User:Danny Benjafield (WMDE)/sandbox2

Community Update Q3 2024

Wikidata (Integrations) for Wikimedia Projects is a new software development project team within the Wikimedia Deutschland chapter.

Background

Wikidata is the world’s largest knowledge base and contains over 100 million items described by 1.5 billion statements. All of this information is available, free and multilingual for reuse in Wikipedia, other Wikimedia projects and in fact for anyone who needs general-purpose structured data.

Wikidata is already integrated heavily throughout the Wikimedia projects, nearly every Wikipedia article has a corresponding Wikidata item, through which it can be connected via sitelinks to any other language version and the other WM projects. Wikidata serves as the backbone for navigating between languages across the Wikiverse. Data stored in Wikidata items can be reused and displayed outside of Wikidata, commonly done in infoboxes (existing since 2012) via the Module:Databox. Summaries of data can be displayed, including maps, images, coordinates, dates, key values, locations, links, units and more. These values can be stored in a single location and displayed anywhere when invoked, reducing redundancy as only 1 copy of the data needs updating and maintaining rather than local copies everywhere it is displayed. Centralisation of facts in this way is one of the major benefits of reusing Wikidata’s data.

In summer 2023, Wikidata Integrations was formed under the Collaboration Agreement between the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE). The WMF has a long history of recognising the need to provide funding and support for Wikidata’s growth and expansion, and Wikidata Integrations is another expression of that support.

Our Program Goal for 2024

Wikidata Integrations has a major goal for 2024 to…

“increase the collaboration between Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects for mutual benefit”

Success for this is measured by the achievement of 2 objectives, with their own milestones and success indicators to complete:

Objective 1:

Improve the workflows of editors in other Wikimedia projects due to a better integration with Wikidata.

• Milestone 1: A dedicated developer team has been formed
• Milestone 2: We’ve identified a blocker in a workflow that’s possible to efficiently and effectively improve
• Indicator: A workflow has improved because of an improved Wikidata integration.

Objective 2:

The community's needs are the driving force behind the development process.

• Indicator 1: At least 5 users gave feedback throughout each step of the development process.
• Indicator 2: 50% of our participants are from communities outside of Europe and North America.
• Output: “Low-medium skilled” editors are included in each of our processes.

The objectives have been determined in line with the goals and values of the Wikidata Development Plan, Linked Open Data Strategy, Movement Strategy 2030 and Strategic Direction 2030.

To reach these high-level objectives, our team has been progressing through a series of phases and milestones throughout 2023 and into 2024.

Identifying First Project Opportunities

There is potential for dozens, if not hundreds of projects where our efforts can be directed. As we are a small, new team with limited resources, we need to establish criteria for our first project that meet the following:

• An integration that is desired, needed and supported by the community (has buy-in)
• Has a high impact for community members
• Low-technical complexity for our onboarding software engineers to implement in a 6-month timeframe

To find our first project and meet all our other goals to get our project started, our UX researcher created and is executing a comprehensive foundational research plan that is still ongoing:

• Mapped out the current state of Wikidata integrations in the Wikimedia projects (Desk Research)
• Identified editor motivations, the existing workflows and the problems or blockers encountered (Interviews)[?]
• Learn about the frequency and patterns of transcluding Wikidata across languages and projects while establishing methods to track its usage over time and collect baseline data. (Data Collection + Analysis)

We have compiled a summary report of our activities below.

Milestone 1: A dedicated developer team has been formed

Wikidata Integrations is a software development team, and success of our goals requires software engineers to create and extend MediaWiki code underlying the integration we will be improving. In 2023, non-development roles of Product Manager, UX Designer and Researcher, Community Communications and Engineering Manager were hired or filled. As of 2024, the team is preparing to work on its first developmental tasks and has begun forming its development team.

Our first software engineer, Joely Rooke joined the team in May. Joely has worked across a variety of sectors in and out of Tech and can even claim she has worked for the Queen herself…Beyoncé. We also confirmed the appointment of our second software engineer who will be starting in August, bringing the development team to 50%.

