Using wikidata to capture and share information about paleontological collecting sites
This wiki provides resources for the workshop Using Wikidata to capture and share information about paleontological collecting sites. This workshop is the second in a two-part series, which also includes Using Wikidata to capture and share information about people in paleontology.
General Information
When: October 4-5, 2022; 12:00-2:00pm Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -4) each day (see your local time here)
Where: Virtual
Logistical point of contact: Erica Krimmel (ekrimmel@fsu.edu), iDigBio / Florida State University
Expected number of participants: 30
This workshop will follow iDigBio's Code of Conduct.
Goals & Outcomes
This workshop will build on experience gained by participants in Part I of the series (Using Wikidata to capture and share information about people in paleontology) to explore the possibility of using Wikidata to curate community knowledge about paleontological collecting sites. Participants will begin by defining our information needs regarding paleontological collecting sites, including flagging aspects of the data that may be problematic to share publicly. We will then assess how these information needs could, or could not, fit into a Wikidata model. We will use a predetermined set of representative paleo collecting sites as test data for this workshop.
Participants should ideally have attended Part I of this workshop series, although if they did not then prior experience with Wikidata is an adequate substitute. Those who need a refresher on editing Wikidata records can view the videos linked in the [Pre-workshop homework] section, below. Participants do not need to have experience with any other particular technologies. Participants do need access to a computer with internet, and they will be expected to block off time to devote to the hands-on nature of this workshop.
Registration
Registration is free and required. Please register by September 26th via this Zoom link.
Materials & Tools
Participants will need to access Zoom, Google Drive, and Slack as part of this workshop.
Install the Zoom client app on a desktop computer for best results. If Zoom is already installed, check to ensure that it has recently been updated to the latest version. We recommend that participants use a headset for audio. To get started with Zoom, we suggest the video tutorials available on the Zoom website: https://zoom.us/
Google Drive can be accessed from any internet browser without additional installation. A Google account is required to edit documents in Google Drive. The Google Drive folder for this workshop is here.
Install the desktop client for Slack for best results. To get started with Slack, we suggest the video tutorials available on the Slack website: https://slack.com/. For this workshop, we will be using the #wikidata channel of the Paleo Data Slack workspace, which you can join via this link if you are not already a member.
Pre-workshop Homework
- (5 minutes, essential) Introduce yourself in the participant intros Google Sheet, for which you received a link via email.
- (5 minutes, essential) Confirm that you have an account on Wikidata. Your account allows you to create and edit items in Wikidata, which we will be doing during the workshop.
- (15 minutes, optional but strongly encouraged) Browse and add to our representative list of sites and expeditions in paleontology. The "Known Sites" and “Known Expeditions” tabs of this Google Sheet list facets of our collections data for which we would like to mobilize information via Wikidata. We will go over this sheet in more detail during the workshop.
- (20 minutes, optional for those who need a Wikidata refresher) Watch the recording from Part I of this workshop series, "Introduction to basic editing in Wikidata". In this presentation, Jessica Utrup provides an overview of editing Wikidata as it relates to the people data that were our focus in the first workshop.
- (60 minutes, optional for those who need a Wikidata refresher) Watch the recording from our 2021-03-25 Happy Hour, "Getting started with Wikidata." In this presentation, Mathias Dillen (Meise Botanic Garden) shares his experience using Wikidata for collections management, including logistics of getting started in Wikidata, what the data structure of information stored in Wikidata is, and a brief overview of Wikidata community norms.
Agenda
This workshop will be conducted online, in Zoom with Slack and Google Drive as asynchronous communication tools. Registered participants will receive connection information via an email directly from Zoom.
Key links
- Google Drive folder
- Shared notes document for the whole workshop
- Paleontology Sites and Expeditions for Wikidata Google Sheet
| October 4 | Tuesday |
|---|---|
| 12:00 - 12:15 PM EDT | Workshop overview and introductions |
| 12:15 - 1:15 PM EDT | Defining our information needs |
| 1:15 - 2:00 PM EDT | Review of existing data in Wikidata |
| approximately 2 hours | Asynchronously Work with our predetermined set of representative paleo collecting sites to try and fit these data into Wikidata records. |
| October 5 | Wednesday |
| 12:00 - 1:15 PM EDT | Refining our data model |
| 1:15 - 2:00 PM EDT | Wrap-up and next steps |
Recording Policy
Your participation in this workshop acknowledges your acceptance that each synchronous session will be recorded and shared with workshop participants for later asynchronous viewing.