Keeping it simple for "Abstract Wikipedia"

Abstract Wikipedia is confusing to me; it is said to be about "articles in a language independent way". Articles are complicated because the expression in any language has to be consistent with the grammar, the diction, the vocabulary for that language. Wikipedia articles have one additional complication; once you start reading you may end up in a rabbit hole of wonderful stuff that grabs your attention.

Abstract Wikipedia covers all of Wikidata and that is much more than what all Wikipedias combined cover. Currently there are two items for every item with a Wikipedia link. The first objective that seems obvious is to have something to say about each item. It can be as little as **Name** is a **human**. When we know his profession **Name** is a **chemist**. When an award was won, "**Name** is a **chemist**. The **Award** was received in **year**." Patterns like these are similar for every language.

This minimal approach is the basis for automated descriptions and are vital when disambiguating. It is an improvement over manual descriptions because they do not get updated when new information becomes available. Automated descriptions are not articles; they have to be descriptive and not describing.

When a Wikipedia articles exist, they provide a rich source of information when new texts are to be generated. Given that Abstract Wikipedia is based on Wikidata, a tool like "Concept Cloud" is useful because it shows all the links to other articles and how often they occur in an article (Concept Cloud is part of Reasonator). The challenge will be to model such relations in Wikidata OR allow for these relations to be registered in a new way as part of Abstract Wikipedia.

Once sufficient information is available, an article can be generated. That is what LSJBOT and the Cebuano Wikipedia are famous for. It follows that once the same amount of data is available for a similar subject in Wikidata, an article can be generated in for instance Cebuano. When we recreate these templates, we can update them for any language. 

The linguists who theorise Abstract Wikipedia to death, can apply their magic and find if their pet theories hold water in the real world. In Abstract Wikipedia their function is to enable the provision of information in any language. Obviously competing theories may be implemented and as a result the underlying technology may evolve.

Thanks, GerardM

Edwin G. Abel aka Ed Abel

Professor E.G. Abel came on my radar because he is a recipient of the Daniel X. Freedman Award. He has a Wikipedia article as "Ed Abel" and the information of the award has him as "Edwin G. Abel".

I looked into the Freedman award because of a criticism on the Wikipedia article of Professor Montegia. The superior article of Prof Montegia is criticised because it is an orphan. It now has a Scholia template and that links the 105 scholarly papers known in Wikidata. Its timeline does include the Freedman award linking the Professors Abel en Montegia.

I doubt it is considered enough to remove the orphan template. I have added a redirect for the Freedman award to the issuing organisation. Maintaining a Wikipedia list is not one of my ambitions.. It could be a Listeria list like this one..
Thanks,
      GerardM

@Wikipedia - could give a clue to #deleted articles

Even deleted Wikipedia articles have "false friends". In a list of award winners a Mr Markku Laakso used to have an article. This Mr Laakso was actually a conductor and not the diabetes researcher the list was there for. For whatever reason, the article for the conductor was deemed to be not notable and it was deleted.

When you are NOT a Wikipedia admin, there is no way to know what was deleted.

One solution is for all blue, red and black links to refer to Wikidata items. When an article is deleted, the Wikidata item is still there making it easy to prevent cases of mistaken identity like with Mr and Mr Laakso.

A more expanded proposal you may find here.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - What is the #Buikslotermeer

In the history of the Netherlands, land was steadily disappearing. The peat that was the land was replaced by water and this process increased in speed as lakes increased in size. One solution was to make a polder out of a lake. It worked well and it resulted among many others in the polder of the Buikslotermeer.

As the city of Amsterdam grew in size, a new part was called after the old polder.

Wikidata needs disambiguation between the two. One of the reasons is that a picture like this one, is about the polder and not at all about the neighbourhood of Amsterdam.

The polder will have statements about things like when the dikes broke.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - Kian dehumanising disambiguation pages

Logic has it that a disambiguation page like the one for Hristo Nikolov is not a human. There are at least two of them. There are more of them but this disambiguation page does not know about the others..

Hristo Nikolov is the first item of a recent list produced by Kian. All of them include Wikipedia disambiguation pages that have been recognised as a human. It takes attention to fix the issues involved. It includes linking Wikidata items to the correct article and, it means removing and adding statements.

Once all items of this list are done, quality has improved. We can turn over a page and go into "maintenance mode". When this report is run weekly or monthly, there will be only a few new cases. They can be fixed quickly and we can be more confident about the Wikidata quality.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikimedia - #Wikidata; a recurring subject

The last Foundation Metrics meeting is kinda interesting, particularly when you are interested in #Wikidata. In his part of the meeting Erik considers the implications of Wikidata and wonders what it takes to help it lift off.

