Grants:TPS/MikePeel/Wikimania/2018/Report

Participant

Mike Peel

Outcomes

Ahead of the conference, I helped Wittylama to assemble the Wikimania 2018 schedule by writing bot code and templates to import the Wikimania 2018 sessions from Easychair's CSV output to Mediawiki pages.
During the hackathon, I wrote a new bot script to add labels to Wikidata based on Commons category names at Wikidata:Wikidata:Requests for permissions/Bot/Pi bot 7. I made improvements to several other bot scripts. I also starting to write a script to search Wikidata for new commons category sitelinks, initially manually but later botified and posted at Wikidata:Wikidata:Requests for permissions/Bot/Pi bot 8.
Also during the hackathon, Deskana introduced me to a Malayalam Wikipedia editor who wanted a modified version of ml:ഫലകം:Prettyurl that used Wikidata labels. I modified the template during the hackathon, and the new version is now at ml:ഫലകം:Prettyurl/wikidata.
I spoke with the Structured Data on Commons people, in particular User:Spinster and Ramsey, about the Wikidata infobox on Commons and potential future Wikidata-aware/structured data templates on Commons, both during the hackathon and later.
I gave a poster presentation on the Wikidata Infobox on Commons, which was accompanied by a WMUK blog post
I gave a Wikidata-enabled Infobox Workshop session, focused on the technical tools (commons:Module:WikidataIB and templates) that are used to build up the infoboxes, which was well-attended (see photo on the right)
I gave a spontaneous how-to on Wikidata Infobox on Commons at the Commons photographers meetup, which was also well-attended (see my photo on the right that shows the attendees).
During the Wikidata Pink Pony session, thanks to User:Harmonia Amanda, I became aware of the complications of family names on Wikidata, which I had initially been bot-adding based only on English labels, and had extended to support native labels during the hackathon. After further discussions with Harmonia, the bot was stopped, and will be rewritten to improve its multilingual support and to focus on specific countries of citizenship, before being restarted.
I had various conversations about Wikidata Infoboxes with conference attendees.
Given that the Commons Wikidata Infobox incorporates monuments, I had some conversations about how to better integrate Wiki Loves Monuments with Wikidata, in particular with Andre Costa, as well as Lodewijk. I hope to work more in this area as a result.
I've uploaded over 700 photos from Cape Town to commons:Category:Wikimania 2018 photographs by Mike Peel - including photos from the conference, from Table Mountain, from various museums, and elsewhere in the city.

Application

For anyone interested, this was my application for a scholarship (I received a full scholarship). I hope that sharing this will help other editors improve their applications in the future.

Type: I am applying for a full scholarship, but would be able to attend if awarded a partial scholarship.
Please indicate whether or not you would like your information shared with other, independent Wikimedia movement organizations. Yes
Do you intend to apply to any local Chapter / other movement organization(s) for scholarship funding to Wikimania 2018? No
Occupation (if professional): Astronomer
Username: Mike_Peel
Most active: Commons
Second most active: Wikidata
Primary language: en
X Active contributor to a Wikimedia project (e.g. Wikipedia, Commons, Wikisource, Wikidata)
X Mediawiki code contributor, gadget or other tool-builder for Wikimedia projects
X Involvement in some form of Wikimedia organization (Chapters, Thematic Organizations, User Groups)
X Wikimedia CheckUser, Admin, Bureaucrat, Steward, and/or OTRS (current or former)
Wikimedia Foundation Grantee
Wikimedia Researcher
Participant in a Wikimedia program (e.g. GLAM partnerships, Education program, etc.)
X Participant in Wikimedia organized events (e.g. photographer contributing to Wiki Loves Monuments, workshop attendee)
X Organizer of Wikimedia events (e.g. WLM, edit-a-thons)
None of the above

Tell us about your recent involvement in your home wiki or the broader Wikimedia movement. What have you built or contributed to in order to improve your wiki or community? Have you led or organized any of these activities? Please indicate which of these activities took place in the last 12 months.

