Cambridge Analytica, #DeleteFacebook, and adding EXIF data back to your photos

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2019 Update: This script now exists with an easy to use GUI

Back in 2016 I wrote a short hacky script for taking HTML from facebook data downloads and adding any data possible back to the image files that also came with the download. I created this as I wanted to grab all of my photos from Facebook and be able to upload them to Google Photos and have Google automatically slot them into the correct place in the timeline. Recent news articles about Cambridge Analytica and harvesting of Facebook data have lead to many people deciding the leave the platform, so I decided to check back with my previous script and see if it still worked, and make it a little easier to use.

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Wikidata Map November 2017

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This entry is part 9 of 17 in the series Wikidata Map

It has only been 4 months since my last Wikidata map update post, but the difference on the map in these 4 months is much greater than the diff shown in my last post covering 9 months. The whole map is covered with pink (additions to the map). The main areas include Norway, Germany, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand to name just a few.

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Wikibase docker images

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This is a belated post about the Wikibase docker images that I recently created for the Wikidata 5th birthday. You can find the various images on docker hub and matching Dockerfiles on github. These images combined allow you to quickly create docker containers for Wikibase backed by MySQL and with a SPARQL query service running alongside updating live from the Wikibase install.

A setup was demoed at the first Wikidatacon event in Berlin on the 29th of October 2017 and can be seen at roughly 41:10 in the demo of presents video which can be seen below.

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Wikidata Map July 2017

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This entry is part 8 of 17 in the series Wikidata Map

It’s been 9 months since my last Wikidata map update and once again we have many new noticable areas appearing, including Norway, South Africa, Peru and New Zealand to name but a few.  As with the last map generation post I once again created a diff image so that the areas of change are easily identifiable comparing the data from July 2017 with that from my last post on October 2016.

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Wikimedia Commons Android App Pre-Hackathon

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The Wikimedia Commons Android App allows users to upload photos to Commons directly from their phone. The website for the app details some of the features and the code can be found on GitHub. A hackathon was organized in Prague to work on the app in the run up to the yearly Wikimedia Hackathon which … Read more

Wikidata Map Animations

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Back in 2013 maps were generated almost daily to track the immediate usage of the then new coordinate location within the project. An animation was then created by Denny & Lydia showing the amazing growth which can be seen on commons here. Recently we found the original images used to make this animation starting in June 2013 and extending to September 2013, and to celebrate the fourth birthday of Wikidata we decided to make a few new animations.

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Wikidata Map October 2016

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I has been another 5 months since my last post about the Wikidata maps, and again some areas of the world have lit up. Since my last post at least 9 noticeable areas have appeared with many new items containing coordinate locations. These include Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, South Sudan and Syria.

The difference map below was generated using Resemble.js. The pink areas show areas of difference between the two maps from April and October 2016.

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Google Assistant & Wikipedia

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googleassistant-wikipedia1The Google Assistant is essentially a chat bot that you can talk too within the new Allo chat app. The assistant is also baked into some new Google hardware, such as the pixel phones. During a quick test of the assistant, I noticed that if you ask it to “tell me an interesting fact” sometimes it will respond with facts from Wikipedia.

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The RevisionSlider

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The RevisionSlider is an extension for MediaWiki that has just been deployed on all Wikipedias and other Wikimedia websites as a beta feature. The extension was developed by Wikimedia Germany as part of their focus on technical wishes of the German speaking Wikimedia community. This post will look at the RevisionSliders design, development and use so far.

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Add Exif data back to Facebook images

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2019 Update: This script now exists with an easy to use GUI 2018 Update: I touched this script again in March 2019 moving it to Github and updating it with Docker support I start this post not by talking about Facebook, but about Google Photos. Google now offers unlimited ‘high resolution’ images within its service where … Read more