Erik wants us to change the world. Now that is a big statement. It can be done. It takes big thinking, maybe even bigger thinking or maybe no thinking at all. In the vision Erik presented, it is all about data and leveraging the data for instance in info-boxes.

Have a closer look at Reasonator, to its statistics and to these specific statistics (it takes a long time to load). What you find is probably the most easy and effective thing to do. It is allowing people to add labels in their own language. Labels leverage all Wikidata statements for a language. With those labels you can disambiguate effectively in a search. Try it in Reasonator. Now change the language and notice that effectively the automated descriptions are still there. Now do the same with search in Wikidata.. See ?

At Wikimania there was a heated discussion about the need for descriptions . The only half baked argument to keep the current descriptions was that people outside expect them. Lets not be strangers.
Thanks,
        GerardM

#Wikipedia MOS:DABRL#Red_links

If the title is immediately clear to you, it may be that you have immersed yourself in Wikipedia lore to an extend that may not be healthy. For the rest of us, it is about the use of red links. Wikipedia policy has a lot of red tape and it is often not clear and obvious. For instance: "A link to a non-existent article (a "red link") should only be included on a disambiguation page when an article (not just disambiguation pages) also includes that red link." The problem here is that a link to a disambiguation page is not a red link.

The "Redwd" template is a game changer when you are considering the whole notion of red links. Technically it is not a red link. It is a template that includes the functionality of a red link. It refers to both Wikidata and to Reasonator and consequently it demonstrates that information exists on a similar level as a "stub". Like a stub, the information can be expanded by adding statements in Wikidata.

The difference between a stub and a Reasonator page on the same subject is, that when statements have been added, new information will show in all Wikipedias that use this functionality. It will show when an item is selected when "expanded Wikidata search" is used.

There is an additional opportunity; disambiguation pages are comparable to the result of a search using the Reasonator. Often Reasonator has more results than what can be found on a disambiguation page. The opportunity exists to add a link to Reasonator from each "disambiguation" page.

Oh and by the way, the policy needs a makeover.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Mark Davis is the co-founder and president of the #Unicode Consortium

Mark is one of those persons who is associated with what is now "basic functionality". He is still working in the field of Unicode and language support and is therefore one of the movers and shakers in the computer industry.

When you search for Mark Davis, he is one of 28 items that show up. They are many people, a house, two computer games and a movie made by a Mark Davis. These 28 items represent the combined knowledge of Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikivoyage.

When you hover over any of the items in the list, you will get a box with pertinent information. When available, a picture shows up. I asked Mark if I could use a picture of him to be used in Wikidata and Wikipedia. I could and have the chat log to prove it.

When I told Mark that Wikidata is harvested, among others, by DBpedia, he realised that the picture used will have an impact on the semantic web. He was impressed and, is now considering if he has an even better picture to share.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Mark Davis wrote "Shama Lama Ding Dong"

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One of the items in Wikidata is the song "Shama Lama Ding Dong". This song was first performed in the National Lampoon's Animal House and, the Band of Oz, won People's Choice Song of the Year at the 1995 Carolina Beach Music Awards.

Mark Davis does not have a Wikipedia article. But the trouble has been taken to provide him with a Wikidata item. Given that "best practice" has the link go to the disambiguation page where Mark is not to be found either, it was a fine moment to introduce the "Redwd" template. It does link to Wikidata and the Reasonator while keeping the link red.

This is a good way to revive the function of the red link. It does provide information that is specific to this Mark Davis and, it could be the start for someone to write the missing article.

I want to thank Magnus for creating the template and Multichill for adding the documentation.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - The Headless Horseman

As you can see, James Sheridan featured in the movie "The Headless Horseman". Eh, a James Sheridan featured in this movie. On the item for that disambiguation page, there are links to two Wikipedias. Disambiguation to the correct Mr Sheridan happens on the Italian not on the English Wikipedia.

It is not hard to find information for Mr Sheridan. He was the son of an actress and the brother of an actor and director. It would make sense when an item for Mr Sheridan would feature on a disambiguation page. That could be a precursor to smart red links.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Europeana advertises Thomas Lawrence

On #Facebook Europeana mentions that Thomas Lawrence died on this day in 1830. Europeana brings you a really nice presentation of his work.

Multiple people are known to Wikidata with the name of "Thomas Lawrence", and to know the difference between these men, it helps when there is sufficient information for the process of automated disambiguation.

I added a statement for Mr Lawrence and made him a "painter". At this moment there are 3852 painters known to Wikidata. When a label for painter is added for a language, the disambiguation for all of these people will improve.

Obviously there have been more than 3852 painters. As more painters become known and as more languages have their label for "painter", Wikidata gains value.
Thanks,
    GerardM