[Labs-l] New labs project: Wikidata Topicmap UI - Try it out

[Malte Reißig]

Hi!

I want to share the idea and some progress on a recently created
Wikidata-GUI (realized as a simple web service client) to empower
researchers, users and developers of wikidata worldwide. We would be
happy to turn the current state of development into a
wikimedia-labs-project and with that, make it accessible and more
visible within the wikiverse but also accessible to users and researches
from other interested communities.

We documented the research which led us to realize this in our wiki [1].

Now, after a first hands-on session with two wikidata-developers it
became apparent that looking at wikidata through this UI can provide new
views onto actual wiki-data through allowing users to explore any "item"
on-demand along its relations. Furthermore it gives us a look at
"properties" which the various communities use (in their resp. language)
to express relations between "items", "items" and other "data".

# What you can do with it?
- Query (by text/name) for wikidata "items" and "properties"
- Navigate relations of "items" along "claims" and "properties" to
"items" (and other "data")
- Create personal and structured visualizations based on wikidata search
results with free placement on an infinite canvas

# How can you do that?
Have a look at some of the examples, maybe you want figure out the
specialities (and oddities) of our current UI by yourself.

A wikidata-Topicmap about a search which lead me to "Indonesia:
(.. the country in Southeast Asia and Oceania)
http://malts.infokitchen.net/topicmap/2548/topic/3807

An intro-Topicmap to start exploring wikidata:
http://malts.infokitchen.net/topicmap/20555/topic/17041

Additional help:
- Open the URL below and log in (e.g. with test-user credentials)
- Create a new "Topicmap" for yourself and use the "Wikidata
Search"-Mode (via "By Text")
- Choose a "Wikidata Item" from the search results and load all it's
relations to other wikidata items through triggering the "Show
Claims"-command
- Reveal (to your current item) related wikidata of interest

In the following webpage you see a "Topicmap" which renders a "Wikidata
Search Bucket", a couple of "Wikidata Entities" (of type=item),
"Wikidata Claims" and an "Intro" explaining what you can do with this
web service client for the moment:

http://malts.infokitchen.net/topicmap/20555

Please note that your topicmaps and searches may still be lost and you
need to be logged in (use demo-account) to fire new wikidata-queries.

# Questions towards turning this into a Wikimedia Labs project

1. Is manual creation of a new/sperate user account an issue? What are
the best alternatives (regarding very limited dev-resources)?

2. Regarding the Wikimedia Labs "Terms of Use":
2.1 The tool is realized as a simple plugin [2] for DeepaMehta 4 [3] (a
FOSS software platform for collaboration and information work).
2.2 We do not store any other "Private Information" except any of the
data entered by the user, see details [4] below this mail.

3. A Java-capable VM (with OSGi, Karaf, Jetty) with an Apache Webserver
(with Reverse Proxy) set up as a "puppetmaster-self" would be needed.

# Process
Looking forward to your feedback, we will meet at the 22nd of May in
WM-Office Berlin for a dev-meeting related to this project and it would
be classy if we could by then, present this as a wmflabs.org project.

Thanks for your interest &
Cheers!


--

[1] https://trac.deepamehta.de/wiki/WikidataSearchPlugin%20
[2] http://www.github.com/mukil/dm4-wikidata
[3] http://www.deepamehta.de
[4] Details on private information processed by this labs-project:
2.2. Private Information accumulating while using this tool would be:
2.2.0 Not be given to any third party (on purpose).
2.2.1 The chosen username (would be public readable)
2.2.2 The password (would be SHA256 encrypted)
2.2.3 IP-Addresses, Time of Request, Browser-Agent String (in Apache Log
Files, may be anonymized to 192.168.xx.xxx, deleted any 30 days)
2.2.4 No E-Mail Address should be associated with a "User Account"