Wikidata:WikiProject LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group/Affinity Group Calls/Meeting Notes/2021-11-30

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Call details[edit]

Presentation material[edit]

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zRIIwgTg1uQqBQd5yzf-EzbJTg8_NS2kLfC8TRCnxkA/edit#slide=id.gf0a4970a95_1_129

Notes[edit]

Govdirectory: The easiest way to contact your government

  • But who do you ask these questions to and where?
  • This is meant to get your voice heard & provide the easiest way to contact your government.
  • Target group: The active citizen: Someone who cares enough to try to contact someone, but may not have time to do it in traditional ways (e.g., attend town hall)
    • Secondary target groups: journalists, data journalists, activists
  • Solution: Crowdsourced and fact checked directory of official government online accounts & services on Wikidata and co-curated with the Wikimedia community.
    • Your place to start conversations:
      1. Take the first step
      2. Find the government agency responsible
      3. Air your concerns and increase public pressure
  • Live demo:  https://www.govdirectory.org/
  • Designed interface easy to get started: have created templates--once you click “Add a new country”, the template will pre-fill a country (similar looking to Sweden for example) with very generic divisions.
  • It would be very easy to automate and have all the countries in there with empty pre-filled pages. However, doing it manually is a sign that a given country is being worked on and promotes community-building.
  • If you are interested in creating a country directory, it might be good to find a few people to help out if you are looking at a given country. There is a discussion area under the “Discuss” tab.
  • Every Friday in Central European time is a collaboration hour hosted where Jan and Albin hang out and do work in a video chat.
  • Last weekend, Jan participated in Code The City, a Scottish organization, and helped them write up all the Scottish government entities. Now Wikidata has the most up to date source of these.
  • Jan also showed that the query to pull these up is very complex query due to lack of coherent data modeling. But now this query displays them in a list where they can be reviewed and edited.

Questions[edit]

  • Q: Does “send an email” on the agency site go to the agency or Wikidata?
    • It is routed to the agency, but that could probably be made more clear.
  • Q: Are libraries included as dispensers of government information (in the form of government documents they’ve collected)?
    • Most libraries are part of municipalities and are not included as separate government entities.
  • Q: How are you keeping information up to date?
    • Hopefully people will update local agencies. As an example, Sweden just had a new government installed and the pages were updated.
  • It looks like websites and email addresses aren’t on the front listings, as social media accounts are, but these details can be found by clicking through to the entry.
  • Q: After some users update the Wikidata entry, how soon will it appear?
    • Soon after, through the query and also on the front end.
  • Q: Does this query Wikidata in real-time or store the information?
    • Site doesn’t store the information but searches real-time when you drill down to a specific agency.
  • Q: Many commercial agencies don’t want to show information.
    • Often easier to pull information for public agencies.
  • Q: Is there a way to combine country and topical searches?
    • It is on the roadmap to do a cross-section. Want to eventually do sub-levels or national searches.
  • Q: How do you handle agencies as they change names or split/merge?
    • LIke everything else that changes in Wikidata: Change name, will change label. Split: Should be a new entity.
  • Q: Are only current agencies shown?
    • Only show current, to help for current events, not historical inquiries. A current organization should technically not have an end date and thus end dates are really important.
  • Q: Is there a threshold to add another country?
    • WikiProject GovDirectory: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Govdirectory
    • You can “Add a new country” and the scope of the project can be so large that it’s better to divide it up. It can actually be easier to tackle lower subdivisions that don’t change so frequently.
      1. Top: state-level agencies
      2. First-level: administrative county subdivisions
      3. Second-level & third-level: administrative county subdivisions
  • Q: Should we check that there is a corresponding P31 “government agency”
    • Yes, but it can be a little more complicated than that. Some countries (like Sweden) have an official identifier that all agencies must have. How do we divide this--is there an external source? Sometimes it can be in Wikipedia or another official source. It can also be difficult to determine what agency doesn’t show up in a given query. Important strategy is to try and break it down. It’s so satisfying to complete a section. Although sometimes it’s difficult
  • Q: Just created item for Swedish consulate in Seattle. Will it appear?
    • Should pop up in query and then appear in front-end.  Although maybe this could have duplicated an item if it was only created in Swedish. When one creates something, one should probably add local language and English.  Also, query doesn’t pick up generic “consulate” category, just General Consulates.
  • Q: Are you promoting to activist target audience?
    • Not yet, content still a little thin, would like more content and features. Still trying to do inreach to get rest of Wikidata community interested.
  • Q: Is there a place to ask what’s going on “behind the scenes:-- does Wikidata feed into the project?
    • Yes, it comes through Wikidata, but not obvious as it isn’t listed front and center.
  • Q: When I checked Finnish government agencies they are not listed as “government agency” but a subclass of it so they did not come up with a search.
    • More precise to do it that way: helps queries be quicker to run.
  • Q: Are there any adjacent Wikiprojects that try to handle “history” as well?
    • Not aware of any but very open to welcome it–probably won’t show it in front-end. May need to be a separate website which political scientists/historians would appreciate.
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