Welcome to the third Wikimedia training session of the Queerpedia Program
Module 3: Introduction to Wikimedia commons and Wikidata
Wikimedia Commons
Today’s agenda:
Introduction to Wikimedia Commons
3
[[Category:]]
By the end of this session you will be able to:
What is Wikimedia commons:
“Wikimedia Commons is a database of content that is licensed such that it can be reused outside of Wikimedia projects. Anyone can contribute materials that are in the public domain, Creative Commons-licensed or otherwise available for reuse and based on these contributions, Wikimedia Commons already has over 23.3 million media files available. You can search for items or browse through the available items by media type, subject, location, license, or author.”
Aim of Wikimedia Commons
6
Project pillars (similarities and differences to Wikipedia)
7
| Wikipedia | Wikimedia Commons |
Free license |
|
|
Content Focus | Text | Media files |
Items evolving | ✓ | (✓) |
Project scope | Notability | Educational value |
NPOV | ✓ | (✘) |
Contributors | Everyone | Upload limited to registered users |
Possible contribution
8
Creation of media files:
Organizing existing content
Uploading free content from other sources:
[[Commons:Categories]]
9
Why?
How?
Learn the rules
Sharing your own work on Commons makes it available for people around the world to use in their own way. But there's a few rules you have to follow when uploading media, and when using them.
What's a free license?
Anyone who creates a work is automatically the owner of its copyright, unless they produced it for an employer, or transferred their copyright to someone else..
That means that anyone can:
As long as the person using it:
Types of license?
What can you share on commons:
You can create and share graphs, maps, diagrams, audio, and video.
If you create media for any of the following, you can share it:
What's public domains?
A work in the public domain is not covered by anyone's copyright. Usually, these are works created and shared with no restrictions, for example, by some government agencies, or they are works where the time limits on copyrights has expired (in Nigeria, works published 70 years after the death of the author are in the public domain)
A few tips on the public domain:
Here are some misconceptions about copyright licenses. Which one do you think is true?
"I took a photo of this copyrighted work myself, so it's my own copyright."
"I shared this image using a free license, but I am still the copyright holder."
"I scanned this copyrighted work, so it's my copyright."
"I released my photo under a free license, so I gave up my copyright."
Which of the following IS an acceptable form of media to share on Commons?
A promotional poster for a movie, shared by the movie studio to newspapers to promote the film.
An image you found on a website for free clip art.
A picture you've taken of a new painting in the university museum
A political cartoon from a 150-year-old newspaper.
Which of the following is true?
You can't upload original images of buildings or people taken in public without written permission.
People have to follow rules closely when they use "free license" images, or they can be sued for financial damages.
You can share any image you find online, as long as you cite the source.
You can't upload someone else's work, even if they give permission on their website
Now that you know,
Lets upload some files!!
Wikidata
But first thing’s first –
What’s Wikidata, anyway?
A database of structured, linked data multilingual read by humans & machines open to all under a free license.
Launched October 29, 2012
Part of the Wikimedia Movement ecosystem
In short:
Wikidata is <3
Structured data, you say?
Claim = Item --> Property --> Value
Item is any topic (Wikipedia article, thing, person, place, concept, etc.)
Property is a specific single kind of data relevant to this item (e.g. height for mountains, capitals for countries, gender for humans)
Value is either a reference to another Item (the capital of Germany is Berlin) or a literal value (e.g. 8848 meters)
Items and Properties
An item is described by a series of claims, each asserting a single datum or fact about it.
A property is a specific kind of information, like a field in a form, and is used to describe what the data means.
Examples
An item about a country would have claims about the following properties: population, land area, official languages, borders-with, anthem, capital city, demonyms, Gross Domestic Product, etc. etc.
Examples
An item about a person would have claims about: name, date of birth/death, place of birth/death, citizenship, occupation, languages spoken, religion, sexuality, father, mother, children, notable works, place of education, etc. etc.
Claim examples (Item --> Property --> Value)
Earth --> highest-point --> Mount Everest
Mount Everest --> elevation above sea level --> 8848 meters
Earth --> deepest point --> Challenger Deep Challenger Deep --> elevation above sea level -->
-10,994±1 metre
Another way of looking at it
Earth -->
highest-point: Mount Everest deepest point: Challenger Deep
Challenger Deep -->
elevation above sea level: -10,994±1 metre
Mount Everest -->
elevation above sea level: 8848 meters
Once more with numeric IDs
Earth (Q2) --> highest-point (P610) --> Mount Everest (Q513)
Mount Everest (Q513) --> elevation above sea level (P2044) --> 8848 meters
Earth (Q2) --> deepest point (P1589) --> Challenger Deep (Q459173)
Challenger Deep (Q459173) --> elevation above sea level (P2044) --> -10,994±1 metre
Once more without squishy humanspeak
Q2 --> P610 --> Q513
Q513 --> P2044 --> 8848 meters Q2 --> P1589 --> Q459173
Q459173 --> P2044 --> -10,994±1 meters
Interlude: Why numbers?
Labels are ambiguous and sometimes redundant: What is Lagos?
State in Nigeria, in Portugal, state name, personal name, movie company, hotel?
Language-neutral - not everybody speaks English! Robot-friendly (robots love numbers ;)
Questions so far?
Wikidata is a multilingual project. That means...
Entries to Wikidata are in English, but the labels should be translated by hand into other languages.
You can work in the language of your choice, since the underlying data is independent of your Wikidata language preference.
To contribute to Wikidata you need to be able to speak all the languages used in the project.
Each language has its own, independent set of facts, just like Wikipedia.
Which of the following is correct?
A statement can only use another item as a value.
A statement consists of an item, a property, and a value.
A statement consists of a property and a value; the item is separate.
A statement can only include a numeric value.
The Wikidata entry for a city includes a statement that gives the population
Change the value and leave everything else the same.
Leave a note on the Discussion page asking someone to update the entry.
Add a new qualifier statement that gives the 2017 population and change the rank to reflect that this is the most current value.
Change the value and the reference.
Let's go explore Wikidata!
Let's teach Wikidata Something new!
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:NewItem
Remember:
Wikidata is <3
Querying Wikidata
Querying Wikidata
no more
query.wikidata.org demos
Links to sample queries
Remember: “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” --attributed to Picasso
WD-FIST
https://tools.wmflabs.org/fist/wdfist/index.html
The Wikidata Reasonator
Go edit Wikidata! :)
Now that you have the power, use it for good and not for evil.
Thanks!
@ayokanmioyeyemi ayokanmi@wikimedia.org.ng
Thank you for your time and active participation!
Image: Blanca Flores / CC BY-SA