Talk:Wikidata

Suggestion to Wikimedia Inspire challenge

This suggestion was sent to Wikimedia Inspire challenge in March 2016. [1]

Idea

Strengthen links between primary research and Wikidata.

Idea type

Inspire Campaign

Summary

A separate wiki site could collaboratively synthesise primary data into quantitative summaries of research questions; and these summaries could be uploaded to Wikidata to maximise penetration into the society.

About you

I am an environmental health researcher in Finland. For ten years, I have developed an idea and maintained a wiki site called Opasnet to improve the use of primary and secondary scientific data in societal decision making. Wikidata is an inspiring opportunity to help in this objective.

What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Wikipedia is designed to contain established information. Primary scientific information can be effectively used to produce answers to many practical questions using mass collaboration. However, there is a problem that this mass collaboration cannot happen inside Wikipedia, and if it happens outside Wikipedia, it is not considered as a credible source. We need processes that curate mass collaboration work and give quality stamps to results, so that they can be used in Wikipedia. In addition, we need a way to produce this information in a format compatible with Wikidata, so that the information can be directly used in any language.

What is your solution?

We need several things. First, there must be a collaborative web-workspace where primary scientific data is allowed, and where it can be analysed and synthesised using rules of scientific work. There exists such a workspace, namely Opasnet (http://en.opasnet.org), but it is not (yet) widely used. So, its use should be tested and promoted as a place for such work.

Second, we need a data format that can be used with many different kinds of research questions. It should produce standardised (preferably quantitative) answers that can be directly uploaded to Wikidata. This requires some work together with Wikidata designers and Opasnet designers.

Third, we need curation and quality control so that only those pieces of information that have passed criticism are labeled as high-quality products and can be uploaded to Wikidata. This is the largest work and requires promotion of the idea and volunteering researchers to actually start such work.

Project roles:

• 1 advisor
• 1 developer
• 1 community organizer