Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikidata and the Linked Open Data Ecosystem for the Performing Arts
- Meet structural needs for populating work and production items; and to,
- Serve data consumption use cases that will provide tangible examples illustrating the benefits of publishing open data in Wikidata.
Vero Marino
Beat_EstermannThis is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds, where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.
Applicant details
[edit]Wikimedia username(s):
- Fjjulien
Vero Marino Beat_Estermann
Organization:
- Canadian Arts Presenting Association
Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did receive a grant
Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- Government of Canada
Canada Council for the Arts
Organization details
[edit]What is your organization or group's mission?
- As the national leader of Canada’s touring and presenting communities, CAPACOA cultivates a vibrant, healthy and equitable performing arts ecosystem, from artists to audiences.
If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- Main organization website: https://capacoa.ca/
Project website associated with this proposal: https://linkeddigitalfuture.ca/ Social media accounts are listed at: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q85541788
Grant proposal
[edit]Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page.
- Wikidata and the Linked Open Data Ecosystem for the Performing Arts
Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Canada
Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)
- International
If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
What are the main challenges you are trying to solve and your proposed solution?
- In 2020-2021, the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts (CAPACOA) and the Quebec Council of Theatre led a project grant to model and to populate performing arts data in Wikidata. This project has garnered a lot of attention and has created an appetite for Wikidata within the performing arts community. After months of workshops and individual outreach, several associations are now displaying an interest to load their member directories and catalogs to Wikidata, but they lack the human resources and technical expertise to do so. Other associations are hesitant, asking “what’s in it for us?”.
Our experience and research indicate that the benefits of open data are not well understood by arts organizations (Wylie et al, 2021). In order to convey these benefits, it is best to draw upon tangible use cases (Estermann and Julien, 2019; Wylie et al., 2021). However, in order to serve data consumption use cases, we first need to populate a critical mass of data, which is still lacking in Wikidata. As a matter of fact, we don’t even have enough person and organization items to meet structural needs for loading/populating works and productions items.
As a first step, we must continue to load and populate persons, organizations and venue items, which can then be stated as creators, contributors, producers and places in work and production items. In parallel, we have to prototype data-consuming applications that will demonstrate the benefits of Wikidata through tangible use cases. Finally, we need to hold regular meetings with the performing arts community to address modelling challenges that continue to arise as we upload datasets and work on use cases.
What is the main objective of your proposal?
- By December 2022, load more than 10,000 Wikidata items about Canadian performing arts persons, organizations and venues - including 6,000 new items; in order to then:
- Meet structural needs for populating work and production items; and to,
- Serve data consumption use cases that will provide tangible examples illustrating the benefits of publishing open data in Wikidata.
Describe your main strategies to achieve this objective and the main activities you will be developing as part of these strategies.
- 1. Batch uploads
We will provide technical assistance to Canadian associations (see the list in question 18) who wish to upload their datasets to Wikidata. This technical assistance will involve: helping associations define a communication and consent strategy, mapping their data model to Wikidata, reconciliation of named entities, and the actual batch upload. Our target is to reach 75% completeness for person items and organization items compared to total populations estimated with benchmark data from Statistics Canada.
2. Datathon and other editing activities Since we have found no exhaustive and reliable dataset for Canadian performing arts buildings and venues, we will organize a one-week datathon. This datathon will include online activities to provide guidance for both experienced and new Wikimedians on best practices for populating building information.
In conjunction with batch uploads, we will also support associations in organizing activities with their members to enhance the uploaded items.
3. Data consumption prototypes CAPACOA and the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance will work with Culture Creates to prototype codes for querying and displaying Wikidata data into their member directories. At this stage, we anticipate consuming data about venues and external identifiers, but we may also integrate other data points where they are perceived as adding value by the two associations and by their members. The objective is to develop compelling proofs of concept for integrating Wikidata data into platforms used by performing arts stakeholders (including directories and events listings). We will aim for replicability and scalability – working with and publishing open source software – in order to achieve mainstream adoption in subsequent phases of the initiative.
4. WikiProject Performing arts Meetups (in conjunction with the international LODEPA Working Group dedicated to Wikidata/Wikipedia) We will hold quarterly online meetings with the international performing arts community to: exchange lessons learned about engaging performing arts organizations and associations; discuss progress vis-a-vis use cases; address challenges in Wikidata, Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons; achieve consensus on implementing the harmonized performing arts ontology (currently in development) in Wikidata.
Please state if you will be carrying out any of these activities within your programs? Select all that apply.
- Organizing Meet-up online, Edit-A-Thons, Other
- Batch uploads
Development of applications powered by Wikidata
Are you running any in-person events or activities?
