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FeatureMatrix
Wikidata vs. SMW – An experience report

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FeatureMatrix
Wikidata vs. SMW – An experience report
Wikidata – An experience report

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FeatureMatrix
Wikidata vs. SMW – An experience report
Wikidata – An experience report
Wikidata – An experiment report

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experience
Get to know what we know
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What is BlueForge? What is a Software Feature Matrix?
Requirements
Proposed data model
Showcase
Implementation experience
Wrap-up
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What is BlueForge?
Mapping Software for Professionals
• Software directory, focus on
business software
• Target audience
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User/enthusiast
Decision makers
Vendors
Consultants
• Basis for making informed decisions
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What is a Feature Matrix?
Comparing Software Products
• Tool to compare two
or more software
products
• 2-d matrix of
available /
documented features
• Quick visual overview
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What tool is best?
Requirements
Specifics of
software features
• there are variants and
forks (e.g. "free" vs.
"professional version")
• there are versions with
new features or different
implementations of the
same feature
• features are not binary,
they differ in quality
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Feature
comparison
• There are groups /
categories of software
(Schema)
• Features can be added /
evaluated within the wiki
/ wikidata via UI (API)
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State of knowledge
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Claims (Wikidata) vs.
propositions (SMW)
The vendor says this
feature is well
implemented 
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Wikidata
Decision was made for the Wikimedia tool
Arguments for Wikidata:
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Propositions can be qualified
Interaction is API-based
There is already a UI for entering data
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… and we were curious

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Proposed data model
Unstructured data within Client (BlueForge) Wiki
• An article represents a piece of software, all versions, all
variants
i.e. „Joomla“
• A category represents a group of software. A piece of
software can be in multiple categories
i.e. „Category: Content Management“
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i.e. "Joomla!"
i.e. "Category:Content
Management"
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Proposed Data Model
Structured data within Repo Wikibase
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A piece of software (= article on
client)
A feature
• features have qualifiers
(since version, user rating, ...)
• features have sources (vendor, user)
• features have (custom) data types
item
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property
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Groups (= category on client)
Features of a group
item
property of property
(aka schema)
Naming is consistent between client and repo  link is by convention
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showcase
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showcase
There are two systems
stage.blueforge.biz
stage-data.blueforge.biz
(MediaWiki + BlueSpice,
role "client")
(MediaWiki + Wikibase,
role "repo")
http://stage.blueforge.biz/wiki/
Special:Version
http://data-stage.blueforge.biz/index.php/
Special:Version
"stage-data" is currently used as
a backend, user interaction only
on "stage"
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Implementation experience
Data model can be implemented in Wikidata. Philosopy seems to overlap
Architecture seems to be flexible enough
Officially not ready for 3rd party use: we are very early adopters :)
Schema via UI / tool support
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Implementation experience
Hard to set up, we tried using vagrant but ended with a custom/hacked
setup.
PHP dependency: do not use <= 5.3.2:Caution, this one is used on
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Custom value types were hard to implement
Value autocomplete seems to be resource intensive without additional
data stores
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Wrap-up
• Wikidata has great potential as a foundation for
custom developments
• Most troubles we had where because of the very
early version we used
• Some concepts of Wikidata ("snaks") are hard to
understand in the first place
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Wrap-up
• Development of FeatureMatrix will continue on base
of Wikidata. But we consider developing the frontend
first and ...
• ... updating the backend when Wikidata and it's API is
more stable.
• Are there any other 3rd party users of Wikidata?
Are Wikidata people interested in exchange of ideas /
code?
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http://stage.blueforge.biz/wiki/Spezial:Vergleiche/PrestaShop,Magento

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Hallo Welt! – Medienwerkstatt GmbH
Residenzstr. 2
93047 Regensburg
Tel. +49 (0) 941 – 660 800
Markus Glaser
Robert Vogel