Benutzer:Abián/Wikimania 2019

This was my first Wikimania after a decade in the Wikimedia movement, so I had a lot of people to meet. This is probably the main reason why it’s worth attending Wikimania, and the invitation from Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) and the fact that this time the event was held in Europe convinced me to do it. I really thank WMDE for the opportunity they decided to give me and for their kindness; I'm glad to have met them in Stockholm, both employees and volunteers of WMDE.

Questions

What bring I back from Wikimania for me and my work in Wikipedia?

Mainly I bring new international and inter-project contacts and friends, a more objective view of what globally matters to Wikimedians and what Wikipedia and Wikidata mean for them, progress in tasks that I hadn’t been able to complete alone and first-person knowledge of what Wikimania is like and about new tools and projects around data management.

What have I learned in the chosen topic area (international exchange or movement strategy)?

I have learned how Wikibase works and should be configured with or without Docker, the copyright issues surrounding Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons in the various jurisdictions of the world, the relevant research projects and tools being developed around Wikidata and Structured Data on Commons, the open data partnerships that WMDE is fostering, its intended partnership model for the Wikibase ecosystem and the problems around Wikidata that people perceive as most important and some of their possible solutions.

What have I contributed to the conference? What worked out well and what not?

I have finally met Arturo, Operations Engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation, thanks to whom I have restored the Labs instance for a GLAM project on Structured Data on Commons after the major hardware failure of February, although we have found other unrelated bugs in the process. I have uploaded a quick patch to close phab:T178745 and helped other users edit Wikidata, build SPARQL queries and translate documentation. I have tested https://etl.linkedpipes.com/, as a solution for repeatable loading of data into Wikibase instances, and provided feedback to improve and release it. I have also tested and given feedback about the Wikidata Bridge prototype. With Millars I have presented the poster on the documentation of European, national, autonomous, provincial and local elections in Spain. And I have participated in Wikidata-related sessions and meetings, where I have highlighted the problems and proposals that seem most relevant to me for the project.

I can say that what didn't work out well is that I wanted to do more things than I finally could; in return, I had interesting conversations and opportunities that I hadn't imagined.

Which ideas for projects or similar activities came into existence? How have I pursued them so far, what are my plans for the future?

I actually can’t say that new ideas for projects came into existence, but rather that I can improve or speed up the existing ones. I will continue collaborating on Wikidata and the Wikibase ecosystem in a number of ways, trying to facilitate the centralization of data and the harmonization of Wikipedias and Wikidata, studying and improving data quality, helping from the technical side, seeking the development of tools and projects around Wikidata by students and researchers and, of course, editing. I will also continue to organize or participate in university or WMES activities related to open data and linked data.

Which contacts to international Wikimedians have I made or foster, on which topics? How do they affect my activities in Wikipedia or its sister projects, and how do I intend to carry on dialogue?

• Epìdosis: We had several conversations about the unification of policies and practices of the different Wikipedias, especially Italian and Spanish Wikipedias, and also about the centralization of data in Wikidata and the usual reluctance of Wikipedias to “lose control” of the data. These conversations led to the updating of templates such as {{Página web}} and a comparison of external links from Wikipedias and Wikidata. We also met in some sessions about Wikidata and talked about data quality.
• Bobbyshabangu: I met him when he arrived from the airport and I showed him the way to the conference hotel, where we checked in at the same time. We talked about our experience in the movement and about minority languages and content gaps on Wikipedias. He gave me a good view of the activities taking place from the African continent (and I tried to learn to pronounce the sounds of the Nguni languages, without any success). I don’t know if this topic can affect my activities in Wikimedia projects in the short term, but it definitely helped me fill an important knowledge gap I had around them.
• A_ka_es: I met her at the WMDE scholars meeting, when we both said quality was the most important area of interest. We talked about data quality and OpenRefine, the subject of her poster at Wikimania and the best tool for repeatable imports to Wikidata. We have each other’s contact and would like to continue sharing experiences and advice on data quality.
• Akorenchkin: He was my roommate. I’d really like to stay in touch with him and to know how his thesis is progressing; sadly I didn't have much of a chance to talk enough to him. His developments are very interesting and an extended version of The Exploration Game, a tool that infers and checks implications in Wikidata, I think could complement Shape Expressions and property constraints very well to improve data quality.
• Other Wikimedians from which I have learned things, with whom it has been a pleasure to be or have met at Wikimedia and that I must mention are the Wikidata enthusiasts Sannita, Sjoerddebruin, Maxlath, VIGNERON, BugWarp, Criscod and Laurentius; the co-founder of the Para-Wikimedians Community User Group and polyglot Comp1089; the Lua enthusiasts RexxS and Putnik; the WMDE employees or contractors Lucas Werkmeister, Léa Lacroix, Lydia Pintscher, Martin Rulsch, Christine Domgörgen and Raja Gumienny; the WMF employees or contractors Francisco Dans, Siebrand Mazeland and Arturo Borrero; and of course the Wikimedia España (WMES) members Millars, Estevoai, Gini10, Mr.Ajedrez, Rodelar, Mboix, Ezarate, ElsaBornFree, Marinna and Góngora, with whom I have spent many meals, breaks and talks. Surely I'm forgetting many important names; in general it was a pleasure to meet all the Wikimedians with whom I had the opportunity to be and chat, and I would like to keep in touch with all of them.

How have I shared my Wikimania experiences with my local community? Which activities are still planned for sharing?

At Wikimania I have often walked and had lunch with other members of WMES, my home Wikimedia chapter, and other Spanish-speaking Wikimedians around the world, thanks to which they were able to know about the sessions I attended in order to apply what I found relevant to the corresponding Wikimedia projects. I have also exchanged as much information as possible through the Telegram groups. In this way, despite the high number of simultaneous sessions, each one told what they had seen and heard, and we all knew about each other. I recorded a podcast about open data, Wikidata and the Wikibase ecosystem that will be transcribed and published with a free license soon, and I'm also going to give a talk at my previous college at the University of Zaragoza about Wikidata including what happened at Wikimania.