- No
Please state if your proposal aims to work on any of the identified content knowledge gaps?
- Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or thematic focus.
- Culture, heritage or GLAM , Open Technology, Diversity
Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select all categories that apply.
- Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status
Please tell us more about your target participants.
- This project will target performing artists and organizations, via their associations. So far, the following associations, unions and service organizations have been contacted and have displayed a firm interest in participating in at least one of the project’s components.
Québec (and Francophone organizations) Conseil québécois du théâtre Regroupement québécois de la danse Association RIDEAU Union des artistes Fédération culturelle canadienne-française Les arts et la ville
Rest of Canada Canadian Association for the Performing Arts Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance Canadian Dance Assembly Professional Association of Canadian Theatres Canadian Actors Equity Association Japanese Canadian Artist Directory Canadian Asian Artists Digital Council (led by Festival Accès Asie) ArtsBuild Ontario Creative City Network of Canada
International International Society for the Performing Arts Bern University of Applied Sciences - and all other institutions affiliated with the LODEPA community
The international LODEPA community has been meeting regularly since 2019 and plans have been made to seek multi-year European funding to support its activities.
We also have every reason to believe that the Canadian performing arts community will continue to engage with Wikidata and other sister projects beyond the duration of this project:
- Wikidata is increasingly recognized by the performing arts community as an essential knowledge base for the sector. Many handbooks and digital literacy programs are recommending its use.
- Proofs of concepts for data consumption will solidify interest in and engagement with Wikidata.
- The Government of Quebec and the Canada Council for the Arts have been and will continue to financially support the digital transformation of the arts sector.
Do you have plans to work with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
- Yes
Please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
- Notifications to the performing arts and Wikimedia communities:
We notified the international LODEPA community over its Slack workspace and listserv. We notified participants in the WikiProject Performing arts. We made a presentation at WikidataCon about the LODEPA community, about our first project grant, and about this proposal. We intend to disseminate information about this proposal more broadly once it is available over the meta Wiki (the PDF form and the Fluxx platform don’t lend themselves well to online collaboration and dissemination).
Other partnerships: We are in touch with Wikimedia Canada and we intend to involve this affiliate in the performing arts venue editathon.
We are also collaborating with Indigenous artists and librarians to learn how Indigenous information can be accurately and respectfully represented in Wikidata. These activities are complementary to this proposal. We are not seeking support from the Wikimedia Foundation for these activities.
Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
- Yes
Please describe these partnerships.
- We have confirmed project funding from the Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts. These two funders will provide financial resources for Canadian focused activities.
LaCogency and Culture Creates are two Canadian businesses involved with this proposal. Both have been providing paid and in-kind services.
We are also collaborating with Indigenous artists and librarians to learn how Indigenous information can be accurately and respectfully represented in Wikidata (see this WikidataCon session: https://pretalx.com/wdcon21/talk/TSL8PH/). These consultative and engagement activities began in 2019 and they are still actively ongoing. These activities directly support the objectives of this proposal, but we are not seeking support from the Wikimedia Foundation for these activities. We believe it would be inappropriate for a settler-led organization to seek funding or to commit to specific and measurable outcomes on their behalf.
How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
- This project is precisely about scaling this community’s initial project grant and achieving long-term engagement of performing arts artists, organizations and associations.
Moreover, in order for the performing arts community to engage with Wikidata in a sustainable fashion, we must address the chicken-and-egg problem of data production and data consumption. The performing arts community needs to see the tangible benefits of Wikidata realized through compelling applications that consume its data. And these applications need a critical mass of data, which is currently lacking. This project addresses both aspects of the chicken-and-egg problem.
Besides, batch upload activities will be realized in ways that will build capacity among associations to update their data after the initial upload. Mappings of data models and reconciliation of identifiers only need to be done once. In addition, the dialogue with associations will contribute to their data literacy and will lead to better data stewardship.
Finally, CAPACOA, the Bern University of Applied Sciences and all project’s core partners are fully committed to realizing the vision of a distributed Linked Open Data Ecosystem for the Performing Arts, and we are seeking Canadian and European funding to see this vision through.
Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
- Name and organization: Frédéric Julien, CAPACOA
Username: Fjjulien Responsibilities: Management and coordination of all project activities, including financial administration and reporting.
