Hans #Rosling - about enriching #information II

There are sources and there are sources. In a previous blogpost I mentioned the many awards granted to both Gapminder and Mr Rosling.

On the Gapminder website they are sufficiently grateful and mention the many awards. This should make it easy to register them in Wikidata as well. It should but not always.

Take for instance this one:

2011  - Grierson Award, Best Science Documentary - The Joy of Stats

The only Grierson award I can find is the "Dr. George Grierson Award" and it is an award for writers of outstanding works in Hindi Literature. One alma mater of Mr Rosling is St. John's Medical College and, it is based in Bangalore, but somehow I think it does not fit.

Or take the other award, the Gannon Award, it has been awarded at least twice and once to Mr Rosling but the information referenced on the Wikipedia article is no longer there.

I trust that Mr Rosling appreciates that it is important to ensure that the data about him on Wikidata is correct. With a little bit of luck we can cooperate and make the item that is about him and about Gapminder of the highest quality.
Thanks,
       GerardM

 

Hans Rosling - about enriching #information

2012 - Time 100 most influential people

Mr #Rosling and #Gapminder are synonymous with bringing more awareness about the world we live in. If you do not know either of them, you should.

At Wikidata it is a given that you are free to work on the subjects you care for. There are many facts that can be included in Wikidata about Mr Rosling including the many awards he received.

The list at the English Wikipedia is impressive enough. When you want to add all this and related information to Wikidata, it quickly becomes interesting. Take for instance the Illis Quorum, it was introduced in 1784 by king Gustav III of Sweden. Currently it is awarded by the Government of Sweden and it is the highest award that can be conferred upon an individual Swedish citizen. It is awarded to seven people per year, on average.

Or consider the 100 most influential people according to Time. Mr Rosling is only one, who are all the others?

There are the awards the English Wikipedia is not aware of like the "Kunskapspriset"...

There is so much to do. It is good fun to do it. All in the name of "the sum of all knowledge".
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Gapminder, the #Ignorance project

When the aim is to share in the sum of all knowledge, it seems obvious that ignorance is the ultimate enemy that is to be defeated. To defeat ignorance you have to get the facts straight.

Gapminder and Hans Rosling are well known for bringing an insight based on published facts, statistics and visualisation. The presentations are world class and the next insight they are seeking is the ignorance people have about our world.

It is not to gloat but to bring home the message that we do not know basic information about our world. With such an attitude you want to do better and bringing attention to ignorance implies that you want to ensure that people are better informed. Informing or sharing the sum of all knowledge is what the Wikimedia Foundation does best in its projects.

By covering 280+ languages most people who can read and have access to the Internet can be reached. It is "just" a matter of making this information available to all of them on a platform they use. Wikipedia is that platform and Wikidata is where the data should get a home.

There are two issues stopping us for now. Wikidata does not yet support the property type "value" and, we do not have the visualisation tools yet. Both can be helped, support for the property value is in the pipe line. Seeking cooperation with Gapminder seems an obvious thing to do.
Thanks,
      GerardM