Tag: Wikidata

Wikidata query service updater evolution

The Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) sits in front of Wikidata and provides access to query its data via a SPARQL API. The query service itself is built on top of Blazegraph, but in many regards is very similar to any other triple store that provides a SPARQL API. In the early days of the query…

By addshore April 12, 2022 2

WikiCrowd at 50k answers

In January 2022 I published a new Wikimedia tool called WikiCrowd. This tool allows people to answer simple questions to contribute edits to Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. It’s designed to be able to deal with a wide variety of questions, but due to time constraints, the extent of the current questions…

By addshore April 2, 2022 0

Wikidata maxlag, via the ApiMaxLagInfo hook

Wikidata tinkers with the concept of maxlag that has existed in MediaWiki for some years in order to slow automated editing at times of lag in various systems. Here you will find a little introduction to MediaWiki maxlag, and the ways that Wikidata hooks into the value, altering it for its needs. As you can…

By addshore March 4, 2022 0

Wikibase a history

I have had the pleasure of being part of the Wikibase journey one way or another since 2013 when I first joined Wikimedia Germany to work on Wikidata. That long-running relation to the project should put me in a fairly good position to give a high-level overview of the history, from both a technical and…

By addshore February 15, 2022 1

Wikidata ontological tree of Trains

While looking working on my recent WikiCrowd project I ended up looking at the ontological tree of both Wikidata entities and Wikimedia Commons categories. In this post, I’ll look at some of the ontology mappings that happen between projects, some of the SPARQL that can help you use this ontology in tools, and also some…

By addshore January 7, 2022 0

A first look at WikiCrowd

I have quite enjoyed the odd contribution to an app by Google called Crowdsource. You can find it either on the web, or also as an app. Crowdsource allows people to throw data at Google in controlled ways to add to the massive pile of data that Google uses to improve its services and at…

By addshore January 6, 2022 6

Most liked Wikidata tweets

Wikidata is 9, and Twitter has been around for the entire Wikidata lifespan. So let’s take a look back through time at some of the most liked Wikidata tweets (according to Twitter free search) since creation. Personally, I think it’s rather cool that half of the tweets are in languages other than English! Want this…

By addshore December 11, 2021 1

Wikidata Map in 2021

This entry is part 14 of 15 in the series Wikidata Map

It’s been over a year since I last posted about the Wikidata Map, and my last blog only used coordinate data from the end of 2019. At WikidataCon 2021 we finally showed off the new map tool that we have been working on, and with that came some fresh 2021 data!

By addshore December 8, 2021 2