Wikidata Introduction Workshop as part of the Train the Trainers Meeting of CAPACOA's Linked Digital Future Initiative, Montreal, 21 August 2019

1. Wikidata Introductory Workshop
Linked Digital Future Initiative – Train the Trainers’ Workshop
Beat Estermann, Montréal, 21 August 2019
Unless otherwise noted, the content of this presentation is made available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

2. • Short introduction to Wikidata
• What is its purpose?
• How does it work?
• Wikidata + Performing Arts
• Aim & vision
• Where do we stand?
• Discussion: How to approach Wikidata in the context of the LDF Initiative?
• Let’s Practice!
• Querying Wikidata
• Editing Wikidata
On the Programme Today
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t
assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity
of the sea. – Antoine de Saint Exupery
Course page on Wikidata:
https://tinyurl.com/WD-intro-LDFI

3. Short Introduction to Wikidata
• What is its purpose?
• How does it work?

4. Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely
share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.

5. Structured
Commons

6. Purpose of Wikidata
• Centralized Interwiki-Links [Example: Montréal]
• Centralized Data Management for Infoboxes [Example: Ferdinand de Saussure]
• Centralized Data Management for Lists [Example: Lista de pinturas de A. Norfini]
• Possibility of Querying the Data in a Standardized Format
[Example Queries / External Applications]
« The Sum of All Human Knowledge» as Linked Open Data
 Multilingual
 With Sourced Statements
 Freely usable by anyone (CC Zero)

7. Structure of Wikidata – RDF Triples
Bern Switzerlandis the capital of
Subject Predicate Object
Switzerland capital Bern
Predicate ObjectSubject
Switzerland
Subject
is a
Predicate
Country
Object
instance
class
property
instance
instance
property
Switzerland
Subject
GDP
Predicate
518 Mia. $ value
property
instance
point in time 2015 value
qualifier

8. Structure of Wikidata – Linked Data
Subject Predicate Object
Bern
(Q70)
is a
(P31 - instance of)
municipality of Switzerland
(Q70208)
Bern
(Q70)
is the capital of
(P1376 - is the capital of)
Switzerland
(Q39)
Berlin
(Q64)
is a
(P31 - instance of)
municipality of Germany
(Q262166)
Berlin
(Q64)
is the capital of
(P1376 - is the capital of)
Germany
(Q183)
Switzerland
(Q39)
is a
(P31 - instance of)
country
(Q6256)
Germany
(Q183)
is a
(P31 - instance of)
country
(Q6256)
municipality of Switzerland
(Q70208)
is a subclass of
(P279 - subclass of)
municipality
(Q15284)
municipality of Germany
(Q262166)
is a subclass of
(P279 - subclass of)
municipality
(Q15284)
Bern Switzerlandis the capital of
Subject Predicate Object
URI
URI URI

9. Structure of a Wikidata Entry
Douglas
Adams Jane Belsonspouse
Subject
Predicate
Object
start / end time 25 Nov. 1991 – 11 May 2001
Ref.

10. It’s Your Turn!
• Does the WD item of your
place of residence / birth have
a statement for the mayor? Is
it up to date?
• Does the Wikipedia page
contain this information?
• How about the French /
Catalan Wikipedia?
US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Public
Information Office, around 1940. NARA. Public Domain.
Find the information on the Internet
and add it to Wikidata!
Add it also to Wikipedia! (in your
language and in Catalan/French!)

11. Wikidata + Performing Arts
• Aims & vision
• Where do we stand?

12. • Realize an international performing arts database on the
basis of Wikidata
• Provide a powerful finding aid for performing arts related content
on Wikimedia Commons
• Promote Wikidata-powered infoboxes about performing arts
related topics in the various language versions of Wikipedia
• Get heritage institutions to make their performing arts related
data and content available through Wikidata & Wikimedia
Commons
Aims & Vision (Wikidata Project Performing Arts)

13. Thematic Projects
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Cultural_heritage [Example]

14. Core Aspects of Linked Data Publication
Source: eCH-0205 – Linked Open Data

15. Current Challenges
Source of the graphic: eCH-0205 – Linked Open Data
Data
scraping &
cleansing
Data Ingest (data
mapping &
matching) Data
Modelling
Issues
✔ ✔
Manual Data
Entry
How to Overcome the
Chicken-and-Egg
Problem?

