WikiClassics User Group/Reports/2024
The WikiClassics User Group was recognized as a Wikimedia user group on May 9, 2019. This report outlines our accomplishments and activities between 15 August 2024 and 31 August 2025.
Written by User:Alexmar983, with contribution from User:Epìdosis, etc
Note: From this year the official version of the form was adopted, it can be found here. This page is used for consistency purpose and also to coordinate users feedback in the draft phase.
Social media, communication and outreach
[edit]All metrics are increasing except on Facebook
| Social Media Accounts | Number of Followers |
|---|---|
| 601 | |
| Facebook Page | 9 |
| Facebook Group | 26 |
| 136 | |
| 10 |
If the use of the new platform BlueSky remains stable over the next months, we might consider opening also an account there.
Content-related activities
[edit]Wikidata
[edit]- The subsequent IDs have been created and monitored (see also d:Template:Ancient world properties):
Epigraphy
[edit]- the use of Wikidata for classical epigraphy, and specifically the Altinum project (about Ancient Roman inscriptions from the area of Altinum (Q441542)), has been discussed in:
- a MA thesis discussed at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice (28th October 2024): Altinum. Un progetto Wikidata per l'epigrafia digitale
- a presentation, together with the Greek Metrical Inscriptions Wikibase instance, at the 9th edition of the SAEG conference regarding Greek epigraphy in Rome (10th January 2025): slides available on Commons; the proceedings will be published
- a poster at the 9th edition of the Epigraphy.info workshop regarding classical epigraphy in Aarhus (2nd-4th April 2025)
- a scientific article to be published in open access in the first months of 2026
Autority Control
[edit]- The Classicists project was rebboted (see history of page) and it is planning to be more active over the next months, possibly leading to some academic publication after the following steps.
Wikidata and research
[edit]Three presentations regarding classics and Wikidata have been made at the conference Wikidata and research (Florence, 5-6 June 2025):
- Maxime Guénette, Mathilde Verstraete, Marcello Vitali-Rosati, Authoritative Practices and Collective Validation: Wikidata within the Collaborative Digital Edition of the Greek Anthology (slides on GitHub; video)
- Leonardo D'Addario, Collecting and Detecting Ancient Greek Historians through Wikibase and Wikidata (video)
- Maxime Guénette, Reimagining Digital Gazetteers: A Wikidata-Powered Approach
The proceedings of the conference are scheduled to be published in open access in 2026.
Wikibase Cloud
[edit]The three Wikibase Cloud instances related to classics created in 2024 have been the subject of significant attention during the last months:
- Hypotheseis (https://hypotheseis.wikibase.cloud/): regarding ancient Greek and Byzantine rhetorical exercises
- subject of a scientific article to be published in open access in the first months of 2026
- Greek Metrical Inscriptions (https://greek-metrical-inscriptions.wikibase.cloud/): regarding ancient Greek metrical inscriptions
- subject of a presentation, together with the Altinum project, at the 9th edition of the SAEG conference regarding Greek epigraphy in Rome (10th January 2025): slides available on Commons
- subject of a poster at the 9th edition of the Epigraphy.info workshop regarding classical epigraphy in Aarhus (2nd-4th April 2025)
- DataLib (https://datalib.wikibase.cloud/): regarding the Epistles of Libanius
- subject of a presentation at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in the series Digital Classicist Seminar 2024/2025: slides available on Commons
- subject of another presentation at the DH2025 conference in Lisbon in the panel FAIR data in the Wikibase Ecosystem: slides available on Zenodo
Wikisource
[edit]Latin Wikisource
[edit]- ...
German Wikisource (and Wikidata)
[edit]- the transcription of the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE) continues; the automatic addition of metadata to Wikidata has had significant improvements (cf. d:Wikidata:Requests for permissions/Bot/THEbotIT 2 and d:Wikidata:Requests for permissions/Bot/THEbotIT 3); the involvement of reserachers in the interlinking between RE articles and Wikidata items about their subjects will probably increase in the next months
Broader Wikimedia community and WMF activities
[edit]The group currently involves 3x users, and it tries to be involved with the community at large.
The involvement in WMF activities has increased, with full participation to the WMF Board Candidate shortlisting process in July 2025. See details here
WikiCite 2025
[edit]The User Group is a co-organizer of the WikiCite 2025 conference (Bern, 29-31 August 2025), which rebooted the WikiCite conference series.
Two presentations regardings classics and Wikidata are scheduled to be made there:
- User:THE IT, User:ELexikon, Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE) 1893-1980 on Wikisource.de
- Mark Depauw, Margherita Fantoli, Interlinking of the Wikisource version of the Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE)
Diffusion
[edit]- This report was drafted during the month of August
- It was completed on 2025-08-31 (during the meeting at WikiCite 2025)
- It was uploaded on the new meta page on 2025-08-31 (group B)
- It was linked on social media on 2025-09-01