Hi all,
I hope I am not the first, as WiR in a university https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Netherlands_report#New_Wikimedian_in_Residence_at_Maastricht_University I am trying to set up a wiki with wikibase. Anyone experience with this?
Does anyone have a guide how to set such up or any advice would be welcome.
In 2019 the university became a victim of a hack with ransomware, making education and research come to a full stop. Since then regarding ICT the possibilities are limited, and skills with MediaWiki/Wikibase is likely practically zero (I haven't seen anything regarding such).
The goal of the wiki is to collect (public) knowledge of the history of the university (which exists this year 50 years). Knowledge that exists in texts, images and metadata. A wish for such a platform exists for 10+ years, but nobody actually managed to get it done. For me it combines what I am good at, with writing, data, and images, I create order in chaos (colleagues experience a lot of chaos, also because the history is not easily accessible) and I often try to fill up gaps that others leave open (the idea has been massively embraced by colleagues, but nothing done yet in that direction).
First I tried to follow the suggestions colleagues had for what software to use, software that is not open, hard to use for what I have in mind, missing basic possibilities, and after all is working in a wiki my natural environment. So I have come to the conclusion it must be a wiki. Besides the basic Wikipedia extensions, I have identified some features I need: - own domain name setup - default skin/design changes - display of title changeable (for non wikibase pages) - account creation control, no anonymous edits - images local upload + usage from Commons - query - wikibase items with Item: prefix (Anything else I should think of?)
At the moment I am considering the following possibilities for MediaWiki with a wikibase: 1. Hosting within university: still a puzzle who to talk to or how to arrange it, but the ICT department has limited skills in the field (and asking me to take of the software updates), limited storage capacity and charges fees to other departments for hosting, so this does not seem to be the best option at this moment. 2. Miraheze: no query service, but other things are well organised for what I need, including domain name setup. 3. Wikibase.Cloud: no images upload (only Commons or linking to images elsewhere), which is a limitation as I do also want to add historical images for which a CC license is difficult to arrange.
Thoughts anyone?
Romaine
Hello Romaine,
I do not know anything about setting up Wikibase instances.
I can suggest some things:
1. You are already in the Wikibase community telegram. This is the best place I know to ask such questions. For anyone else who wants in, join at https://t.me/+WBsf9-C9KPuMZCDT 2. I am not sure of the time scale of your appointment, but Wikibase may undergo its biggest changes ever in the next year. Tomorrow the Wikimedia Foundation will make a decision about migrating from Blazegraph to another SPARQL engine. Between tomorrow and summer 2027, Wikibase could change in key ways. Perhaps join next month and ask about the schedule of changes, because that is a relevant question at this time and everyone wants to know - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:Blazegraph_Migration_Office_Hours_-_May_... - also I wrote an article about the upcoming changes. It is a long article and kind of incomprehensible but I tried to tell a story - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2026-02-17/Techno... 3. Recently several Wikimedians in Residence roles have appeared at universities. Ping me if you want to talk publicly about data curation at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:WikiProject_Higher_education and maybe we can get some others there too.
Hope to collaborate -
On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 11:19 AM Romaine Wiki via Wren < wren@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi all,
I hope I am not the first, as WiR in a university https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Netherlands_report#New_Wikimedian_in_Residence_at_Maastricht_University I am trying to set up a wiki with wikibase. Anyone experience with this?
Does anyone have a guide how to set such up or any advice would be welcome.
In 2019 the university became a victim of a hack with ransomware, making education and research come to a full stop. Since then regarding ICT the possibilities are limited, and skills with MediaWiki/Wikibase is likely practically zero (I haven't seen anything regarding such).
The goal of the wiki is to collect (public) knowledge of the history of the university (which exists this year 50 years). Knowledge that exists in texts, images and metadata. A wish for such a platform exists for 10+ years, but nobody actually managed to get it done. For me it combines what I am good at, with writing, data, and images, I create order in chaos (colleagues experience a lot of chaos, also because the history is not easily accessible) and I often try to fill up gaps that others leave open (the idea has been massively embraced by colleagues, but nothing done yet in that direction).
