Research Guides: Semantic Web and Linked Data: Wikibase and Wikidata

Wikimedia Movement

The Wikimedia is a global movement to brings free education to the world vai websites known as Wikimedia Projects which are hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Some of these Projects are listed below. Access the full family of Wikimedia Projects here.

WikiCite
Wikimedia. WikiCite. (2019, July 20). WikiCite is an initiative to develop a database of open citations and linked bibliographic data to better manage citations across Wikimedia projects and languages. Potential applications include ease of discovering publications on a given topic, profiling of authors and institutions, and visualizing knowledge sources in new ways.
Wikidata
Wikidata is a free linked database that acts as central storage for the structured data of Wikimedia projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, and others. It can be read and edited by both humans and machines. The content of Wikidata is available under a free license, exported using standard formats, and can be interlinked to other open data sets on the linked data web.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the open source encyclopedia within the MediaWiki universe. A page in Wikipedia is an article to which Wikidata can link.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a repository of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. Media files from Wikimedia can be linked to Wikidata statements.
Wikiquote
Wikiquote is a free compendium of sourced quotations from notable people and creative works in every language and translations of non-English quotes. It links to Wikipedia for further information.
Wiktionary
Wiktionary. (2019, June 27). Wiktionary is the English-language collaborative Wikimedia Project to produce a free-content multilingual dictionary. It aims to describe all words of all languages using definitions and descriptions in English.

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It includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices.

Wikibase and Wikidata Tools

Docker Desktop
Docker Desktop is a MacOS and Windows application for building and sharing containerized applications and microservices and delivering them from your desktop.

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It enables the leveraging of certified images and templates in a choice of languages and tools. Docker Desktop uses the Google-developed open source orchestration system for automating the management, placement, scaling, and routing of containers.

Wikidata Alert

Wikidata:SPARQL query service/Blazegraph failure playbook
Wikidata. (2021, Dec. 13). This Wikidata article describes the proposed steps the Wiki Media Foundation is considering in the event of a catastrophic failure of its SPARQL Query Service powered by Blazegraph. The failure would occur when the amount of query-able data in Blazegraph exceeds Blazegraph's limits.

Wikibase

Wikibase is the platform on which Wikidata is built. It allows for multi-language instances. For Wikibase Use Cases, see the Wikibase Use Case box on the bottom of the Use Cases page.

Wikibase
Wikibase was developed for Wikidata as an open source collection of applications and libraries for creating and sharing structured data as linked data entities and their relationships. It consists of a set of extensions to the MediaWiki software for storing and managing data (Wikibase Repository) and for embedding data on other wikis (Wikibase Client). Wikibase provides an editing interface for creating, updating, merging, and deleting item and property entities.
Wikibase DataModel
MediWiki. (2019, May 19). This specification describes the structure of the data that is handled in Wikibase. It specifies which kind of information can be contributed to the system. The Wikibase data model provides an ontology for describing real world entities, and these descriptions are concrete models for real world entities. For a less technical explanation of the model, see the Wikibase DataModel Primer.
Wikibase DataModel Primer
MediaWiki. (2018, August 1). This primer gives a good introduction to the Wikibase data model. It provides an outline and an explanation of the different elements of the Wikibase knowledge base and describes the function of each.

Wikibase Resources

Install Docker Compose
In order to install a usable instance of Docker Desktop, the installation package must contain Docker Compose. If an instance is missing Docker Compose, this page provides instructions for installing it.
Installing a stand-alone Wikibase and most used services
This GitHub page provides instructions for establishing a Wikibase instance. It was developed by a member of Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. and four other software developers.
Use cases for institutional Wikibase instances
Mendenhall, Timothy R., Chou, Charlene, Hahn, Jim, et.al. (2020, May). Developed informally by library staff at Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania this GitHub page provides a wealth of information for for institutions considering installing their own Wikibase instance. Covering a wide range of topics such as local

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vocabularies, authority control, organizational name changes, cross-platform discovery, multilingual discovery, pipeline to Wikidata and broader web discovery, digital humanities, database, metadata, and exploratory projects, and more, each topic also supplies a use case example.
Wikibase Consultants and Support Providers
Wikimedia. (2021, Jan. 14). This page list Wikibase service providers who may help with issues with Wikibase instances.
Wikibase Install Basic Tutorial
Miller, Matt. (2019, September). Semantic Lab at Pratt Institute. This tutorial provides instructions for setting up Wikibase using Docker. The tutorial uses Digital Ocean, and it requires setting up an account at Digitalocean.com.
Wikibase Roadmap 2020 High-level Overview (Public)
WikiMedia. (2021, Jan. 11). This is an interactive chart that describes Wikibase development initiatives, including Wikibase Features, Wikibase System Improvements, Partnerships & Programs, Documentation, Wikibase Strategy & Governance, and Developer Tools.

