#DBpediaAmsterdam - a confererence update

Speaking about #Wikidata at the #DBpedia conference in Amsterdam was a joy and a privilege. It was a joy because there was a real interest even a practical interest in what can we do to make a difference.

These are some of the points that they found most relevant

• Wikidata is used in templates in several Wikipedias
• for DBpedia, the specific properties in use in Wikidata are mostly a mapping issue
• having more properties in use than are on display in a Wikipedia is in Wikidata not an issue
• Wikidata is language agnostic while DBpedia has projects concentrating on specific languages

The process of how Wikidata is filled with information by bots was discussed at length. What bots do is harvest information from a Wikipedia and update the relevant items in Wikidata. This process is exactly the same for the update of DBpedia. The innovation that DBpedia can bring is by adding one extra functionality; reporting on the differences found. Obviously this will include new statements but identifying where Wikidata and Wikipedia have differences is really relevant when we work on improving the quality of the information we provide.

The relation of GLAM and Wikidata was another topic that received attention. In one presentation, Abraham Jacob van der Aa was mentioned. I added several statements for Mr van der Aa and showed how it shows in multiple languages in the Reasonator. It is not unlikely that as a result the Koninklijke Bibliotheek may provide us with information on Dutch authors in addition to what is available in DBpedia. The prospect of the Commons / Wikidata integration was also discussed; the existing links from Wikidata to Commons were mentioned but the possibility to link to the "Creator" and "Institution" templates were appreciated as having relevance to current practices.

The DBpedia conference had multiple simultaneous sessions so it should be obvious that much more was discussed. It is also my update of a conference that dealt with so much more and where a really vibrant community showed off what issues they are dealing with.
Thanks,
      GerardM