First I tried to follow the suggestions colleagues had for what software to use, software that is not open, hard to use for what I have in mind, missing basic possibilities, and after all is working in a wiki my natural environment. So I have come to the conclusion it must be a wiki. Besides the basic Wikipedia extensions, I have identified some features I need:
- own domain name setup
- default skin/design changes
- display of title changeable (for non wikibase pages)
- account creation control, no anonymous edits
- images local upload + usage from Commons
- query
- wikibase items with Item: prefix
(Anything else I should think of?)
At the moment I am considering the following possibilities for MediaWiki with a wikibase:
- Hosting within university: still a puzzle who to talk to or how to
arrange it, but the ICT department has limited skills in the field (and asking me to take of the software updates), limited storage capacity and charges fees to other departments for hosting, so this does not seem to be the best option at this moment. 2. Miraheze: no query service, but other things are well organised for what I need, including domain name setup. 3. Wikibase.Cloud: no images upload (only Commons or linking to images elsewhere), which is a limitation as I do also want to add historical images for which a CC license is difficult to arrange.
Thoughts anyone?
Romaine
Wren mailing list -- wren@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wren-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Romaine, you probably want to talk to James Hare!
Cheers,
*Jake Orlowitz* http://jakeorlowitz.com/ *- *CEO*, Project 2029 http://project2029.me/* *- *Head*, WikiBlueprint http://wikiblueprint.com/* *- *Founder*, Wikipedia Library https://wikipedialibrarycard.org/*
"Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. When you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, Joy is a fine initial act of insurrection." *- Rebecca Solnit*
On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 9:49 AM Lane Rasberry via Wren < wren@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hello Romaine,
I do not know anything about setting up Wikibase instances.
I can suggest some things:
- You are already in the Wikibase community telegram. This is the
best place I know to ask such questions. For anyone else who wants in, join at https://t.me/+WBsf9-C9KPuMZCDT 2. I am not sure of the time scale of your appointment, but Wikibase may undergo its biggest changes ever in the next year. Tomorrow the Wikimedia Foundation will make a decision about migrating from Blazegraph to another SPARQL engine. Between tomorrow and summer 2027, Wikibase could change in key ways. Perhaps join next month and ask about the schedule of changes, because that is a relevant question at this time and everyone wants to know - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:Blazegraph_Migration_Office_Hours_-_May_...
- also I wrote an article about the upcoming changes. It is a long article
and kind of incomprehensible but I tried to tell a story - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2026-02-17/Techno... 3. Recently several Wikimedians in Residence roles have appeared at universities. Ping me if you want to talk publicly about data curation at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:WikiProject_Higher_education and maybe we can get some others there too.
Hope to collaborate -
On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 11:19 AM Romaine Wiki via Wren < wren@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi all,
I hope I am not the first, as WiR in a university https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Netherlands_report#New_Wikimedian_in_Residence_at_Maastricht_University I am trying to set up a wiki with wikibase. Anyone experience with this?
Does anyone have a guide how to set such up or any advice would be welcome.
In 2019 the university became a victim of a hack with ransomware, making education and research come to a full stop. Since then regarding ICT the possibilities are limited, and skills with MediaWiki/Wikibase is likely practically zero (I haven't seen anything regarding such).
The goal of the wiki is to collect (public) knowledge of the history of the university (which exists this year 50 years). Knowledge that exists in texts, images and metadata. A wish for such a platform exists for 10+ years, but nobody actually managed to get it done. For me it combines what I am good at, with writing, data, and images, I create order in chaos (colleagues experience a lot of chaos, also because the history is not easily accessible) and I often try to fill up gaps that others leave open (the idea has been massively embraced by colleagues, but nothing done yet in that direction).
