Fellows of the Royal Zoological Society of NZW and .. #ChatGPT

Wikipedia knew in a text about a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. Unlike many other awards it does not have its own article, there is no category for these fellows, it has a paragraph in the article about the fellows.

Wikidata did not know the award. 

The list of fellows on the RZS website is formatted in a "last name, first name" format. There are too many fellows so converting it by hand is inconvenient. As so many people are enamoured by ChatGPT, I gave it a spin. ChatGPT does NOT process websites for me. So I copy pasted the list and asked it to change the order of the surname and the first name. 

I asked it who had a Wikipedia article. It could not tell me but it gave me a list of fellows who likely have a Wikipedia article. For many of them I added the award in Wikidata and for some fellows  I added a new Wikidata item. For many of them I linked publications and this results in a nice Scholia for the award. 

It would be really cool when there is a Wikimedia AI that will answer questions like: "for the people in this list change the order of the name and check if these Australian award winners have a Wikipedia article or a Wikidata item". Maybe start with a tool for editors and then open it up to the general public. 

Given that Wikipedia is multilingual, what would be the effect of the data for the answers being all Wikipedias AND Wikidata.. Given that Wikifunctions is language agnostic, why not have functions that are a front end to such a Wikimedia AI?

Thanks,

       GerardM

Hierarchies of scientists from a personal @Wikidata/@Wikipedia point of view

 

As a hobby I add publications and scholars to Wikidata. I am particularly interested in hydrology, biodiversity and climate change. When I come across scientists, I look them up on Wikidata, I care most about scientists with an ORCiD identifier, I often add Google scholar and Twitter identifiers as well. ]

As there have been many, many papers and scholars for a long time, the impact I have is particularly in scientists new to Wikidata and attributing papers to them. This results in an improved representation that can be seen in their Scholia. When there is a Wikipedia article for a scientist, a template for the Scholia can be added; it will always show the most up to date information.

The way it works out is that I am a "browser", I read Twitter feeds by a scholar, find a publication they enthuse about and I may already be on a tangent adding the papers and scholars. In my job I do not have time to read and comprehend but I have time to mechanically add more papers. I read in the morning, make a pick for the day and I "search" using the Scholia search function with a DOI as the argument. When a paper does not exist I am presented with the option to add it to Wikidata. When its authors can be found because of their ORCiD identifier, they are linked from the start to their Wikidata item.

My personal hierarchy

• I find a paper, a scholar on Twitter
• They publish on a subject I am interested in
• When they are already known to Wikidata, they are linked to the publication I search for
• When search indicates that an ORCiD identifier exists, I search Wikidata and add a scholar or add an identifier.
• When Twitter indicates Twitter handles, I add them
• When I cannot guess the gender, I look at Google scholar for a picture, I add the identifier as well.
• When a scholar is picked for the day, I add the latest pictures first because they include more ORCiD identifiers for co-authors.

A Wikidata/Wikipedia hierarchy

• Most valuable are scholars with a Wikipedia article that includes a Scolia template
• Scholars with a Wikipedia article
• Scholars with a Wikidata item with many identifiers including an ORCiD identifier.
• Scholars with only an ORCiD identifier
• Scholars with no identifiers
• Scholars only known because of an "Author string"

When I come across an Australian scientists who was rewarded with an award, who has a Twitter account, an ORCiD and a Google Scholar identifier but no Wikidata item, it is someone I will add. So a warm welcome to Heather Neilly. She is of interest to me because of her work as an ecological consultant and in natural resource management for local government. Her latest work is on vegetation change in sheep-grazed chenopod shrublands in South Australia.

Thanks,

       GerardM

Wikicite from the ground up: a call to action

Many of the world's ecological systems are under thread. All kinds of reasons may be given and there is an interplay between the many causes that affect a downward spiral. Similar patterns can be found in many places and when these patterns are broken up, an ecological restoration may be one of the consequences.

I was called stupid when I said that water management is essential and suggested that beavers in California could do a lot of good. Beavers have been extinct in California for over 100 years, the many gullies in a watershed rush water straight to sea. Consequently the water table is not restored resulting is an increase in the risk of fires. So I am stupid, but at least I read some papers lately.

I follow the Mulloon Institute on Twitter, they have been restoring the watershed of the Mulloon Creek, this Australian project has been running for more than 10 years and apart from all the other benefits it restored profits to farmers by 60%. To underpin their results, they perform scientific research with the aim of convincing incredulous farmers and government to consider alternatives. This project is recognised by the United Nations as a research project. 

One of the papers they produced is about a possible reintroduction of the Green and Golden Bell Frog in the Mulloon catchment. I understand this paper to be about  an indicator species. From a scientific point of view, there are no issues, the paper is richly referenced and when you want to read scientific papers about the Green and Golden Bell Frog, check out its Scholia..

The problem is that like so many papers, it does not have a DOI and the best insurance for it being available in the future is the "Wayback Machine". It was not known there and it is now.. When papers are to be known to the general public, adding a paper like this to Wikidata is a next step. 

More can be done; for instance adding the references in the paper to the Wikidata item. Maybe there is an update about an introduction of the Green and Golden Bell Frog in the Mulloon Creek, who knows.. I did not find it.

Thanks, GerardM

#Wikipedia - Who is Fiona Hile?

When you look for Fiona Hile on the English Wikipedia, you will find this. It is a puzzle and there are probably two people by that name that do not have an article (yet).

