Twelve days before the start of WikidataCon 2021, the Wikibase track on Sunday October 31 is shaping up; with fourteen sessions on the schedule already, including introduction to new community-developed extensions - some to be in Wikibase's Fall 2021 release - several examples of third-party implementations, and an introduction to WMDE's Wikikbase.Cloud initiative: https://pretalx.com/wdcon21/schedule/#2021-10-31

Don't miss the other days, though: on Friday and Saturday there's presentations on new features in Wikibase and panels on query service scaling, tutorials on OpenRefine, and discussion of features such as Wikidata Bridge which might be adapted by third-party deployments. Learn more and sign up to attend at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2021

We're still looking for proposals to fill a few lightning talk sessions or a short presentation slot - so if you have a topic you want to share or talk about, please get in touch - or submit directly via https://pretalx.com/wdcon21/submit/GAqG7O/info/

With four days left to submit new proposals and limited space, the sooner you submit, the better! We particularly hope to hear from those who may not have presented at WDC before; on inspiring uses of Wikibase, or tools and techniques you find useful.

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September 30 also saw the most recent meeting of the Wikibase Community User Group: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibase_Community_User_Group/Meetings/2021-...

Topics included updated tooling for backups in WBStack (and in general, third-party Wikibases), OpenRefine workflow for structured data on Commons (SDC), and holding our October meeting at WikidataCon itself.

This has now been tentatively scheduled for an hour-long slot at 17:00 UTC October 31 - be sure to check beforehand, as it's subject to change. We'll be discussing the day's sessions, and - if there's time - reflecting on what's happened over the past year, and what we might be able to do in the future. It'll also be an opportunity to introduce the group to a wider community.

The need for a second official contact to WMF was also discussed. I proposed Lozana Rossenova (Loz.Ross) act as a functionary for that role and as an administrator of this mailing list, since only one contact was elected. As many of you will be aware, she has been very active here and on Telegram, not to mention organization of the WDC track; I believe she'll fulfil this role well.

Having heard no objections to this, two weeks after proposing it the meeting and on Telegram, and with an urgent need to resolve the situation to maintain our affiliate status, we intend to move forwards. There should be an opportunity for further elections next year in combination with those for affiliate WMF board members, if there's any desire for change later on.

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With a new release, features and services, it's an exciting time for Wikibase. I hope to see as many of you as possible at WikidataCon, where there should be ample opportunity to discuss the community's plans, needs and hopes for the future.

-- Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry greenreaper.co.uk - wikifur.com