Markus,
On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:32 AM, Markus Krötzsch
<markus@semantic-mediawiki.org> wrote:
What this page suggested was that that Freebase being shutdown means
that Google will use Wikidata as a source. Note that the short intro
text on the page did not say anything else about the subject, so I am
surprised that this sufficed to convince you about the truth of that
claim (it seems that other things I write with more support don't have
this effect). Anyway, I am really sorry to hear that this
quickly-written intro on the web has misled you. When I wrote this after
Google had made their Freebase announcement last year, I really
believed that this was the obvious implication. However, I was jumping
to conclusions there without having first-hand evidence. I guess many
people did the same. I fixed the statement now.
To be clear: I am not saying that Google is not using Wikidata. I just
don't know. However, if you make a little effort, there is a lot of
evidence that Google is not using Wikidata as a source, even when it
could. For example, population numbers are off, even in cases where they
refer to the same source and time, and Google also shows many
statements and sources that are not in Wikidata at all (and not even in
Primary Sources).
I still don't see any problem if Google would be using Wikidata, but that's another discussion.
You mention "multiple sources".
{{Which}}?
Markus
For the record, here is what your university webpage used to say.[1]
---o0o---
Wikidata
is the free, collaborative knowledge base behind Wikipedia and many
other Wikimedia projects. The Web site has been online since late 2012
and has since become an important data provider for Wikipedias in all
languages. Ten thousands of users have contributed statements about
millions of entities. In December 2013, Google announced that their own
collaboratively edited knowledge base, Freebase, is to be discontinued
in favour of Wikidata
, which gives Wikidata a prominent role as an inut
for Google Knowledge Graph. The research group Knowledge Systems is working in close cooperation with the development team behind Wikidata, and provides, e.g., the regular Wikidata RDF-Exports.
Development of Wikidata started in April 2012 with a team of developers based on the Berlin offices of Wikimedia Germany. The project was heavily inspired by Semantic MediaWiki and Markus Krötzsch has been acting as an architectural advisor to the project since its inception.
---o0o---
You were well placed to know. The source I quoted in the op-ed was a different one though, a snippet from an IRC chat[2].
---o0o---
16:33:55 <dennyvrandecic> also, Wikidata is not a free ticket into the Knowledge Graph as Freebase was
16:34:07 <dennyvrandecic> it is just one source among many
16:34:27 <Lydia_WMDE> i think we really need to highlight this
16:34:30 <dennyvrandecic> benestar: actually I think that companies editing Wikidata might be very beneficial
...
---o0o---
As a Google employee working on Wikidata, Denny can be presumed to know what is and isn't a source for the Knowledge Graph.
Noam Shapiro in SEJ commented on the above IRC chat, saying:[3]
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As one of the insiders notes above, “Wikidata is not a free ticket into
the Knowledge Graph as Freebase was.” It may very well be that the
direct relationship observed between Freebase and the Knowledge Graph
will not be replicated in Wikidata’s relationship with the Knowledge
Graph. That being said, it is still “one source among many,” and likely
an important one. After all, the Knowledge Graph thrives on the
existence of structured data, and - especially in the absence of
Freebase - that is exactly what Wikidata provides.
---o0o---
In May of this year, Tony Edward published an article in Search Engine Land titled
"Leveraging Wikidata to gain a Google Knowledge Graph result".[4]
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Back in December 2014, Google anounced that it would be shutting down Freebase, a repository of structured data that helps power Google’s Knowledge Graph, and working to migrate all its data to Wikidata.
But how does Wikidata measure up? How can marketers leverage Wikidata
to help a business become an entity and gain a Knowledge Graph result? I
have personally had success with gaining Knowledge Graph entries for my
clients and myself. Below, I have outlined the steps you can take to
both gain and enhance a Knowledge Graph result. [...]
---o0o---
Another article in Search Engine Land, by Barry Schartz, reporting on the closure of Freebase:[5]
---o0o---
This means that the data won’t be lost but instead will be transferred to Wikimedia Foundation’s project Wikidata, which will have their own API to so that developers who want to retrieve facts automatically, as they did with Freebase, can still do so. This would include Google also pulling data from Wikidata, to help power its Knowledge Graph.
---o0o---
There are more articles like that ... I actually only came across your university web page after I'd written the op-ed.
One other point. Denny said today on the Kurier talk page in the German Wikipedia that he stands by his opinion, quoted earlier in this thread, that Wikidata, being under the CC0 licence, must not import data from Share-Alike sources. It would be irresponsible to do so, he said.[6]
If Wikidata with its CC0 licence must not import data from Share-Alike sources, then I don't understand why there are mass imports from Wikipedia, which is a Share-Alike source.
Andreas
P.S. Markus, your crossposts to Wikimedia-l still don't arrive there. Are you a registered member of Wikimedia-l?