*Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata in the week leading up to 2026-01-19. Missed the previous one? See issue #714 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Status_updates/Previous.*
*Discussions*
- Closed request for comments: Deprecate P642? https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Requests_for_comment/Deprecate_P642 - Consensus to deprecate was reached.
*Events*
- Upcoming events https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Events: - Wikifying Te Tiriti https://www.wikimedia.nz/wikifying-te-tiriti-based-futures/ 10-workshop series, attendees will learn how to contribute to Wikipedia and create Wikidata items, to increase the visibility of people and their projects working in Te Tiriti and anti-racism areas. Further information can be found on the WikiProject page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiProject:_Wikifying_Te_Tiriti-based_Futures / Workshop timetable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pakoire/WikiProject:_Wikifying_Te_Tiriti-based_Futures#Timetable . Register to attend https://learn-to-wikify-ttbf.lilregie.com/booking/attendees/new. - Wiki Loves Folklore 2026 in Uganda https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2026_in_Uganda - contribute to the project by expanding or creating Wikidata Items connected to the project categories, such as Ugandan folklore, food, music, dances, traditional clothing, and more.
*Press, articles, blog posts, videos*
- Blogs: - The London School of Economics and Political Science have employed a Wikimedian in Residence https://wikimedia.org.uk/2026/01/new-wikimedian-in-residence-at-lse/ - Wikimedia Indonesia held Data and Technology Week 2025 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Indonesia/Pekan_Data_dan_Teknologi_2025 in last December 2025, organized introductory workshops on Wikidata and Wikifunctions. Read key takeaways and participants' discussion at Diff https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/01/16/introducing-data-and-functions-reflections-from-indonesian-data-and-technology-week-2025/ . - Wikidata Days 2025 Journey in Africa: Building Knowledge, Languages and Communities https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/01/14/wikidata-days-2025-journey-in-africa-building-knowledge-languages-and-communities/ - Wikidata Botswana 2025: Celebrating 13 Years (And We Really Showed Up!) https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/01/18/wikidata-botswana-2025-celebrating-13-years-and-we-really-showed-up-%F0%9F%8E%89/ - Papers: - A new monographic number of JLIS.it https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3805294 has been published regarding the OPAC SBN https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105086090 (the biggest collective library catalogue in Italy, with more than 7 thousands of libraries participating; about its collaboration with Wikidata, see the Wikidata coordination page https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Gruppo_Wikidata_per_Musei,_Archivi_e_Biblioteche/SBN); it contains 3 papers focusing on the use of Wikidata for authority control (all in Italian, with abstract in English): - *Wikidata and SBN: An Assessment of Two Years of Work (2023–2025)* https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137786824: an overview Wikidata-SBN of the collaboration in 2023-2025, focusing on the methods of reconciliation - *Wikidata-Enhanced Authority Records: A Project for Personal Names in SBN* https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137787153: a description of the procedure to extract data from Wikidata items matches with SBN authority records and adapt these data to be copied into non-individualised SBN authority records - *NaMo, utility for populating missing date fields in authority records* https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137787159: a description of an utility to keep an authority file up-to-date finding missing death dates through Wikidata - Wikidata-Enhanced Authority Records: A Project for Personal Names in SBN https://jlis.fupress.net/index.php/jlis/article/view/677 - A collaboration between Wikimedia Italy and ICCU is enriching incomplete SBN authority records using Wikidata identifiers, enhancing catalogue accuracy and accessibility as entries continue to grow. By Ravelli, (2026).