One of them is an Australian poet. When you google for her you find among other things a picture. When you seek her information on VIAF you find two identifiers and in the near future she will have a third: Wikidata.

From a Wikidata point of view it is relevant to have an item for her because she won two awards. It completes these lists and it connects the two awards to the same person.

When you asks yourself is Mrs Hile really "notable", you find that the answer depends on your point of view. Wikipedia already mentions her twice and surely a discussion on the relative merits of notability is not everyone's cup of tea.

Why is Mrs Hile notable enough to blog about? It is a great example that Wikipedia and Wikidata together can produce more and better information.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - a #banana is a #fruit

I read that Alan Bond died. He was quite famous for many reasons. He was a businessman that got caught and it is why the Wikidata description reduces him to "Australian fraudster".

It reminded me of the critique for a particular fruit to be called a fruit. This was done by using automated descriptions. The one thing forgotten in this critique is that a banana is therefore a fruit in any language. Mr Bond is only an Australian fraudster according to a text that is only there in English. Wikidata does not corroborate it. It does not mention the other things he achieved. It did not even mention that he was married..

Ah well, what to say. I am sure that when Mr Bond was still alive he would laugh wryly.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - Joep Lange, HIV researcher

Mr Lange was on his way to a conference in Melbourne about HIV. He and several other HIV researchers died because his airplane was shot out of the air over the Ukraine.

Mr Lange was a professor at the University of Amsterdam. He was considered to be a „World’s Top AIDS Researcher“.

I am appalled that Mr Putin considers the Ukraine responsible because "it happened over Ukrainian territory".. That is a bit too simplistic and obvious an excuse.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Reasonator - the premier of New South Wales

When you consider #quality, there are many approaches to it. When Mr Neville Wran died, it was the right moment to mark everyone who held the office of premier of New South Wales as such. That is the quantitative approach to quality.

Making sure that there are pictures with places he is associated with or indicating who preceded and succeeded him provide more in depth information and that is a quality as well.

It is good to pay some attention to the incumbent of a function. Mr Baird assumed the office on April 17th.. The information about him got some tender love and care.

Funny is the text associated with his predecessor; "43rd and current Premier of New South Wales".. It demonstrates the problem with fixed text nicely. With automated descriptions that is not much of a problem; they do the trick in any language given enough labels.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Friends - Where they live

Lately #maps are more often the topic of conversation. A friend of mine send me this to indicate where he works. When you compare it with where I live, you get an idea of how much bigger Australia is compared to the Netherlands. Both maps show items that are within a radius of 15km.

Words are expressive but maps, illustrations are really powerful.
Thanks,
      GerardM

When USA #copyright rules are too restrictive

The moment when when sources lose their copyright restrictions is not universal. Three countries with rules that are not as restrictive as required by the WMF are Australia, Canada and India. Their Wikimedia chapters and communities have to abide by the American rules when they are to use Wikimedia's Wikisource, Wikibooks or Commons.

Wikilivres is a personal project by Yann where sources can be found that are suffering under the more restrictive USAmerican rules. When you visit Wikilivres, you find more than 3,000 books and documents, and 1,000 images in 16,028 pages from more than 750 authors. There are "main pages"  in fifteen languages; it is big for a site run by one person.

Yann is a long time Wikimedian and, when a credible organisation wants to take over this project, it is more then likely that he can be persuaded to hand over the reigns. As a request has been made for an Indian project for publications out of Indian copyright, this is a great opportunity for chapters to collaborate on.

It will serve as a full project in our Wikimedia movement and it will give us the opportunity to celebrate when books, sources or images can be moved to the WMF projects.

Copyright is restrictive, it harms the dissemination of culture and knowledge. Adopting Wikilivres is a great signal to countries with overly restrictive copyright rules.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Let's have the best #Wikimedia fundraiser possible I

The Wikimedia fundraiser is now officially under way. It is the most ambitious fundraiser so far and, it is doing really well. Different criteria can be used to take the measure of its success and the ration of donations in the USA and the rest of the world is an important one. A global organisation needs global funding. One important aspect is that a donation is very much a sign of appreciation.

The best story so far is from Australia; the Paypal account used on the form is the one of the Australian chapter. All of a sudden suspicious large amounts of money find their way into this account. Warning bells went off at Paypal central and access to the money has been withdrawn.

What will it take to convince Paypal that all this money finds its way into the account of the Australian Wikimedia chapter for a good cause. The first line of business is probably to get into contact with them..
Thanks,
     GerardM

About sheep and pictures of sheep

A Dutch sheep with a lamb on a levee

This is what sheep look like. They are the sheep that are part of the Dutch landscape. Sheep belong on the Dutch levees as much as the ditch behind them to take care of the underseepage. With their four golden hoofs and their golden mouth they protect the surface of the levee for when the water rises.

Albanian sheep

Sheep in other parts of the world are different. Sheep with horns, a fleece that is so different. It makes it completely obvious that there is no definitive picture of a sheep. We need a picture that shows what a typical sheep looks like for the people who will read their sheep article.

Are these the typical sheep?

When articles use a representative picture of what a subject looks like for its audience, it is most effective. This is why we need pictures of African sheep, Asian sheep, European sheep and American sheep. I understand they have sheep in Australia too..

Australian merino

Showing such diversity of sheep in the Wikipedias, having pictures of the typical sheep in Commons will make both more effective. When we have typical sheep, we can follow up with cows, dogs, churches, farms ..

This is an other side of localisation.

Thanks,

     GerardM