Name and organization: Raffaela Siniscalchi, Conseil québécois du théâtre Username: RaffaelaSini Responsibilities: Community outreach (Quebec)
Name and organization: Bridget MacIntosh, consultant Username: Bridgetannmac Responsibilities: Community Outreach (rest of Canada)
Name and organization: Brit Johnston, CAPACOA and Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance Username: none Responsibilities: Indigenous liaison, project lead for prototyping activities with the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance
Name and organization: Véronique Marino, LaCogency Username: Vero Marino Responsibilities: Project manager for datathon and batch uploads. Coordination of WikiProject/LODEPA meetings.
Name and organization: Simon Villeneuve, LaCogency Username: Simon Villeneuve Responsibilities: Technical support with batch uploads.
Name and organization: Gregory Saumier-Finch, Culture Creates Username: Saumier Responsibilities: Development of data consumption prototypes. Automated upload of datasets.
Name and organization: Beat Estermann, Bern University of Applied Sciences Username: Beat_Estermann Responsibilities: Coordination of the LODEPA network
In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.
- Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact
Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here. (optional)
- Upload Strategic Plan
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation
[edit]What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
- After several years of action research, of reaching out to the performing arts community and of providing digital literacy activities, we have a pretty clear roadmap for scaling and achieving sustainability with regards to Wikidata and other sister projects. This fund proposal is therefore not so much about learning, than it is about taking action upon what we learned so far (and to continue to learn as we move forward).
This being said, we still need to test our assumptions regarding focusing on tangible use cases to convey the benefits of populating data in Wikidata. We look forward to developing prototypes, running user acceptance tests, and finding out whether Wikidata-powered applications are truly perceived as benefits by the performing arts community.
Moreover, even though this isn’t an activity for which we are seeking funds from the Wikimedia Foundation, we intend to continue to meaningfully engage and consult with Indigenous artists. We still have much to learn about how information about Indigenous artists and their practices can be adequately represented in Wikidata. We also still need to find out whether or not Indigenous artists are interested in becoming Wikidata contributors, and if not, why. We have been actively sharing our learnings in this area, on the Linked Digital Future website and at conferences. We intend to continue doing so.
Core Metrics
[edit]Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | Our activities are meant primarily to engage participants as editors, which are reported below.
Besides our anticipated 220 editors, we anticipate having 15 unique participants at quarterly LODEPA meetups. |
235 |
| Number of editors | 140 unique editors in datathon
80 unique editors in other editing activities We will track new and returning editors during these activities. |
220 |
| Number of organizers | 8 core team members
11 association/union workers involved in components 1 and 2 |
19 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikidata | More than 14,000 items loaded to Wikidata (we don’t know yet what proportion will be new vs existing items)
3500 edits to 140 venue items over the course of the datathon (140 editors x 25 edits on average) |
14000 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
- N/A
Additional Metrics
[edit]Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
What other information will you be collecting to learn about the impact of your work? (optional)
- N/A
What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
- We will use the outreach dashboard to track participant contributions during the datathon and during data enrichment activities.
We will also use polling tools to measure participants’ satisfaction during the datathon.
How do you hope to share these results so that others can learn from them?
- Make a short presentation of the experience, Create a training workshop to show others what we learned, Share results on social media, Share results with our communities, Develop learning material for other users, Share it on Meta-Wiki
Financial Proposal
[edit]What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.
- 34800 CAD
What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 28135 USD
Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
- No
If you have calculated it, please provide an estimate of the year 2 or year 3 request.
- N/A
Please share your budget for this proposal.
- See our budget in Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FtbAYYQQAYJCnu_ollyhhQwnXeYoHC5BH9ncb-PBDxQ/edit?usp=sharing
What do you do to make sure there is a good management of funds?
- All project activities will be financially administered and recorded within the Linked Digital Future accounts at CAPACOA. Those accounts are subject to annual audit. A stand-alone financial report for the Linked Digital Future Initiative is appended as a distinct schedule in the organization’s financial statements.
How will you contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants using the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy?
- Wikidata can be an intimidating platform for new users. CAPACOA and partner organizations provide a lot of guidance and support for new Wikimedians to engage with Wikidata. For example, even though we are no longer supported by the WMF for these activities we continue to provide introductory workshops during which new Wikimedians can be coached by more experienced ones in breakout rooms.
CAPACOA has a Safer Spaces and Respectful Workplaces policy which is consistent with the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy.
Finally, we are committed to consulting meaningfully with Indigenous artists to define with them how information about them and their practices can be accurately and respectfully represented in Wikidata. This process began in 2019 and is still ongoing. Lessons learned from this process were shared at WikidataCon 2021: https://pretalx.com/wdcon21/talk/review/FDYHWRZHLVG7TTAY779YK7LBLGW3GA7P
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Staffing plan or organogram:
- Other public document(s):
Final Message
[edit]By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback
[edit]- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.