Wikidata

Wikidata is a free, collaborative, multilingual software application built from Wikibase components that can be read and edited by humans and machines. It collects structured data to provide support for Wikimedia Family Projects including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others. The content of Wikidata is available under a free license, exported using standard formats, and can be interlinked to other open data sets on the linked data web.

Wikidata Introduction
Wikidata. (2018, June 18). This page provides a quick overview of Wikidata, its function withing the Wikimedia Universe, and an introduction to Wikidata basics.
Wikidata List of Policies and Guidelines
Wikidata. (2019, January 16). This page lists the proposed and approved policies and guidelines that govern Wikidata covering a wide range of topics including Living people, Deletion policy, Sources, Editing restrictions, Statements, Sitelinks, Verifiability, Administrators, Property creators, CheckUser, and more.
Wikidata: Notability
Wikidata.Notability. (2019, October 10). This page describes the Wikidata policy that sets forth the criteria needed for an item to be acceptable in Wikidata. It provides a link to a list of Wikimedia pages that are not considered automatically acceptable in Wikidata, and a link to a list of items that have been considered acceptable, in accordance to the general guidelines on this page.
Wikidata: Property constraints portal
Wikidata. (2020, June 19). Help:Property constraints portal. This page provides information on property constraints including a list of types and links to pages explaining how the constraints should be applied.
Wikidata Sandbox
Wikidata. (2020, August 24). This page provides a link to the Wikidata Sandbox in which you can experiment and practice using Wikidata. For experimenting with creating new items and properties, use the test.wikidata link on this page.
Wikidata Tours
(2018, April 7). This page provides access to interactive tutorials showing how Wikidata works and how to edit and add data.

Articles, Development Plans, & Reports

ARL White Paper on Wikidata Opportunities and Recommendations
Association of Research Libraries (ARL). (April, 2019). In Wikisource. This paper discusses joint efforts between ARL and Wikidata to explore a way to interlink Wikidata to sources of library data and provide libraries and other GLAM institutions the opportunity to get involved in contributing to modeling and data efforts on a larger scale. Some possible contributions include name authorities, institutional holdings, and faculty information. Suggestions for contributing to Wikidata are also explored.

Creating Library Linked Data with Wikibase: Lessons Learned from Project Passage
OCLC Research. (2019, August). This document describes OCLC's Project Passage, a Wikibase prototype in which librarians from 16 US institutions experimented with creating linked data to describe resources without requiring knowledge of the technical machinery of linked data. The report provides an overview of the context in which the prototype was developed, how the Wikibase platform was adapted for use by librarians, and discusses use cases where participants describe creating metadata for resources in various formats and languages using the Wikibase editing interface. The potential of linked data in library cataloging workflows, the gaps that must be addressed before machine-readable semantic data can be fully adopted and lessons learned are also addressed.

Differences between Wikipedia, Wikimedia, MediaWiki, and wiki
MediaWiki. (2019, April 19). This article provides a brief description of components and related software of the Wikimedia movement. It also provides links to additional Wikimedia movement resources.

Introducing Wikidata to the Linked Data Web
Erxleben, Fredo, Gunter, Michael, Krotzsch, Markus, Mendez, Julian, and Vrandecic, Denny. (2014). This document explains the Wikidata model and discusses its RDF encoding. It is a good place to start if you are considering editing Wikidata.
Lexemes in Wikidata: 2020 Status
Nielsen, Finn Arup. (2020, May). Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Linked Data in Linguistics, pages 82–86. This article discusses the use of lexemes in different languages, senses, forms, and etymology in Wikidata.

