#WhiteHouse Fellows - Mrs Margarita Colmenares

Mrs Margarita Colmenares is a White House Fellow. A message was posted on Twitter that her article had been created and to support the message, it was easy enough to add her on Wikidata as well. The article mentioned that she was a White House Fellow and adding one layer of additional information is one way of making a person more relevant.

Adding this fellowship and adding other people who were a fellow was easy enough. The Wikipedia article referred to the website of the White House for information and when you visit its website you will be thanked for having an interest in this subject.

At a time like this it is good to consider Archive.org.  Its crawler worked well at some dates for other dates the message you will see is: "Got an HTTP 301 response at crawl time".

Anyway.. Together, the information at whitehouse.gov and at archive.org provide enough of a reference.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - #Perfection or #progress

When you consider the intention of the "BLP" or the "Biographies of Living People", you will find that it is defensive. It is the result of court cases brought against the Wikimedia Foundation or Wikipedians by living people. The result was a restrictive policy that intents to enforce the use of "sources" for all statements on living people.

The upside was fewer court cases and the downside; administrators who blindly applied this policy particularly in the big Wikipedias. Many people left, they no longer edit Wikipedia.

At Wikidata there are proponents of enforcing a BLP explicitly so that they have the "mandate" to block people when they consider them too often in violation of such a policy.

For a reality check; there are many known BLT issues in Wikidata that are not taken care of. There are tools like the one by Pasleim who make it easy to do so. There have been no external complaints about Wikidata so far but internal complaints, complaints about the quality of descriptions for instance, are easily waved away.

The implementation of a "DLP" or "Data of Living People" where "sources" are mandatory would kill much of the work done at Wikidata and will not have an effect on the existing backlog. Killing the backlog removes much of the usability of Wikidata and will prove to be even worse.

In order to responsibly consider new policies, first reflect on the current state of a project. What issues need to be addressed, what can be done to focus attention on the areas where it is most needed. How can we leverage what we know in other projects and in external sources. When it is really urgent make a cost analysis and improve the usability of our software to support the needed progress. And yes, stop insisting on perfection; it is what you aim for, No one of us is in a position to throw the first stone.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikimedia and our #quality

In Berlin, the Wikimedia Foundation deliberated about the future. A lot of noble intentions were expressed. People went home glowing in the anticipation of all the good things they want. It is good to talk the talk and follow up and walk the walk.

A top priority for Wikidata is that it is used and useful. As it becomes more useful, quality becomes more of a priority for the people who use it. They will actively curate the data and remedy issues because they have a stake in the outcome.

So far Wikidata is largely filled with information from all the Wikipedias and this process can be improved substantially. For this to happen there is a need for more complete and up to date data. So what use can we give this data so that it gains use, and thereby gains value?

What if .. What if Wikidata could be used as an instrument to find the 4% of wiki links in Wikipedia that point to the wrong articles? With some minor changes to the MediaWiki software this can be done. This approach is described here for instance.. The beauty of this proposal is that not all the Wikipedians have to get involved, it is for those who care, for the rest it is mostly business as usual.

There are other benefits well. When it is "required" to add a source to a statement like "spouse of", it should be or is a requirement on the Wikipedia as well. When the source is associated with the Wiki link or red link for that matter, it should be possible for Wikidata to pick it up manually or with software.

When content of Wikidata more closely mirrors information of a Wikipedia in this way, it becomes easy and obvious to compare this information with other Wikipedias. Overall quality improves, but as relevant, the assurance we can give about our quality improves.

When we consider Wikimedia for the next 15 years, I expect that we will focus on quality and prevent bias not only by combining all our resources but also by reaching out to other trusted sources. By working together we will expose a lot more fake facts.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - #Quality is a #perspective.

Forget absolutes. As an absolute quality does not exist for Wikidata. At best quality has attributes, attributes that can be manipulated, that interact. With 25,430,779 items any approach to quality will have a potentially negative quality effect when quality is approached from a different perspective.

Yet, we seek quality for our data and aim for quality to measurably improve. There are many perspectives possible and they have value, a value that is strengthened when it is combined with other perspectives.

At the Wikimedia Foundation, the "Biographies of Living Persons" or BLP has a huge impact. When you consider this policy, it is about biographies, a Wikipedia thing and this is not what Wikidata does. It is important to appreciate this as it is a key argument when a DLP "Data of Living Persons" is considered. Important is that the BLP focuses on articles for living people and its aim is to prevent law suits from articles that have a negative impact on living people.

Data is different, it is used differently and it has an impact in different ways.  Take for instance notability; a person may be notable and relevant because of having held an office or receiving an award. In order to complete information on the succession of an office or an award, it is therefore essential to include all persons involved in Wikidata. At the same time, when information is incomplete it can have an impact on a person as well. "you did not get that award because Wikidata does not say so".

Wikidata is incomplete and immature. Given the different perspectives on a DLP, most of them are not achievable in short order. The people who insist on a "source" for any statement will wipe most of the Wikidata statements and force it to a stand still. The people who insist on completeness have an impossible full time job for many years to come.

