Markus,
On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:32 AM, Markus Krötzsch <
markus(a)semantic-mediawiki.org> wrote:
What this page suggested was that that Freebase being shutdown means that
Google will use Wikidata as a source. Note that the
short intro text on the
page did not say anything else about the subject, so I am surprised that
this sufficed to convince you about the truth of that claim (it seems that
other things I write with more support don't have this effect). Anyway, I
am really sorry to hear that this quickly-written intro on the web has
misled you. When I wrote this after Google had made their Freebase
announcement last year, I really believed that this was the obvious
implication. However, I was jumping to conclusions there without having
first-hand evidence. I guess many people did the same. I fixed the
statement now.
To be clear: I am not saying that Google is not using Wikidata. I just
don't know. However, if you make a little effort, there is a lot of
evidence that Google is not using Wikidata as a source, even when it could.
For example, population numbers are off, even in cases where they refer to
the same source and time, and Google also shows many statements and sources
that are not in Wikidata at all (and not even in Primary Sources).
I still don't see any problem if Google would be using Wikidata, but
that's another discussion.
You mention "multiple sources".
{{Which}}?
Markus
For the record, here is what your university webpage used to say.[1]
---o0o---
Wikidata is the free, collaborative knowledge base behind Wikipedia and
many other Wikimedia projects. The Web site has been online since late 2012
and has since become an important data provider for Wikipedias in all
languages. Ten thousands of users have contributed statements about
millions of entities. In December 2013, Google announced that their own
collaboratively edited knowledge base, Freebase, is to be discontinued in
favour of Wikidata*, which gives Wikidata a prominent role as an inut for
Google Knowledge Graph*. The research group Knowledge Systems is working in
close cooperation with the development team behind Wikidata, and provides,
e.g., the regular Wikidata RDF-Exports.
Development of Wikidata started in April 2012 with a team of developers
based on the Berlin offices of Wikimedia Germany. The project was heavily
inspired by Semantic MediaWiki and Markus Krötzsch has been acting as an
architectural advisor to the project since its inception.
---o0o---
You were well placed to know. The source I quoted in the op-ed was a
different one though, a snippet from an IRC chat[2].
---o0o---
16:33:55 <dennyvrandecic> also, Wikidata is not a free ticket into the
Knowledge Graph as Freebase was16:34:07 <dennyvrandecic> it is just
one source among many
16:34:27 <Lydia_WMDE> i think we really need to highlight this16:34:30
<dennyvrandecic> benestar: actually I think that companies editing
Wikidata might be very beneficial
...
---o0o---
As a Google employee working on Wikidata, Denny can be presumed to know
what is and isn't a source for the Knowledge Graph.
Noam Shapiro in SEJ commented on the above IRC chat, saying:[3]
---o0o---
As one of the insiders notes above, “Wikidata is not a free ticket into the
Knowledge Graph as Freebase was.” It may very well be that the direct
relationship observed between Freebase and the Knowledge Graph will not be
replicated in Wikidata’s relationship with the Knowledge Graph. That being
said, *it is still “one source among many,” and likely an important one*.
After all, the Knowledge Graph thrives on the existence of structured data,
and - especially in the absence of Freebase - that is exactly what Wikidata
provides.
---o0o---
In May of this year, Tony Edward published an article in Search Engine Land
titled *"Leveraging Wikidata to gain a Google Knowledge Graph result"*.[4]
---o0o---
Back in December 2014, Google anounced that it would be shutting down
Freebase <http://wiki.freebase.com/wiki/Main_Page>, a repository of
structured data that helps power Google’s Knowledge Graph, and working to
migrate all its data to Wikidata.
But how does Wikidata measure up? *How can marketers leverage Wikidata to
help a business become an entity and gain a Knowledge Graph result? I have
personally had success* with gaining Knowledge Graph entries for my clients
and myself. Below, I have outlined the steps you can take to both gain and
enhance a Knowledge Graph result. [...]
---o0o---
Another article in Search Engine Land, by Barry Schartz, reporting on the
closure of Freebase:[5]
---o0o---
This means that the data won’t be lost but instead will be transferred to
Wikimedia Foundation’s project Wikidata, which will have their own API to
so that developers who want to retrieve facts automatically, as they did
with Freebase, can still do so. *This would include Google also pulling
data from Wikidata, to help power its Knowledge Graph.*
---o0o---
There are more articles like that ... I actually only came across your
university web page *after* I'd written the op-ed.
One other point. Denny said today on the Kurier talk page in the German
Wikipedia that he stands by his opinion, quoted earlier in this thread,
that Wikidata, being under the CC0 licence, must not import data from
Share-Alike sources. It would be irresponsible to do so, he said.[6]
If Wikidata with its CC0 licence must not import data from Share-Alike
sources, then I don't understand why there are mass imports from Wikipedia,
which is a Share-Alike source.
Andreas
P.S. Markus, your crossposts to Wikimedia-l still don't arrive there. Are
you a registered member of Wikimedia-l?
[1]
https://archive.is/O8h8K
[2]
https://archive.is/LoQXX#selection-2479.0-2519.74
[3]
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wikidata-meets-google-knowledge-graph/13…
[4]
http://searchengineland.com/leveraging-wikidata-gain-google-knowledge-graph…
[5]
http://searchengineland.com/google-close-freebase-helped-feed-knowledge-gra…
[6]
https://archive.is/bu9Io#selection-12005.450-12005.662