Wikibase Community User Group

The Wikibase Community User Group exists to support Wikibase as an entity distinct from Wikidata. Its mission is to cultivate Wikibase's development and to encourage like-minded developers and data analysts not only to improve Wikibase's existing tools but also to create new ones.

The overall objectives are to provide an alternative space for people interested in Wikibase to see how people can use it, and encourage others to expand on these ideas to push the software further. This would be similar to what happened with MediaWiki, where outside developers and community developers used the software, and created a bunch of tools, extensions and apps. This increased the use of the software around the Internet, with these tools then assisting the Wikimedia community by bringing developers into it that would otherwise not have been there.

Objectives

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The objectives of the Wikibase Community User Group are:

Provide technical documentation related to a project the participants are working on as it relates to Wikibase.
Provide a list of resources for other members of the community to have easy access to inside the Wikimedia ecosystem when it comes to setting up their own Wikibase install, Wikibase Query Engine install, and other related pieces of software.
Do new and interesting things using Wikibase that are different than many of the developers at the WMF and WMDE are doing. Provide outside thinking of how the software can be used in ways that benefit a project the participants are working on and the wider community.
Encourage the creation of a bigger developer community around Wikibase.
Provide documentation on data normalization that can be used by less technically-minded data people who want a pre-packaged data analysis software tool like Wikibase and its query engine.

The overall objective would be to provide an alternative space for people interested in Wikibase to see how people can use it, and encourage others to expand on these ideas to push the software further. This would be similar to what happened with Mediawiki, where outside developers and community developers used the software, and created a bunch of tools and extensions and apps. This increased the use of the software around the Internet, with these tools then assisting the Wikimedia community by bringing developers into it that would otherwise not have been there.

Activities

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There are several general types of activities the group are engaging in. These include:

Create technical documentation on how to use Wikibase.
Update Wikibase Community User Group pages to include links to documentation regarding Wikibase, links to data normalization for data input into Wikibase and links to other documentation the group creates to make it easier for others to use Wikibase and its related software like the query engine.
Make tools the group is working on more public and usable by the wider community.
Chat with other developers and people using or wanting to use Wikibase.
Present at conferences.
Attract like-minded developers to work on Wikibase.

Specific upcoming events that the group is working on trying to organize:

Consult more with WMDE to see how they can support us and we can provide feedback on Wikibase, from both a technical and workflow perspective.
Create documentation about upgrading Mediawiki and Wikibase, as no process exists for this as Wikibase software is currently not upgradable.