Content Partnerships Hub/Needs assessment/Research results/Lozana Rossenova

Meeting with Lozana Rossenova 2022

Researcher and designer

Date: 2022-02-08

Participants:

Tore Danielsson, WMSE

Axel Pettersson, WMSE

Lozana Rossenova, Open Science Lab, TIB Hannover

1. Experiences and best practices from earlier work with content partnership?

Depends on context. PHD needed a database, and used a Wikibase. Contacting institutions and sorting out the best way to interact with their data. Small institution in, using Wikidase for data and Commons for material. Using an own database to stay clear from both copyright issues, that can be a problem in contemporary art collections and also notability and such. In some cases using an own database is great from an integrity point also. Fales Library (part of New York University) in NY. Had to put a lot of data somewhere. Using Wikidata for data, but staying clear of Commons because of copyright. Using Wikidata was valuable to create visualizations and connect data to other sources.

Usually using Open Refine to fill new Wikibase instances with data. Also using Cradle and some Quick statements and Mix’n’match. Established the Wikibase stakeholders group. Getting help from WMDE, WMUK and others when needed in projects. Some institutions prefer using their own Wikibase to keep their collection as their own and not pollute it with other data. Having its own Wikibase makes it possible for institutions to lock their data for editing while leaving it open for reading. As Wikidata has grown too big and is suffering from scaling problems it helps to have a smaller own wikibase.

2. What are the main needs in future and expanding work with partners?

Handholding and support in explaining and sorting out copyright issues. Some larger institutions understand and have good understanding but smaller institutions and their stakeholders, like artists, writers, cultural producers, etc may lack the needed knowledge. Better understanding from the Commons community in deletion questions and more acceptance for contemporary art and leaving material up. Better way to copy and reuse schemas between Commons and Wikidata for similar material. Easier way for topic experts to work in their field with creating properties and such. More respect for experts and institutions who help and contribute material, and some kind of “write protection” to prevent deletion or to prevent bots deleting when constraints are broken as artwork goes outside the rules. Also possible ways for topic experts to contribute directly to property schemas in Wikidata, currently the community process is a bottleneck.

3. What would a good and efficient support practically look like?

Support in training on different platforms and in what ways they are connected. Making sure the most is won by adding material, data and other parts to the platforms and languages where it belongs. No focus on only one platform as the Wikimedia family is more connected and open than other online platforms. Better explanations in how copyright works and how different material can have different copyright.

Try to find out if separate Wikibase instances are indexed by google and other search engines, and if that helps in improving searchability.