So what to do? Nothing is not an option but seeking ways to improve both quality and quantity is. A key value of Wikidata is its utility. The "Black Lunch Table" is one example of giving utility to Wikidata. They use Wikidata to manage the Wikipedia articles they want to write and expand on the notability of artists by including information on Wikidata. All the information helps people to write Wikipedia articles. Quality is important. Being included on the Black Lunch Table means something; artists are considered to be notable and worthy of a Wikipedia article.

Another example is using the links to authors so that people can read a book.

Given the size of Wikidata, it is impossible to get everything right in short order. When we can get people to adopt subsets of our data, these will grow. Our data will be linked. When we get to the stage where people actually object to data in Wikidata, we have improved both our quantity and quality substantially. As it is, looking at all the data, typically there is little to object to and that is in itself objectionable.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikimedia - First a #strategy, then #Action

The people at Open Library have books they love to share. They are in the process of opening what they have even more.

In a previous post it was mentioned that there is a JSON document to getting information on authors like Cicero. There are many works by Cicero and today they have a JSON document in production for the books as well.

So what possible scenario is there for the readers of any Wikipedia; they check in Open Library what books there are for Cicero (or any other authors). They download a book and read it.

Where we are:

• there is an API informing about authors and their books at Open Library based on the Open Library identifier.
• an app can now be build that shows this information
• this app could use identifiers of other "Sources" like Wikidata, VIAF or whatever on the assumption that Wikidata links these "Sources".
• this app could show information based on Wikidata statements in any language using Wikidata labels.
• this app may download the book (maybe not yet but certainly in the future)

What next:

• investigate the JSON and see what we already can do with it
• publish the results and iterate
• Add more identifiers of authors known to Open Library to Wikidata
• there are many OL identifiers in the Freebase information; they need to be extracted and a combined list of Wikidata identifiers and OL identifiers allows OL to curate it for redirects and we can then publish.
• Raffaele Messuti pointed to existing functionality that retrieves an author ID for Wikidata and VIAF using an ISBN number.
• Open Library knows about ISBN numbers for its books. When it runs the functionality for all the authors where it does not have a VIAF identifier it can enrich its database and share the information with Wikidata.
• Alternatively someone does this based on exposed information at Open Library.. :)
• We add a link to Open Library in the {{authority control}} in Wikipedia
• We could add information for nearby libraries like they do in Worldcat [1].
• We can measure how popular it is; how many people we refer to Open Library or to their library.

At the Wikimedia Foundation we aim to share in the sum of all knowledge. We aim to enable people acquire information. Making this happen for people at Wikipedia, Open Library and their library is part of this mission we just have to be bold and make it so.

Thanks,

      GerardM

#Wikimedia - Sharing all #knowledge

It is strategy time at the Wikimedia Foundation. For me the overarching theme is: "Share in the sum of all knowledge". Ensuring that knowledge, information is available is not only an objective for us, it is an objective we share with organisations like the Internet Archive and the OCLC.

One of the activities of Open Archive is the "Open Library". It provides over the Internet access to books that are free to read. At Wikidata we include links for authors that are known to the Open Library so all it takes is for a Wikipedia to have a {{authority control}} on its authors and a link to Open Library has been provided.

When you work together, a lot can be achieved. A file with identifiers for authors has been sent to the OCLC en Open Library. The reaction is that in the JSON for these authors Open Library includes a link to both VIAF (a system by the OCLC) and Wikidata. This is the JSON for Mr Richard W. Townshend.

The next step is to optimise the process of including identifiers for both VIAF and Open Library. What we bring in is our community. We have done a lot of work using Mix'n Match. We do add identifiers when it seems opportune and we already function as a stepping stone between Open Library and the OCLC. So when we can target attention in Mix'n Match per language, it already is a lot easier to make a match. It may be possible for the OCLC and Open Library to match authors through publications and in that way technology is a deciding factor.

In the end there is only one point to all this: share in the sum of all knowledge. We all have a part to play.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - concentrating on #Fulbright ?

A friend told me to concentrate on substantial awards;  the Fulbright scholarship for instance. To me concentrating on 325,000+ alumni is crazy. There are too many and obviously, some of them will have turned out not to be so notable after all. I do not think Wikidata is a stamp or pokemon collection either

When you search for Fulbright in Reasonator. There is still plenty to do. There is a "Fulbright scholarship" and a "Fulbright Program" they are about the same thing so their content should be merged.. And then there is this "Fulbright Prize"; it seems to have an article only on the Hebrew Wikipedia. There are also several items with no statements.

There is no reason for me to concentrating on all the Fulbright scholars. Given that it applies to so many people, slowly but surely more people will be tagged as such. Not only the people who can be found in categories or lists but also where it is only mentioned in an article.

A scholarship implies studying at a university. When you add a scholarship and there is no information about education. This is another aspect that needs taking care of. At some point it should become obvious, it is better to concentrate on something else.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - Librarians and Mrs Carla Hayden

As a group librarians are not very visible. At the same time librarians are the people that have provided people with information before there was an Internet. In this day and age, they are still taking care that much of the published information is there for us and the generations to come.

