#Wikidata - #Badges are here

All articles are equal and some prove to be more equal than others. They are for instance the featured actions and, they can show up among the interwiki links thanks to the new badges functionality. These badges are quite special because they are in effect an attribute to an interwiki link and as such they are in a class of their own.

Bene developed this new functionality as a volunteer and, it proves that Wikidata is very much open for collaboration. It may be a member of our community, it may be students interested in a project that does make a difference. The great thing is that all these collaborations make their difference.

It makes Wikidata a true Wiki; not only in its data but also in its software.
Thanks,
     GerardM

John Sherman, #USA Secretary of State and of the Treasury

It is fun to check what #Wikidata has to say of people and places prominently mentioned in #Wikipedia. The article about Mr Sherman is a featured article. There is always something to improve and it is now registered that Mr Sherman had a father, a grandfather and several brothers. Sadly it does not register in the Reasonator.

Mr Sherman was part of the "Opposition party", this is an article that needs some serious attention. The article describes three instances of an Opposition party and this does not make sense in the context of Wikidata. From the article it was not clear when Mr Sherman moved to this party from the Whig and later to the Republican party.
Thanks,
      GerardM

John W. Johnston, a #Virginia Senator

Mr Johnston was also a USA senator. But #Wikidata was not yet aware of the fact that he was also a member of the Virginia Senate. It did say so on the info-box.

To get that fact in, I had to create a new item for "Virginia senator". The number of people who have been in this senate or any of the other state senates must be big and most of them are of a questionable notability. But then again both Wikipedia and Wikidata can take them in as much as politicians from other countries.

When you Google for Mr Johnston, you can find the fine picture that is to the right. It is in Commons and the original can be found in the Library of Congress.

I looked at Mr Johnston because today the article about him featured on the main page of the English Wikipedia. I wanted to know how complete the information about a featured article is on Wikidata.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikipedia #Featured list: 11 Presidents of #Pakistan

There is a new president of Pakistan and consequently, it is fitting to feature a list with all Pakistan's presidents.

The list was feature worthy for Wikipedia, so I had a look at the presidents at Wikidata.

• only one President was marked as such
• it was obvious for one President that his party affiliation was out of date
• the new President was not marked as a "person" or "male"
• President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has some well known family members

Maybe the Presidents of Pakistan can become an featured effort for Wikidata when more people give it some tender loving care.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The #Wikipedia toolbar refers to #Wikidata

Quietly an option has been added to the Toolbar; it is the "Data item". It refers to the data item for a Wikipedia or Wikivoyage article in Wikidata.

When you add content to Wikidata, this functionality is really valuable. With one click you find the corresponding Wikidata item even when there is only one article on the subject. It is particularly helpful when there is no label in the language you selected in Wikidata to be the default."

The bug 47911 is largely redundant as a result. It was created because at that time this option was not available. What is left but not that relevant is the inconsistent behaviour of the "Edit links" at the bottom of all the interlanguage links.

Any way, the "Data item" deserves recognition as a "Featured Wikidata effort".
Thanks,
      GerardM

How about featured #Wikidata effort

Both #Wikipedia and #Commons feature their best efforts. As a consequence there are people working really hard to raise the game of articles and images.  The requirements for a successful featured picture or article are quite steep. There are even workshops that teach people how to fulfil all the requirements. It does have an effect if only to raise awareness of the need for quality.

Wikidata is a young project. Some people say it is a project where meta-guys and girls work on large data sets connecting to other resources and blah blah blah. There is that and I find it hard to follow all the blah blah blah because what they do is not explained in words that I understand. It is not shown in a way that I can see and understand.

At the same time there is a lot of interesting and relevant work done. When this can be explained and visualised it will make it more appealing to work on Wikidata. The trick will be to come up with criteria for a "Featured Wikidata effort".

• new functionality in Wikidata itself that enlarges what you can express in Wikidata
• new or improved functionality to visualise related data
• new data entered into Wikidata manually of related information
• new or improved functionality in a Wikimedia project that makes use of Wikidata data
• new or improved functionality that improves the multi lingual use of data
• new or improved functionality to use Wikidata to curate information
• an effort in a WM project that will positively impact Wikidata

These are the things I am looking for in Wikidata. When something ticks one of these boxes I am likely to blog about it. I would love to have more reasons to blog but it would be much better when even more eyes learn about the wonderful effort that is taking place in the Wiki data community.

Thanks,

       GerardM

#Chennai hackathon III

The biggest challenge after a #hackathon is probably to keep the hackers engaged. When they know that their effort is appreciated, they are more likely to remain involved in our projects.

One of the projects of the Chennai hackathon is the "Random Good WP India article tool" and it is really nice to learn that the tool is now available for your use. Have a look and see if a tool like this is something for your wiki.

If there is enough interest, a tool like this can become available for the projects in the Wikis themselves.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#WMFboard; the "May unpleasantness"

Some people are still upset because Jimmy had the audacity to make a lot of noise against what he calls "porn". They want either a day of reckoning or they want to influence your vote because they are against the board influencing or imposing on the projects.

