This document discusses using Wikidata to create an international database for the performing arts. It provides an overview of Wikidata, including its purpose to provide a centralized location for interwiki links, infoboxes, and lists. It outlines a vision to realize a performing arts database on Wikidata to provide a finding aid for related Wikimedia Commons content and promote Wikidata-powered information on Wikipedia language editions. Current statistics on performing arts items in Wikidata are presented, alongside challenges and examples of existing Wikidata and Wikipedia implementations related to the performing arts.

1. Wikidata & Performing Arts
Prof. Beat Estermann, Bern University of Applied Sciences
ENICPA Round Table, Prague, 22 October 2019
Unless otherwise noted, the content of this presentation is made available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Photo: Phantom black light theatre (theatre group HILT), User:Black light theatre Prague, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

2. • Short introduction to Wikidata
• What is its purpose?
• How does it work?
• Wikidata + Performing Arts
• Aim & vision
• Where do we stand?
• From “Sum of All GLAMs” to “Wiki Loves Performing Arts”
• What is Sum of All GLAMs?
• The role of Wikidata in the wider context of the Linked Open Data
Ecosystem for the Performing Arts
On the Programme Today

3. Short Introduction to Wikidata
• What is its purpose?
• How does it work?

4. Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely
share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.

5. Structured
Commons

6. Purpose of Wikidata
• Centralized Interwiki-Links [Example: Prague]
• Centralized Data Management for Infoboxes [Example: Bern Theatre]
• Centralized Data Management for Lists [Example: Lista de pinturas de A. Norfini]
• Possibility of Querying the Data in a Standardized Format
[Example: Histropedia]
« The Sum of All Human Knowledge» as Linked Open Data
 Multilingual
 With Sourced Statements
 Freely usable by anyone (CC Zero)

7. Wikidata + Performing Arts
• Aims & Vision
• Where do we stand?

8. • Realize an international performing arts database on the
basis of Wikidata
• Provide a powerful finding aid for performing arts related content
on Wikimedia Commons
• Promote Wikidata-powered performing arts related information in
the various language versions of Wikipedia
• Get heritage institutions to make their performing arts related
data and content available through Wikidata & Wikimedia
Commons
The Vision: International Database for the Performing
Arts (Wikidata Project Performing Arts)
Role Model Projects for Inspiration:
• MusicBrainz (music recordings)
• IMDb (movies)
• IMSLP (music scores)
• Operabase (opera)

9. Thematic Projects
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Cultural_heritage [Example]

10. Wikidata & Performing Arts: Some Statistics
Class of items N items (Oct. 2019) Δ since April 2019
musical work 450’000 +13’000
play 22’000 +650
choreographic work 900 +7
character role 23’000 +12’000
performing arts building 21’000 +1000
musician 270’000 +10’000
actor/actress 270’000 +16’000
musical ensemble 93’000 +5’900
theatre troupe 5’200 +150
dance troupe 370 +28
performing arts production 21’000 +2’500

11. Core Aspects of Linked Data Publication
Source: eCH-0205 – Linked Open Data

12. Current Challenges
Source of the graphic: eCH-0205 – Linked Open Data
Data
scraping &
cleansing
Data Ingest (data
mapping &
matching) Data
Modelling
Issues
✔ ✔
Manual Data
Entry
How to Overcome the
Chicken-and-Egg
Problem?

13. • Current examples show great potential for the inclusion of
Wikidata-powered content in the field of the performing arts.
• Current initiatives may benefit from improved coordination –
also across linguistic borders.
• Examples...
Status Quo – Wikipedia

14. Example: List of Productions of « Les Galas Karsenty »
(French Wikipedia)

15. Example: Infobox « Das Land des Lächelns »
(German Wikipedia)

16. Example: Infobox « Aksandr Golovin »
(Russian Wikipedia)

17. Example: Listing of the scenographic work of
Aleksandr Golovin (Russian Wikipedia)

18. Example: List of theatrical works by William
Shakespeare (German Wikipedia)

19. Example: Infobox Opéra Bastille (French Wikipedia)

20. Example: List of Artistic Directors and Well-Known
Artists at Stadttheater Bern (German Wikipedia)

21. Status Quo – Wikipedia/Wikidata
Despite many examples of how structured data is used, the data is
usually not pulled from Wikidata.
Large parts of the structured data in Wikipedia related to the
performing arts is not available on Wikidata.

