Wikibase Community User Group/Meetings/2023-11-30

Online meeting of the Wikibase Community User Group.

Schedule

• 17:00 UTC (18:00 Berlin), 1 hour, Thursday 30th November 2023
• Online meeting: https://meet.jit.si/WikibaseLiveSession
• Notes on Etherpad

Participants

1. Valerie (she/her) WMDE
2. Jon (they/them) WMDE
3. Raphael Wimmer, Uni Regensburg, new here, using Wikibase for https://graphit.ur.de
4. Keren (she/her) WMDE - UX researcher
5. Nguyen Vu (VWUG) (a.k.a Pisces)
6. Laurence 'GreenReaper' Parry (WikiFur.com / WBUG)
7. Sky Bristol (he/him)
8. Jackie
9. Mairelys
10. Jvkebox
11. TuukkaH
12. Max Kristen (Kristbaum)
13. David Lindemann
14. Christoph Jackel (WMDE)
15. Tore Danielsson
16. Megs (they/them)
17. Tom (WMDE)

Agenda

• Welcome!
• News: Visual Identity
• Survey
• Product Manager
• Suite asks [questions]
• Intro to this session's concept
  • Our topic today: How do you install Wikibase Suite?
• Discussion:
  • Which method do you use currently (Git, Tarballs or Docker)?
  • In what environments and use cases?
  • What are the advantages you find in using your chosen method(s)?
  • If you're using Git or Tarballs:
    • Any reasons you decided to go with it instead of Docker?
    • What would it take to make Docker more viable for you?

Notes

• Mairelys: (Possibly simple) question
• David: I'd like to briefly introduce a tool I am working on (Laurence: and got a Rapid grant for); I have mentioned that last time. It is called ZotWb
  • It is some scripts he had for interaction between Zotero (https://zotero.org) and Wikibase; He found a way to wrap them in a simple python Flask app. Original use case can be see here: https://lexbib.elex.is
  • He is looking for Zotero & Wikibase users who'd like to test it and contribute giving feedback.
  • He had to fix a couple of things, but let's say tomorrow you can fork that github repo and start to test it. The simple way he found to have functions for interacting with wikibase wrapped in python flask may be interesting for more people than just Zotero users.
  • There are currently some limitations he'd need help to solve:
    • Works only for Wikibase.cloud (at the moment)
    • Works only on linux (at the moment)
  • '"David, I like what you put together there. We are using Zotero as one source for a bunch of documents to geokb.wikibase.cloud. I'll check out what you put together to see where it might fit for us. We are doing most things with bot code, but I can imagine where the UI function might be useful."' - Sky Bristol
  • Comment:
    • David: "yeah, I used to do everything directly with bot code (wikibaseintegrator for python) but I wanted this to become generic (any Zotero group / any wikibase), and have some GUI for the config and commands"
    • for the library-background people: I have also some experiments sending MARC records to a Wikibase, see https://clb-lod.wikibase.cloud
• Took some time to arrange visual identity for Wikibase (the logo originally presented earlier in the year for Wikibase Cloud was actually intended for Wikibase as a whole, with titled versions for e.g. Cloud, Suite as shown on Commons)
• Survey for Wikibase.cloud - anonymous (unless you choose to identify yourself) and shorter than prior surveys
• Evelien is departing as product manager and a job offer is available to fill her position
• Focusing on Docker distribution but know that Git and Tarball still used - why, where are the gaps? "What are your recipes looking like these days?"
  • Max does a tar-based install without WDQS - would prefer Docker due to difficulty upgrading / bad experience, but simple web hosting enviroment provided by university does not permit docker.
  • (Various discussions in chat - some people still prefers to use solutions like WB.C)
  • Raphael: Managed to set up Docker and install extensions but visualizations of WDQS are not what you want and want to tweak it but the docker image has been minified and is not able to be customzied so easily.
  • Tom points out that Wikibase.cloud is targeted for users without technical background.
• Request for quality constraints extension to be integrated into product (Laurence: has come up several times from userbase)