First I tried to follow the suggestions colleagues had for what software to use, software that is not open, hard to use for what I have in mind, missing basic possibilities, and after all is working in a wiki my natural environment. So I have come to the conclusion it must be a wiki. Besides the basic Wikipedia extensions, I have identified some features I need:
- own domain name setup
- default skin/design changes
- display of title changeable (for non wikibase pages)
- account creation control, no anonymous edits
- images local upload + usage from Commons
- query
- wikibase items with Item: prefix
(Anything else I should think of?)
At the moment I am considering the following possibilities for MediaWiki with a wikibase:
- Hosting within university: still a puzzle who to talk to or how to
arrange it, but the ICT department has limited skills in the field (and asking me to take of the software updates), limited storage capacity and charges fees to other departments for hosting, so this does not seem to be the best option at this moment. 2. Miraheze: no query service, but other things are well organised for what I need, including domain name setup. 3. Wikibase.Cloud: no images upload (only Commons or linking to images elsewhere), which is a limitation as I do also want to add historical images for which a CC license is difficult to arrange.
Thoughts anyone?
Romaine
Wren mailing list -- wren@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wren-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry 🟦🌀💙🌀🟦
Wren mailing list -- wren@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wren-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 5:19 PM Romaine Wiki via Wren < wren@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi all,
I hope I am not the first, as WiR in a university https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Netherlands_report#New_Wikimedian_in_Residence_at_Maastricht_University I am trying to set up a wiki with wikibase. Anyone experience with this?
Here.
See, for example:
- https://zenodo.org/records/18432246 - temporal development prototype: https://grafo.laoficinacultural.org/
Reach me in private, if you wish.
Hi all,
Thank you all for your input!
Having spoken with my supervisor, I got the permission to start up the wiki at Miraheze, and is now live at: https://umemory.miraheze.org/ It is live, but largely still empty.
Greetings, Romaine
Op di 7 apr 2026 om 17:19 schreef Romaine Wiki romaine.wiki@gmail.com:
Hi all,
I hope I am not the first, as WiR in a university https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2025/Contents/Netherlands_report#New_Wikimedian_in_Residence_at_Maastricht_University I am trying to set up a wiki with wikibase. Anyone experience with this?
Does anyone have a guide how to set such up or any advice would be welcome.
In 2019 the university became a victim of a hack with ransomware, making education and research come to a full stop. Since then regarding ICT the possibilities are limited, and skills with MediaWiki/Wikibase is likely practically zero (I haven't seen anything regarding such).
The goal of the wiki is to collect (public) knowledge of the history of the university (which exists this year 50 years). Knowledge that exists in texts, images and metadata. A wish for such a platform exists for 10+ years, but nobody actually managed to get it done. For me it combines what I am good at, with writing, data, and images, I create order in chaos (colleagues experience a lot of chaos, also because the history is not easily accessible) and I often try to fill up gaps that others leave open (the idea has been massively embraced by colleagues, but nothing done yet in that direction).
First I tried to follow the suggestions colleagues had for what software to use, software that is not open, hard to use for what I have in mind, missing basic possibilities, and after all is working in a wiki my natural environment. So I have come to the conclusion it must be a wiki. Besides the basic Wikipedia extensions, I have identified some features I need:
- own domain name setup
- default skin/design changes
- display of title changeable (for non wikibase pages)
- account creation control, no anonymous edits
- images local upload + usage from Commons
- query
- wikibase items with Item: prefix
(Anything else I should think of?)
At the moment I am considering the following possibilities for MediaWiki with a wikibase:
- Hosting within university: still a puzzle who to talk to or how to
arrange it, but the ICT department has limited skills in the field (and asking me to take of the software updates), limited storage capacity and charges fees to other departments for hosting, so this does not seem to be the best option at this moment. 2. Miraheze: no query service, but other things are well organised for what I need, including domain name setup. 3. Wikibase.Cloud: no images upload (only Commons or linking to images elsewhere), which is a limitation as I do also want to add historical images for which a CC license is difficult to arrange.
Thoughts anyone?
Romaine