22. From “Sum of All GLAMs”
to Wiki Loves Performing Arts
• Presenting “Sum of All GLAMs”
• Wiki Loves Performing Arts

23. Various layers of information about heritage institutions
Sum of All GLAMs Project
Source: Fontenelle & Estermann (2019) An International Knowledge Base for All Heritage Institutions
Wiki Movement Brazil and OpenGLAM CH, with the
support of the MY-D Foundation
FindingGLAMs
Wikimedia Sweden, UNESCO and WMF, with the support of the
Swedish Postcode Foundation

24. Ensuring data quality (references!) and completeness

25. Wikidata-powered Infoboxes

26. Mbabel Tool: Automatically Creating Stub-articles
based on Wikidata entries

27. • Start by describing performing arts venues and organizations with the
goal of engaging people and organizations directly.
• Continue with further classes...
Wiki Loves Performing Arts
Phase 1
• Tackle data modelling issues
• Locate and ingest existing datasets
• Create infobox templates
• Start monitoring the data for quality and completeness
Phase 2
• Run crowdsourcing campaigns to complement the data,
targeting both Wikipedians and arts organizations

28. Breakdown of Tasks / Possibilities for Contribution
International
Coordination
Group
Wikidata
Team
Country-
specific
Teams
Language-
specific
Teams
(Wikipedia)
Arts organi-
zations;
heritage
institutions
Tackle data modelling issues
on Wikidata
Contribute Lead Contribute
Track data quality &
completeness
Contribute Lead Contribute Contribute
Ingest data from existing
databases
Contribute Lead Contribute
Run campaigns to enhance
the data on Wikidata
Contribute Lead Contribute
Get heritage institutions to
curate their own data
Lead Contribute
Implement Infobox and Mbabel
templates on Wikipedias
(secure community buy-in)
Lead
Promote the use of the
templates
Contribute Lead Contribute
Promote other uses of the data Contribute Lead Contribute
Write guidelines & reach out to
people in further countries
Lead Contribute Contribute Contribute Contribute

29. Wikidata and classical LOD are complementary
Wikidata Classical LOD
Strengths
Fully-fledged crowdsourcing
platform; further parties can easily be
invited to contribute.
Data owners keep the control over
their «graphs»; data quality and
completeness remains under the
control of the data provider.
Immediate integration with the
worldwide linked data cloud
(reconciliation at the moment of data
ingest)
Data can be published in RDF format,
is linkable; reconcilation against other
databases can be done step by step.
Community-supported LOD service
with a certain level of reliability
Weaknesses
Monitoring data quality and
completeness is a permanent and
challenging task.
Third parties cannot readily fix issues
related to data quality or comple-
teness that are not taken care of by the
data provider.
Harmonization of data modelling
practices is a challenge.
Harmonization of data modelling
practices within one’s own «silo» is
straightforward, but might be a great
challenge to implement across «silos».
Perceived «loss of control» by data
owners
Introducing collaborative data
maintenance practices is difficult.
Many current LOD services are of
questionable reliability.

30. Wikidata in the wider context of the Linked Open
Data Ecosystem for the Performing Arts
When it comes to publishing data on Wikidata, priority should be
given to data:
• where it is unclear who would be the «natural» authority in the
given area (on a global scale);
• where there is a high potential for enhancing data through
crowdsourcing approaches (including community or expert
sourcing);
• where data is likely to be reused in the context of Wikipedia;
• where international coordination to ensure semantic
interoperability of the data is unlikely to take place elsewhere.
Focus on base registers / authority files and controlled vocabularies
first; they facilitate further interlinking of datasets!

31. Questions / Feedback?
Contact
Prof. Beat Estermann
Bern University of Applied Sciences
Institute for Public Sector Transformation
beat.estermann@bfh.ch
+41 31 848 34 38
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Performing_arts