#Wikidata - Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

On my random journey through Wikidata, I came across Wilhelm Cirener. All that was known about him was that he died in 1941. The only article about him was in Portuguese. I had a look and found that he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

There is a category with 1101 entries. It was easy enough to make all items both "human" and recipients of this military award. It also shows that there are people working on completing articles for all recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

When I blogged about Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, I was able to identify only 586 people who died in the holocaust. I hope there are people working on expanding their number in both Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Diversity is very much about balance. With so many Nazis considered to be notable and so few victims represented the balance is wrong.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Eusebio

Eusebio is one of the #soccer greats. Today brought us the news that he died at the age of 71. He was a formidable player and he was awarded the European golden shoe twice.

This award is presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of every European national league. Eusebio was the best in the seasons 1967–68 and 1972–73.

It is not obvious how to indicate soccer seasons as a qualifier for these awards in Wikidata. The closest are articles about soccer in the year....
Thanks,
      GerardM

About succession and countries

When you are adding labels to #Wikidata the infoboxes are the main inspiration and source of information. To the right you find a detail of the infobox of the Almohad caliphate. It shows really interesting information.

When you look at the size of the Almoravid dynasty, you will agree that the Almohads have absorbed other countries as well. In a similar way, the succeeding countries are unlikely to have killed of the Almohads all at the same time. It also becomes obvious that there is little relation to the countries that exist in the territories of these past domains

There are multiple ways to bring some clarity in all this. One is to show overlaying maps and the other is to use qualifiers with the data. The succession is likely to have coincided with events, events like battles. These events have dates and coordinates. These events link back to the countries that are in conflict.

To get such data in a consistent manner in Wikidata will take a lot of effort. I am curious if there are sources that already found their way to express it effectively. I am a fan of importing data but I am equally convinced that there is a lot where judgement and involvement is the only option.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Gender distinction for the #Portuguese language

Making a difference based on gender is not the #Wikipedia thing. In selected situations it is however a #MediaWiki thing. Gender and particularly linguistic gender distinguishes how a man or a woman is addressed or referred to. For several languages the “User” name space will be named differently depending on the gender set in the user preferences.

When our messages support gender, it becomes possible to address people using natural language. This improves readability and consequently it makes MediaWiki a more friendly environment.

For the Portuguese language this has been implemented recently. Changing a name space is different from programmatic changes; it requires someone who can configure the servers. This means that Portuguese did support gender before it is just that one of the more visual aspects of the user interface supports gender.

Supporting gender is an iterative process. Many MediaWiki messages pre-date gender support and at translatewiki.net we get a steady stream of requests to support gender in specific messages on our “Support” page. With so many Portuguese speaking ladies becoming aware of our gender support, they must find occasions where messages could address them even better.

We welcome any lady from any language (as well as any gentlemen) to help us improve the MediaWiki experience and point out more messages that can do with a bit of genderification.

Thanks,

       GerardM