*Tool of the week*
- Puzzles By Nathan https://puzzles.madebynathan.com/chains is a game that arrange words so each connects to the next
*Other Noteworthy Stuff*
- Mobile editing for RTL languages: The Wikimedia Deutschland team is seeking users of right-to-left (RTL) scripts, including Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu, to help test and improve the mobile statement editing experience. If you edit in an RTL language and would like to join user interviews or deeper testing, sign up here https://greatquestion.co/wikimediadeutschland/bo2e7e2a/direct. - (French) Gendered place names in the public space of French-speaking Switzerland https://observablehq.com/@workspace2138/odonymes-femmes
*Newest properties https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:ListProperties and property proposals https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Property_proposal to review*
- Newest External identifiers: Parfinity notes ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14086, Google Ads Transparency Center advertiser ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14087, Basenotes perfume brand ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14088, Basenotes perfume people ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14089, Basenotes perfume ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14090, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14091, MAX username https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14092 - New General datatypes property proposals to review: - location collected https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/location_collected (geographic location where a specimen or sample was collected in the field) - Category for music in this language https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Category_for_music_in_this_language (link to category item that contains music in this language) - New External identifier property proposals to review: Thyssen-Bornemisza work ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Thyssen-Bornemisza_work_ID , CriticDB IDs https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/CriticDB_IDs, MPA certificate number https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/MPA_certificate_number , WorldFootball.net person ID (new) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/WorldFootball.net_person_ID_(new) , The Session tune ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/The_Session_tune_ID , Parfumo fragrance note ID https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Parfumo_fragrance_note_ID
You can comment on all open property proposals https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Overview!
*Did you know?*
- Query examples: - Timeline of elected germanic Roman emperors https://w.wiki/HVed - Universities without a P625 (coordinate location) https://w.wiki/HXVa - Source https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Request_a_query#query_to_show_university_without_coordinate_location - Schema examples: film director (E24) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/EntitySchema:E24 - WikiProject Highlights: - Rijksmonumenten Unmerge list https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Rijksmonumenten/Maintenance/Unmerge - list of items with more than one P359 (Rijksmonumenten ID) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P359. - Stanford Libraries https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Stanford_Libraries added an event: Love Data Week 2026 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Stanford_Libraries/Events/LDW2026 - Newest database reports https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Database_reports: Entities without a Label https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntitiesWithoutLabel - this list is dynamically created, search by language code and entity type: Item or Property. - Showcase Items https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Showcase_items : FIFA (Q253414) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q253414 - international governing body of association football - Showcase Lexemes https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Showcase_lexemes: charge (L3922) https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Lexeme:L3922 - English verb (tʃɑːrdʒ) meaning "to supply with energy", "to rush forward", or "to have responsibility for"
*Development*
- Mobile statement editing: - We continued work on supporting more datatypes for editing, specifically date, musical notation and monolingual text. - We worked on displaying constraint violation indicators. - You can try out the current state by enabling it in the beta features section of your preferences. - Wikidata integration in the other Wikimedia projects: We are continuing to investigate options for further reducing the amount of Wikidata changes in recent changes and watchlist on the other wikis to reduce the size of the database tables. - Dumps: We finished our research on dumps, especially looking into different ways to define subsets. We will publish the report with results by end of February. - Wikidata Query Service: The Wikidata Platform team is continuing the evaluation of potential replacements for Blazegraph.
You can see all open tickets related to Wikidata here https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/query/4RotIcw5oINo/#R. If you want to help, you can also have a look at the tasks needing a volunteer https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/71/query/zfiRgTnZF7zu/?filter=zfiRgTnZF7zu&order=priority .
*Weekly Tasks*
- Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates/Next#Newest_properties_and_property_proposals_to_review . - Contribute to the showcase Item and Lexeme above https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates/Next#Did_you_know? . - Govdirectory weekly focus country: - Summarize your WikiProject's ongoing activities https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates/Next#Did_you_know? in one or two sentences. - 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
*· Previous issue https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikidata:Status_updates/Previous · JosefAnthony https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:JosefAnthony talk https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User_talk:JosefAnthony ·*
Idoko Joseph (JosefAnthony)
Wikimedia Volunteer | Open Knowledge Advocate
*View my contributions https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JosefAnthony/Contributions*