Category Archives: Uncategorized

Documenting public art, on Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a number of articles listing public artworks (statues, murals, etc) in counties, cities and towns, around the world. For example, in Birmingham. There’s also a list of the lists.

Gilded statue of three men

Boulton, Watt and Murdoch (1956) by William Bloye.
Image by Oosoom, CC BY-SA 3.0

There are, frankly, not enough of these articles; and few of those that do exist are anywhere near complete (the best is probably the list for Westminster).

How you can help

I invite you to collaborate with me, to make more lists, and to populate them.

You might have knowledge of your local artwork, or be able to visit your nearest library to make enquiries; or to take pictures (in the United Kingdom, of “permanent” works, for copyright reasons — for other countries, read up on local ‘Freedom of Panorama‘) and upload them to Wikimedia Commons, or even just find coordinates for items added by someone else. If you’re a hyperlocal blogger, or a journalist, perhaps you can appeal to your readership to assist?

Practical steps

You can enter details of an artwork using the “Public art row” family of templates. A blank entry looks like:


{{Public art row
| image =
| commonscat =
| subject =
| location =
| date =
| show_artist= yes
| artist =
| type =
| material =
| dimensions =
| designation =
| coordinates =
| owner =
| show_wikidata= yes
| wikidata =
| notes =
}}

(change “yes” to “no” if a particular column isn’t wanted) and you simply type in the information you have, like this:


{{Public art row
| image = Boulton, Watt and Murdoch.jpg
| commonscat = Statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch, Birmingham
| subject = ''[[Boulton, Watt and Murdoch]]''
| location = Near the House of Sport – Broad Street
| date = {{Start date|1956}}
| artist = [[William Bloye]]
| type = statue
| material = Gilded [[Bronze]]
| dimensions = 10 feet tall
| designation = Grade II listed
| coordinates = 52.478587,-1.908395
| owner = [[Birmingham City Council]]
| show_wikidata= yes
| wikidata = Q4949742
| notes = <ref>http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/things-to-do/top-5-statues-birmingham-5678972</ref>
}}

Apart from the subject, all the values are optional.

In the above (as well as some invented values for illustrative purposes):

but if that’s too complicated, you can just enter text values, and someone else will come along and do the formatting (experienced Wikipedians can use the {{Coord}} template for coordinates, too). If you get stuck, drop me a line, or ask for help at Wikipedia’s Teahouse.

What this does

The “Public art row” template makes it easy to enter data, keeps everything tidy and consistently formatted, and makes the content machine-readable, That means that we can parse all the contents and enter them into Wikidata, creating new items if required, as we go.

We can then include other identifiers for the artworks in Wikidata, and include the artworks’ Wikidata identifiers in other systems such as OpenStreetMap, so everything becomes available as linked, open data for others to reuse and build new apps and tools with.

ORCID plugin for WordPress

ORCID, the “Open Research Contributor ID”, is an identifier for contributors to academic papers, journals, and other publications. It’s the equivalent, for such people, of an ISBN for a book or a DOI for a paper. ORCID is an open data project, run by a not-for-profit foundation.

I’ve been working with ORCID for over a year, on their “works metadata working group“, as an outreach ambassador, and integrating ORCID into Wikipedia and Wikidata (link is a PDF).

I’m currently at the ORCID outreach event at the University of Illinois in Chicago, USA, and participating in the codefest (a hackathon by another name).

I came up with the idea for a plugin for WordPress, which would allow authors to add their ORCID identifier to their profile, and which would allow users to add their ORCIDs to comments.

Roy Boverhof (kindly sponsored by Elsevier) has kindly coded it (it’s his first WordPress plugin!); I’ve installed it; and used it on this post; so you can see my ORCID “0000-0001-5882-6823”) above, and Roy’s in his comment.

If you have an ORCID, please leave a comment here, and include it in the field provided.

The plugin is very much in beta mode (its not yet tested in multiple browsers, for instance; and we need to add documentation and additional functionality such as check-digit validation), but you can get it from Roy’s GitHub repository (there’s a “download zip” button on the right hand side, in the default view) and install it on any self-hosted WordPress installation using Plugins > Add New. (If upgrading from a previous version, please delete the original first.)

Your feedback will be welcome, in comments below, as will code contributions at GitHub.

Thanks, Roy!

Update, 2014-05-22: There were prizes for the best product; all of them were great, but we came second!

Update, 2014-05-28: New version, with various improvements. Please delete the old version before installing the new one, per the above (revised) instructions.

Update, 2014-05-28b: And again! Now at version 0.5

Teaching OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia editing, Tupperware Party style

I’m writing (and posting — thank you Chiltern Railways’ free Wi-Fi!) this on the train home from High Wycombe. I’ve spent a fun day there with Louise Brown, her husband Simon, and three of their friends, teaching them to edit OpenStreetMap and, after a fab lunch cooked by Simon, how to edit Wikipedia.