16. • Current examples show great potential for the inclusion of Wikidata-
powered content in the field of the performing arts.
• Current initiatives may benefit from improved coordination – also
across linguistic borders.
• Despite many examples of how structured data is used, the data is
usually not pulled from Wikidata.
• Large parts of the structured data in Wikipedia related to the
performing arts is not available on Wikidata.
Status Quo – Wikipedia

17. Example: List of Productions of « Les Galas Karsenty »
(French Wikipedia)

18. Example: Infobox « Das Land des Lächelns »
(German Wikipedia)

19. Example: Infobox « Aksandr Golovin »
(Russian Wikipedia)

20. Example: Listing of the scenographic work of
Aleksandr Golovin (Russian Wikipedia)

21. Example: List of theatrical works by William
Shakespeare (German Wikipedia)

22. Example: Infobox Opéra Bastille (French Wikipedia)

23. Example: List of Artistic Directors and Well-Known
Artists at Stadttheater Bern (German Wikipedia)

24. Databases
• ISNI
• VIAF
• MusicBrainz
• Discogs
• IMDb
• Songkick
• Wikidata
Relevant Base Registers / Authority Files
Entities
• Works (literary, musical, choreographic)
• Editions/Translations of Works
• Character Roles
• Performing Arts Buildings
• Humans (writers, composers, performing arts
professionals)
• Organizations (presenting organizations, musical
ensembles, theatre troupes, dance troupes)
They play a key role in
interlinking datasets
from various sources.
Some statistics (Wikidata, April 2019)
• 420’000 musical works
• 21’000 plays
• 820 choreographic works
• 11’000 character roles
• 20’000 performing arts buildings
• 260’000 musicians
• 250’000 actors/actresses
• 87’000 musical ensembles
• 5’000 theatre troupes
• 340 dance troupes
and steadily growing...

25. • Dataset held by the Zurich Municipal Archives, describing 699 productions
at the Schauspielhaus
• Some elements of the ontology had already been present in Wikidata;
others had first to be implemented:
Newly Created Classes:
Pilot Data Ingest –
Repertoire of Schauspielhaus Zürich, 1938-1968
Newly Created Properties:
performing arts production (Q43099500)
dance production (Q43099869)
series of performances (Q43100730)
representation of (P4646)
location of first performance (P4647)
premiere type (P4634)
name of the character role (P4633)
scenographer (P4608)

26. • theatrical production
(in the original language, with links to all the character roles):
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (The Captain of Köpenick) (Q40289399)
• theatrical production
(in a translated version, with labels for the character roles)
Eine kleine Stadt (Our Town) (Q43689202)
• guest performance (series of performances)
(in the original language, with labels for the character roles):
L'école des femmes (The School for Wives) (Q43759980)
• premiere (single performance)
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (The Captain of Köpenick) (Q39907209)
For further examples (e.g. for actors or character roles), see the project page.
Example Items

27. Discussion: How To Approach Wikidata in
the Context of the LDF Initiative?

28. Let’s Practice
• Querying Wikidata
• Editing Wikidata

29. Querying & Editing Wikidata
Querying & Editing Wikidata
• Canadian museums without a “director” statement
Querying Wikidata & Editing Wikipedia
• Actresses with a relation to Montréal who do not have a Wikipedia
article
Exploring Ontologies & Editing Wikidata
• Heritage institutions, etc.
The task descriptions can be found on the course page:
https://tinyurl.com/WD-intro-LDFI

30. Thank You for Your Attention!
I Hope You Will Enjoy Wikidata… ;-)
Contact
Beat Estermann
Bern University of Applied Sciences
beat.estermann@bfh.ch
+41 31 848 34 38