Wikidata November 2017

wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org

55 participants
32 discussions

Re: [Wikidata] An answer to Lydia Pintscher regarding its considerations on Wikidata and CC-0
by Luca Martinelli 30 Nov '17

30 Nov '17

Il 30 nov 2017 09:55, "John Erling Blad" <jeblad(a)gmail.com> ha scritto: Please keep this civil and on topic! I was just pointing out that CC0 wasn't forced down our throat by Silicon Valley's Fifth Column supposed embodiment, that we actually discussed several alternatives (ODbL included, which I saw was mentioned in the original message of this thread) and that that several of the objections made here were actually founded, as several other discussions happened outside this ML confirmed. I'm sorry if it appeared I wanted to start a brawl, it wasn't the case. For this misunderstanding, I'm sorry. L.

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Re: [Wikidata] An answer to Lydia Pintscher regarding its considerations on Wikidata and CC-0
by Fariz Darari 30 Nov '17

30 Nov '17

Whatever happens behind the scenes (all those conspiracies), as long as Wikidata can be useful to everyone (yes, incl. Google, etc) then it does not matter. And I believe there are still a million things we can do to make Wikidata even more useful. -fariz On Nov 30, 2017 07:05, "Andra Waagmeester" <andra(a)micelio.be> wrote: Here are some reasons for other resources to switch to CC0: https://www.wikipathways.org/index.php/WikiPathways:CC0_Announcement On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 10:45 PM, Mathieu Stumpf Guntz < psychoslave(a)culture-libre.org> wrote: > Saluton ĉiuj, > > I forward here the message I initially posted on the Meta Tremendous > Wiktionary User Group talk page > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wiktionary/Tremendous_Wiktionary_User_…>, > because I'm interested to have a wider feedback of the community on this > point. Whether you think that my view is completely misguided or that I > might have a few relevant points, I'm extremely interested to know it, so > please be bold. > > Before you consider digging further in this reading, keep in mind that I > stay convinced that Wikidata is a wonderful project and I wish it a bright > future full of even more amazing things than what it already brung so far. > My sole concern is really a license issue. > > Bellow is a copy/paste of the above linked message: > > Thank you Lydia Pintscher > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lydia_Pintscher_%28WMDE%29> for > taking the time to answer. Unfortunately this answer > <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Lydia_Pintscher_%28WMDE%29/CC-0> miss > too many important points to solve all concerns which have been raised. > > Notably, there is still no beginning of hint in it about where the > decision of using CC0 exclusively for Wikidata came from. But as this > inquiry on the topic > <https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/fr:Recherche:La_licence_CC-0_de_Wikidata,_o…> > advance, an answer is emerging from it. It seems that Wikidata choice > toward CC0 was heavily influenced by Denny Vrandečić, who – to make it > short – is now working in the Google Knowledge Graph team. Also it worth > noting that Google funded a quarter of the initial development work. > Another quarter came from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, > established by Intel co-founder. And half the money came from Microsoft > co-founder Paul Allen's Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)[1] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wiktionary/Tremendous_Wiktionary_User_…>. > To state it shortly in a conspirational fashion, Wikidata is the puppet > trojan horse of big tech hegemonic companies into the realm of Wikimedia. > For a less tragic, more argumentative version, please see the research > project (work in progress, only chapter 1 is in good enough shape, and it's > only available in French so far). Some proofs that this claim is completely > wrong are welcome, as it would be great that in fact that was the community > that was the driving force behind this single license choice and that it is > the best choice for its future, not the future of giant tech companies. > This would be a great contribution to bring such a happy light on this > subject, so we can all let this issue alone and go back contributing in > more interesting topics. > > Now let's examine the thoughts proposed by Lydia. > Wikidata is here to give more people more access to more knowledge. So > far, it makes it matches Wikimedia movement stated goal. This means we > want our data to be used as widely as possible. Sure, as long as it > rhymes with equity. As in *Our strategic direction: Service and **Equity* > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction/…>. > Just like we want freedom for everybody as widely as possible. That is, > starting where it confirms each others freedom. Because under this level, > freedom of one is murder and slavery of others. CC-0 is one step towards > that. That's a thesis, you can propose to defend it but no one have to > agree without some convincing proof. Data is different from many other > things we produce in Wikimedia in that it is aggregated, combined, > mashed-up, filtered, and so on much more extensively. No