Re: Use AI but complement it with structured data

Gerard writes:

> I read the most wonderful blogpost by the OCLC [1]. For those that do not
know, OCLC is a longtime partner of the WMF,
> it is the worldwide organisation of library organisations, it publishes
the VIAF identifiers and they are heavily used in our projects.

It's a fine post. I don't know about "partner of the WMF"' but they
maintain important resources like VIAF.  However none of these resources
are freely licensed, and most of them are being incrementally enclosed and
paywalled.  We should of course work with OCLC where the result advances
free knowledge, but should also learn a lesson from VIAF's enclosure:

Back in 2011, Tim Spalding wrote about his concern about VIAF being
promoted as "open
<https://blog.librarything.com/2011/03/viaf-oclc-and-open-data/>data"
<https://blog.librarything.com/2011/03/viaf-oclc-and-open-data/>, when it
was encumbered by licensing restrictions. Two years ago, Tim's concern was
realized: bulk updates are no longer provided, and API access is limited to
10,000 records a month per IP.  (At which point it would take many
centuries to update a snapshot!)

The value of having Wikidata as a model of true openness, can not be
overstated here.
In 2011, Wikidata did not exist at scale.  Today, it points to an
alternative that avoids enshittification (as has already happened to the Dewey
Decimal System
<https://www.reddit.com/r/librarians/comments/1861395/oclc_classify_is_being_discontinued_alternatives/>
 and to Worldcat itself
<https://www.reddit.com/r/BookCollecting/comments/1nhrjmz/any_good_alternatives_to_worldcat_it_has_become/>).
These are some of the ways our ecosystem can be a pillar of support for
global free knowledge.  Here is a quote from a paper published by VIAF
members
<https://ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/article/download/17384/11952>
last
year, uncertain about its future:

" * *Will VIAF continue as an open service, or will it become a paid
service under OCLC?*
.
These doubts and questions caused by the current situation seem to have a
distant origin; they were already raised in some way back in 2016 and seem
to involve both VIAF and ISNI.   While awaiting answers, libraries may need
to consider developing an alternative to VIAF: an open service governed in
a transparent and shared manner, featuring direct manual contributions,
open code, modern APIs, a SPARQL engine, and more."


Gerard writes:

> we are in a wonderful position that we have both structured data in list,
> categories and info boxes in our Wikipedias but also in Wikidata. In
> addition there is the texts that will typically confirm what it says in the
> structured data.
>

Absolutely.  There are many PhD theses waiting to be drawn from this line
of research. 🗼

SJ

[resending after mailing list rejection]

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/7G4LAZ2Z7G7TVZN5NMQNABF5SPJSYO6Y/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org