Mrs Carla Hayden will address a Wikipedia edit-a-thon in Washington, DC hosted by the Library of Congress and the US National Archives. Mrs Hayden is the Librarian of Congress. It is always fun to update Wikidata information that is in the news.

It is amazing how little information there is for librarians. Of the "Librarians of the year", there seem to be only two with a Wikipedia article. Anyway, adding information for Mrs Hayden is a privilege and adding information on many librarians is easy to do.

What I am not sure about is if giving a lecture like the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture may be seen as an award. Mrs Hayden gave this lecture twice.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Quality - #DBpedia and Kappa Alpha Psi

Kappa Alpha Psi is a fraternity of students and alumni. There is a Wikipedia article in English, a Commons category and a Wikidata item.

The information about Kappa Alpha Psi at Wikidata is based on the Wikipedia article. Information was added to the items for the members. This was done because in a related item it was found that the influence of fraternities and sororities is considerable. Concentrating for a moment on Kappa Alpha Psi has a secondary quality impact on what is of primary concern but when this is done for three such organisations, it quickly affects thousands of notable people.

When people find it of interest to add information about a membership to a Wikipedia article it has some impact. Having a category helps more to make the relevance of a Kappa Alphi Psi more visible. Adding this information to Wikidata is easy and it may show up in any language when membership information is part of a template.

DBpedia is a project similar to Wikidata. It harvests data from Wikipedias more consistently than Wikidata. Wikidata items are mapped to its internal items making it is possible to compare Wikidata with DBpedia.

When quality is an objective, when quality is to be improved effectively, the differences between DBpedia and Wikidata are an easy and one of the more obvious starting points. For some Wikipedias DBpedia updates are based on the RSS feed of the changes. So once a difference has been curated and changed in either Wikipedia or Wikidata, it results in an improved DBpedia entry and the desired improvement in quality.  It does not need any math to understand this.

What we needed is a tool that uses these differences as input for a subset that is of interest to a Wikidata volunteer. That might be the Kappa Alpha Psi, The Black Lunch Table or whatever. Whatever can be defined with a query.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Gladys and Reginald Laubin

According to the documentation of the Capezio award, both Gladys and Reginald Laubin are awardees. The Capezio award is a dance award and it got some attention because a person of interest received the award in 2007. Wikipedia information was available until 2006.

Adding information for Mrs Laubin makes sense; she is as notable as her husband. She has her own VIAF registration and it completes the Capezio award information.

When you add an award and its awardees, some quality is expected. Adding what Wikipedia knows borrows from the sources at Wikipedia but new information is authoritative when it is from the associated website. When you then seek later information, it becomes more fuzzy; it becomes less obvious. It may not even be correct,

That is however how the cookie crumbles; like Wikipedia also relies on the interpretation of sources.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikipedia - Professor Joseph Torgesen

The article on Professor Joseph Torgesen is a stub. The cool thing is that the information on a minimal article allows for improvements in the data at Wikidata. The author of the article included information on education and employment. This was done through categories.

Petscan was used and as a result 244 staff members of the university of Florida State University and 107 alumni of the University of Michican were added including Mr Torgesen.

As Mr Torgesen is a professor and "must" publish, finding a VIAF registration was possible. Adding the {{authority control}} to the article enriched the article. One fact not in the article; Mr Torgesen was awarded the Samuel Torrey Orton award in 2006. This is why there was already an item in Wikidata for Mr Torgesen.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikipedia vs #Wikidata - Quality and low hanging fruit

When Wikipedia is to be the best, it has to understand and preserve its quality. When Wikidata is to be the best, it has to understand and preserve its quality. Both Wikipedia and Wikidata are wikis but their quality and how it manifests itself are utterly different. At the same time they intersect and this is where we find low hanging fruit.

In Wikidata we have "Author"s and subclasses of author. Many of them have a VIAF identifier and this means that libraries know about them. Information like VIAF is shown in the English Wikipedia when there is an {{authority control}} template. It shows nothing when there is nothing to show but it will update Wikipedia when the information is added to Wikidata.

The low hanging fruit:

• English Wikipedia - All articles about someone who is known as an author of any kind gets the template.
• Wikidata - For all the items for someone who is known as an author of any kind we seek the VIAF identifier.
• OCLC - All the libraries in the world will be updated with a link to Wikidata within a month. This will make it easy for a librarian to find Wikipedia articles in any language.
• Open Archive - It has a project called "Open Library" and it has freely licensed e-books. Wikidata includes Open Library identifiers. OCLC and OL have links combined with Wikidata identifiers. As these numbers include, people in libraries or from Wikipedia could find authors with free books.
• other Wikipedias - they could include VIAF and OL identifiers as well. Open Library has books in languages other than English..

We live in an interconnected world. Wikimedia quality is in not being on an island but increasing the reach and enabling our readers.

Thanks,

      GerardM

#Wikidata and #activism

When you care about something, you want to make sure that when you do something, it has an impact. There are many ways a difference can be made, you can protest, you can write in a blog, you can write Wikipedia articles and you can try to connect things in Wikidata.