This came about after I mentioned on Twitter some other Wikipedia training I’d delivered, and Louise said she wished I lived closer, so she could have attended. I said I’d be wiling to travel to her home to do so if she could get a few like-minded friends together, to justify me giving up a day of my time and making the journey. This she quickly did.

Though we didn’t add much to OpenStreetMap to start with, I’m confident that the attendees will soon fill in the gaps around their homes and work-places in High Wycombe, West Wycombe and Marlow. We certainly improved some Wikipedia articles though, and created some new articles, including:

St Lawrence, West Wycombe
Photo by amandabhslater, on Flickr, CC-BY-SA

I’ve previously taught Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap editing, separately, in a variety of situations including universities, council offices, at Social Media Surgeries, at hackdays, and elsewhere, but this is the first time I’ve done so in someone’s home, in an informal and social setting.

A bit like a Tupperware party in fact, but without the plastic kitchenware.

If you have skills in editing Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap, or using social media, or indeed anything else that can be done around a domestic dining table, why don’t you see if you can share them in a similar way. If you’ve not delivered training before, it’s a good way to get experience.

It’s also a great way to sign up new contributors to these worthwhile crowd-sourced projects, in a fun, friendly and supportive environment. There are no venue costs to worry about. And you’ll meet some lovely people!

So what are you waiting for?

How should a hackday be run?

I’m working with a large public-sector organisation who have a considerable — and potentially very useful — body of data. They’re keen to open it up, and would like to encourage people to use it by having a hack event of some kind. At the same time, it’s gratifying that they’re clear that they don’t wish to unfairly exploit anyone.

We’re considering a number of options, and would welcome comments and additional suggestions.

The event could be held in the Midlands; over one day or two, on weekdays, weekend, or Friday-Saturday. Or a competition could be announced online, with a virtual or real-life “dragons den” type event, for people to present things they’ve worked on at home.

Cray-2 super computer

You won’t need one of these to take part…
Computer Museum: Cray-2 by cmnit, on Flickr, CC-BY

Should we set a specific challenge, or just ask people to do something interesting with the data?

I’ve suggested prizes might be offered for both the most compete solution, and the best idea, whether compete or not. There might be prizes in other categories, such as the best idea by a young person or the most accessible product, or different categories for commercial and hobbyist entrants.

The data holders might also like to consider developing business relationships to the developers of one or more of the products, separate to any prize giving; rights in all the entries would of course remain with their developers, otherwise.

How would you like such an event to happen? We’re aware of the Hackday Manifesto, but what else is best practice, and what other pitfalls should be avoided?

Over to you…

Day 3 and 4 in Washington DC

Continuing notes on my US visit…

Friday.

I’m enjoying walking in DC, apart from the heat. The grid system has North-South roads lettered ascendingly, moving away from the river, and east-west roads numbered. That’s not very imaginative, but it makes it very hard to get lost. The central area is also very compact, and thankfully, flat.

I spent most of the day National Air and Space Museum, the whose collection includes aircraft of mind-blowing significance: The Wright Flyer, Liberty Bell, the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound, the first space capsule used for a US spacewalk, the Apollo 11 command capsule, the highest-flying aircraft ever, and so on. It was well worth the time I spent there, and I hope to visit their annexe, with larger aircraft, before I leave.

Then, in the evening, I went to a concert at the Austrian Embassy, who had kindly invited people in town for Wikimania, the conference I’m attending next week. A duo of classical pianist and violinist, both very proficient, performed arrangements of popular tunes, but the drum track made it a bit too James Last for my taste.

Saturday

Today has been the highlight of my trip so far. , with whom I’ve corresponded on line for a couple of years or so, and who is content director for The Encyclopedia of Life , kindly responded to my appeal for a local birder to show me the ropes, and acted above and beyond the call of duty. She picked me up in her car, drove us to Jug Bay Wetlands nature reserve in Maryland and helped me to find and identify a number of species of birds, almost all new to me (the exceptions being Osprey and Barn Swallow), plus some fantastic butterflies and other “critters”, not least a Beaver. Lindsay Hollister at the reserve’s visitor centre was a welcoming and cordial host.

The 21 new bird species I saw were:

  • Red-tailed Hawk
  • Acadian Flycatcher
  • Brown-Headed Cowbird
  • Mourning Dove
  • Pied Grebe
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Brown Thrasher
  • Yellow-throated Vireo
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Orchard Oriole
  • Gray Catbird
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Eastern Kingbird
  • Cardinal
  • Turkey Vulture
  • Black Vulture
  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Red-eyed Vireo
  • Tufted Titmouse
  • Hairy Woodpecker
  • Northern Mockingbird

We then had lunch at a rural, roadside “Mom and Pop” diner, where I enjoyed my first ever root beer.

And now I’m off in search of a bar…

[Pictures to be added later]