#Wikimedia - first #standardisation, then #specialisation

The hardware and software used by the Wikimedia Foundation is increasingly standardised. It uses the same software and the configuration is centrally maintained. Good news; it makes for a stable platform. A stable platform allows us to share in "the sum of all available knowledge".

With this process well under way, special attention can be given to special projects. It has probably escaped your attention that the WMF now has a "Services group". They are the engineers that support the standalone software components that often run on their own machines and have very specific jobs, such as "generate a PDF from this article".

Wonderful news. When it did not escape your attention, did you notice that Stas Malyshev is getting up to speed on the Wikidata Query Service[1], figuring out what we need to do to make it suitable for widespread deployment of WikiGrok[2])?

Effectively it means that Magnus's query tool will be used by an updated version of the Games [3]. Now is that not sweet; Wikidata data being USED to leverage our community to improve Wikidata even more.
Thanks,
      GerardM

1. https://wdq.wmflabs.org/
2. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend/WikiGrokhttps://wdq.wmflabs.org/
3. https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-game/

#Wikidata - Those who died in 2014

Magnus's "No date" game registers dates of birth and death. It shows that we need information for 1,258,038 of the 2,073,886 humans Wikidata knows. It is a challenge however, if Magnus proves anything it is that for a community such challenges can be met.

For the people who died in 2014, 5001 have been registered so far, it is a bit different. When people die, their articles need some attention if only to register their passing. Many of the people had their day of sporting glory a long time ago. Others like the Emir of Kano remained relevant until their end and their passing may influence many more articles.

Quality is often seen as how quickly new information finds its way in.  It is wonderful that Wikidata has the potential to flag the passing of all those known to have died in 2014 to the projects who have an article about them.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - the game

With the Wikidata Game, Magnus did it again. He created a few games that are quite compelling. In a few days the games have generated more than 100,000 edits in Wikidata.

It is awesome. Many people make a big job light. We now know about 1,964,351 humans, this is up from 1,332,383 on April 20th. We know about 1,459,421 males, up from 760,616 and 260,521 females, up from 154,455.

When a game makes a difference in only a few days, it follows that making a game out of our issues will provide us with quick results. As important, it grows awareness of Wikidata, it shows people that we need their help and the numbers prove that games work.

The question is not only if people are interested in making games but as much if they find it in themselves to cooperate and produce more, better and integrated games.
Thanks,
     GerardM