it's not. From a > data processing point of view, everything is data. Whether it's stored in a > wikisyntax, in a relational database or engraved in stone only have a > commodity side effect. Whether it's a random stream of bit generated by a > dumb chipset or some encoded prose of Shakespeare make no difference. So > from this point of view, no, what Wikidata store is not different from what > is produced anywhere else in Wikimedia projects. Sure, the way it's > structured does extremely ease many things. But this is not because it's > data, when elsewhere there would be no data. It's because it enforce data > to be stored in a way that ease aggregation, combination, mashing-up, > filtering and so on. Our data lives from being able to write queries over > millions of statements, putting it into a mobile app, visualizing parts of > it on a map and much more. Sure. It also lives from being curated from > millions[2] > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wiktionary/Tremendous_Wiktionary_User_…> > of benevolent contributors, or it would be just a useless pile of random > bytes. This means, if we require attribution, in a huge number of cases > attribution would need to go back to potentially millions of editors and > sources (even if that data is not visible in the end result but only helped > to get the result). No, it doesn't mean that. First let's recall a few > basics as it seems the whole answer makes confusion between attribution and > distribution of contributions under the same license as the original. > Attribution is crucial for traceability and so for reliable and trusted > knowledge that we are targeting within the Wikimedia movement. The "same > license" is the sole legal guaranty of equity contributors have. That's it, > trusted knowledge and equity are requirements for the Wikimedia movement > goals. That means withdrawing this requirements is withdrawing this goals. Now, > what would be the additional cost of storing sources in Wikidata? Well, > zero cost. Actually, it's already here as the "reference" attribute is part > of the Wikibase item structure. So attribution is not a problem, you don't > have to put it in front of your derived work, just look at a Wikipedia > article: until you go to history, you have zero attribution visible, and > it's ok. It's also have probably zero or negligible computing cost, as it > doesn't have to be included in all computations, it just need to be > retrievable on demand. What would be the additional cost of storing > licenses for each item based on its source? Well, adding a license > attribute might help, but actually if your reference is a work item, I > guess it might comes with a "license" statement, so zero additional cost. > Now for letting user specify under which free licenses they publish their > work, that would just require an additional attribute, a ridiculous weight > when balanced with equity concerns it resolves. Could that prevent some > uses for some actors? Yes, that's actually the point, preventing abuse of > those who doesn't want to act equitably. For all other actors a "distribute > under same condition" is fine. This is potentially computationally hard > to do and and depending on where the data is used very inconvenient (think > of a map with hundreds of data points in a mobile app). OpenStreetMap > which use ODbL, a copyleft attributive license, do exactly that too, > doesn't it? By the way, allowing a license by item would enable to include > OpenStreetMap data in WikiData, which is currently impossible due to the > CC0 single license policy of the project. Too bad, it could be so useful to > have this data accessible for Wikimedia projects, but who cares? This is > a burden on our re-users that I do not want to impose on them. Wait, > which re-users? Surely one might expect that Wikidata would care first of > re-users which are in the phase with Wikimedia goal, so surely needs of > Wikimedia community in particular and Free/Libre Culture in general should > be considered. Do this re-users would be penalized by a copyleft license? > Surely no, or they wouldn't use it extensively as they do. So who are this > re-users for who it's thought preferable, without consulting the community, > to not annoy with questions of equity and traceability? It would make it > significantly harder to re-use our data and be in direct conflict with our > goal of spreading knowledge. No, technically it would be just as easy as > punching a button on a computer to do that rather than this. What is in > direct conflict with our clearly stated goals emerging from the 2017 > community consultation is going against equity and traceability. You > propose to discard both to satisfy exogenous demands which should have next > to no weight in decision impacting so deeply the future of our community. Whether > data can be protected in this way at all or not depends on the jurisdiction > we are talking about. See this Wikilegal on on database rights > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Database_Rights> for more > details. It says basically that it's applicable in United States and > Europe on different legal bases and extents. And for the rest of the world, > it doesn't say it doesn't say nothing can apply, it states nothing. So > even if we would have decided to require attribution