Annual Report 2023/Story: Support with Various types of Datasets on Cultural Heritage from Ukraine and Uganda

Access

Use

Community

Enabling

Access

2023

In this story, we focus on our work with cultural heritage data from around the world. Although the principle is the same, each project has its own unique conditions and challenges. The local communities can provide insights and complementary information based on their expertise, which is important for us to take advantage of. The Wikimedia movement has for many years engaged the public in creating digital documentation of our cultural and natural heritage, building a unique resource that used not only to illustrate Wikipedia articles but also in many other contexts thanks to its extensive coverage. By making it easier for volunteers to participate, more and more of our shared heritage can be preserved digitally, which is particularly important in areas where cultural heritage is threatened and at risk of damage or destruction.

Wikidata, the open database of structured, linked data, contains all sorts of items - people, places, works of art and historical events. That includes a lot of data on our cultural heritage. Both Wikimedia Sverige and other local Wikimedia organizations, as well as a large number of volunteers, are continuously working on creating and improving items for the world's protected cultural heritage, which in Sweden includes architectural and archaeological monuments. In 2023, we did several projects focused on cultural heritage data that we are proud of.

A prominent example is our cooperation with Wikimedia Ukraine. Over many years, the Ukrainian-speaking community has been compiling lists of the country's cultural heritage that they use to run the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest, engaging the public in creating photo documentation of the country's cultural heritage and sharing them on the Wikimedia platforms. Such Wikipedia-based lists - which most countries participating in the competitions have - are not always easy to manage. The development of Wikidata, where data is stored in a structured and easily searchable form, has motivated several communities to explore the possibility of copying their data there. Easier said than done, especially in the case of Ukraine, which has data on over ninety thousand monuments.

As part of our efforts to develop a hub for content partnerships, we have created a so-called Helpdesk, a support platform to which operators in the Wikimedia movement can turn for assistance. This can involve learning how to use a new tool for uploading large quantities of images to Wikimedia Commons, receiving support and advice on how to talk to authorities to convince them to release data under an open license, or how the data that are based on photo competitions like Wiki Loves Monuments can be developed. It was through the Helpdesk that we became aware of the need to improve the coverage of Ukrainian cultural heritage on Wikidata, following a request from Wikimedia Ukraine.

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  The culture heritage of Ukraine is under threat. A lot has already been destroyed.
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  By working with the documentation built by the Wikimedia community over the years, we're making the information easier to find and share.

We have worked on similar tasks previously when uploading similar data to Wikidata from several countries. For example, in 2023, we made a very similar effort in collaboration with Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda. Although the goal was the same – to transfer data about the country's cultural heritage from Wikipedia to Wikidata – the process itself was significantly different. This was due to the data from Uganda being much less extensive, with a few hundred items. With such limited data, it is possible to do some manual work, such as verifying that all Wikimedia Commons categories link to the correct items. This is, of course, not doable when we are working with almost a hundred thousand items. Furthermore, some of the Ukrainian monuments already had Wikidata items, but they may have been linked to a wrong category, or were duplicates. The Ukraine initiative became thus a more long-term project, and is still ongoing as we stay in touch with our colleagues at Wikimedia Ukraine and continue to clean up and improve the data. The aim is to do as much of the groundwork as possible so that the local community can build on it using their own skills.

Of course, when it comes to a country affected by war, there are a few extra things to consider. Invaluable cultural heritage is being destroyed; we have seen examples of this in several countries such as Syria, Iraq and unfortunately Ukraine as well. Publishing geographical coordinates of cultural heritage sites on Wikidata raises awareness of their locations and can prevent them from being damaged or destroyed by accident, but easily accessible information can also make it easier for the powers of evil to destroy or loot them.

We have had discussions about it both with the expert committee leading the work of the Helpdesk and with Wikimedia Ukraine. We decided not to copy coordinates of objects located in the occupied territories to Wikidata. Although they already published on Wikipedia, they would be much easier to access on Wikidata. There are no easy or black-and-white answers to what information should be made available; it varies depending on the context and changes over time. Every situation is unique and the available information has to be discussed in depth. Having said that, there is, of course, both a need and a great value in establishing good practices. In order to deepen the discussions, during the year we made an application to the Swedish Institute to establish an international network of experts to guide the Wikimedia movement and various organizations working with cultural and natural heritage in their decision-making.

So what have we learned from this initial work of uploading data from Ukraine and Uganda?

First of all, it became very clear how much information about the world's cultural heritage is still missing from Wikidata. Many communities maintain extensive lists on Wikipedia, built for use in Wiki Loves Monuments. Often they were created before Wikidata was even launched. Each community has developed its own way of formatting and structuring the information. Sometimes the structure is not documented anywhere except the author's (who may have left Wikipedia!) head; sometimes pure factual information is mixed with descriptive texts of various kinds that create a challenge for those who want to make them fit into the, let's say, simplified structure of Wikidata. Therefore, each such dataset is unique. It takes a while to understand how the structure is built, and it requires communication with the local community.

Secondly, there are significant differences in how different communities view Wikidata and its role in Wiki Loves Monuments. In the spring of 2023, we attended a meeting with the international team coordinating the competition, where this became very clear. We need to strike a balance. Data on Wikidata is easier to structure and search than on Wikipedia, but is it easier to understand for the competition participants? It is important to continue working on making structured data easier to implement in various competitions and the like, to make sure that the audience can engage with the data.

Finally, we cannot work effectively with cultural heritage data on Wikidata without involving many people. We, and other Wikimedia organizations, have the technical skills to analyze and manage large amounts of data, but at the end of the day, only the local communities can fill in the gaps and check that everything is correct. For this reason, we would like to explore new ways to involve volunteers in this work. The great thing about Wikidata is that the data is dynamic and easy to edit and improve.