Wikidata:WikiProject Objects

[Extract from mail posted on wikimedia mailing list] Hi, how about a wikipedia about objects? Instead of generic articles of , for example, "Ballpoint pen" or "Bic cristal" it would be "Green Ballpoint pen Bic cristal 2014" Doing these for millions of objects would allow people to have an open, free, universal and central place to refer specific objects.

All the information about this project was moved to https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiObject. edit

Discussion edit

I think your use of the term "object" here is not quite correct. What you are proposing is a finer granularity than wikidata currently offers, but not to create a database of every instance of every car ever made (indexed by Vehicle Identification Number) or every instance of every ball point pen (does each pen get a unique serial number) or similarly for other consumer products. Given that every known living species or domestic variety is eligible for a wikidata item, I suppose it wouldn't be crazy to extend that to every kind of manufactured product as well. That is, wikidata may already be able to do what you want if WD:N is suitably accommodating. ArthurPSmith (talk) 15:01, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Most pens and other small, quickly consumed items usually have a batch number (as in, a unique number for a batch of objects). That said, the user seems to think Wikidata is Wikipedia, which it is not. --Izno (talk) 15:08, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think he is asking an item for "every car ever made", he is asking for an item for "every model of car ever made" (or fridge, or pen or whatever). That is more than the very inclusive enwikipedia (although we do have a lot of items about cameras or phones), but not far away than the range of granularity of wikidata. Items of that type have production identifiers I guess. Also even if he "seems to think Wikidata is Wikipedia" (which is not true, IMHO), he is posing a question that relates to wikidata. He is talking of a lot of things in a wider perspective, and with limited knowledge, and that creates confusion, but in the end he wants to know if a Wikidata:WikiProject can be created for "objects"... or something we could define at least as "industrial products". Whatever he is hoping for the future, which is no interest for wikidata, this step is worth at least discussing. I am not an expert, but at least discussing what is the granularity and if properties such as "length" for an industrial products are ok is "interesting".--Alexmar983 (talk) 15:40, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I refer model name not every object of these model or batch that was produced. For example "Dell XPS 13 2015 (9343) Laptop", only one wikidata item for this not an item for every laptop of this model (serial number) neither batch. I thought in wikidata instead of wikipedia because more interesting object information would be , at least at the begining, related with wikidata statements rather than with wikipedia descriptions. My doubt is if the wikidata community see this idea viable, well-focused, interesting, etc... Qupro (talk) 15:55, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I thought Wikidata was aiming to provide knowledge and suddenly I have the impression that WD will finish as a Walmart's catalog (change walmart by any other big commercial stores). Snipre (talk) 15:39, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Object information is also knowledge, for instance imagine webs like http://www.instructables.com/, they are continuously refering specfic object models to show people to make things. A good problem example could be this wikipage for building a 3d printer which is refering to one of the objects needed, a stepper motor, http://reprap.org/wiki/NEMA_17_Stepper_motor, why we fill and refill same information (current, power, ...) over thounsand of webs when it is always the same and could be referred? I understand that the dimension of the project is eneourmous but I am only asking if wikidata is the place for plant the seed. I dont believe in a private/commercial solution for this. Qupro (talk) 16:14, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We have plenty of corporate and commercial things on wikidata, as well as things in traditional academic domains, just as we do in wikipedia. Qupro has a good specific example. @Qupro: one issue with wikidata is the CC-0 nature of the database; do you have some example source datasets with this kind of data that could be imported without violating license restrictions? ArthurPSmith (talk) 17:51, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I 'm not sure to what extent CC-0 would be a problem, I think that companies should see an advantage in being listed in webs and wikidata. Anyway we can go safe and start with Open Source Hardware objects like arduino/genuino (https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Products), and components that even have free datasheets to download. Open Source Hardware Community share a lot of things with wikidata community and they probably be interesed too, I'm gonna to ask some of them. Build up another bridge between both could be nice. Other option could be use antiques with no actual manufacturers, I have just google "antique clocks models" and first result is a beginning. But I really think that if people use this "WikiObjectsData" companies would prefer be that not be in. Qupro (talk) 18:38, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I talked with open source hardware community members and also see a great potencial in this. One of them is working in a Open Source prototyping board (https://github.com/FPGAwars/icezum) so I created two example wikidata items releated with it: the open source prototype board itself (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25026145) and one of its components, a SMD resistance (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25030181). IMHO Wikidata is the best host for this idea. Also It already have propierties like "connector (P2935)" , "power consumed (P2791)", "source code repository (P1324)", "sponsor (P859)", "manufacturer (P176)", these two last ones could may companies contributors and proclive too appear here and to opensource data. I see a lot possibilities, problems , solutions , etc, but i don't know if this is the place to expand the conversation.Qupro (talk) 11:20, 29 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Qupro: This sounds great - you might want to start a "WikiProject" to focus discussion on, for example, the needs of open source hardware. Particularly if some new properties need to be proposed, it's a good place to review the existing properties and what you need. See the list of Wikidata:WikiProjects - linked from the Community Portal and look at how those have been set up and structured. ArthurPSmith (talk) 20:28, 29 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Qupro: the main funnel here are human resources. If you create a new wikidata project I would be happy to show it to wikipedia local science, engineering and technology projects, and maybe village pumps if it's not enough. I hope you can find a sufficient number of volunteers. I can't be one of them, not my field... I can show this conversation.--Alexmar983 (talk) 03:24, 30 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Tgr: Thanks a lot! I have moved general information about the project to m:WikiObject and keep this page as technical page.