it would only be > enforceable in some jurisdictions. What kind of logic is that? Maybe it > might not be applicable in some country, so let's withdraw the few rights > we have. Ambiguity, when it comes to legal matters, also unfortunately > often means that people refrain from what they want to to for fear of legal > repercussions. This is directly in conflict with our goal of spreading > knowledge. Economic inequality, social inequity and legal imbalance might > also refrain people from doing what they want, as they fear practical > repercussions. CC0 strengthen this discrimination factors by enforcing > people to withdraw the few rights they have to weight against the growing > asymmetry that social structures are concomitantly building. So CC0 as > unique license choice is in direct conflict with our goal of *equitably* > spreading knowledge. Also it seems like this statement suggest that > releasing our contributions only under CC0 is the sole solution to diminish > legal doubts. Actually any well written license would do an equal job > regarding this point, including many copyleft licenses out there. So while > associate a clear license to each data item might indeed diminish legal > uncertainty, it's not an argument at all for enforcing CC0 as sole license > available to contributors. Moreover, just putting a license side by side > with a work does not ensure that the person who made the association was > legally allowed to do so. To have a better confidence in the legitimacy of > a statement that a work is covered by a certain license, there is once > again a traceability requirement. For example, Wikidata currently include > many items which were imported from misc. Wikipedia versions, and claim > that the derived work obtained – a set of items and statements – is under > CC0. That is a hugely doubtful statement and it alarmingly looks like license > laundering <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/license_laundering>. This is > true for Wikipedia, but it's also true for any source on which a large > scale extraction and import are operated, whether through bots or crowd > sourcing. So the Wikidata project is currently extremely misplaced to > give lessons on legal ambiguity, as it heavily plays with legal blur and > the hope that its shady practises won't fall under too much scrutiny. Licenses > that require attribution are often used as a way to try to make it harder > for big companies to profit from openly available resources. No there are > not. They are used as *a way to try to make it harder for big companies > to profit from openly available resources* *in inequitable manners*. > That's completely different. Copyleft licenses give the same rights to big > companies and individuals in a manner that lower socio-economic > inequalities which disproportionally advantage the former. The thing is > there seems to be no indication of this working. Because it's not trying > to enforce what you pretend, so of course it's not working for this goal. > But for the goal that copyleft licenses aims at, there are clear evidences > that yes it works. Big companies have the legal and engineering resources > to handle both the legal minefield and the technical hurdles easily. There > is no pitfall in copyleft licenses. Using war material analogy is > disrespectful. That's true that copyleft licenses might come with some > constraints that non-copyleft free licenses don't have, but that the price > for fostering equity. And it's a low price, that even individuals can > manage, it might require a very little extra time on legal considerations, > but on the other hand using the free work is an immensely vast gain that > worth it. In Why you shouldn't use the Lesser GPL for your next library > <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html> is stated *proprietary > software developers have the advantage of money; free software developers > need to make advantages for each other*. This might be generalised as *big > companies have the advantage of money; free/libre culture contributors need > to make advantages for each other*. So at odd with what pretend this > fallacious claims against copyleft licenses, they are not a "minefield and > the technical hurdles" that only big companies can handle. All the more, > let's recall who financed the initial development of Wikidata: only actors > which are related to big companies. Who it is really hurting is the > smaller start-up, institution or hacker who can not deal with it. If this > statement is about copyleft licenses, then this is just plainly false. > Smaller actors have more to gain in preserving mutual benefit of the common > ecosystem that a copyleft license fosters. With Wikidata we are making > structured data about the world available for everyone. And that's great. > But that doesn't require CC0 as sole license to be achieved. We are > leveling the playing field to give those who currently don’t have access to > the knowledge graphs of the big companies a chance to build something > amazing. And that's great. But that doesn't require CC0 as sole license. > Actually CC0 makes it a less sustainable project on this point, as it > allows unfair actors to take it all, add some interesting added value that > our community can not afford, reach/reinforce an hegemonic position in