On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 11:28 PM, Evan Sherwin <evan(a)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(a)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
--
Lydia Pintscher -
http://about.me/lydia.pintscher
Community Communications for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Obentrautstr. 72
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 27/681/51985.
Hi Evan and Lydia,
I am Max Klein Wikipedian in Residence for OCLC and I have also contacted this mailing
list about collaboration, as I work for a library metadata aggregator that has data to
share.
Seeing as this is starting to become a trend, maybe Lydia you can start a page on meta
where potential collaborators can list themselves, and their data? That way we can start
forming consensus around collaboration projects on the talk pages.
Best,
Max Klein
Wikipedia in Residence
kleinm(a)oclc.org
+17074787023