On Commons this picture was proposed as a featured picture candidate. I voted against it, I made some scathing remarks and I was banned for a day. Getting banned is easy, it takes a hot head and some inflaming language and even I can get banned. The hothead got banned for longer a few days later but that is hardly relevant.

In this May unpleasantness analysis, it is said that I am with Jimmy. I have been told that it means that I will not be elected. This does not trouble me.

When people vote on single issues, then the qualities and the values a person stands for are not considered. Such an approach gets you the wrong person elected particularly when that issue is not the only thing that is relevant.

Do not vote for me when:

• you want the WMF only to invest in the English Wikipedia
• you do not want Wikipedias in new languages
• do not care about historic illustrations
• you want BLP restrictions to only apply on the English Wikipedia

For those who are single minded about porn; I have provided illustrations showing venereal diseases because they are educational. When you think that this is porn, you are sick.
Thanks,
       GerardM

It is so sharp it can cut you

This picture shows a Dutch windmill. It is also a featured picture candidate. As a FPC it will fail because it is "not sharp enough".

When you look at the picture at the highest magnification, you see the moss grow at the back of the windmill. The process of the FPC is a joke; the notions of what makes a featured picture are biased and the implementations favours a coterie of serial addicts.

Another example of "not sharp". When you consider that hairs beyond the eye are very much in focus, that parts in front of the head are in focus the conclusion must be that this is how the eye of this species looks like.

Oh well, featured pictures is a game and it is fun to candidate great pictures. It is important not to expect too much.
Thanks,
        GerardM

The Congress Party of #India does not understand #Wikipedia

The Minister of Law and Justice in the Indian government, Mr Veerappa Moily and with him the Congress Party do not know how to deal with  Wikipedia. Take Mr Moily's Wikipedia article for instance, it does not even have a picture of him.

For politicians it is important to be seen as the friendly, smiling person, the person who will deliver what they promise in the elections. Wikipedia is where people find information about Mr Moily because Wikipedia gets a high ranking in the search engines. No picture though.

In an article in the Financial Express, he hits out at WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. The good news is that he knows them apart. The bad news is that he does not understand that an encyclopaedia with a neutral point of view is not the enemy.

The LDF in contrast does understand the opportunity Wikipedia offers; they made many pictures available under a free license and consequently articles about their politicians have a high quality picture. We may not have an article for all their politicians, but the pictures are available to be used as illustrations.

Mr Moily I make you an offer; make a high quality picture of you available to us under a free license. I will blog about it and, I will propose it as a featured picture candidate. When it becomes a featured picture, millions of people in the whole world will see it.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Portraits of friends and foes

As #Wikipedia provides a neutral point of view, we need pictures that show friends and foes alike in a high quality. When the quality of such pictures is considered, being an European is hardly a valid argument to oppose the picture of a former USA president.

At this moment there is a civil war developing in Libya and it will slowly but surely find its way into our many Wikipedias. Many people are hopeful we do not have to wait long for the next president of Libya. In the mean time, we have a quality portrait of the current president. I entered it as a a featured picture candidate and, I am interested what the comments will be this time around.
Thanks,
      GerardM

A #portrait of Ronald #Reagan

Mr Reagan is known for two things; he was a movie actor and he was the president of the United States of America. This portrait of Mr Reagan has been digitally restored by Peter Weis and it shows Mr Reagan in a way that refers to both careers. It is also a picture that is likely to appeal to his fan-base.

In the Netherlands we joke about many of our politicians as being world famous in the Netherlands. We can safely say that Mr Reagan is world famous. As this picture is a featured picture candidate, it will be interesting to see what argumentation will be used and compare this with the argumentation used for featured picture candidates of the most senior politicians of other countries.
Thanks,
      GerardM

ver·bi·age (vûr b - j, -b j). n. 1. An excess of words for the purpose

When a text is written, it is either written with an audience in mind or the audience is assumed to be similar in tastes as the writer. Typically people have limited patience with texts that are too wordy. Newspapers are preferably full of pictures that are big and colourful when articles are to attract attention.

With all the attention on high brow, must have features like citations, and references Wikipedia is becoming more and more intellectual and harder to read. Check out the English main page; words and more words with pictures so small that details are lost. The size of footnotes and references in a featured article is bigger then the size of the illustrations ...

It was a pleasure to leaf through paper encyclopaedias; when a picture caught the attention you read a bit only to move on. Sadly much of the art of illustrating seems lost for now. Is it a victim of our braininess?
Thanks,
      GerardM

The German minister of Defence is not educational nor noteworthy

A picture of Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, the German minister of defence is according to some not "educational nor noteworthy". As a consequence the picture that was proposed on Commons as a featured picture will not feature.

On the proposal it was suggested that this reason is wrong and "Let's be politically correct, and support only ethnic portraits, as usual." Now Mr von und zu Guttenberg is a fine and good looking specimen of the ethnic group he belongs to. He is not American though..

