Wikibot

This is a **proposal for a new** Wikimedia sister project.
Wikibot
Status of the proposal
Status	rejected
Reason	There is Wikidata for this now. --Sannita (talk) 12:22, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Details of the proposal
Project description	making wiki content and meta content available via queries from external sites
	v; t; e;

Wikibot is a project proposal for making wiki content and meta content available via queries from external sites.

Mission

To provide public information and structured information in a format that can be readily accessed and digested by external server requests/ programs.

Proposal

Wikibot would encompass several features designed to assist both users and proccesses in retrieving information in a way that preserves its structural relationships with like information. The core features would include a mapping syntax, a querying syntax, a querying interface (for users), and some kind of ad-hoc narrative to structured translator, a global unique key generator (so external databases can link their own data to publically accessable data instances).

Justification

While Wikipedia is great for narrative information on a topic, there seems to be no easy way to extract structure datasets. This would be an enormous asset in that respect as it would provide a centralized location for standards and other structured sets of data.
There is no common source for such public data, and it's wasteful for every organization using a database to retain their own list of cities, list of nations, list of measurement units.
Other Wiki projects could embed structuring protocol for diagraming. ie structuring protocol in tandem with some kind of command could be used to generate pngs or find and create links to other wiki resources informed by page's structural context.

Key Features

Standardized Structuring Syntax
- purpose: syntax for encoding/decoding multi-dimensional dataset structures.
- Syntax Elements:
  - Relationship Indicators: place current structure in context of existing structures, including
    - direct aliasing,
    - child-inclusive aliasing,
    - tangent substructure status,
    - parallel structure context, etc
  - Condition and Usage Indicatiors: define parameters of given structural set and types of information/things it can be applied to.
  - Narative Indicator: for providing any necessary narrative detail
  - Permissions and Status Indicators: signal to querying components the presence and scope of embedded structural map. Allows editor to tag some content within map not available for export outside page, outside wiki, outside wiki network
  - Structure Type Tags: is it definitional, is it naming, is it mathematical/measurable...basically indications of how data can be appropriately used in conjunction with other data objects. you wouldn't want to try to square-root an element of a list of similies...
Querying Protocol - tk
Querying Interface -tk
- for users
- for agents/bots
Request Monitor - restricts frequency of a sites requests to prevent server overload, based on request history and frequency of dataset modification. sites that makes requests every few minutes, for instance might be required to store contents locally between hourly or daily calls

Examples

For each of the following, the suggested dividing levels stand in for lists of such. For example the locations list would not simply include what is written here but would map lists of cities to states in lists of states in lists of countries....
Locations: planets->continents->countries->regions/provinces/states->townships/cities/towns/landmarks->streets/routes/zipcodes
Measurements: Atomic State->Most Specific Level of Material Specialization (ie clothing vs land vs wood)-> Units.
Tangents to Measurements would include, measurement tools, systems of measurement (metric, english), aliases to other nodes with in measurement structure...

Glossary

process/agent/bot = an external automated process, program, application, or webpage requesting information from Wikibot
user = a person requesting structured data returns from the Wikibot/Access on-site interface

People Interested

Discussion

Please discuss the idea as a whole on the talk page.
Naming for the proposal should be discussed at Wikibot/Name.
Discussion about existing similar ideas should be made at Wikibot/Others.
Technical aspects of the project can be discussed at Wikibot/Technical.