[OSM-talk] uselessness of brand:wikipedia and brand:wikidata tags (was Re: Bank of India (and other) Wikidata tags)

Oleksiy Muzalyev oleksiy.muzalyev at bluewin.ch
Thu Apr 18 13:06:49 UTC 2019


Hi,

I agree that adding tons of links with a script is not a good idea. 
However, there are cases where a wikidata tag could be useful.

For example, I created the Wikidata item (and the Commons category) for 
the medieval quarry Carrière Jaune (eng. Yellow Quarry):

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/158798757
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q62083763

This quarry had been in operation for five hundred years, it provided 
about 25000 cubic meters of stones for quite a few famous castles and 
buildings in the region, but now it is completely abandoned. It is 
situated deep in the forest. As far as I know there were no excavations 
there yet, and there is no Wikipedia article either, since there are few 
sources so far.

Via this Wikidata link people can view the ground and aerial photos of 
this absolutely magnificent medieval quarry and even read the basic 
historical information on the photo of the information board. I had to 
actually walk for hours to this quarry to make the photos. I also spent 
several hours for the research.

The idea is that people could not only see an object on the map, but 
also to get an information about it, including images, and most 
importantly an idea to go and visit the place.

Best regards,
O.

On 4/18/19 11:28, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 17.04.19 23:40, Mateusz Konieczny wrote:
>> I am not aware about even single case where brand:wikipedia
>> or brand:wikidata is useful.
> The general mindset of the Wikidata adherent is that every
> machine-readable link between obejcts or concepts improves the overall
> quality and usefulness of the data set, whether or not a concrete use
> case exists at this point in time or not.
>
> Mapping things without a concrete use case is fairly common in OSM; you
> don't generally have to demonstrate a use case before you can start
> mapping something.
>
> However, the ferocity and scope with which Wikidata links are forced on
> us are a concern for me. It started with tons of undiscussed mechanical
> edits that resulted in low-quality connections like the one that gave
> rise to this discussion, and has meanwhile found its way into our
> editors which happily add wikidata tags according to the same flawed
> logic, making the individual mapper complicit without them really
> knowing what goes on. We end up with tons of extra tags that add zero
> extra information and complicate the world for mappers.
>
> And I'm not even talking about our own wiki where they've started to
> wikidatify our tags as well.
>
> I'm realistic enough to accept that wikidata links are here to stay, but
> we have to rein in the "the more the merrier" thinking with regards to
> wikidata.
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>




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