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GLAM/Newsletter/February 2020/Contents/Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons report

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Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons report

Summary of pilot projects, and what's next

By SandraF

Since 2019, files on Wikimedia Commons can be enhanced with multilingual and machine-readable structured data. If Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons is still pretty new to you, here's a very short introduction video (3'30 minutes):

A summary of GLAM pilot projects

In the past year, the WMF GLAM team has mentored GLAM staff and Wikimedia community members in a series of pilot projects, to ‘test’ this new technology, explore its potential, and provide inspiring examples. What does Structured Data on Commons make possible? Which new questions and challenges appear?

Structured data for a very small (art) collection

Wikidata-driven gallery on Wikimedia Commons of the collection of the Jakob Smitsmuseum

Staff from the Belgian organization PACKED vzw (now called meemoo) have imported the collection of the Jakob Smitsmuseum, a small, municipal art museum, to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, in order to experiment with data modeling, and to explore the potential of structured data to make small collections accessible online for the first time.

Blog post: https://space.wmflabs.org/2019/12/04/how-we-helped-a-small-art-museum-to-increase-the-impact-of-its-collections-with-wikimedia-projects-and-structured-data/

Connecting different collections, and linking them to their historical context

Structured data-driven page that displays relationships between objects designed by the Wolfers dynasty, and the drawings that have served as blueprints and designs for them

Another pilot project with PACKED vzw has brought together, and connected, the work of three generations of prominent Belgian silversmiths, exploring the potential of structured data to connect (art) collections around the world and to link them to their broader context. This pilot also highlighted the description of copyright and licenses in structured data.

Blog post: https://space.wmflabs.org/2020/02/26/connecting-the-work-of-three-generations-of-decorative-artists-with-structured-data/

Describing digitized publications, making data re-usable across wikis

Books in the Punjabi Qisse genre, described with structured data

Wikimedians have described digitized books with structured data, to prepare them for transcription on Wikisource, investigating how Structured Data on Commons can help to avoid data duplication across Wikimedia projects and how it can make cross-wiki workflows more efficient.

Blog post: https://space.wmflabs.org/2019/12/07/how-can-structured-data-on-commons-wikidata-and-wikisource-walk-hand-in-hand-a-pilot-project-with-punjabi-qisse/

A game to easily add structured data through campaigns and contests

At various Wikimedia conferences and on other occasions, people organize mini-challenges with ISA, and so can you!

The ISA Tool is a multilingual, mobile-friendly tool, that makes it easy for anyone - especially beginners! - to add structured data to images on Wikimedia Commons. You can create 'tagging' campaigns and small competitions in ISA. Anyone can do this - no need to be an administrator or a skilled user! ISA was developed as a Structured Data on Commons and GLAM pilot, by Wiki In Africa and Eugene Egbe in collaboration with Histropedia and the Structured Data on Commons team.

Blog post: https://space.wmflabs.org/2019/11/26/introducing-isa-a-cool-tool-for-adding-structured-data-on-commons/

The new frontier of data roundtripping

Metadata roundtripping now becomes easier thanks to structured data. Is this something your GLAM partners would be interested in?

Various organizations researched data synchronization and roundtripping with external databases – a feature that many larger GLAM institutions ask for, and for which structured data on Wikimedia projects provides more advanced foundations.

Blog post: https://space.wmflabs.org/2019/12/13/data-roundtripping-a-new-frontier-for-glam-wiki-collaborations/

Open questions and fresh challenges

A concluding blog post summarizes the open questions and fresh challenges that Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons poses for the GLAM-Wiki community - challenges related to data federation and the correct description of creative works and media files that show these works.

  • The difference between data about a creative work and a file showing that work, as described on Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons
    The difference between data about a creative work and a file showing that work, as described on Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons

What's next?

New GLAM projects that use Structured Data on Commons

In 2020, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides digital assets from DPLA's contributors to Wikimedia Commons, describing the files with structured data. Dominic Byrd-McDevitt (User:Dominic), formerly Wikipedian in Residence at US National Archives and a GLAM-Wiki pioneer, works as a data fellow on this project.

Are you also working on a new project that involves structured data? Make sure to add it to the GLAM page of the Structured Data on Commons portal, and report on it in This Month in GLAM!


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