Wikimedia Deutschland/Data Partnerships Model/Data Partnership Scenarios and Working Method

Data Partnerships Scenarios and Working Method

There are a number of ways in which partners may want to get involved in Wikidata and Wikibase. Below we explore each scenario in further detail.

Wikidata partnerships

Linked data contribution & linking to data

In the case of a linked data contribution, a partner has a set of data that they want to add to Wikidata. There are two forms of data contributions: either new Items are added to Wikidata, or existing Items are enriched by adding further statements. Linked data contributions are usually handled by the community after our initial contact. That process is documented here. By contributing their data, the partner is responsible for keeping the data up to date, becomes part of the community, and accepts that the partner no longer controls or “owns” the Items and Statements, since anything may be edited by anyone on Wikidata.

One special case of data contribution is when a partner links to data. An institution’s data sets may contain identifiers that can be linked to QIDs in Wikidata. A good example is the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). With the help of a Wikidata community member, over 7,000 existing Wikidata Items were connected to their online database GEPRIS Historisch.

How does the project help partners? There are many reasons why a data contribution might help a partner, such as increased visibility for their data, multilingual support for their projects and revealing potential biases in their collection. When linked to Wikidata, the partner’s data collection gets more visibility and becomes available via Wikidata. Their data is also linked to other identifiers, making their identifiers discoverable and creating linked data that connects realms (e.g., a bibliographic identifier linked to GND, VIAF, or LOC).

How does the project help us? Wikidata gets access to high-quality data, which improves its overall data quality and usefulness. As more external databases are linked, Wikidata strengthens its role as a hub in the Linked Open Data web.

Questions to ask in this scenario:

Is the data notable according to Wikidata community rules?
Is the data of high enough quality for the Wikidata community?
How large is the set of improved data?
Does the data fall within Wikidata’s scope?
Will a community member or in-house expert assist in uploading the data and maintaining it on an ongoing basis?
When linking data: does the data contain persistent identifiers?

Ways in which we might assist in this scenario:

Providing introductions and workshops about Wikidata
Offering advice and support on how and when to use Wikidata
Helping with facilitating discussions in the Wikidata community
Publicizing data contributions
Creating user documentation

Data Reuse

Data re-users are partners who reuse Wikidata’s data in their projects. In most cases we are not even aware of the identity of these partners: Data re-users can range from larger companies to individual projects. No matter the size of the data re-user, each is an important stakeholder in Wikidata’s sustainability. Data re-users improve the quality of Wikidata’s data by identifying inconsistencies, mismatches and sometimes even vandalism in the data. They also develop tools that improve the user experience when using Wikidata’s data. Most importantly, data re-users share Wikidata’s data to the world and wider communities through their projects.

The partnerships team addresses data re-users’ queries, collects feedback on tools such as the Mismatch Finder, and makes Wikidata more visible to the world. At our events, such as the Data Reuse Days, we connect various groups of data re-users so they can share their projects and exchange ideas with each other and with the Wikidata community.

Wikibase partnerships

Installing a Wikibase instance

We actively explore this option for institutions with linked data which may be outside Wikidata’s scope. The Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND) Wikibase evaluation project at the German National Library is a good example; the library world’s interest in Wikibase is high. For many institutions, especially libraries, Wikibase is often the most attractive open-source solution for linked data. Partnerships such as these allow us to collect needs and requirements to aid our development process and demonstrate how Wikibase works in the wild. Additionally, these projects demonstrate that Wikibase can successfully power non-Wikimedia projects that approach Wikidata’s scale.

How does the project help partners? They can explore and evaluate Wikibase for their linked data needs. Often Wikibase is the only solution with which you can flexibly model, collaboratively edit and query linked data.

How does the project help us?

More people gain more access to more knowledge
Increased insight into user requirements for Wikibase
Increased visibility for Wikibase
Strengthens the Wikibase Ecosystem

Questions to ask in this scenario:

Is Wikibase suitable for this data set?
Is the potential partner better suited to Wikibase.cloud or setting up a self-hosted Wikibase instance?
If self-hosted, does the potential partner have the technical expertise to install, maintain and host Wikibase?
Does the potential partner have the technical expertise to model, upload and maintain the data?
Will this Wikibase instance increase the total amount of publicly available free data? Does it contribute meaningfully to the ecosystem – e.g., does it add as yet nonexistent data, does it increase diversity, etc.?

What support will we provide? We guide our partners through the various stages of their project. We offer information on installing Wikibase through introductory presentations, workshops, documentation and answering questions via email. We may organize regular meetings with the WMDE partnerships team and consultations with our development team to help our partners tackle challenges and technical issues that might arise during the course of their project. Our team collects feedback about our user interface and users’ requirements, and we work closely with the development teams to improve the Wikibase user experience. We support the installation by giving it publicity (e.g., in a blog post, press release or interview) which ensures it will receive visibility in our movement and beyond.