Dear Wikibase and Wikidata Communities,
As mentioned in our latest announcements about upcoming strategic changes,
we decided to pour our energy into ecosystem-related activities such as
federation and data governance. As you might know, our Linked Open Data
Strategy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LinkedOpenData/Strategy2021/Wikibase> is
built on the idea that our products are capable of building synergies as
well as growing sustainably.
With this research project, we hope to get a more nuanced understanding of
which projects are perceived to belong into which product category. We aim
to synthesize and map how people currently use the three LOD products, what
their desired use cases are, and where the boundaries between these
platforms may need clarification or additional support.
This process is part of a broader strategy to ensure our hosting
infrastructure remains sustainable and mission-aligned.
A key outcome will be a clearer understanding of:
-
What kinds of projects are best suited for each LOD product
-
Where overlap, duplication, or ambiguity exists
-
How we can make more mission-aligned, predictable decisions on growth
and hosting
Process Design
You will be invited to participate in an asynchronous card sort exercise
where you will be asked to sort imagined projects into four categories:
-
1 - Wikibase Cloud
-
2 - Wikidata
-
3 - Suite or other ways of Wikibase hosting
-
4 - Wikibase is not a suitable software for this use case
Participants will be asked to explain their thought process aloud so that
we can also ensure that we’re considering the full dimensions of each use
case (e.g., technical needs, scope, resource requirements). The results
will inform product strategy across WBC, WBS, and WD—while also offering
key insights into ambivalent or complex areas that require further
discussion.
This approach ensures everyone can participate in their own time, without
needing to attend multiple meetings.
We’re offering two ways to participate:
1. Card Sort Research Activity (Primary Method)
-
Asynchronous (early- mid-July)
-
Approx. 30 minutes
-
No technical expertise required
-
Focused on sorting and classifying use cases
-
Recorded screen and microphone
-
Optional: follow-up interview (if you’d like to talk more)
2. Extended Stakeholder Group (Optional Additional Involvement)
Includes:
-
Asynchronous activity (above)
-
Research insights discussion (synchronous, 30-45 minutes, end of July)
-
Async policy draft review (end of August)
-
Group session (August, 1.5–2 hours)
Total time: ~3.5 hours
Compensation: 35 EUR (if eligible)
Participation
We aim to recruit at least 30, ideally up to 50 community members across
the LOD ecosystem to participate in the research activities, including:
-
Wikibase Cloud users
-
Self-hosted Wikibase users
-
Wikidata users who are invested in the broader Wikibase ecosystem.
-
At least 10 marginalized knowledge holders
Join us!
We will send a link to participate in the card-sort within the next week.
If you would like to participate in the Extended Stakeholder Group, please
reach out to us via email: annie.kim(a)wikimedia.de. We will share the
opportunities as they come up, likely at the end of July and the end of
August, respectively.
Thank you for your continued care and contributions. We're looking forward
to exploring this research with you! :)
On behalf of the Linked Open Data Ecosystem,
Valerie Wollinger (She/Her)
Community Communications Manager Wikibase
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30-577 11 62-0https://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia,
Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German): Subscribe
now <https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our
vision!https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.
V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR
23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende
Vorständin: Franziska Heine
Hello everyone,
I’m writing this message to let you know that my time collaborating with
Wikimedia Deutschland is coming to an end. After 6 years as an employee and
3 additional years as a freelancer, I will stop working regularly for the
Wikidata development team at the end of June 2025.
The projects that I’ve been leading in the past few years have other
contact points to whom you can reach out if you have any questions or
suggestions in the future:
-
WikidataCon <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:WikidataCon_2025>: Alan
Ang <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Alan_Ang_(WMDE)>, Danny
Benjafield <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)>
-
Wikidata birthday and distributed events: Mohammed Abdulai
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Mohammed_Abdulai_(WMDE)>
-
“X Days” events: <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Category:XXX_Days> Lydia
Pintscher <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Lydia_Pintscher_(WMDE)>,
Danny
-
Wikidata status updates
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates>: Mohammed, Danny
-
Training programs <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Training>
(e.g. Wikidata MOOC): Mohammed
-
Anything related to technical issues
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Report_a_technical_problem> and
bug reporting for Wikidata: Mohammed
I wanted to take the opportunity to give a huge thank you to everyone who
participated in these projects and events in the past few years: speaking
at the conferences, facilitating discussions, organizing distributed
events, actively participating to ensure a welcoming and collaborative
atmosphere, and volunteering to support the organizers in many different
ways. You are awesome and the Wikidata community will always have a special
place in my heart <3
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikidata_heart_logo.svg>
Rest assured that I’m not disappearing from the Wikidata community nor the
Wikimedia movement! I will still be around, supporting Wikimedia
organizations to run Wikidata-related events and projects, and I may still
collaborate again with Wikimedia Deutschland from time to time. So you will
keep seeing my name popping on some Wikimedia channels.
This email address and my wiki account user:Lea Lacroix (WMDE) will no
longer be active after June 30th, but you can find me and various ways
to contact
me on my personal user page user:Auregann
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Auregann>.