For Wikimedians like me, sharing the sum of all knowledge, is why we are involved. As knowledge is key, it is important to make sure that facts are registered and access to knowledge becomes enabled.

The problem is that it is not obvious how and where a difference can be made. When the BBC gives diversity a prominent place because of its 100 women program, it seems obvious that we will write articles about these women. It is however not the first time that the BBC runs this program. We have written articles for women celebrated in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. But in what language are these articles written? How much are they read? How well connected are these women to universities, to political parties to organisations and what countries are they from?

For a Wikimedian these are interesting questions. For an organiser of editathons they are what measures success. Is this activism? Sure. How does it affect the legitimate concern of impartiality? Not really as Wikimedia has always been about what people fancy to work on.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - the #Rome Prize

The Rome Prize is given to a high number of Americans artists. It is awarded every year to 15 artists and 15 scholars, they stay for an extended period in Rome. The first awards were given in 1905.

The award winners are mentioned in many articles, when there is no article yet, there is a red link. New articles are written all the time so problems can be anticipated.

The problem is in names; different people bearing the same name. When new articles are written, there is no consideration for these red links. Articles are written. When an article is written for a Rome Prize winner, he or she may be included on the category for Rome Prize winners and that works well.

Some will say that Red Links are bad. They have a point. However it is all in the delivery. When there is no article, it does not follow that there is no information. The information could already be in Wikidata and I added a few statements for 2016 winners..
Thanks,
     GerardM

Authors, the #OpenLibrary, #Wikidata and libraries

The Open Library is part of the Internet Archive. It makes books available for you to read. That is awesome and that is why Open Library is a natural ally of the Wikimedia community.

At our end we can do more of the things that we do anyway and share what we do. The good news is that Wikidata has a CC-0 license. The people at Open Library can use everything that we do and they do not even have to bother to say thanks.

When we add more Open Library identifiers and VIAF identifier to Wikidata we connect them, us and all the libraries in the world. Yes, individual libraries may have different ways of spelling an author's name but using these connections disambiguation slowly but surely becomes a thing of the past for Open Librarians.

What will we have in return? All the books at Open Library of these authors become available to our readers and editors. We are already in the process of adding identifiers to Wikidata for Open Library. For all the authors that have been connected, we can provide our identifiers to Open Library. This helps them with their outreach and disambiguation.

Through Wikidata more and more authors become connected to VIAF. This allows the librarians of the world to share these freely licensed books with their readers. A clear win-win situation don't you think?
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikimedia - Professor Chuck Stone, Tuskegee airman and member of Alpha Phi Alpha

Professor Stone is the founding NABJ President, he was included in the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2004 and he received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush.

The description for the Wikidata item for Mr Stone is "American air force officer". This will not change; it is based on a bot that at one time decided that this would do. The automated description is: "US-American journalist (1924–2014); National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame and Congressional Gold Medal; member of Tuskegee Airmen, Alpha Phi Alpha, and World Policy Council ♂" and the beauty is that this is updated as more information becomes available.

When you consider the quality of the information for Mr Stone in Wikidata, today 10 statements were added to the item. He has been added to the hall of fame with many others including some people Wikipedia does not know about. The World Policy Council is connected to Alpha Phi Alpha. The data is not complete; there is more to add.

When we consider quality, most of the data was added thanks to information available in the English article of Wikipedia. Yet there is information available that could find its way from Wikidata; how do we inform Wikipedia about the people who became part of the hall of fame for instance. Quality for Wikidata is not in single items, it is in how it connects and how it is used. With this realisation we learn from where some say Wikidata and Wikipedia fails and achieve the success that our combined data offers.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Black Art

Charles Alston is one of the artists who are of interest to the Black Lunch Table. Mr Alston died in 1977. One of his struggles was to have his art appreciated in the same way as any other art. It is why he refused to be exhibited in William E. Harmon Foundation shows, which featured all-black artists in their travelling exhibits. Alston and his friends thought the exhibits were curated for a white audience, a form of segregation which they protested. They did not want to be set aside but exhibited on the same level as art peers of every skin color.

Today is 2017 and the BLT addresses this black experience and gains the same attention for black artists by writing in Wikipedia about them. It is why many artists with a black experience gain more information in Wikidata, artists like Mr Alston. The one thing where Wikidata differs from Wikipedia is that it is all about connections. The more a person is connected, the more relevant in different settings. Mr Alston had a notable spouse, he was a founder and member of an art group, he studied and worked. All these things are easy and obvious in Wikidata.

From an artists point of view, other things are of relevance too; what awards did he gain, what museums have work in their collection and where did he exhibit. There is yet no obvious way how to make such a claim. Like so many young men of his time, he was in the army in the 372nd Infantry Regiment but that is not quite what Mr Alston is about. This could be relevant for people who care about the military and also, the 372nd was a black experience as well.

Most articles on the English Wikipedia for a person have categories about education, work at a faculty. Adding the implied information for everyone is almost as easy as adding it for one person. It makes adding statements something of a black art, an art that looks complicated an art that connects everything.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Who is Eric D. Wolff?

