Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

WikiObject

A Wikipedia for Open and Structured Objects/Product Data

This is a proposal for a new Wikimedia sister project.
WikiObject
The logo for the project, if you already have one
Status of the proposal
Statusstalled
Reasonno regular activity in years Dronebogus (talk) 07:59, 24 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Details of the proposal
Project descriptionhow about a wikipedia about objects? Instead of generic articles of , for example, "Ballpoint pen" or "Bic cristal" it would be "Green Ballpoint pen Bic cristal 2014" Doing these for millions of objects would allow people to have an open, free, universal and central place to refer specific objects.
Is it a multilingual wiki?Yes, but most of information will not need translation, like numeric data (weight, length, ...), proper nouns (manufacturer, distributor, ...) or references/links (official website, parts, source code repository, ...).

New Wikidata properties that probably will be needed like "Standard Compliant", "IP CODE" , and much more, will need translation, but only once.

Objects name and description are main reason for multilingual
Potential number of languagesIs the project going to be in one language or in many?
Proposed taglineA Wikipedia for Objects
Proposed URLA separated website/tool could be created. wikiobject.org isn't availiabe so url could be something like objects.wikidata.org
Technical requirements
New features to requireWIkidata could be use as structured data storage and Wikicommons as file storage.

Some tools from Wikidata like AutoList and Reasonator could be implemented in a standalone website for the project.

A standalone website is not completely neccesary but probably will help final user to separate wikipedia articles from wikidata objects paradigm.
Development wikihttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Objects
Interested participants
List of project participants

Disclaimer: These examples are in a very early stage and it may contents wrong or imprecise data, be careful and please edit as needed, Thanks.

Practical applications

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Creating neutral and standard lists

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Nowadays if anyone create, for example, a tutorial for building something (DIY projects, cooking receipts, ...) they have to link all items to a commercial or no-neutral web which could change its url in the future or redirect it to adds or whatever.

Lists could be created in external webpages linking Wikimedia objects webpage or/and could be created as category pages in Wikipedia.

Example: Currently, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_of_the_Year article lists cars which won COTY award but not links to the specific car (AUDI A3 Hatchback 2012–Present) but generic serie (Audi A3). The good thing at this point it's that to start creating object lists only item name is necessary, no infoboxes or description needed.


Product comparision / Product versions comparison

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Example: IPhone smartphones with CPUs and sizes comparison: https://w.wiki/RC2 (press execute query button to see results)

Universal repository for inventories

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Lot of business fill their inventories again and again with same data ("cardboard box 50x30x15", "step by step nema motor 17", ... ) they should be able to import this data from an open website with their corresponding info like GTIN, SKU, Barcode... and more in the future weight, size, ...

Example: Sample list of non-alcoholic beverages with GTIN : https://w.wiki/Rpe It's possible to download the list in CSV , JSON , etc... clicking in "Download" at the right botom menu.


Products Recycling and Reutilitation

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Imagine if we use wikidata properties (of properties/Generic https://m.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:List_of_properties/Generic) like "has part" and "part of" , people will find other uses for objects, or discover were to find.


Regulatory compliance

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Social activism and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

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Companies have info and metrics about their costumers (habits, location, ...) why not costumers have info about companies products, who manufacture what?, what products have a good Carbon footprint?, what products have been retired from some problem?, what are Fair Trade?. This also can moved companies do better.


Stakeholders use cases

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A) Use cases for DIY Community and Open Source Hardware Organizations.

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Makers, Hackspaces/FabLabs, Open Source Hardware Communities like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, RepRap, FreeCAD , related media like Instructables and Makezine.

Example 1: Components of a 3D Printer (Prusa I3 Hephestos)
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To list components of DIY projects. This is an example of an item (Prusa I3 Hephestos 3D Printer) that have parts. One of this is another item (Freaduino Mega 2560 v1.2.) and the other one is an autogenerated list of stepper motors that match some Prusa I3 specifications. Actually, if you want to add another stepper motor to the list you only have to create a wikidata item with this statements: "instance of stepper motor" , "width 1.7 inch" and "lentgh 1.7 inch".

Example 2: Arduino/Genuino Uno Rev 3 Datasheet
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Be aware that EEPROM, SRAM and Flash Memory values are not defined as Arduino characteristics because they really correspond to one of its parts, ATmega328P microcontroller. Other example with data about IceZUM Board.

Example 3: List of arduino official boards
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Here, using Wikidata Query Service is possible to query "items manufactured by Arduino LCC company" equivalent to said "offical arduino boards" Other similar examples:

Example 4: All Open source hardware Items in Wikidata

Using Wikidata Query Service, this links runs the following query:

#All Open Source Hardware Items in Wikidata
#P31 is "instance of" property ID and Q159172 is "Open Source Hardware" item ID
SELECT ?item ?itemLabel ?_image ?_official_website ?_source_code_repository WHERE {
  ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q159172. 
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en". }
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P18 ?_image. }
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P854 ?_reference_URL. }
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P856 ?_official_website. }
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P1324 ?_source_code_repository. }
}


B) Use cases for Gamers

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Example 1: List of videogames in Wikidata
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Using Wikidata Query Service we are able to list every videogame and its data like release date, developer, genre,etc... We have limited query to 10 results..


