https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34150

--- Comment #9 from badon <[email protected]> 2012-02-17 06:02:50 UTC ---
No, because the list of serial numbers is only a list of serial numbers. It
doesn't tell us anything about whether they have already been entered, nor if
the entered data is correct. 

With the Special:RunQuery form I showed you, not only can you determine if the
serial number exists, you can also verify or refute if other related semantic
data matches some additional criteria. If it does not match, it can be brought
to the attention of the person doing the data entry (colored red), and they can
make a decision about whether the existing data is correct and their data is
faulty, or if the existing data is faulty, and their data is correct. 

In that case, semi-automatic data entry is required, with a real person
deciding what should be done, if anything.

Special:RunQuery is extremely flexible in the goals it can achieve. I'm sure
there are innumerable other cases that I cannot think of that can benefit from
sophisticated usage of Special:RunQuery, including the ability to automatically
or semi-automatically (to any degree) verify, create, and change wiki pages.

One very powerful thing Special:RunQuery can do is grant the ability to share
the results. For large quantities of data that need human scrutiny, a single
administrator (or even hundreds of them) cannot possibly be expected to handle
it with Data Transfer. With Special:RunQuery, links to "to do" lists can be
placed at prominent locations in the wiki so the users can chip away at it one
small task at a time.

And the best part? Nobody needs to know anything technical at all about how
MediaWiki, wiki code, SMW, and SF work. I have done some informal experiments
with people who have only rudimentary computer literacy, and minimal English
comprehension. All of them are able to make decisions about whether to click an
auto-edit link, or not, based on a simple presentation of info from
Special:RunQuery.

For example, it takes decades for an expert to gain the skills and knowledge
necessary to identify previously unknown types of coins. With SMW and
Special:RunQuery, I can simply present images for comparison to users, and the
user can essentially click "yes" or "no", depending on whether they match or
not. 

In the first casual test I did with this, 2 previously unknown coin types were
discovered almost immediately based on an expert-curated collection of serial
numbers that were donated for testing purposes. All of the world's experts did
not find these during the last 20 years, not even the expert who assembled and
individually hand-selected each serial number in the data. Lupo's
ImageAnnotator combined with SMW and Semantic Forms' Special:RunQuery are what
made that discovery so effortless.

Imagine what something like this could do for biology, astronomy, and on, and
on! For the first time ever, uneducated amateurs could discover and identify
new species faster than they're going extinct, simply using something as
mundane as random people's vacation photographs. The collection of images,
video, and audio at WikiMedia Commons might get more interesting if it were set
up to be explored in an uncountable variety of ways by the many curious amateur
researchers out there. I wonder what the Library of Congress has that nobody
has taken a close look at before?

Yaron, Special:RunQuery is as much of a panacea as I have ever personally
experienced in any field or domain, in my lifetime. I'm thrilled to find it in
semantic ontology, where it might make the notion of an "information age" seem
passe, at a whole new level. Maybe this is hyperbole, but what if it isn't? It
would be a shame if the full capabilities of Special:RunQuery were not brought
to maturity. 

I hope you agree.

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