I am currently working on the integration of Wikidata with Wikipedia, particularly through the use of Wikidata-enabled infoboxes. I have been playing a leading role in developing these on the English Wikipedia over the last few years, and my canonical example is the ‘South Pole Telescope’ infobox ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Telescope ). Around 1,000 enwp articles now use infoboxes entirely from Wikidata, and I have been working with other editors to increase this number (partly through discussions started at Wikimania 2016), and to utilise Wikidata-enabled infoboxes in other languages (such as the Portuguese Wikipedia).

I also take photos for Commons: having recently moved to Brazil, I am exploring/photo-documenting São Paulo and nearby areas, and trying to fill in the gaps in the current photos we have on Commons (as well as helping to organise the ones we have already). I recently uploaded my 24,000th photo to Commons. I’m also active with sorting out interwiki links and category navigation there, again linked to Wikidata.

I have made many different types of edits on enwp since starting editing in 2005, including article writing, copyediting, template work, deploying Wikiproject banners (back when they were still fairly scarce), and administrative activities (since 2007). I tend to work at the cross-roads between the different projects, and I recently passed the 100,000 edit mark mostly through Commons, enwp, and Wikidata.

I co-founded/rebooted Wikimedia UK in 2008, and I served as a trustee for 5 years. During that time, I organised the first Wikimedia Editathon, at the British Library in 2011, and I helped with the creation of the first Wikipedian in Residence at the British Museum, along with various other GLAM, governance, and capacity-building work. I was also one of the first members of the Wikimedia Funds Dissemination Committee in 2012-14, and I served a second (community-elected) term from 2015 until 2017.

What’s something great that happened as a result of these activities? This could be described either quantitatively or qualitatively, and could impact either online or offline. Here are some examples that might help.

On-wiki, Wikidata-enabled infoboxes are now used across different language Wikipedias, which means that by editing Wikidata to improve an infobox on one project, you also improve it on a whole range of other language Wikipedias!

Off-wiki, one fun result of uploading my photographs to Commons is that they have been reused in a wide variety of places, including magazines, websites, and even as a book cover. I love seeing how widely my photographs spread and are reused.

Also, since I ran the first editathon, they have spread across the globe, and it's rare that a month goes by without an editathon happening somewhere in the world.

What collaborations with other Wikimedians or Wikimedia organizations are you most proud of?

Collaborating with other Wikimedians on the Funds Dissemination Committee was probably been the most fun/fulfilling work I've done, and also the most impactful. The diversity of that committee, and the variety of different viewpoints that contribute positively to the discussions, makes the committee work really fun and enjoyable. The committee also makes a real difference with the level of impact that the applying Wikimedia organisations achieve.

After that, my work with Wikimedia UK (particularly over the first few years as a trustee) led to fantastic outcomes, particularly in the GLAM area, that have gone on to make a global impact.

How do you usually share your experiences (or things you’ve learned) with your community? Examples of on-wiki summaries/reports, blog posts, meetup talks, etc. are welcome here.

I talk and share my experiences with local Wikimedians, e.g., at meetups, or by workshops (such as a recent Wikidata lab on generating list articles through Wikidata, https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Edit-a-thon/Atividades_em_portugu%C3%AAs/Wikidata_Lab_II ). I also take photos and share them through Commons.

Wikimania 2018's theme is focusing on supporting underrepresented voices and filling knowledge gaps in our movement. What are some communities, forms of knowledge, or subjects that are important to you and still missing from Wikimedia? How would you like to participate at Wikimania to help address this?

Often, knowledge exists on one Wikipedia but not in another. For example, there are many articles in the Portuguese Wikipedia about Brazil, that are not yet on the English Wikipedia. By using Wikidata, which is inherently language-independent, we can find out more easily which topics are missing in the different Wikipedias, make lists of them, and start to build new articles about them with an instantly-filled infobox. Plus, Wikidata can be updated in the local language, and instantly also update the information displayed in all other languages.

I want to talk to people at Wikimania to encourage the use of Wikidata-enabled infoboxes on other Wikipedias, and to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of them. I hope to give a presentation on this.

Please provide the links to all of your previous WMF Scholarship reports.

I received a partial scholarship in 2016, my report for this is at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/MikePeel/Wikimania/2016/Report

I have attended previous Wikimanias as an FDC member and a WMUK board member, however these were not WMF scholarships and no reports were required for them.