I’m looking forward to catching up with you at the occasion of a Wikimedia
event in the future.
Best,
--
Léa Lacroix
Community Engagement & Events Consultant
Contractor for Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
🎉 The new search experience is now live on Wikidata! 🎉
You can now filter your searches by entity type (Item, Property, Lexeme, or
EntitySchema) using the new dropdown menu in the search bar. Your search
terms across each entity type will also have typeahead results, making it
easier and faster to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Huge thanks to everyone who helped test the feature on test.wikidata.org
and beta. Your feedback made this possible!
If you’ve got any questions or feedback please leave a comment on this
ticket: phab:T321543 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T321543>.
Happy searching! 🔍✨
--
Zita U. Zage
Intern, Wikidata Software Communication Team
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 30 577 116 2466
https://wikimedia.de
Grab a spot in my calendar for a chat: cal.com/zuz
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=eml0YS56YWdlQHdpa2ltZWRpYS5kZQ>.
A lot is happening around Wikidata - Keep up to date!
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates> Current news and
exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our
newsletter (in German): Subscribe now <https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR 23855 B.
Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende Vorstände: Franziska Heine,
Dr. Christian Humborg
Hi everyone,
We’re excited to share a new prototype that brings statement editing on
Items to mobile.
You have been asking for the ability to edit statements on Items via mobile
devices. Until now, this hasn’t been possible in the mobile view, requiring
editors to switch to desktop mode to make edits, resulting in a clunky and
frustrating experience.
This prototype is designed to show how we are trying to make contributing
to Wikidata easier and more accessible for editors using mobile devices. It
has been updated based on a first round of user testing we conducted
earlier in April. Now we’d like to get more feedback from you before we
move forward.
*What we’d like from you*
Watch the video demo of the prototype here
<https://onedrive.live.com/?redeem=aHR0cHM6Ly8xZHJ2Lm1zL2YvYy8zM2RlYjQ2N2M1Z…>
(also available on commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikidata_mobile_editing_experience_…>)
and tell us what you think! You can share your feedback on the project
discussion page: Wikidata talk:Usability and usefulness/Item editing
experience/Mobile editing of statements
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:Usability_and_usefulness/Item_e…>
Here are a few questions to help you get thinking about your feedback:
- What did you like most about the solution?
- How well did it perform compared to your expectations?
- Were there any parts of the prototype that were confusing or unclear?
- Is there anything about the solution that could be problematic or
risky?
- If you could change one thing about the solution, what would it be?
- Any other comments or suggestions?
Your feedback will help us refine the design and guide the next steps of
development.
If you’re a Wikidata editor who uses mobile devices, you can also sign up
to participate in future user testing for the editing of statements on
mobile devices. Sign up here
<https://greatquestion.co/wikimediadeutschland/bo2e7e2a/apply> to
participate in prototype testing and interviews with our UX team.
Cheers and thank you!
--
Mohammed S. Abdulai
*Community Communications Manager, Wikidata*
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 30 577 116 2466
https://wikimedia.de
Grab a spot in my calendar for a chat: cal.com/masssly.
A lot is happening around Wikidata - Keep up to date!
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates> Current news and
exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our
newsletter (in German): Subscribe now <https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>
.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR 23855 B.
Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende Vorstände: Franziska Heine
Hello everyone!
A change is coming soon to how you search on Wikidata. The upcoming change
will allow you to switch your search between Item, Property, Lexeme and
EntitySchema entity types, using a new dropdown-bar that will appear in the
left-hand of the Wikidata search box.
Furthermore, your search terms will also be typeahead compatible, helping
you find your desired result easier and faster.
These changes are available now on: https://test.wikidata.org
<https://test.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page> and
https://wikidata.beta.wmflabs.org
<https://wikidata.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page>, please help us
test before they are released on Wikidata in approximately 1 week
(11.06.2025).
Give your feedback on Phabricator ticket: T321543
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T321543>, or join the discussion and
read more info on the full announcement:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat#Help_us_test_the_new_Se…
Thank you!
-
*Danny Benjafield*
Community Communications Manager
Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30-577 11 62-0
https://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia,
Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German): Subscribe now.
<https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR 23855 B.
Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende Vorstände: Franziska Heine
Hello all!
The Search Platform Team usually holds an open meeting on the first
Wednesday of each month. Come talk to us about anything related to
Wikimedia search, Wikidata Query Service (WDQS), Wikimedia Commons Query
Service (WCQS), etc.!
Feel free to add your items to the Etherpad Agenda for the next meeting.
Details for our next meeting:
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Time: 15:00-16:00 UTC / 08:00 PST / 11:00 EST / 17:00 CET
Etherpad: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Search_Platform_Office_Hours
Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/vgj-bbeb-uyi
Join by phone: https://tel.meet/vgj-bbeb-uyi?pin=8118110806927
Have fun and see you soon!
Guillaume
*Guillaume Lederrey* (he/him)
Engineering Manager
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