Eric D. Wolff is one of three authors of a paper called "Original Issue High Yield Bonds: Aging Analyses of Defaults, Exchanges, and Calls". They won the 1989 Smith Breeden Prize and the Wikipedia article has a red link for Mr Wolff, no link for Mr Paul Asquith and a blue link for  David W. Mullins, Jr.

The simplest thing to do is add an item for all the missing authors, connect them to the awards and be done. As they wrote a paper, it is reasonable to expect a VIAF registration and it was possible to find Mr Asquith.

The question is not if Mr Wolff is notable; he is as he won a prize. The question is how to reliably connect him and others to external sources. Making this effort improves quality for Wikidata; it is quality in action.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - actionable quality; Debora L. Silverman

Mrs Silverman is the 2001 winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. As Wikidata had only two statements for her, it was appropriate to add more information. The Wikipedia article is a stub but it had two categories for a university where she studied and one where she worked. Adding this fact to all the people in a category is relatively easy.

The Ralph Waldo Emerson award was given for "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art". It makes Mrs Silverman an author and consequently there is a VIAF registration for her. Adding this has an effect when the {{Authority control}} template is available in the article.. I added it to the Wikipedia stub and was pleasantly surprised with the WorldCat information from the OCLC.

It is wonderful to find such quality information provided as a consequence from having VIAF information in Wikidata. That is actionable quality!
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata #quality - is it actionable?

T. Geronimo Johnson

The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence is a great example to explain about Wikidata quality. The item is linked to a Wikipedia article and it has several red links. For all the red links a Wikidata item has been created and, the winner for 2015 and 2016 are only known to Wikidata.

The Wikipedia article for the 2016 winner knows about the award. The article mentions the Sallie Bingham Award, an award that Wikidata does not (yet) know about. Wikidata knows about the VIAF registration for the winner; this is relevant because it means that the international libraries know about this author. The Wikipedia article mentions several universities that were attended; including them in Wikidata is easy and obvious. Doing so improves quality for both the author and for the universities involved. The quality of Wikidata is equal or better than Wikipedia when it knows about the same or more articles than a Wikipedia category does.

Several of the winners including T. Geronimo Johnson, the 2015 winner, are "red links". The minimum needed for Wikidata is to know that he is male and, the winner of the award. With a little bit of effort his VIAF identifier can be found. Consequently we know that the T. stands for Tyrone. Adding the VIAF identifier will show the Wikidata identifier in a months time on the VIAF website and, it allows for quality checks in Wikidata.

Quality for Wikidata is different from quality for Wikipedia. It is less in traditional sources and it is more in connecting to sources like VIAF. When a Wikipedia, a Wikidata and sources like VIAF are in agreement a fact is verifiable and becomes more immune to "alternative facts".

When editing Wikidata quality is in completeness, in combining information from multiple sources, in making Mr Johnson the 2015 winner by adding a qualifier. It starts however with making an effort.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - Maren Hassinger is on the "Black Lunch Table"

Maren Hassinger is a sculptor born in Los Angeles. She was awarded both the Anonymous Was A Woman Award and the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to this there is a Wikipedia article.

When you read the article, all kinds of statements are made that could reflect in the article having Wikipedia categories. In this case statements in Wikidata were made.

The outward appearance is that Wikipedia and Wikidata are two distinct projects. Wikidata however has always included data from Wikipedia and there has always been a realisation that Wikipedia in its turn could benefit from Wikidata; generating category entries should be possible for instance.

When you consider the immediate future of the Wikimedia projects, Commons will be wikidatified. One part of the information that is directly related to GLAM activities is registering the museums that include an artist in their collection. This is applicable for many artists that are part of the Black Lunch Table including Mrs Hassinger. So the question is; should we include such information in Wikidata and how should we do this?
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Historical amnesia

A discussion about contemporary politics is not based on facts, nor on the interpretation of facts it is much more based on identity and what group you belong to. It is important to politicians to frame their message and much of this framing is done through a selective use of facts and the presentation of opinion as facts.

The Wikimedia community is not about politics except where facts are concerned. Facts matter; for instance Mrs Clarissa Sligh cares about "historical amnesia", read her website and see what is meant. Mrs Sligh qualifies as far as I am concerned as a "Black Lunch Table" candidate. They are artists from the African diaspora and giving attention to them is a project that aims to lessen the diversity gap that exists.

In contemporary anti politics it is relevant that facts are available. All the Wikimedia projects are political in that they deny any singular political message their limited view on facts. It is important to overcome the bias of the demagogues and pundits and bring together information that paints a difference.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - dating awards

Many awards are dated using "point in time". With a query you can count them, certainly when you are WikidataFacts. Looking at a graph like this, you will see that many awards for 2016 and 2015 are still missing. Many of these awards were imported in the past and have not been updated yet.

It would be cool if we knew what Wikipedias have an article for the awards and would be "pinged" when new values are known.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Politics and 33% fewer #HIV infections in the #UK

Professor Sheena McCormack studied the efficacy of PrEP in the United Kingdom. She headed a major NHS study to ascertain how effective the drug was, and who should be given it. The study was called PROUD. Greg Owen was to late to enrol, buying the drug privately would have set him back £500 per month, money he could not afford.