During Q2 2024, we extended 2 offers for Senior Software Engineers which we are delighted to announce have been accepted. By the time of the next community update, we will be able to introduce the entire Wikidata (Integrations) for Wikimedia projects software development team.

Research Project

We undertook a comprehensive review of the current state of Wikidata integrations in the Wikimedia projects. EXPAND

To find our first project and meet all our other goals to get our project started, our UX researcher created and is executing a comprehensive foundational research plan that is still ongoing:

Mapped out the current state of Wikidata integrations in the Wikimedia projects (Desk Research) Identified editor motivations, the existing workflows and the problems or blockers encountered (Interviews)[?] Learn about the frequency and patterns of transcluding Wikidata across languages and projects while establishing methods to track its usage over time and collect baseline data. (Data Collection + Analysis)

Primary Goals Phase 1 Gain and document a comprehensive, shared understanding of the current state of Wikidata integrations in the other Wikimedia projects and how the data flow works

Phase 2 Learn about editor motivations, existing workflows, and problems encountered while using Wikidata’s data on Wikipedia and the sibling projects.

Events & Contact points

Wikidata + Wikibase Office Hour

You can also get updates from us and the other Software Department teams at Wikimedia Deutschland during the Wikidata+Wikibase Office Hour. This takes place once a quarter, live on the Wikidata Telegram channel from the Wikidata Integrations, Wikidata and Wikibase Suite and Cloud teams. The Office hour is also a chance for the community to ask us questions directly in the chat. The next Office Hour is scheduled for July 17th. All Office hours are recorded, and you can read the transcripts of previous ones on Wikidata.

Levelling Up Days 2024

Levelling Up Days 2024, organised by [[m:User:Lea_Lacroix_(WMDE)|User:Lea Lacroix] was a new online event that took place over two weekends in April. Attendants from 17 countries enjoyed a series of recorded videos and live-workshops covering essential topics like editing, querying, user-interface, and workflow tweaks with gadgets and tools on Wikidata. Our involvement with the event took place on Day 5 of the program, consisting of 5 videos, facilitated by Danny and interviewing a community member who had an example to show off a Wikidata integration currently being used in the Wikimedia projects. Videos can be watched here:

• YouTube Playlist
• Commons: Leveling Up Days 2024

Wikimedia Hackathon 2024

The Wikimedia Hackathon was attended by Danny (Community Communications) and Cynthia (Engineering Manager). Hosted in Tallinn, Estonia and supported by WM Eesti the event saw a host of projects proposed by volunteer developers, community members, and Wikimedia Staff from across the Globe. Cynthia established connections with WMF Technical staff and members of the African Wikimedia Technical Community while Danny attended sessions and followed up where Wikidata was linked to other projects.

CC 1.0 UP DD

Original (Commons)
Mike Peel
CC BY-SA 4.0

Wikidata Summary

Did you know that every Monday, snippets and tidbits, hidden gems and useful information of anything Wikidata are published in the weekly Wikidata Summary? Sent by Mohammed Abdulai and Danny, anyone is welcome to contribute! Do you have an upcoming Edit-A-Thon or workshop? Want to publicise your latest Wikidata WikiProject, or have an interesting blog post or academic paper about Wikidata to share? Please feel free to add it to the next Wikidata Summary. The Wikidata Summary can be viewed in the Wikidata Project Chat, is delivered to the Wikidata Discussion Mail list (subscribe here) or sent to your User Talk page (add yourself to the distribution list).

Get in touch...

Do you have any questions about the content you’ve read in this update, or perhaps you would like to know more about our project? You can contact us in the following ways:

• Visit our Meta Project and leave comments on our Talk page.
• On our Add Issue page, you can report your own instances of Wikidata integration problems.
• You can leave a message on User:Danny Benjafield (WMDE)'s Talk page .