ISA is an [[Wikidata:WikidataCon_2019/Program/WikidataCon_Award</>|award-winning]] tool to help beginners to add depicts statements and multilingual captions to files. Anyone can create and organize small campaigns and competitions with ISA. Read more.
AC/DC ("Add to Commons, Descriptive Claims") is a Wikimedia Commons gadget to help with batch editing. It allows adding depicts or other statements (including qualifiers) with unique value to a group of files (for example a category). You can activate AC/DC in your user preferences. Read more.
SDC is a user script similar to Cat-a-lot that allows adding limited number of structured data statements to files in a category. Read more.
This glossary defines commonly used terms for the structured data of files. Some of these terms may be new to Commons.
To add a new glossary entry to the English glossary, use copy the following snippet and include in into the source in alphabetical order.
Foo (also bar) is a concept used to illustrate a glossary entry.
Depicts is a special type of statement, using the Wikidata property "depicts (P180)". It is the first suggested property to add to a file without any statements.
Description or probably details (planned feature) is a longer language-specific description of the contents of a file, probably containing some wikitext markup, analogous to description in Wikidata and "description" field in {{Information}} template.
MediaInfo is a type of entity, storing in a "slot" of file description pages. Each file contains one MediaInfo entity, which contains all structured data of the file. If no MediaInfo data is find in a file description page, a virtual MediaInfo entity will be automatically generated.
Prominence is a mechanism for annotating multiple values for a statement. It allows users to improve the results of queries by selecting which values should be included in a search. Prominent statements have a "preferred" rank in Wikibase software behind structured data, where other statements have a "normal" rank. "Deprecated" rank is currently not supported.
Statement is a structured way of recording information about a file. A statement consists of a claim, zero or more references (currently not available in structured data), and a rank; a claim in turn consists of a property and either a value or one of the special cases "no value" and "unknown value" (currently they are not supported), and zero or more qualifiers.
API. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of functions, procedures and tools that make it possible to build applications (software) that uses the content and/or features of another service. For instance, the API of Wikimedia Commons provides the media and data in Wikimedia Commons in a way that makes them easily re-usable by external software. Every MediaWiki wiki (such as any Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons) offers an API. Wikibase, the software behind Wikidata, offers an API too, but with more detail. Therefore, when Wikimedia Commons will be enhanced with structured data via the Wikibase software, its API will become much more advanced. For a general introduction into the Wikibase API see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikibase/API
Curating, or curation, in the narrow sense, means: selecting and organizing pieces of artwork and cultural heritage for an exhibition. This term can also be used more broadly, to describe any activity that involves selecting, organizing and presenting information. In the context of Structured Data on Commons, curating means all the activities performed by Commons contributors to organize and present the media files on Wikimedia Commons: administrative actions, adding more and better metadata to the files, grouping them in categories, creating galleries...
Data model. A data model is a model that organizes elements of data, and that standardizes how they relate to each other and to the real world. When we use this term in the context of the project Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons, we mean the basic building blocks that constitute a MediaInfo item. At the time of writing this glossary (October 2017) this data model is not finalized yet, but it will probably be comparable to the basic building blocks of a Wikidata item:On top of this basic data model, the Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata communities can work together to build an ever-growing and -improving ontology to describe media files.
GLAM stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums - or cultural and knowledge institutions. Many cultural institutions upload media files about their collections to Wikimedia Commons. In the project Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons, we work together closely with GLAMs around the world to learn about, and incorporate, their requirements for structured metadata in a media repository.
Linked Open Data (often abbreviated as LOD) is structured open (freely licensed) data that has been published on the web in such a way that it can be easily interlinked with other datasets on the web, and can be queried. Linked Open Data is designed in such a way that it can be read by humans and machines. Structured data on Wikimedia Commons will be Linked Open Data as well.
Metadata is data that provides information about other data. Metadata of a media file may include (among other things) information about its creator, copyright status, what is depicted in the file, and its creation date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata
MediaInfo is a new entity type for Wikibase, that is able to handle structured metadata for multimedia files. The extension hooks into a file description page and adds a link to a MediaInfo page storing supplemental metadata about the file. This may, for example, include the author, detailed license information, and the concepts that a picture actually depicts. See further information in Mediawiki extension WikibaseMediaInfo.
MediaWiki. Wikimedia Commons operates on MediaWiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia. MediaWiki was primarily developed for writing and hosting text. In the Structured Data on Commons project, MediaWiki is enhanced with the Wikibase extension, which allows for the integration of structured metadata into the file descriptions on Commons.
Multi-content revisions. So-called multi-content revisions form an important building block for structured data on Wikimedia Commons (and on other Wikimedia projects). Multi-content revisions are groundwork to make information in Mediawiki wikis technically more straightforward to organize. The current wikitext pages will be able to be split out into separate documents (slots) with different functionality (such as infoboxes, categories, template documentation); these different slots can then be integrated into one page, sharing page-level functionality and one shared history. Specifically for structured data on Wikimedia Commons, multi-content revisions make it possible to store a structured data entity (an item, a property, a MediaInfo entity) and wikitext in the same page. Structured Commons is a major use case for multi-content revisions. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Multi-Content_Revisionshttps://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107595
Ontology. In this project, the term ontology is used in its meaning in the context of information science: an ontology is a common vocabulary for a domain of knowledge, used for organizing information in that domain (for instance the visual arts, or the description of books in a library). An ontology contains machine-readable definitions of the basic concepts in that domain and of the relationships that are possible between them. On Wikidata, volunteers in WikiProjects often agree upon ontologies for their own domain and describe these together. In the context of the Structured Commons project, the Commons and Wikidata communities work together to build an ever-growing ontology for describing media files on Wikimedia Commons. They do this on top of the basic data model that is provided via Wikibase in the MediaInfo entities.
Structured data is data with a high degree of structured organization. With more structure, it becomes easier to reuse data in other Wikimedia projects and by third parties; it also allows computers to process and 'understand' it.
Structured Data on Commons is a project that provides the technical infrastructure to complement the wikitext, templates and categories on Commons with structured data. Read more about Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons in the FAQ.
Logo of the Wikibase softwareWikibase is the software that powers Wikidata, and that will also enable structured data on Wikimedia Commons. It consists of a set of extensions to the MediaWiki software. http://wikiba.se/
Logo of the Wikidata projectWikidata is a Wikimedia project. It's a free, collaborative, multilingual database. Wikidata collects structured data to provide support for Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, the other wikis of the Wikimedia movement, and to anyone in the world. See further information in d:Wikidata:Introduction.
Wikimedia Commons (or in brief 'Commons') is a Wikimedia project, a sister project of Wikipedia, and a collection of more than 40 million free media files. All the freely licensed photos, audio and video files, PDFs and other media on Wikipedia are stored on Commons. Wikimedia Commons grows rapidly, by approximately 5 million new files per year. Thousands of volunteers upload files to Commons, and integrate these into Wikimedia projects, like Wikipedia, to illustrate the content there and to share that media with the public. Media files on Commons are typically personal photography and media uploaded by individuals, freely licensed media files from external websites like Flickr, YouTube, open access journals, and other repositories, donations from institutions and organizations with substantial media collections, large and small, ranging from UNESCO, NASA and the British Library to small local cultural institutions.