the > ecosystem with their own closed solution. And, ta ta, Wikidata can be > discontinued quietly, just like Google did with the defunct Freebase which > was CC-BY-SA before they bought the company that was running it, and after > they imported it under CC0 in Wikidata as a new attempt to gather a larger > community of free curators. And when it will have performed license > laundering of all Wikimedia projects works with shady mass extract and > import, Wikimedia can disappear as well. Of course big companies benefits > more of this possibilities than actors with smaller financial support and > no hegemonic position. Thereby we are helping more people get access to > knowledge from more places than just the few big ones. No, with CC0 you > are certainly helping big companies to reinforce their position in which > they can distribute information manipulated as they wish, without > consideration for traceability and equity considerations. Allowing > contributors to also use copyleft licenses would be far more effective to *collect > and use different forms of free, trusted knowledge* that *focus efforts > on the knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of > power and privilege*, as stated in *Our strategic direction: Service and > Equity*. CC-0 is becoming more and more common. Just like economic > inequality <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/economic_inequality>. But that > is not what we are aiming to foster in the Wikimedia movement. Many > organisations are releasing their data under CC-0 and are happy with the > experience. Among them are the European Union, Europeana, the National > Library of Sweden and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Arts. Good for > them. But they are not the Wikimedia community, they have their own goals > and plan to be sustainable that does not necessarily meet what our > community can follow. Different contexts require different means. States > and their institutions can count on tax revenue, and if taxpayers ends up > in public domain works, that's great and seems fair. States are rarely > threatened by companies, they have legal lever to pressure that kind of > entity, although conflict of interest and lobbying can of course mitigate > this statement. Importing that kind of data with proper attribution and > license is fine, be it CC0 or any other free license. But that's not an > argument in favour of enforcing on benevolent a systematic withdraw of all > their rights as single option to contribute. All this being said we do > encourage all re-users of our data to give attribution to Wikidata because > we believe it is in the interest of all parties involved. That's it, zero > legal hope of equity. And our experience shows that many of our re-users > do give credit to Wikidata even if they are not forced to. Experience > also show that some prominent actors like Google won't credit the Wikimedia > community anymore when generating directly answer based on, inter alia, > information coming from Wikidata, which is itself performing license > laundering of Wikipedia data. Are there no downsides to this? No, of > course not. Some people chose not to participate, some data can't be > imported and some re-users do not attribute us. But the benefits I have > seen over the years for Wikidata and the larger open knowledge ecosystem > far outweigh them. This should at least backed with some solid statistics > that it had a positive impact in term of audience and contribution in > Wikimedia project as a whole. Maybe the introduction of Wikidata did have a > positive effect on the evolution of total number of contributors, or maybe > so far it has no significant correlative effect, or maybe it is correlative > with a decrease of the total number of active contributors. Some plots > would be interesting here. Mere personal feelings of benefits and > hindrances means nothing here, mine included of course. Plus, there is > not even the beginning of an attempt to A/B test with a second Wikibase > instant that allow users to select which licenses its contributions are > released under, so there is no possible way to state anything backed on > relevant comparison. The fact that they are some people satisfied with the > current state of things doesn't mean they would not be even more satisfied > with a more equitable solution that allows contributors to chose a free > license set for their publications. All the more this is all about the > sustainability and fostering of our community and reaching its goals, not > immediate feeling of satisfaction for some people. > > - > > [1] Wikipedia Signpost 2015, 2nd december > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-12-02/Op…> > > > - > > [2] according to the next statement of Lydia > > Once again, I recall this is not a manifesto against Wikidata. The > motivation behind this message is a hope that one day one might participate > in Wikidata with the same respect for equity and traceability that is > granted in other Wikimedia projects. > > Kun multe da vikiamo, > mathieu > > _______________________________________________ > Wikidata mailing list > Wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata > > _______________________________________________ Wikidata mailing list Wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata

