Thanks for sharing this, Sri! Regards, Rohini
On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 6:37 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.gh...@gmail.com> wrote: > Sorry guys, I forgot to share the link with you all: > > http://tech2.in.com/features/science-and-technology/wikidata-summing-the-sum-of-human-knowledge/630882 > > > On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < > rsrikant...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> *Wikidata: Summing the sum of human knowledge* >> *By Rohini Lakshané* >> >> Have you ever wished you could query Wikipedia with a question? Have you >> ever wanted to run a search on Wikipedia to extract data rather than trawl >> through reams of Wikipedia pages and interlinks? Have you ever imagined a >> world where everyone could freely pool knowledge even without sharing a >> common language? Wikidata is set to do all this, and more. >> >> >> >> Wikidata, deployed in October this year, is the newest project by the >> Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation that runs Wikipedia and its sister >> projects. It is a semantic, multilingual, structured database that anyone >> can read and edit. It is machine readable, which makes searching, sorting >> and handling of data efficient and fast. Like with its siblings, Wikidata’s >> content and software are published under a free license. >> >> >> >> *Central repository of links* >> >> Wikidata aims to streamline Wikipedia’s rich but chaotic linking >> structure. Every Wikipedia page has ‘interwiki links’ that link it to other >> Wikipedia pages. ‘Interlanguage links’ connect pages to other pages on the >> same topic published on Wikipedias in different languages, creating a mesh >> of links. With around 23 million articles in 285 languages, the linking >> structure leads to immense duplication. Wikidata will act as a central >> repository for all language links on all Wikipedias, with the ultimate >> objective of levelling off the raw data in the language versions. Under the >> *first >> phase<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Development/Sprint_archive> >> * of Wikidata deployment, which is now >> live<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Development/Sprint_archive>, >> editors can add interlanguage links (sitelinks) on Wikidata pages. >> >> >> *Ask Wikipedia a question* >> >> The *future >> phases<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Technical_proposal> >> * of Wikidata deployment involve converging the data found >> in*Infoboxes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Infobox> >> * (December 2012 or January 2013), and the enabling of the creation of >> lists on Wikipedia (April or March 2013). >> >> >> >> Infoboxes -- tables with the summary of the most important information on >> the pages -- across Wikipedias are not uniform. Internationalised export >> and import of data present in Wikipedia templates such as the Infobox would >> greatly enrich its encyclopaedic value. All information present in all >> Infoboxes will then come to one central repository from where it could be >> updated everywhere else at the same time. >> >> >> >> Wikipedia houses lists on assorted topics created by users -- episodes of >> the most popular TV shows, heads of state, and even inventors killed by >> their own inventions. However, it is currently not possible to query these >> lists and cull out specific information. For example, searching the string >> “countries with highest GDP” leads to a search results page with the >> entries ‘List of countries with the highest GDP per capita’ and ‘Historical >> list of ten largest countries by GDP’. But if you were to search for ‘ten >> countries with highest GDP in Asia’ you wouldn’t quickly reach the relevant >> information even though it exists in these lists. Wikidata will >> automatically create a user-queried list to answer semantic queries such >> as, “What were the ten countries with highest GDP in Asia last year?” >> >> >> >> Konarak Ratnakar, who has registered over 8,000 edits on Wikidata, says, >> *“I found that Wikidata had very few India-related entries. So I started >> adding information on Indian cities and the capitals of small countries. I >> like Infoboxes very much, and that fact that this project would make >> Infoboxes grow motivated me to contribute.” * >> >> >> >> *Supporting smaller Wikipedias* >> >> Of the 285 Wikipedias, only four have more than a million articles. 40 >> Wikipedias have over a 100,000 articles. Big Wikipedias have legions of >> editors; most Wikipedias with a smaller article base have fewer speakers of >> the language or less volunteer manpower. Wikidata aspires to enable smaller >> Wikipedias to extend their tendrils to bigger ones, and benefit from the >> vast amounts of language-independent data present on them. Having >> up-to-date data at their disposal will potentially rope in and retain >> editors and contributors on smaller Wikipedias, where researching and >> writing voluminous content from scratch may be a laborious task. The web >> and Wikipedia would get more content, which in turn, would become useful to >> those who only speak the languages in which smaller Wikipedias exist. >> >> >> >> *Verifiability and difference of opinion* >> >> Wikidata can handle differences of opinion. If different sources of data >> portray discrepant or conflicting information, Wikidata has the provision >> to include such differences, and the different nuances of information. This >> data will be accompanied by its source in keeping with one of Wikipedia’s >> cornerstones of verifiability. Lydia Pintscher of Wikimedia Deuthschland, >> who handles community communications for Wikidata, explains, *“Say you >> have the number of inhabitants of Israel. People don't agree on an exact >> number for that for various reasons. In Wikidata it will be possible to add >> all of them (within reason) with sources. So it'll not be about what is >> right but about what some source says.”* >> >> >> >> *Pushing the envelope at Wikipedias and the web* >> >> Wikidata is slated to expand. Once it is fully deployed, it will >> apparently allow for more new articles to be created with fewer >> contributions. Editors will not need to write full articles on topics that >> already exist on other Wikipedias. Instead, they will need to enter data at >> the specified data points to get an article with the preliminary framework >> ready. Wikidata will also enable micro-contributions to articles that >> already exist by allowing easy data entry for editors to expand or update >> articles using the available datasets. >> >> >> >> Machine-readable data facilitates automatic updating of content that is >> currently done manually on Wikipedia, for example, the updating of census >> figures or election results. Wikipedia lists too will be automatically >> created and updated. >> >> >> >> Editing on Wikidata is done through a form-based editor, instead of using >> wiki syntax, the mark-up present on Wikipedia, which new editors generally >> find tedious. >> >> >> >> Once Wikidata is fully operational, it will act as an interchange point >> for more Wiki projects, such as the Wikimedia Commons, a media repository. >> Wikidata is governed by the Creative Commons Public Domain license, which >> renders the data on it copyright-free. As the Wikidata API is freely >> available and the software is open licensed, you could run your own >> instance. The availability of interwiki data and API opens up many >> possibilities -- data extraction, data mash-ups, using interwiki metadata >> for regional or localised Wikipedias, and expanding the scope of apps such >> as the *Interwiki Redirect Service <http://interwikiredir.appspot.com/>*. >> Pintscher says, *“In the near future we'll see the roll-out of phase 2 >> of Wikidata and then the adaption of that on the Wikipedias. With time I >> hope that more and more players outside Wikimedia will make use of Wikidata >> and build great things on top of it. I'm sure they'll come up with many >> things we haven't even thought of yet.”* >> >> >> >> Wikidata has the potential to be a repository of repositories where the >> sum total of human knowledge coalesces, a database that glues together >> Wikipedias of all 285 (and counting) languages. >> >> >> >> Important Note : Non-commercial reproduction for informative purposes only. >> The publisher ( Tech2 ) of the above news article owns the copyrights >> of the article / content. All copyrights are duly acknowledged. >> >> >> -- >> Regards, >> Srikanth Ramakrishnan, >> Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers, Coimbatore. >> >> Please sign this petition for Volvo buses in Coimbatore: >> >> https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/the-transport-minister-tamil-nadu-introduction-of-volvo-city-buses-in-the-city-of-coimbatore >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list >> Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l >> >> > > > -- > Regards, > Srikanth Ramakrishnan. > > Sign this petition to introduce Volvo buses in Coimbatore city: > > https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/the-transport-minister-tamil-nadu-introduction-of-volvo-city-buses-in-the-city-of-coimbatore > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >
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