C) Use cases for Manufacturers

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Manufacturer could have a base place (wikidata) to display useful info, get product feedback, and start conversations with their stackholders about specific objects.

Example 1: Products manufactured by Arduino LCC company

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This could be an use as a company product catalog

Example 2: Dell P2415Q 24 review

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Using Wikidata properties for review platforms like Property:P3308 for https://lib.reviews/ companies could get centralized feedback about a specific product

D) Use cases for Distributors

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Product distributors can enhace their catalogs and inventories with wikidata object information:

Example 1 : List of LED lamps

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People usually browse a product by a certain features (properties) like and almost all these data are not tabulated or are in pdf catalogs, datasheet, ... with these objects in wikidata, people (target market) should find it faster and easier.

Example 2 : basic data source to their websites

Use wikidata objects as main source for their websites will let distributors center their effort in more valuable data, like comments, reviews, tutoriales, releated services, etc. ...

E) Use cases for Sponsors/Investors

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They could make their donations/funding visible to all the world

Example : Using Property:P859 to indicate the IceZUM Board sponsor

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Using Property:P859 is possible to indicate sponsor of an object. In these example also is set from/to sponsor dates

F) Use cases for Public Administration

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Example 1: To compare and check products in public procurements.

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In Public Administration, most of works have to go out to public tender in order to compete for get the contract. If these works requires to use of some products, these products have to fullfill certain requirements. Example: A City Council wants to renew its street lights and several companies offers a wide range of new LED lights. Then City Council technicians has to compare all of it to know if they fullfill certain ISO/UNE Standards and certain requirements as light flux, color temperature, ...

We should need to focus in a few public furniture objects like "street lights" and "trash containers" and define needed properties.


G) Use cases For Standards organization

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(Example users in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_organization)

Example 1: To give visibility and more value to their standards compliance

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If there is a place where companies can show their products standards compliance like RoHS, CE, some ISO etc... and these place is consulted by millions of people, more companies will want to get these standards compliance for their products.


H) Use cases For Final User

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Product reviews and consumer protection

Example 1: "The Bone Clocks" book review

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At the identifiers section of this wikidata item, It's defined lib.reviews ID linking to this book review (https://lib.reviews/thing/5d959136-380e-48ad-93e2-2db6bb081faa)

Create object/item quick tutorial

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1) Before creating a new item, make sure does not already exist searching here

2) If not, click on "Create Item" in left sidebar menu

3) Complete form and press "Create Item" button.

4) Let's say that your recently created item is a "Raspberry Pi", now you can start adding a statement to it. An example of statement is "Raspeberry Pi is a single-board computer"

  • To do this in wikidata you should add to "Raspberry Pi" item, the property "is a subclass of" with the value "single-board computer", see it in action: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q245

4.1) So to do it, in your item form press "+ add" button, and a searchbox will appear to add a property.

4.2) Start typing the name of the property you want to add and select it.

4.3) A new searchbox will appear to add the value, if the property makes reference to another item, if have to be created before if not you have to be create it, in the same way as is explained in steps 1 to 3.

5) To see your item in a more nice interface search it on https://tools.wmflabs.org/reasonator

Useful Properties

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Property Wikidata property Objects Related Info
Instance of P31 All
Manufacturer P176 Manufactured products
Has part P527
List of P360
Length P2043
Width P2049
Mass P2067
Use P366
Image P18
Publication date P577 Is possible to use like release date?
Connector P2935
Product P1056
Color P462
Clock speed P2149
Luminous intensity P3041
Follows P155 For indicate next/previous item versions/models
Followed by P156
Memory capacity P2928
Throughput P2957
Color Temperature No light bulbs, lamps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature
IP CODE P7315 Industrial manufacturing objects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code
Sponsor P859 Open Source Objects particularly
Lifetime (hours) No light bulbs, lamps
Standard Compliant P5009 Electronic Components. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_organization
Based on P144
Material used P186
Source Code P1324
3D File P4896 Also is proposed as Wikimedia commons file.

Proposal: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/3D_Model

EAN No https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Article_Number
GTIN P3962
Colour Index International constitution ID P2027
Brand P1716
By product P2821
Carbon dioxide equivalent P5991
fabrication method P2079
discontinued date P2669
price P2284
product certification P1389
user manual link P2078
Operating Temperature P5066
Catalog P972
CPU P880
Scanned File P996
Power Consumed P2791
Voltage P2436
Data transfer speed P6711
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Alternative names

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Wikiitems, Wikiproducts, OpenProducts Wiki?

SWOT Analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

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Threats

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Data authorithy

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A way to take care about it could be done in a future thought "Signed statements" https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T138708

Constraint violations

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Future feature for inline validation could solve this problem. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T138748

Similar Wikimedia projects

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Similar projects

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Similar companies services

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Common vocabulary

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Domain names

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objects.wikipedia.org

Discussion

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Demos

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For quick example see links in "Use Cases and Examples" section above.

