Wikimedia CH/Grant apply/First fossil fish collection data transfer to Wikidata - with Museum of Natural History in Neuchâtel

Infodata

• Name of the project:First fossil fish collection data transfer to Wikidata - with Museum of Natural History in Neuchâtel
• Amount requested: CHF 10,272 (€ 9,600) including tax (in France)
• Type of grantee: INDIVIDUAL
• Name of the contact: Lucas Lévêque, a professional in the digital enhancement of scientific and cultural heritage on Wikimedia projects. Also a long-time multiproject contributor, he trains French GLAM and Education institution professionals to contribute to Wikimedia projects, and supports cultural institutions in their effort to integrate Wikimedia projects into their professional practices. Past projects can be consulted on his website (in French): https://lugnumerique.fr .
• Contact:lucas((at))lugnumerique.fr

In case of questions, please write to grantwikimedia.ch

The problem and the context

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

In 2019, the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel uploaded more than 450 files on Commons with a complete description with data and bibliography. These files describe fossils, many of which have been the subject of scientific publications. Some of these fossils are even species holotypes, making them very relevant and important for researchers of this field. Because the pictures and data are only on Commons, they are not searchable or available on Wikidata, and cannot be easily accessed and the collections' connections in terms of phylogenetics, bibliography, or museology cannot be easily accessed or visualized.

What is your solution to this problem (please explain the context and the solution)?

We plan to use the data included in the descriptions on Commons to create the corresponding entities on Wikidata. The uploaded images will all give rise to an item structure in Wikidata: for each fossil, for each species identified, for each scientific article referring to the fossil in question. Adding this data to Wikidata will allow us to enrich the currently incomplete phylogenetic tree for fossil fish on the platform, as well as to add more detail to geological age description on Wikidata. The project will also allow us to create a more effective categorization on Commons.

A large part of the curation process will require the work of checking and formatting the information, but also creating the lacking items and structure for accurate description on Wikidata before moving on to upload in batches. The upload will be done using OpenRefine and other data curation tools.

Project goals

In the end, we estimate that two thousand items will be created and illustrated on Wikidata in connection with these photos. The creation of items related to the Fish fossil collection will allow to create interesting phylogenetic visualizations such as this one, but based only on the fish in the Museum's collection.

This will be the first time that a complete fossil collection is integrated at this level in Wikidata, and the first detailed upload to Wikidata from a scientific Museum collection. This digital enhancement will make it possible to set up a protocol for transferring data from a scientific collection that will be useful to all science museums and universities. Creating a shareable protocol on CC-by-SA by Lucas Lévêque and WMCH (and museum staff according to participation) is part of the project.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

Wikidata queries allow me to check if each fossil is complete and illustrated, fit well in the data schema. Batch uploading will allow me to regularly check whether the entire collection has been uploaded.

Do you have any goals or metrics around participation or content?

Metrics are exclusively about content: about 2000 Wikidata entries will be created.

Project plan

Activities

To be further detailed in 10 page project proposal to be sent to WMCH by October 15th.

Budget

The data transfer and curation operation will last two months, for a budget of CHF 10,272 (€ 9,600) including tax (in France).

budget detail

Task	Duration (days)	Price in Swiss franc	Price in Euro
Data extraction	3	642	600
Sorting data	2	428	400
Constitution of Wikidata items	20	4,280	4,000
Batch uploading	5	1,070	1,000
Data verification	2	428	400
Drafting of the protocol	8	1,712	1,600
Sum without taxes		CHF 8,560	€ 8,000
Taxes	20%	1,712	1,600
Total		CHF 10,272	€ 9,600

To be further detailed in 10 page project proposal to be sent to WMCH by October 15th.

Community engagement

This project is aimed at the scientific community and at scientific GLAMs. It will provice a showcase of scientific data curation for scientific audiences. Community engagement will be able to be measured by the interest created by the project.

Support

• The Museum of Natural Science of Neuchâtel is available to help Lucas Lévêque with questions concerning the metadata of their collection.--Flor WMCH (talk) 13:10, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

Wikimedia CH response

Partially accepted.