Wikimedia CH is one of the sponsors of the Wikidata Days on 8 and 9 November in Bologna. The conference brings together Italian-speaking Wikidata users, researchers and librarians to develop new projects together. We are looking forward to a weekend packed with talks, workshops and project presentations as well as celebrating Wikidata’s 12th birthday!

Wikidata is an open knowledge database based on the MediaWiki software. It provides Wikipedia and many other platforms with more than 1.5 billion freely accessible, structured data. Wikidata helps users to research, manage and share information and serves as a central data source. Especially for research, education and technology development, the gigantic database offers great opportunities for working on open knowledge exchange and data analysis.

Structured data is information that is available in a predefined form, e.g. location, time, date, numbers, texts, lists, tables or forms. This makes it easy to organise, search and analyse the data. They follow a fixed schema, allowing relationships to be established between the data. They can therefore be used for a wide variety of purposes such as reports, analyses, visualisations or machine learning.
In contrast to unstructured data, which is available in the form of text, images or audio files, structured data can be compiled into tables or special databases.

Structured data is important for several reasons:

  • efficient data processing: the clear structuring and organisation of data makes it easier to store, retrieve, analyse and process. This leads to greater efficiency and makes it possible to access relevant information quickly.
  • data integrity: Structured data is less prone to errors and inconsistencies because it is standardised. This ensures that the data is reliable.
  • data analysis: Structured data makes it possible to recognise relationships, patterns and trends between different data elements. This is particularly important for people who want to make informed decisions based on data.
  • compatibility: Structured data ensures better interaction between systems and applications as it is organised according to clear standards and formats. This facilitates data exchange and integration from different sources.

Overall, structured data is important to improve the efficiency, precision and usability of data and to fully utilise the potential of information. As Wikidata is an important foundation for free knowledge in Switzerland and beyond, Wikimedia CH is pleased to financially support the Wikidata Conference in Bologna and thus the further development of the platform and the Italian-speaking community.

Another example of how Wikimedia CH supports partners in Switzerland with the input of structured data is the collaboration with the SAPA Foundation, Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts:

In the first half of 2024, over 11,000 new entries related to Swiss performing arts productions were created in Wikidata. This was made possible by a partnership established in 2023 between the SAPA Foundation and the Wikimedia CH association. These entries represent nearly 20 percent of all productions documented by the SAPA Foundation – marking a first milestone in the collaboration between the two organisations.

Sandra Becker and Flor Méchain, as representatives of the GLAM programme of Wikimedia CH, promoted the data import through multiple sessions and also provided practical programming assistance. Their enthusiasm helped to spread the passion for open-source projects to the working team. ‘We repeatedly highlighted  the potential of open data and demonstrated how visibility can be increased by making the data freely available for further research,’ reports GLAM Lead Sandra Becker.

The SAPA team has compiled a detailed report on this first stage of our collaboration.

 

Further information

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