focus.
If someone enters the height of a mountain in feet and I see the
converted value in meter in my wikidata preferences-converted view, I
will correct the seemingly senseless and unjustified precision to
three digits after the meter. Only if we understand in which unit the
data were originally valid, we will be able to successfully
communicate and collaborate.
Yes, Wikidata shall store a normalized version of the value, but it
also needs to store an original one. Whether it needs to store the
value twice I am not sure, I believe not. If it store the original
prefix, original unit and original significant digits, it can
generally recreate the original form. I know that there are some
pitfalls with IEEE numbers in this, and it may be safer to store the
original number as well initially (and perhaps drop it later when
enough data are available to test the effects).
Of course, Wikipedias can use the API to display the value in any
other form, just as they like, but that does not solve the problem of
data curation on wikidata (which includes the data curation by
wikipedia authors).
Gregor