On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 11:28 PM, Evan Sherwin evan@lumina.com wrote:
Dear Wikidata Team,
My name is Evan Sherwin and I represent a California-based company called Lumina Decision Systems. We are developing a community-sourced information-sharing website, called MegaJoule.org, that specializes in structured numerical information about energy and energy technology. We are very interested in the Wikidata, and would like to discuss the possibility of collaboration. I am not totally sure who I was the right person to contact, so I hope it is OK that I am mailing this list.
Much like Wikidata, MegaJoule.org is a community-sourced hub for structured information. The primary focus of MegaJoule.org is the collection and storage of numerical estimates of quantities like "the projected cost of installing residential solar panels in 2020," or "the current efficiency of utility-scale wind turbines." In addition to a numerical value and units, each estimate contains a wealth of metadata, including the source, technology and metric applicable, along with assumptions, uncertainty information, the year the estimate applies and more. Users create estimate, source, metric and technology records through a form-based interface, resulting in structured and highly searchable data. In addition, users can rate and discuss estimates, their sources, metrics, etc. We have also integrated a graphing tool that allows users to interact more meaningfully with the data in MegaJoule.org. From looking at the description of Wikidata, it seems like there are enough similarities between MegaJoule.org and Wikidata to allow for very fruitful collaboration in the field of energy, and perhaps even some direct data sharing.
Would Wikidata be interested in collaborating with MegaJoule.org? Here is a link to our beta version: www.megajoule.org. I have also attached a document that describes the MegaJoule project in more detail. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Sincerely, Evan Sherwin Associate Analyst, Lumina Decision Systems evan@lumina.com
Hi Evan!
It definitely sounds interesting. It is however a bit too early to tell. Collaborations like this are in the end a decision of the community and that community is still forming. However it'd be great if you keep an eye on what is happening and then we can see where things are going and where and how Wikidata and MegaJoule.org can cooperate.
Cheers Lydia