WIKIDATA TRAINING SESSION

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BY

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BLESSING, OJEWUYI TIMOTHY

Africa Wiki Women - Accelerating Action for Gender Equality 2025

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Blessing, Ojewuyi Timothy

Ojewuyib is an experienced Wikimedia editor with focus on Wikidata. She is an economist but with passion for open knowledge especially Wikidata. She is the Wikidata facilitator for Wiki Loves Afrodemics and she is an alumni of the African WIki Women Fellowship and Mentorship programme.

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Table of Contents

1. The importance and usage of recoin tool
2. Translation of Labels
3. Adding of reference to Wikidata Articles
4. Adding Statement to Wikidata Items
5. Creating a new Wikidata item

What is Wikidata?

Wikidata is a free, collaborative database that stores structured data for use across Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia, Commons, and beyond.

It acts as a central source of facts that can be read and edited by humans and machines in any language.

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Wikidata & other Projects

• It supplies data for infoboxes, categories, and interlanguage links for Wikipedia
• It links media files (e.g., images, videos) to structured data for better discovery on Wikimedia Commons
• For other projects, it powers content on Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wikinews, and more through shared data.

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RECOIN Tools

• RECOIN (Relative Completeness Indicator) helps editors identify missing key statements in a Wikidata item.
• Visual Guide: Shows a colored progress bar (red to green) indicating how complete an item is.
• Improves Data Quality: Suggests important properties based on similar items.
• Encourages Contribution: Motivates users to fill in gaps for a more complete knowledge graph

Interpret the Recoin Indicator

• A color-coded progress bar appears at the top-right, reflecting the item's completeness.
• The bar ranges from red (very basic) to green (very detailed), indicating how comprehensive the item's data is compared to similar entries.

How to activate recoin tool

Navigate to your Wikidata Preferences.

Click on the Gadgets tab.

Scroll down and check the box for Recoin (Relative Completeness Indicator).

Click Save to apply the changes.

Labels on Wikidata

• Labels are the names used to identify items in different languages.
• Descriptions give short explanations to distinguish similar items.
• Aliases are alternative names or spellings.

Activating Translation of Labels

You can activate the languages to translate to using Babel.

What is Babel?

Babel is a userbox system that lets you display the languages you speak and your proficiency level on your user page.

How to add Babel

1. Go to your User Page (e.g., User:YourUsername).
2. Add this code (replace with your actual languages):

{{#babel:en-N|fr-3|ha-2|yo-1}}

1. Save your user page.

Explanations

en-N: Native English speaker

fr-3: Advanced French

ha-2: Intermediate Hausa

yo-1: Basic Yoruba

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How to Translate

Go to the item page (e.g., Q42 – Douglas Adams)

Click “edit” next to your target language.

Scroll to the "In more languages" section (left or top of page)

Add the label, description, and optionally, aliases.

Click publish to save your translation.

Adding References to Wikidata Items

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Go to the Wikidata Item Page

Example: Q42 – Douglas Adams

Locate the relevant property (e.g., Place of birth).

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Click “Add reference”

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Input the Reference Source and publish.

Adding Statement to Wikidata Items

1. Go to the Item Page (Example: Q42 – Douglas Adams)
2. Click “Add statement” and select a Property
3. Start typing (e.g., "occupation", "date of birth") and the auto suggestion will appear
4. Enter the appeared value
5. Click “Publish”

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How to create a new item

Log In to Your Wikidata Account

Fill in the Basic Fields:

i.Label (Name)

ii. Description

iii.Aliases: another name (optional)

Click “Create a new Item”

Click “Create”

Start Adding Statements

Thank you very much!

Let’s move to the practical session!