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Ombuds Commission now accepting nominations
by Karen Brown 27 Nov '17

27 Nov '17

Hello all, Please accept my apologies if you are receiving this a number of times today. We have sent it out to multiple mailing lists in order to reach as many community members as possible. It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to serve on the Ombudsman commission (OC). This commission works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use of CheckUser tools, and to mediate between the complaining party and the individual whose work is being investigated. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the Board of Trustees in investigations of these issues. For more on their duties and roles, see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki /Ombudsman_commission This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for appointment to this commission. Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser tool OR who have the technical ability to understand the CheckUser tool and the willingness to learn it. They are expected to be able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict. Commissioners are required to identify to the Wikimedia Foundation and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board policies (such as the access to non-public data policy[1] and the privacy policy[2]). This is a position that requires a high degree of discretion and trust. If you are interested in serving on this commission, please write me an email off-list to detail your experience on the projects, your thoughts on the commission and what you hope to bring to the role. The commission consists of nine members; all applications are appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for applications is end of day on *18 December, 2017*. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think may be qualified and interested. Thank you! -Karen Brown On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Support & Safety team 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy 2. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy -- Karen Brown Community Advocate Wikimedia Foundation kbrown(a)wikimedia.org

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FW: [DIGLIB] Future of the ISSN
by Proffitt,Merrilee 27 Nov '17

27 Nov '17

Merrilee Proffitt, Senior Program Officer OCLC Research -----Original Message----- From: issnsurvey(a)gmail.com [mailto:issnsurvey@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, November 20, 2017 7:07 AM To: diglib(a)infoserv.inist.fr Subject: [DIGLIB] Future of the ISSN Hello, Are you a regular user of the ISSN? Could you help us shape its future by completing a short survey which looks at the make- up and function of the standard. It should only take 10 minutes at the maximum. Your views will be fed to the ISO working group who will be revising the standard in 2018. The survey can be found here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Z3D5XX5 Many thanks in advance. Gaelle Bequet Director ISSN International Centre

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Weekly Summary #288
by Léa Lacroix 27 Nov '17

