Grants:TPS/Rehman/Wikimania/2018/Report
Welcome back from Wikimania 2018!
Participant[edit]
Rehman
English Wikipedia
Outcome[edit]
- Option 3: New Creation: What was one useful outcome that was created at the event for the Wikimedia movement?
- Add a link to something new that was created as a result of your participation in this event (for example, you might link to a new tool that you and your co-participants worked on at the Hackathon, or to pages created in a workshop you participated in).
I've learned a lot about new wikimedia tech, projects, and people, at Wikimania. Below are some of the key areas that I feel has a significant outcome for me:
- Lexicographical data: While I did hear about lexemes on Wikidata before, I only truly grasped the scale and impact of lexicographical data on Wikidata during the related workshop at Wikimania. I've learned about how it fits within the Wikidata ecosystem, and learned how to contribute to it. L7384 is the first lexeme which I have created.
- Wikidata Query Service: At a session by Asaf, I've learned how the Wikidata Query Service can help me do my work more efficiently. For example, in the area of power stations in Sri Lanka (one of my more active areas of contribution), I will be using the knowledge that I gained from the workshop to identify power station items on Wikidata that are missing essential pieces of information, such as the nameplate capacity, coordinates, and fuel types. As I am well experience in this field (even outside Wikimedia), I can help populate this information in Wikidata, for easy use by other projects and sites. This is just one example out of endless possibilities; I also work on rivers, mountains, buildings, and so much more, of which the wikidata items could be easily improved with the help of the query service.
- Wikidata-supported infoboxes: This is an area which I am very much more interested in spending time on. I've got better insights on how to work on infoboxes which are able to fetch data from wikidata which are otherwise missing on the local wikipedia, while the same imported data is automatically shown in the local language. It drastically reduces duplication of data (and inaccuracies), while also reducing the update lag (in relation to recent events). Infobox power station is the first (and most complicated) infobox that I'm working on to add wikidata support. I hope to add similar support to critical infoboxes, as well as help other wikipedias implement it (once the base code is established).
I was also part of the OTRS meetup, where we discussed about ways to improve the overall platform. An important highlight here, for me, is that I connected User:Azeez (not an attendee) to the participants there, and mentioned that Azeez is willing to support Wikimedia by offering his professional video editing services for free, in order to support the creation of quality tutorial/walkthrough videos (i.e. for OTRS, etc).
Connections[edit]
My most valuable connections were not made during one-to-one discussions, but instead during formal sessions. While it may seem too technical to many, I continue to be completely mesmerised by the amazing technical projects that are being done by Wikimedians such as Lydia, Sandra, and Asaf. I strongly believe the multi-use nature of structured data will play a huge role in the future of free knowledge distribution and transparency, and seeing their work motivates me to do more.
Below are some of the other attendees (by username only) whom I've met over various topics in addition to the above, at the conference. To respect privacy, I will not mention the great folks whom I know only by their real name.
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Anything else[edit]
I would like to share my Wikimania 2018 photo collection:
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Full Album (140 files)
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers for the wonderful conference, and also the Wikimedia Foundation for giving me this chance to meet so many likeminded people. I am very grateful for this.