He could score some of these pills but before he started, he found he was already HIV-positive.. He posted his story on Facebook and was inundated with questions; what is PrEP, where can I get it. At some stage he remembered that medicines can be had from the Internet from countries where medicines are better affordable. Unbranded PrEP is available for £50 per month.

Greg informs people on his blog. Professor McCormack was instrumental in helping set up clinics that monitored the use of these unbranded medicines. It was based on the assertion that doctors are responsible for the care that they provide. Helpful friends monitor the supply and indicate what websites provide the correct substance

The National Health System meanwhile did not want to fund the use of PrEP in 2016. As a result more and more people became aware of PrEP and learned about the alternative. In August of 2016 the NHS lost its case in the High Court. As a result the NHS is doing a "test" for three years starting this summer for 10.000 people ignoring the 33% fewer HIV infections because of PrEP.

When Wikimedians talk about politics, having no article on Professor McCormack and on Greg Owen is relevant. With all the publicity on this case, where is the neutral point of view in this?  It is important because it highlights the cost of medicines as a determining factor on who lives and who does not. In Europe many people can afford £50 a month but in many other countries it is out of reach to make the difference it makes in Europe. According to the United Nations, we can end the HIV/Aids epidemic by 2030 and then Mr Trump happened.

It is political because it provides clarity in a time where companies like Milan make medical care too expensive. It provides clarity when the US government insists on taking away medical insurance from people.

It is political and all too often Wikipedia does not inform. We know that 12% of the 2500 most sold prescription drugs are not effective (source British Medical Journal) and we do not even register this on those drugs. Wikipedia is the prime source of information on medical matters and in my opinion we are negligent.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - John Dalrymple Governor of British Mauritius

There is a list that has a John Dalrymple as Governor of British Mauritius. There are enough John Dalrymples to allow for a disambiguation page.

When there are multiple people with the same name, it is important to exclude the ones that do not fit. A date of birth and death is relevant. The time of having been governor is from 10 December 1818 to 6 February 1819 and that excludes most of them.

There is only one likely candidate; the eight earl of Stair. There is no source but hey, it is at least likely; one source describes the governor as a general and, this one certainly was one. I am however not sure.

There is a Listeria list of British Governors. When someone knows better, he can adapt Wikidata and everywhere where the list is used things will improve.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Cornelius Alfred Moloney

Mr Moloney was one of the Governors-in-Chief of the Windward Islands.  As a colonial administrator for the British his tours of duty included work in Africa and in South America.

As part of his endeavours, he had an interest in forestry and even wrote a book about it. This resulted in him being known in the IPNI database of authors. All of these authors had been added so it was just a matter of merging the two items for Mr Moloney.

When you read the article on Mr Moloney, it does not mention his publication but it does mention that during his tenure at the Windward Islands there were riots because of the cost of water.

Every historic event does not happen in a vacuum. Pertinent information becomes more and more available and this can be provided either in Wikipedia or in Wikidata.  For the Windward Islands it would be that it is a "British Colony" with as its Governor in Chief Mr Molloney and possibly a map to make it clear what is included.

One problem with understanding many facts is that they are better understood when a context is known. As we gain more data it becomes feasible to provide it.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - Jamaica and William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin

William O'Brien, the second Earl of Inchiquin is an interesting person. When you consider what Wikidata knew about him, much of it is missing. No members of the Irish Privy council were known, and he was not noted as being a governor of Jamaica. It is not known that a ransom was paid by the English parliament to the Turks.

When you read the Wikipedia article, It is mentioned in one sentence that he was the first governor of Jamaica but that is all there is. There is not much more except that he died in Jamaica in 1692 and that he was Vice-Admiral of the Caribbean Seas.

When you consider the bias in all this, it is found in the lack of attention for countries like Jamaica. Their history is in the people who were responsible for what is their country. When you read about the family of the earl, you may note that he married women of substance and obviously they are notable enough for inclusion in Wikidata. What is not known is if his wife accompanied him to Jamaica..

Much of the source material on the history of countries like Jamaica can be found in British archives and museums. Improving on the articles on people like Mr O'Brien and sharing this information widely will make Wikipedia more useful outside of its immediate and current interest.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - The "first" president of Haiti

When people express a strong interest for a subject; when there is a chance that this subject is finally getting the attention it deserves, it is a good moment to assist, particularly when it is just a matter of concentrating on what you do anyway.

So Haiti has presently my attention. I have added the known members of the Chamber of Deputies all six of them, I have added the succession on most of the Presidents of Haiti. The problem here is that I do not know enough to make sense out of the early rulers and I will the known members of the Senate.

When I am done with this, I hope to get a list of the present members of the Chamber of Deputies. It is easy enough to include them in Wikidata and this may be followed up by generating lists for use in any Wikipedia that will take it.

Lists like this are wonderful because they provide early structure. When someone adds an article, it is already linked in many places in that Wikipedia and this will make for meaningful early linking in a project. Lists of award winners, lists of politicians for a party or an office. It is all possible when you think in potential particularly when the objective is to share in the sum of all knowledge.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#USA - The Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights

Just to confuse you; there are two awards by that name. This is about the award that was established in 1998 by the President of the United States Bill Clinton, honouring outstanding American promoters of rights in the United States. In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton revived the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and presented the award on behalf of President Obama.