27 Nov '17

*Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.* Discussions - New request for comments: start time / end time vs. publication date of 1st / last episode <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Requests_for_comment/start_time_/_en…> - *Proposal to add some order and structure to the various bibliographic corpora we currently have in Wikidata <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikidata/2017-November/011466.html>* (mailing list post) Events <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Events>/ Press/Blogs <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Press_coverage> - Past: IRC office hour about Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons. You can read the log on meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2017-11-21> . - Upcoming: Wikidata workshop in Prague <https://www.facebook.com/events/180188412528665>, December 1st - *Well structured political data for the whole world: impossible utopia, or Wikidata at its best? <https://medium.com/from-mysociety/well-structured-political-data-for-the-wh…>* - *Spatial-based Topic Modelling using Wikidata Knowledge Base <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kwan_Hui_Lim/publication/321050902_Spa…>* (in Wikidata as Q43662744 <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q43662744>) - Cleaning BNF identifier in Wikidata <https://www.lehir.net/nettoyage-de-l-identifiant-bnf-dans-wikidata/> by Envlh <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Envlh> (in French) - Monitoring changes to Wikidata pages of your interest <https://chem-bla-ics.blogspot.de/2017/11/monitoring-changes-to-wikidata-pag…> by Egon Willighagen Other Noteworthy Stuff - Sandra <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SandraF_%28WMF%29> is co-ordinating an inventory of crucial volunteer tools for Wikimedia Commons, GLAM, and structured data in general. You can provide input and prioritize your favorite tools in this Google spreadsheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GVR0jghBWuAGqJaT7KVXigMYWWNzdnrnwI9…> . - Q43649390 <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q43649390> is an item about our concept of "QID"s - OpenRefine <http://openrefine.org/> 2.8 was released. Adding columns from Wikidata and importing Wikitables is now possible. Did you know? - Newest properties <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:ListProperties>: type foundry <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4586>, Accademia della Crusca ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4585>, first appearance <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4584>, USGHOF athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4583>, Kulturelles Erbe Köln object ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4582>, Städel Museum artist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4581>, Berlinische Galerie artist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4580>, Tidal video ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4579>, Tidal track ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4578>, Tidal album ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4577>, Tidal artist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4576>, HTML entity <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4575>, Norwegian historical register of persons ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4574>, Merchant Category Code <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4573>, SS KL Auschwitz Garrison ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4572>, West Australian Football League player ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4571>, Wikidata project <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4570>, BPH journal ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4569>, SNCZI-IPE reservoir ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4568>, BTO five-letter code <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4567>, awarded for period <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4566>, electoral district number <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4565>, Art Museum of Estonia artwork ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4564>, Art Museum of Estonia artist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4563>, Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4562>, Basketball-Reference.com WNBA ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4561>, National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4560>, IJF ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4559>, SNCZI-IPE dam ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4558>, Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4557>, FAI ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4556>, Canada Games ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4555>, ICRC PoW ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4554>, RA Collections ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4553>, mountain range <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4552>, Everyone Remembered ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4551>, CNRS research group ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4550>, ARLIMA ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4549> - Query examples: - People who were Time Person of the Year in two consecutive years <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23%20people%20who%20were%20Time%20Person%20of%…> (source <https://twitter.com/WikidataFacts/status/934216696239480832>) - Fictional characters “said to be the same as” other fictional characters from the same fictional universe <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23%20fictional%20characters%20%E2%80%9Csaid%20…> (source <https://twitter.com/WikidataFacts/status/934216696239480832>) - Map of places of birth of deceased sociologists <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23Map%20of%20places%20of%20birth%20of%20dead%2…> (source <https://twitter.com/claudiakincaid/status/933724699611271168> ) - Map of libraries in India <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23defaultView%3AMap%0ASELECT%20%3Flibrary%20%3…> (source <https://twitter.com/samwilson/status/932439044197191680>) - Train and subway stations in Basque Country <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23defaultView%3AMap%0ASELECT%20%3Ftrain_statio…> (source <https://twitter.com/theklaneh/status/932347616842731520>) - Newest database reports: Decameron editions and translations <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Lists/Decameron_editions_and_transla…> Development - Result views in the Wikidata Query Service UI can now be configured with options (phabricator:T155973 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T155973>, Special:Diff/580233265/596922582 <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:Diff/580233265/596922582>) - Worked more on introducing the concept of sub.entities in the APIs in order to make edits to Forms persistent - Worked on edit summaries for edits to Forms You can see all open tickets related to Wikidata here <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/4RotIcw5oINo/#R>. Monthly Tasks - Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above. - Comment on property proposals: all open proposals <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Overview> - Suggested and open tasks <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Contribute/Suggested_and_open_tasks> ! - Contribute to a Showcase item <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Showcase_items> . - Help translate <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:LanguageStats> or proofread the interface and documentation pages, in your own language! - Help merge identical items <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Pasleim/projectmerge> across Wikimedia projects. - Help write the next summary! <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates/Next> -- Léa Lacroix Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 10963 Berlin www.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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Renaming of labels, copy to alias
by John Erling Blad 27 Nov '17

27 Nov '17

Would it be possible to make an implicit copy of a label to an alias before the label is changed? It would then be possible to keep on using a label as an identifier in Lua code long as it doesn't conflicts with other identifiers within the same item, thus lowering the maintenance load. More important, it would lessen the number of violations during a name change.

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Wikidata intro for film archivists?
by Daniel Mietchen 22 Nov '17

22 Nov '17

Dear all, the International Federation of Film Archives are planning a symposium on "Sharing" on April 23-24 as part of their next annual conference (22-27 April 2018) in Prague. One of the organizers - Adelheid Heftberger, in CC - reached out to ask whether I knew anyone who would be able to deliver an talk on Wikidata there. If that's you or you know someone who is active around film-related matters on Wikidata, then please get in touch with her. Submission deadline for proposals for the symposium is December 8, according to http://nfa.cz/cz/industry/2018-fiaf/fiaf-2018/ . Cheers, Daniel

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Reminder: Structured Commons IRC office hour starts in a bit more than an hour
by Sandra Fauconnier 21 Nov '17

