Improving equity on Wikipedia using Wikidata

Do you ever wonder where Wikipedia articles come from? With a world of knowledge to represent, it’s a big question. At Wiki Education, we are especially concerned with Wikipedia being an equitable and representative resource. Whether it’s a museum of paintings, a library full of volumes of books, or an online encyclopedia, systematic bias is … Continued

Thank you, Nielsen Foundation, for helping us leverage Wikidata for good!

At Wiki Education, we spend a lot of time working to make Wikipedia and Wikidata more representative of the world we live in. Many of our courses focus on content gaps about historically marginalized communities, so that our programs and the greater Wikipedia editing community can systematically tackle them at scale. Unfortunately, there have been … Continued

Another successful Wikidata Project with UVA

We have wrapped up another round of excellent work with the University of Virginia (UVA) Data Science capstone project. Capstone work entails having students collaborate with community partners using data science methodology and some powerful computing to provide new insights about a dataset. This is Wiki Education’s second round working with a UVA capstone group … Continued

Speaker Series: Wikidata’s 10th Birthday

At the end of October, Wikidata, the-open-knowledge-base-that-could, turns ten! What better way to celebrate than by having a series of in-depth conversations all month long profiling Wikidata Initiatives and the impact that Wikidata has had on the world. Whether you’re a Wikidata newbie, a seasoned expert, or somewhere in between, join us as we reflect … Continued

Recognizing the legacies of LGBTQ+ pioneers

In celebration of Pride Month, Wiki Education recruited participants, particularly faculty or graduate students in the LGBTQ+ community, for another Wiki Scholars course focused on expanding Wikipedia’s coverage of notable LGBTQ+ people. We regularly run Wiki Scholars courses throughout the year, but the way this course came to be was especially important to us. “We … Continued

Elevating diversity in academic research software development

One of the best ways to learn about Wikidata is through examples — examples of property usage, query examples, and examples of well-modeled items. When we started our Wikidata program back in 2019, there were far fewer items — and even fewer well-developed items. Even though the early examples of well-developed items are technically excellent, … Continued

Leveraging Wikidata for Wikipedia

We have spent time on this blog discussing some useful ways Wikidata can take advantage of Wikipedia’s data. In this post we’re going to spend some time exploring how Wikipedia can use Wikidata’s data. We will explore some ways Wikipedia can integrate Wikidata into articles, templates, and some other useful tools. Before we jump into all of … Continued

Wikidata at the Detroit Institute of Arts

If you’ve ever visited a museum or library, you’ve likely noticed the number of works in their collections. You may have even asked a librarian a hyper-specific question about a book, only to have an answer within minutes. How do they keep track of vast amounts of information in order to both serve their patrons … Continued

More Wikidata metrics on the Dashboard

We’re excited to announce some new updates to Dashboard statistics regarding Wikidata. As of April 2022, the Programs and Events Dashboard shares Wikidata details about merges, aliases, labels, claims, and more! In early March, we rolled out the final batch of improvements from Outreachy intern Ivana Novaković-Leković. Ivana’s internship focused on improving the Dashboard’s support … Continued