Hi there, so how do we move forward with Wikidata? There is a bunch of proposals both on Strategy and Meta, but I guess we need a clearly dedicated place for serious discussion on topic. So lets either create a wiki on data.wikimedia.org or a dedicated mailing list here... or both.
Kozuch > ------------ Původní zpráva ------------ > Od: Erik Moeller <[email protected]> > Předmět: Re: [Foundation-l] [Commons-l] Wikidata > Datum: 24.11.2010 20:25:37 > ---------------------------------------- > Hi all, > > as you may know I've been involved in the structured data community > for a few years (through the original "Wikidata" proposal in 2004 as > well as architecting and developing OmegaWiki, together with the > OpenProgress team and others from 2005-2007). I've been following > Semantic MediaWiki, Freebase and other projects from the beginning. > You don't need to sell me on the value or importance of structured > data. > > The problem space is very complex, especially when taking into account > that Wikimedia is a fully multilingual system. There are still low > hanging fruits, especially for a project like Wikimedia Commons, but I > agree w/ Michael that a more holistic approach to how to access and > manage data in WMF projects is much preferable to, for example, > throwing SMW into some wikis and not others, etc. > > When I joined WMF, I couldn't justify arguing for higher priority on > data tech projects more so than, for example, the 2009-10 usability > initiative and continuing efforts in this area, especially given that > we still have only a tiny engineering staff. I don't believe that > structured data is going to be the principal driver of participation > -- that problem space is more about social and technical barriers to > entry, interaction with new users, mentoring, etc. And we're > continuing to fall behind the rest of the web in terms of usability. > > That being said, it's clear that it's a key enabling technology > (including for _some_ usability improvements, although many of them > can be made without a full-fledged structured data support system). I > particularly think it has huge potential in bootstrapping small > languages by more closely interconnecting useful and translatable bits > of information (start a page about "Germany" in a new language and > immediately pull all relevant data, possibly including translations of > labels if available). > > Danese and I have been working on a "Data Summit" this year to bring > together both the key players in the structured data field (DBPedia, > SMW, etc.), as well as some of the research and analytics community. > Unfortunately we've had to reschedule it, but it'll happen in Q1 2011. > We're not going to be able to dedicate lots of resources to > engineering in this area in the near future, but since there are > already so many disparate efforts that focus on making WP data usable, > we do hope that we can partner up with others to move things forward. > > In a nutshell, I think we should aim to establish a “Wikidata Commons” > project at data.wikimedia.org which serves all Wikimedia projects with > structured data in a language-neutral fashion, analog to “Wikimedia > Commons” for multimedia files, and which becomes the central location > to curate, maintain and discuss such data. Wikidata Commons should > provide standard interfaces for querying, importing, and exporting > data. This project could be built incrementally (starting with clunky > but reasonably future-proof ways to manage and retrieve data). > > The key challenges as I see them continue to be, as ever: 1) > maintaining predictable and reasonable system performance as the DB > scales, more and increasingly complex queries are performed, etc., 2) > consistently improving rather than degrading user experience, 3) > handling multilingual representations of all translatable content well > without giving undue prominence to any one language, 4) effectively > caching and purging data wherever it's used, 5) > versioning/transactioning relational data to be maximally useful and > conducive to collaboration. > > Earlier this week, Danese and I met with Denny Vrandecic from SMW, > who's recently put together a prototype called "Shortipedia" that > allows language-independent (using multilingual labels) annotation of > concepts with SMW-style properties through a minimal form-based > interface, interfacing with whichever triple store is configured for > SMW. It's still very much a hack, and he's aiming to clean it up for > the summit. But it looks potentially very interesting, and like a > concept we could rally energy behind. The data from such a repository > could then be pulled into WP templates, accessed through "wizards" > that auto-generate template data for new articles, etc. > > Anyone who wants to advance the thinking in this space should also > consider what can be done today with Wikimedia Commons and SMW. Since > Wikimedia Commons is an intrinsically multilingual database with focus > on annotating individual files, its operational requirements are > somewhat different from those of most other projects. It would be > useful to have an instance of SMW running using a copy of the > Wikimedia Commons database and possibly Semantic Forms to see what > such annotation could look like in practice. Anyone with time and > technical skills can put together prototypes like this that'll help us > move forward. > > Again, I think the likely path forward here is for us to ally > effectively with the key players in the space, rather than doing all > the work ourselves. > > -- > Erik Möller > Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation > > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
