2019:Quality/Workshop: Building the first Showcase Queries

Quality/Workshop: Building the first Showcase Queries

Description

Wikidata currently has "showcase items" and "example queries". The former is about individual Wikidata items in isolation, and the latter is about demonstrating features of SPARQL code. However, until now, Wikidata does not have a process to identify, praise, and share to the world its true superpower: the combination of statements from many different items – to ability uncover knowledge spread across the database.

There is a proposal to create Showcase Queries: A community recognition of a high quality query which brings together high quality content across Wikidata to answer a question.

Currently, the concept of a Showcase Query is just a proposal in discussion. Before the concept is formally approved by the Wikidata community, the next step is to build some actual draft nominations.

At this Wikimania workshop attendees will bring some queries which they have already build and have strong underlying data-quality. Together we will test them, improve their code, improve their documentation, and write nomination statements to address the proposed criteria. Perhaps even identify improvements to the criteria themselves.

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

Most specifically this session relates to goal 4 - in that this is about creating (and distributing) high quality educational material. Goal 17 - Partnerships - also specifically states that it will target to "increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data...". But equally, this could be applicable to any of the goals through increased clarity of data relating to the topic being discussed in any given the Showcase Query. A Showcase Query will not in itself directly affect gender equality, or water quality, or food availability for example, but it can provide clear information which would help raise awareness of the issues and identify current progress and remaining challenges.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

We will have created several - ideally at least three - separate nominations for Showcase Queries. Each will include the query itself (and improvements to its SPARQL code and any missing/suboptimal content within the result), as well as a well-elaborated nomination statement.

With several highly completed nominations 'ready' as examples, this will make it much easier for the Wikidata community to discuss the proposal to introduce the Showcase Query process itself.

Session leader(s)

Wittylama (talk) 02:27, 10 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

Discussion and Computer-based workshop

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

Room:

30 person classroom

Audience:

People who are already very familiar with Wikidata (and query-service) processes

Recording:

There would be limited value in video recording/streaming the session as it will be mostly small-group discussions.