Wikidata:Development plan/archive2021

You will find below the roadmap of the Wikidata development team (Wikimedia Deutschland) for Wikidata and Wikibase for 2021. If you have any question or comment, feel free to write on Wikidata:Contact the development team. Please note that the roadmap presents the main projects that the development team will work on during 2021. Required tasks such as maintenance and bug fixes are not mentioned in the roadmap, but will be included in the workflow over the year. The roadmap is based on estimations and will evolve during the year. The roadmap doesn't contain events we're attending or organizing. The most up-to-date versions of the roadmap can be found on our online project management tool (Wikidata, Wikibase). You can click on the different items to see further information, like a description or planned start date. You will also find screenshots in the sections below.

Wikidata as a platform

Increase data quality and trust

We want to increase data quality and trust on Wikidata.

Query Builder :Development

Querying Wikidata is an important part of working with Wikidata's data. It currently requires knowledge of SPARQL, which is too high a barrier. We want to overcome this barrier by providing a visual query builder.

• Demo systemCategory:Development
• More information: Wikidata:Improve the workflows for queries and lists/Simple query Builder

Curious facts :Development

Some of the data in Wikidata is weird. It can either be weird because the data is wrong ("the earth is flat") or because the real world is weird ("a woman married the Eiffel Tower"). If it is a case of the world being weird we have spotted a curious fact. We want to exploit this in order to help us spot mistakes in the data. We will build a tool that finds weird data and then exposes it to people so they can check it or be entertained.

Data about current events:Development

Current events are a common target of vandalism while also being important for reusers. We want to find a way to identify these Items automatically and then expose them so editors can keep an eye on them more easily.

Checks against 3rd party databases:Development

Via external identifiers we have connections to a lot of other databases, websites, catalogs, etc. We can compare our data against their data and then highlight the differences. This will allow our editors to look into them and fix them when needed. This is important because it will provide us with a tool that can find hard-to-spot issues in the data more easily.

Finding gaps and biases:Development

We want to find more ways for people to find biases and gaps in the data in Wikidata so we can work on making our data less biased and more complete. We want to first understand where the most important gaps and biases in Wikidata are and then find ways to make them more visible and actionable.

Feedback loops with data re-users:Research

Large re-users of Wikidata's data expose the data to a very large number of their users. These users find potential mistakes in our data that currently do not flow back to us. We need to build up tools and processes to get this feedback because otherwise the feedback cycle that works so well for Wikipedia ("I see a mistake, let me fix it right away") does not work for Wikidata. Closing this feedback look will be an essential step in ensuring the quality of Wikidata's data. See also the Phabricator task.

Evaluation of the data quality of a subset of Items:Research

It is important that data re-users have trust in Wikidata's data quality. In order to build this trust we will provide a tool to assess the quality (as assessed by ORES) of a subset of Wikidata's Items. This tool will also help editors identify the highest- and lowest-quality Items in the area of Wikidata they are interested in.

Encourage more data use

We want to encourage more use of Wikidata's data.

REST API:Development

We want to make it easier for 3rd-party developers to build applications using data from Wikidata. This will lead to more applications being built and our data being used more widely. We will achieve this by developing a modern REST API for Wikibase. See the feedback round: Wikidata:REST API feedback round

Enable more diverse data and users

We want to increase the diversity of Wikidata's data and among its users.

Interface improvements for lexicographical data:Development

Lexicographical data are an important part of Wikidata. There are a number of important usability issues and bugs that make it hard to contribute to this part of Wikidata. We want to improve the interface in order to make it more usable and attractive for contributors.

• Phabricator board
• On-wiki discussions: Wikidata:Lexicographical data

Wikibase ecosystem

Wikibase instances outside of Wikimedia use Wikidata to augment and enrich their own data

We want Wikibase instances outside of Wikimedia to use Wikidata to augment and enrich their own data.

Expanded Wikidata/Wikibase Federation (Federation v2): Development

We will continue steps toward allowing non-Wikimedia installations of Wikibase to use Wikidata's ontology, an important component of Federation. In the second prototype we will likely allow for more complex Federation with local ontology.

Wikibase users can use and extend Wikidata’s ontology in their own projects

We want Wikibase users to use and extend Wikidata’s ontology in their own projects, allowing them to access the power of the Wikidata community.

Federated Properties user testing & feedback (Federation): Testing

Federated Properties is the lightweight, first version of federation that allows accessing remote Wikidata properties in a custom Wikibase instance. We will continue facilitating tests of the feature by institutions and projects to gather valuable feedback.

Administrators can maintain a Wikibase instance more efficiently

We want to make it easier for Administrators to maintain a Wikibase instance more efficiently and with less risk for errors.

Release strategy and infrastructure for Wikibase suite (Maintenance improvements): Development

We will implement a standard release format for the Wikibase software suite, including a predictable update cycle and defined/documented release processes. Phabricator workboard

User documentation for Wikibase docker update process (Maintenance improvements): Documentation

We need to document how to upgrade a Wikibase to a newer version of the official Wikibase base and bundle Docker images.

It becomes easier for non-Wikimedia projects to set up Wikibase for the first time

We want to make it easier for non-Wikimedia projects to set up Wikibase for the first time and to evaluate the viability of Wikibase as a Service.

Discovery for Wikibase configuration UI (Installation/Setup improvements): UI Design

We want to reduce the complexity of setting up a new Wikibase by giving admins the option to change certain configuration options via UI rather than directly editing the localsettings.php file. During this discovery phase, we will determine what should be configurable via UI (based on existing feedback), design the UI based on those requirements, and conduct testing of lo fi prototypes.

Wikibase evaluation service (Wikibase as a Service MVP): Development

We will build the Wikibase evaluation service, a way to instantly create a temporary Wikibase sandbox that will enable users to more quickly and easily evaluate if the software is a fit for their project. This is the MVP version of "Wikibase as a Service". The goal of this MVP is to learn about the technical requirements and challenges of hosted Wikibases so that we can make decisions around a long-term strategy.

Determine next focus area after libraries

We will determine the next focus area after libraries.

Market research into new target sector(s) (Strategy and planning): Research

After identifying a shortlist of the most promising sectors to investigate, we will select and engage with a market research firm to explore a potential flagship sector for Wikibase.

OPEN!NEXT

OPEN!NEXT API Development: Development

OPEN!NEXT is made up of 19 partners from seven European countries and seeks to facilitate wider adoption of open source hardware development practices by businesses. Our role in this initiative includes set up of Wikibase instances, data modelling, maintenance, and API development.