For a demo/showcase website:

A demo/showcase website could be developed using an open source content management system with a good and flexible api, like Drupal. This site will get wikidata product info using wikidara query service https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Data_access and will show results in a user-friendly interface.


Roadmap proposal

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  1. Look for people/communities interested to join forces.
    1. If you are interested write it on "People interested" section.
    2. If you are not sure, take a look to "Use Cases and Examples" section.
    3. If you think that more people or organizarion could be interested on this, please share with them this link https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiObject.
  2. Contributing creating wikidata items for small sets of products.
    1. For example, this page in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_hardware_projects lists open source hardware projects. It could be cool got the same but with the corresponding open source hardware products. At the very beginning, using wikidata infrestructure, objects would only have common info like "name", " image", "manufacturer", "related links" (datasheets?), GTIN, and existing propierties. First use cases, like previous, should be lists of objects by categories (open source hardware products category).
  3. Step by step new fields (properties) could be added.
    1. One of most important property for product data, GTIN, have been accepted by wikidata community https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Global_Trade_Information_Number_(GTIN)
    2. Other are under discussion like "Input Current (A)"
    3. A list of useful properties is in https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Objects#Useful_Properties Enlarge it!
  4. Create demo/showcase website to demonstrate project potencial and benefits for all world and people. This demo website would get all data from wikidata and exposed it on a more user-friendly interface. This website could be developed using an open source content management system with a good and flexible api, like Drupal. Even more, the code of this website could be opensourced to allow other people have their own custom platform for their specific use cases.
  5. In a long-term in order to explote all the possibilities of this project more complex fields and relations would have to be managed, to be able to query like for example "fridges with energy class A+++ and width less than 80 cm".
  6. Get Support / Funding for Wikimedia: In my humble opinion, problem with Wikipedia funding It's that most part of its users don't see culture as a need (sorry for that, I am a sporadic donor to Wikipedia too). In Wikiobject case I think it could rather be different. If part of companies business lies on this project, companies will be very inclined to donate to improve performance, usability, etc..similar to what happens in Linux. Where came this need from? Data needed for some software to run, product visibility, costumer info requests, etc. ... , no advertisement needed, It could be a need and standart. I trully believe that world need something like this, and the correct people to do it, to warranty openness and independence, are you?


Proposed by

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Qupro (talk) 08:20, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Contributing / Collaboration

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First of all, thank you. You can:

People interested

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  1.   Strong support Qupro (talk) 08:20, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Pauljmackay (talk) 19:32, 28 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  3. maxlath (talk) 18:08, 5 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Ostschweizer (talk) 09:20, 12 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  5.   Strong support --Scoid (talk) 14:56, 21 August 2019 (UTC) Bringing production sites of specific goods closer to their consumers helps the planet to save transport routes. An in-depth database for a detailed description of all objects would give an enormous boost to the possibilities of recycling. The project would open Wikimedia to a new audience interested in technology and would certainly receive support from both manufacturers and interested states interested in recycling to meet their climate goals.[reply]
  6.   Strong support The idea is quite fascinating, and it's everything that the future needs to have. What more can i do than support such a project? (this project has quite a resemblance to wikidata) Arep Ticous 17:58, 14 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  7.   Support Why not? We need an add-on to Wikidata. Arthurfan828 (talk) 01:34, 8 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  8. --Kitabc12345 (talk) 05:09, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  9.   Strong support I found it very useful. --Tinker Bell ★ ♥ 04:00, 14 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  10.   Strong support for adding objects/products and their properties to Wikidata. I'm doubtful about creating a new, separate wiki, "a wikipedia about objects". It seems like this is a great fit for Wikidata. Ehn (talk) 06:30, 11 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  11.   Strong support -- Monirec (talk) 12:50, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  12.   Support --Tmv (talk) 12:11, 12 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  13.   Strong support I would definitely love to see a user defined structured database of products. This would be a very valuable addition to wikipedia, and there are lots of cases where it would be useful. Today, the information regarding a product exists on internet but is scattered over lots of incomplete or erroneous databases; as a result looking for information on a product can be tedious. Having a centralized one would definitely help, and would make a valuable use of internet. Like others, I think that wikidata has all the richness and expressiveness this database requires, but I see one big limitation: such database should be able to store at least photos of the products to unambiguously identify them (old products don't all have gtin), and I'm pretty sure that these photos wouldn't be allowed in wikimedia creative commons. Grafffy (talk) 09:25, 18 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  14.   Strong support Rtnf (talk) 04:54, 19 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  15.   Strong support This will be more better than usinf Wikidata for stuff like this! TylerMagee (talk) 08:26, 11 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

People opposed

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  1.   Oppose This looks and sounds very similar to Wikidata. AnotherEditor144 t - c 13:12, 1 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    1. I think this project is like Wikipedia, it would describe objects in a text style, and just like Wikipedia, can use Wikidata structured data. --Tinker Bell ★ ♥ 01:32, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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