With such a motivation a whole genre of pictures can not feature; they are the portrait pictures. Portrait photography is considered like macro photography an art in its own right.

If it was not so sad, many of the motivations for or against a featured picture candidate are hilarious.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Stimulating the #Commons stock photo functionality

A company that sells pictures, makes sure that they have visually stunning images that can illustrate the most weird and wonderful subjects. Take a subject like dyslexia; how to illustrate this? A friend send me this wonderful example of a photoshopped picture that does this really well.

When you read the Wikipedia article, there is no illustration. This is where visually stunning pictures that express the issue are needed because this article is factually correct, it is hard reading with the key facts hidden behind all kinds of classification.

Stock photography is about illustrations. When there are many pictures that illustrate a subject, it is indeed the most visually attractive picture that will be sold. When you seek an illustration, you will find that historic pictures are an important part of a collection. They are because they provide a view that is no longer there.

With the arrival of sharing options at Commons, we have the opportunity to strengthen its stock functionality. With over 270 Wikipedias our own need for multiple pictures for one subject is intrinsically high.

Commons is slowly becoming a stable source of freely licensed pictures. We have the opportunity to make it the "goto" place for quality illustrations. With 7,626,589 freely usable media files, the basis for such a function exists. What is left is profiling and marketing us as a source for great illustrations.
Thanks,
        GerardM

The artifice of #Commons featured pictures

The main page of Commons features a picture of the day. In order to qualify the picture has to be "stunning". To make it stunning a whole battery of tools is used to make it so. When an item in the picture is in the way, it is removed. When the colour is not stunning it is altered to make it so. The featured pictures process results in a series of advertisement quality photography with reality as its victim.

The picture of the year 2008 as we know it is a picture of two horses on a meadow. It is visually pleasing and manipulated.



The original picture features three horses. It is indeed sad that this composition is not as good as what became the winner.



Interestingly enough, a picture of the Mostar old town where only the air was removed is now up for delisting as an featured picture. The fact that manipulations are to be known is the argument for delisting. The issue is that the original material for most of the featured pictures is lacking, leaving them for what they are; just pretty pictures.
Thanks,
       GerardM

I care but I POSITIVELY hate this crap

English #Wikipedia's featured pictures is a truly valuable asset in the struggle to create more free content. Each featured picture is among the best in its class and, there is only one such every day that gets the attention of millions of people.

Its value is recognised in the attention it gets from GLAM. It is a celebration of the effort in getting an image just right and the recognition thereof by fellow Wikipedians. This recognition is a motivator for some and consequently I think little of the proposal to remove the credits on these featured pictures.

It is a petty move that suggests that there is an appearance of "content ownership" and that our practices should be all the same. This is utter folly, our practices should reflect what is best in a specific situation and the suggestion of content ownership is negated by the free license of the material.

Sedum rubrotinctum by Noodle snacks

Pictures are typically the work of one person and consequently it is ok to celebrate their efforts. We should be proud of those who prove to be among our best.

Thanks,

     GerardM

Offer to the #mw2010 participants

155,329,580 page views
in March 2010

Our featured pictures of #Commons and the English Wikipedia are seen by many people. For a picture to feature it has to be of great quality, many if not most of these pictures have been restored in order to excel.

We are happy to restore one image for each participant of the museum and the web 2010. Our aim is for you to experience what we can do for you and your material.

• we need a truly high resolution uncompressed scan preferably over 10MB (preferably TIFF)
• we want you to provide us with annotations on the image
• we want you to explain why you chose this image
• we want to use this image in our projects and consequently it needs to be freely licensed or in the public domain
• we may contact you about issues with your choice
• if you are interested, contact Durova for details

We will do our best with what you provide to us however, it should be obvious that only the best material may feature. This depends on the vagaries of our community processes.. :)

As our community of image restorers is limited, we will work on in in our own time. When you provide a nice story, I will consider putting your story on my blog (not more then one a day..)
Thanks,
      GerardM

The picture featured on the English Wikipedia

Every day, my agregator shows me the Commons, the German and the English Wikipedia featured picture of the day.. For the last few days it showed me the restoration of a beautiful Japanese print. Something was wrong..

As my blog is aggregated in the same way, this is today's featured picture of a female oriental latrine fly, you will not have missed a thing when you use the same agregator :)

Hopefully things will be ok by tomorrow. 
Thanks,
     GerardM

Obscene ? It is certainly legal !

Some images became icons representing important moments in the past, the little boy in the ghetto of Warsaw, Douglas McArthur returning to the Philippines and Dorothea Lange's picture of despair of the recession of the thirties.

Most people know the original black and white. An important picture and a featured picture on Commons and the English Wikipedia among others. It being in black and white is considered by some as underlining the misery.

This picture can also be found on Commons.. It has been coloured and it gained a different atmosphere. This picture by Dorothea Lange is in the public domain and consequently it is perfectly legal to make this derivative. The provenance is ok; a reference is made to the original at the Library of Congress. But I am in two minds; on the one hand it is a derivative done in good taste, on the other hand it feels like sacriledge..
Thanks,
GerardM