21 Nov '17

Hi all! In a bit more than an hour - at 18:00 UTC - the IRC office hour about Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons will start in the IRC channel #wikimedia-office. We plan to give many updates about the project, and of course there is also room for questions. The log will be published afterwards. Hope to see you there! Sandra -- Sandra Fauconnier Community Liaison for Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation sfauconnier(a)wikimedia.org

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weekly summary #287
by Lydia Pintscher 21 Nov '17

21 Nov '17

Hey folks :) Here is your summary of what's been happening around Wikidata over the past week. Discussions - Monolingual language code creation process <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat#Monolingual_language_co…> Events <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Events>/ Press/Blogs <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Press_coverage> - Past: IRC office hour (log <https://tools.wmflabs.org/meetbot/wikimedia-office/2017/wikimedia-office.20…> ) - Past: Wikidata Lab II, a workshop to teach users how to create lists using Wikidata in São Paulo (images from the event <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikidata_Lab_II>) - Upcoming: *IRC office hour* about *Structured Data on Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data>*, November 21, 18:00 UTC in the channel #wikimedia-office - Upcoming: *WLM-Wikidata-Editathon 2017* <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WLM-Wikidata-Editathon_2017> in Berlin, November 24-26 - Upcoming: *Wiki4MediaFreedom edit-a-thon - II edition* <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki4MediaFreedom_edit-a-thon_-_II_edition> (with Wikidata track) in Sofia, November 27 - Upcoming: Wikidata-Hackathon at WikiMUC <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiMUC/2017-11-30_Wikidata-Hackath…> in Munich, November 30 - WikidataCon 2017 <https://blog.wikimedia.de/2017/11/13/wikidatacon-2017/> - Fünf Jahre Wikidata at Chaosradio <https://chaosradio.ccc.de/cr240.html> - "Turning a historical book into a data set" <http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/digital/2017/10/24/turning-historical-book-d…> - "Creating Wikipedia articles from research data" <http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/digital/2017/10/27/creating-wikipedia-articl…> Other Noteworthy Stuff - New tool by Magnus: Wikidata SPARQL Recent Changes <https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/sparql_rc.php> - get diffs for all items matching a SPARQL query, for a date range - New tool by Magnus: WD edit stats <https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/wd_edit_stats.php> - get edit stats for all items matching a SPARQL query - Wikidata coverage for 'place' in OpenStreetMap <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iFk25F4tRtIGTP-3jih6MbDm2oF29Sjn0X7…> (as of October 2017) - OpenRefine 2.8 <https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/releases/tag/2.8> was released. Adding columns from Wikidata and importing Wikitables is now possible. Let's write tutorials for it <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Tools/OpenRefine>. - Mix'n'match now shows for a catalog which user originally imported it and if it is updated regularly (example <https://tools.wmflabs.org/mix-n-match/?#/catalog/323>) - A breaking change to the *wbcheckconstraints* API output format was announced <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat#BREAKING_CHANGE:_wbchec…> Did you know? - Newest properties <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:ListProperties>: CGF athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4548>, OKS athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4547>, Gymn Forum athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4546>, sexually homologous with <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4545>, Tennis Temple player ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4544>, has listed ingredient <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4543>, World of O athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4542>, HOO athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4541>, IBTrACS cyclone ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4540>, Collective Biographies of Women ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4539>, Snooker Database player ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4538>, Spider Ontology ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4537>, EThOS thesis ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4536>, EUTA theatre ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4535>, EUTA person ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4534>, Czech Street ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4533>, Survey of Scottish Witchcraft - Trial ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4532>, ChinesePosters artist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4531>, Bangladesh administrative division code <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4530>, Douban movie ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4529>, REGINE water system number <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4528>, UK Parliament thesaurus ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4527>, ABA bird ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4526>, MuIS ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4525>, Survey of Scottish Witchcraft - Person ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4524>, Vermont Sports Hall of Fame athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4523>, Alaska Sports Hall of Fame athlete ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4522>, Radio Radicale person ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4521>, SUNCAT ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4520>, payload mass <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4519>, Melon album ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4518>, ctext work ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4517>, Mémoire du cyclisme cyclist ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4516>, Prisma ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4515>, Africultures person ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4514>, Africultures movie ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4513>, Scottish Cemetery Kolkata ID <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P4512> - Query examples: - List of subclasses of Matrices <https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/tree.html?lang=de&q=Q44337&rp=279> - Works of art in which the artists depicts their spouse <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23defaultView%3AImageGrid%0ASELECT%20%3Fcreato…> (source <https://twitter.com/netsensei/status/930734466666041350>) - locations Van Gogh depicted in his paintings <https://query.wikidata.org/#%23defaultView%3AMap%0ASELECT%20%3Fpainting%20%…> (source <https://twitter.com/netsensei/status/932268852410535936>) - Gender split of past Google Doodles <https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Fsexo_ou_g_neroLabel%20%28COUNT%28%3…> (source <https://twitter.com/WikidataFacts/status/931131040185438210>) - Newest database reports: expeditions <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Lists/expeditions> Development - Fixed Commons media suggester not loading all preview thumbnails ( phabricator:T160528 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160528>) - RDF exports can handle entity references to foreign Wikibase repositories now, needed for Structured Data on Commons ( phabricator:T161592 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T161592>) - Worked on making statements on Forms <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WikibaseLexeme/Data_Model#Form> editable and persistent (phabricator:T163724 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163724>) - Worked on fine-grained usage tracking in Wikibase' Lua library ( phabricator:T172914 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T172914>) - Worked on caching constraint check results (phabricator:T179849 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T179849>) and indicating when constraint check results are cached (phabricator:T179844 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T179844>) - Wikibase code base does not use Composer class autoloading any more ( phabricator:T180067 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180067>) as another step towards getting rid of our own build process and being more in line with the rest of Wikimedia You can see all open tickets related to Wikidata here <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/4RotIcw5oINo/#R>. Monthly Tasks - Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above. - Comment on property proposals: all open proposals <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Overview> - Suggested and open tasks <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Contribute/Suggested_and_open_tasks> ! - Contribute to a Showcase item <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Showcase_items> . - Help translate <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:LanguageStats> or proofread the interface and documentation pages, in your own language! - Help merge identical items <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Pasleim/projectmerge> across Wikimedia projects. - Help write the next summary! <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates/Next> Anything to add? Please share! :) Cheers Lydia -- Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher Product Manager for Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 10963 Berlin www.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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BREAKING CHANGE: wbcheckconstraints detail output
by Lucas Werkmeister 20 Nov '17