For whatever reason, this award was not very much on the radar of Wikipedians because like with so many awards, it was not well maintained. There are only people for 2010 and there is one person, and he should be on the list for the "other" award. That award is conferred by "Jobs with Justice".

What happened after 2010? Several more years of a United States with President Obama and now, four weeks in the reign of the present incumbent, the sources for the award are gone. They were at a US Government website. Luckily the disappearance of Internet Sources is a well known phenomena, Wikipedians know how to deal with them. The question is if this award is deemed notable enough and there is the rub. It is not obvious what went missing and when the Wikipedia article is not complete, the removal of the data on the web serves its purpose.
Thanks,
        GerardM

#Sources: the Charles S. Johnson Award

Awards honour both the recipients, the organisation that confers it and often the person the award is named for. The Charles S. Johnson Award is named after Charles S. Johnson. He is notable; has his own Wikipedia articles. The organisation that confers it is notable; the Southern Sociological Society has its own Wikipedia article.

The awardees, well that is a problem because there is only a partial list of people who received the award. There are many gaps in the list and sources are available to indicate why they think someone received the award.

The Wikimedia blog has a post that mentions Lillian Smith. It mentions that she gave an acceptance speech at Fisk University in 1966. But there is no source for it. This does not mean that she did not receive the award, it just means that there is no source in the article.

When sources are provided to the Sociological Society, Mrs Smith will be connected to a list of other remarkable people. All notable in their own way. It is just a matter of connecting the dots.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - Who is Ann Dale

Ann Dale won the Molson Prize in 2013. In a rare twist, the English Wikipedia does not list the winners of this award but other Wikipedias do. It was therefore easy to import the list from the German Wikipedia into Wikidata.

As there is a link to the website of the award, it was easy to include the more recent winners of the award. Most of the recent winners already had a Wikipedia article so it was easy to add them.

When you disambiguate for Ann Dale using Reasonator, there was a Ann Marie Dale. There was not much known for her except for her publications. Given that it was possible to find out that she worked for the Washington University in St. Louis, it was a miss. The information on the Molson Prize website provided the answer; it was a different Mrs Ann Dale.

The research by Mrs Dale is on governance, innovation and community vitality and is designed to provide useful knowledge to Canadian decision-makers. There might be something in her work that is of interest to the Wikimedia Foundation as well.

NB Mrs Ann Dale is now registered in Wikidata. More information is left to other interested souls.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - recognition matters

It is not the first time that this blog features Raif Badawi. Ín 2015 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize and as the poster has it "CENSORED. JAILED. FLOGGED. BUT NOT FORGOTTEN."

He is not forgotten. In 2017 he received the Monismanien Prize. Raif was a blogger, what he had to say got him into trouble. Amnesty International recognises him as a prisoner of conscience.

It is important to register the recognition given to a few. They represent so many more people who are equally deserving. As we recognise awards, we recognise people and associate them with people that have been recognised in a similar way. It does not matter what for; it is how it works.

When recognition is given, it means something. Raif is recognised as a blogger.. others are reporters, doctors or Wikimedians.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikidata - Anne Ridley and #AcademiaNet

AcademiaNet is a database of excellent female scientists. It has identifiers for all of them and thanks to the excellent Mix'n'Match tool by Magnus many of these notable scientists are now part of Wikidata.

Anne Ridley is one of them. What AcademiaNet provides is much more information. It would be good when we confirm information using the AcademiaNet database and when they are so inclined, we could use their information to populate information about these notable women, making it even easier to write articles about them in Wikipedia.

Mrs Ridley is the first winner of the Hooke medal. She did receive additional awards..
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Wikimedia Foundation and #Energy

The energy use of the Wikimedia Foundation makes the WMF a dirty supplier of data. The WMF position is that it has no data centre of its own and relies on the energy provided by the hosting company.

When you look at energy use in relation to Wikipedia, there are two components. There is supplying the data and there is consuming the data. The WMF has a problem in one and it has two problems that it can solve.

The WMF is making a war chest that should enable it to function in times when the current funding effort proves to be problematic; they are investing for a rainy day. One other problem for the WMF is that many people do not use Wikipedia and one of the reasons why is a lack of energy. The purpose of what the WMF does is share the sum of all knowledge..

We could invest in the generation of energy near the location where our servers are but we could also invest in increasing our reach and invest in green energy at the same time. When we provide clean energy and target schools they will still have to pay us back including some profit.

When the total sum of generated energy is at least the amount of energy used by our servers, we provide the argument why we are not a dirty data provider. More importantly we give a boost to a world that uses green energy and by focusing where it matters most, we ensure no new dirty energy is used.

There probably are existing funds that provide such investments. When the WMF adds its weight to them and promotes it as an open investment project, many people are likely to invest in this as well making the effort mushroom.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikimedia language committee and #trust

The Wikimedia language committee was originally created to stem the flow of new projects that just did not work. At the end of a lengthy process a specialist is sought to certify that the language used is indeed the language a new Wikipedia is about.

