#Wikimedia - First a #strategy, then #Action

The people at Open Library have books they love to share. They are in the process of opening what they have even more.

In a previous post it was mentioned that there is a JSON document to getting information on authors like Cicero. There are many works by Cicero and today they have a JSON document in production for the books as well.

So what possible scenario is there for the readers of any Wikipedia; they check in Open Library what books there are for Cicero (or any other authors). They download a book and read it.

Where we are:

• there is an API informing about authors and their books at Open Library based on the Open Library identifier.
• an app can now be build that shows this information
• this app could use identifiers of other "Sources" like Wikidata, VIAF or whatever on the assumption that Wikidata links these "Sources".
• this app could show information based on Wikidata statements in any language using Wikidata labels.
• this app may download the book (maybe not yet but certainly in the future)

What next:

• investigate the JSON and see what we already can do with it
• publish the results and iterate
• Add more identifiers of authors known to Open Library to Wikidata
• there are many OL identifiers in the Freebase information; they need to be extracted and a combined list of Wikidata identifiers and OL identifiers allows OL to curate it for redirects and we can then publish.
• Raffaele Messuti pointed to existing functionality that retrieves an author ID for Wikidata and VIAF using an ISBN number.
• Open Library knows about ISBN numbers for its books. When it runs the functionality for all the authors where it does not have a VIAF identifier it can enrich its database and share the information with Wikidata.
• Alternatively someone does this based on exposed information at Open Library.. :)
• We add a link to Open Library in the {{authority control}} in Wikipedia
• We could add information for nearby libraries like they do in Worldcat [1].
• We can measure how popular it is; how many people we refer to Open Library or to their library.

At the Wikimedia Foundation we aim to share in the sum of all knowledge. We aim to enable people acquire information. Making this happen for people at Wikipedia, Open Library and their library is part of this mission we just have to be bold and make it so.

Thanks,

      GerardM