20 Nov '17

Hi all! This is an announcement for a breaking change to the output of the WikibaseQualityConstraints constraint checking API, to go live on 18 December 2017. It potentially affects clients that use the *wbcheckconstraints* API action. (We are not aware of any such clients apart from the *checkConstraints* gadget, which is not affected.) Currently, the description of a constraint in the API response includes the detail and detailHTML fields, which contain the constraint parameters. The gadget has never used these fields, since the error messages for some time now contain all the information needed to understand the constraint violation (that is, the constraint parameters are part of the message where necessary). Additionally, since the move from the {{Constraint <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Template:Constraint>}} templates to constraint statements on properties (using property constraint (P2302) <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P2302>), parsing constraint parameters is no longer the complex task it once was, and consumers interested in the constraint parameters can inspect the constraint statements using the standard Wikibase APIs or the Wikidata Query Service. Since these two fields can account for up to 40% of the *wbcheckconstraints* API response size, and we want to start caching those responses soon, *we will remove the detail and detailHTML fields on 18 December 2017.* This is already in effect on the Wikidata constraints test system <https://wikidata-constraints.wmflabs.org/>; you can test your tools or other code there. Please let us know if you have any comments or objections. -- Lucas Relevant tickets: - phab:T180614 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180614> Relevant patches: - gerrit:391864 <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/391864> -- Lucas Werkmeister Software Developer (Intern) Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin Phone: +49 (0)30 219 158 26-0 https://wikimedia.de Imagine a world, in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That‘s our commitment. Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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Wikidata November 2017