Hello everyone —
We at mySociety have posted a new Wikiproject proposal for a 2019 project
grant:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Wikidata_post-election_updat….
We need your feedback and comments on the project.
What we’ve done — and what we want to do
Wikidata now has up-to-date and consistent data on political position
holders in current national legislatures for at least 39 countries
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/mySociety/EveryPolitician/Final#Targets>
(and work in progress for over 60 countries), thanks to work by volunteer
community members on the Wikiproject every politician. mySociety worked as
part of this project with a Wikimedia Foundation grant in 2017-18.
There is now a real possibility for Wikidata to become the definitive
source of data about democracies worldwide — but only if that data can be
maintained sustainably. A significant risk is that elections and other
major political changes quickly render data on political position holders
and legislatures in Wikidata out-of-date.
We’re proposing a Wikidata post-election updating toolkit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Wikidata_post-election_updating_toolkit>
project, which aims to ensure that data on elected representatives is
substantially correct and complete within a month following an election,
leading to improved quality and consistency of data in Wikidata over time.
We’ll work as part of the Wikidata community to create and signpost tools
and pathways that help contributors to quickly, easily and consistently
update data following an election or other political change.
How community members can get involved in the project
If you’re already active around data relevant to political position
holders, legislatures, or elections in Wikidata, we’d like your feedback
and help to test the new tools and guidance and ensure that they are
consistent with the emerging consensus around modelling these types of data.
In particular, if you live in a country or major region that has an
upcoming election, please talk to us about piloting the tools! We’d like
for you to test the project tools and guidance to update data following
your country’s election, and to give us feedback on the value and
appropriateness of the approach in your context and political system.
In general, we’re keen to encourage discussion and evaluation of Wikidata
as a source of current position holder data.
Please review our proposal
If you’re interested in this, and are active on Wiki projects, please have
a look and review our proposal here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Wikidata_post-election_updat…
Thanks!
~Emily
Emily Robertson-Knowlton
Delivery Manager
mySociety
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