Wiki
Wikipedia. (2019, August 22). This Wikipedia article explains the features of a wiki knowledge base website and discusses the software, history, implementations, editing, trustworthiness, and other aspects of a wiki.
Wikidata:Development Plan [2020]
Wikidata. (2020, June 17). This page provides an interactive roadmap to the projects on which the Wikidata Development Team is working during 2020. Clicking on projects in the Wikidata matrix will provide information on projects under the categories: Increase Data Quality & Trust; Build Out the Ecosystem; Encourage More Data Use; Enable More Diverse Data and Users; and Other. The Wikibase matrix includes categories: Wikibase Features; Wikibase System Improvements; Partnerships & Programs;

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Documentation; Wikibase Strategy & Governance; and Developer Tools.
Wikidata: Development Plan [2022]
Wikidata. (2022, February 10). This page provides the roadmap for the Wikidata development team (Wikimedia Deutschland) for Wikidata and Wikibase for 2022. Highlights of the plan include empowering the community to increase data quality, strengthen underrepresented languages, increase re-use for increased impact, empowering knowledge curators to share their data,

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ecosystem enablement, and to connect data across technological & institutional barriers. Some objectives include better understanding of which organizations want to use Wikibase in the future and for what, ensure Wikibases can connect more deeply with each other and Wikidata to form an LOD web, user testing of federated properties in combination with local properties, and more.
Wikidata/Strategy/2019
Wikimedia. (2019, August 27). Wikidata/Strategy/2019. This page provides access to a product vision paper and three product strategy papers discussing possible future developments for Wikidata and Wikibase and a very ambitious role in shaping the future of the information commons through 2030. Topics discussed include strategies for making Wikimedia projects ready for

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the future; maintaining and supporting Wikimedia's growing content; ensuring the integrity of Wikimedia content; furthering knowledge equity; and enabling new ways of consuming and contributing knowledge. There is a strategy paper discussing Wikidata as a platform and another discussing the Wikibase ecosystem.
Wikimedia:LinkedOpenData/Strategy2021/Joint Vision
Wikimedia. Linked Open Data/Strategy 2021/Joint Vision. This document sets out the Wikibase and Wikidata joint vision for working in Linked Open Data. The document describes the vision, strategy, guiding principles, and approach to building out the Wikibase ecosystem.

Wikidata-Related Resources

Creating and editing libraries in Wikidata
Scott, Dan. (2018, February 18). Dan Scott's blog provides useful linked data information. This blog entry describes how to create a Wikidata item for a particular library. Properties useful for describing libraries and their collections are also provided.
DBpedia
DBpedia is a crowd-sourced community effort to extract structured information from Wikipedia and make this information available on the Web. DBpedia provides the ability for sophisticated queries against Wikipedia, and to link the different data sets on the Web to Wikipedia data.
Linked Open Data Cloud Wikidata Page
This LOD Cloud page provides information about Wikidata, including download links, contact information, SPARQL endpoint, triples count, the Wikidata namespace, and more. It also provides examples of Wikidata concepts using information about Nelson Mandela in Wikidata.
MediaWiki
MediaWiki. (2019, June 14). This is the MediaWiki main page. MediaWiki is a multilingual, free and open, extensible, and customizable wiki software engine used for websites to collect, organize, and make available knowledge. It was developed for Wikipedia and other WikiMedia Projects. It includes an API for reading and writing data, and support for managing user permissions, page editing history, article discussions, and an index for unstructured text documents.
Practical Wikidata for Librarians
Wikidata. (2021, Feb. 11). Wikidata:WikiProject Linked Data for Production/Practical Wikidata for Librarians. This page provides a vast array of resources for librarians and archivists interested in editing Wikidata, and provides a space to share data models and best practices. Among the resources are instructional materials, policies, project recipes, verifiability, guidelines for describing entities in particular domains, constraint reports, user scripts, gadgets, and more.
User:HakanIST/EntitySchemaList
Wikidata. (2021, April 20). This is a list of schemas used for describing Entities in Wikidata compiled by Wikidata user HkanIST.
Wikidata editing with OpenRefine
Wikidata: Tools/OpenRefine/Editing. (2021, April 25). This page provides links to tutorials, videos and a reference manual demonstration how to use OpenRefine to add and edit items in Wikidata. It also demonstrates using MarkEdit with OpenRefine and Wikidata.

Wikidata in Brief
Wikimedia Commons. (2017, July 31). This document gives a one page overview of Wikidata.
Wikidata Query Service in Brief
Stinson, Alex. (2018, March). This document gives a one page overview of the Wikidata query service.

Wikimedia
Wikibooks. (2019, April 12). This open book provides information on how to use Wikis covering topics including editing, basic markup language, images, templates, categories, namespaces, administrative namespaces, user namespaces, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikibooks, Meta, Wikidata, Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikiquotes, Wikivoyage, and more.
Works in Progress Webinar: Introduction to Wikidata for Librarians
OCLC Research. (2018, June, 12). This OCLC Webinara gives a brief introduction to Wikidata.

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