Rehmat Aziz Chitrali is such a specialist for the Khowar language. When you read one of the Wikipedia articles about him, there are seventeen articles, it is obvious that he is more than qualified for the task.

With so many articles, it is obvious that awards he received may have well been documented in some but not in other languages. For Wikidata several but not all awards were added to do some justice.

When the news is in that the Khowar incubator is indeed in Khowar, we will soon have a new Wikipedia.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikidata - The Rumford Medal

The Rumford Medal is a prestigious award. It has been awarded to European scientists from 1800. The first recipient was Lord Rumsford himself.

The best information on the award winners was the Portuguese Wikipedia article. For once the data in the English article was not really usable because the names where combined in a template. A template that has been deprecated.

The Portuguese Wikipedia includes more articles so several Wikidata items only have articles in Portuguese. The 2016 awardee only has an English article and it does not mention that Mr Ortwin Hess received any awards at all. The article suggest that the award was last awarded in 2014...

When you add information from Wikipedia, it is important to inspect the data. When everything goes as planned, the items for the winners include that they received at least one award. Someone else may append the data for instance the date when people received their award.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The #Labor hall of Honour

When you add awards for one person, you will find other awards that are of interest. The Department of Labor's Hall of Honor is one such. It is a monument to honor Americans who have made a positive contribution to how people in the United States work and live.

Regularly new people are included. For some awards there are many red links. This time there was only one. Mark Ayers was added in 2012. When you google Mr Ayers, you find several dates of death.

To do the list justice, it is easy to add sources to the more relevant statements for Mr Ayers; him being part of the hall of honour and his death. It is left for other people to complement the data. As it is, the item fulfils its function; it completes a list.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - the Congressional gold medal

The United States Congress awards a gold medal to those who they think deserve it. Of interest is that the medal is made for the person involved. As an illustration you find the medal made for Rosa Parks.

When information is completed for a person like Mrs Parks in Wikidata, often Wikidata is lacking the associated items. For others like this gold medal there is a category that makes it easy to add other recipients for the award.

Adding information for one person adds somewhat to the quality of the information for that item. Another way of looking at quality is finding how connected for instance a Nancy Reagan and a Rosa Parks is. They were both honoured by Congress. To enable this, it is important to complete information when possible.

For Mrs Parks awards were added to Wikidata. Even when there is now only one recipient, it may establish a link to the organisation that conferred it. It makes it easy to add the award in the future and this is how slowly but surely quality at Wikidata improves.

Connecting as much as possible is what will make Wikidata great.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The woman who bankrupted the #KKK

Her child was lynched. Her child was lynched by members of the Klu Klux Klan. It became a court case and not only was the guilt of the perpetrators proven, it was also proven that the Klan told its members to go out and lynch. In recognition of this fact, the Klan was penalised, they could not afford the money the organisation went bankrupt.

In recognition of all this, Mrs Beulah Mae Donald received the Candace award in 1988 and consequently she is notable enough for Wikidata.

In 2017 Mr Trump removed white supremacist groups from the Terror Watch Program. Does this mean that the definition of terrorism changed or only that the United States does not mind home grown terrorism?

Effectively the KKK is no longer considered a terrorist organisation. It is however well documented that more people died in America because of home grown terrorists than by terrorists of any other kind. For a definition of terrorism you may check an Amnesty International or the UN. When you consider their definition and apply it to observable fact it is no longer a political opinion.

My question to US Americans is; when black lives matter what does this say about your government. It is not only about Muslims being welcome there is this as well.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Wikidata - Including the Candace award

I saw a short video on modern dance. It praised a Mrs Katherine Dunham. As I often do, I check out if Wikidata knows about it and see if it is reasonably complete. As always there was more to do and I added her to the Candace award. In the process I added some 79 ladies who are "Black role models of uncommon distinction who have set a standard of excellence for young people of all races".

I wanted an illustration and I turned to Google. Google did not know this award; it got confused with a Candace Cameron Bure, an actor who received some awards. I did provide Google with feedback :)

Google still provided me with relevant information; the Wikipedia article has it that the award was terminated in 1992 but I found that the organisation that confers the award was seeking nominees in 2009. The National Coalition of 100 Black Women is still going strong by the way.

It is however not obvious what happened after 1992. The one source that can provide some clarity is the NCBW. They can make a difference by adding information to the Wikipedia article. "Red links"  are fine. The point of role models is simple. It is one thing to recognise them, it is another to have people know about them.
Thanks,
        GerardM

Leupp, Arizona

According to the category system of English Wikipedia, Leupp, Arizona is a concentration camp. From 1907, Leupp became the headquarters of the Leupp Indian Land and it is only for a short time in the second world war that people were imprisoned there.

It is kind of ironic that a Wikipedia article that explains about the involvement of the Navajo also registers it as a concentration camp. It is probably why another project is necessary to document more fully what it is all about. Then again, it would be cool to collaborate with them and include all the information in Wikipedia.
Thanks,
       GerardM