Will Kent presented the reason for Wikidata and how it collects information. He also showed how the information from Wikidata influences other websites, such as Google and its knowledge panels. He mentions that Wikidata is a community-driven platform where people are able to input more information.
The one clear takeaway I learned from Will Kent is that Wikidata is a fairly new platform. There needs to be more outreach and more community to put more information for Wikidata, and then there will be more access to data and data visualizations.
Will’s visit to our class impacts my approach to working with Wikidata by understanding that I can take matters into my own hands. Due to there being a lack of information on certain subjects, if I have knowledge on a certain subject, I can help with the Wikidata profiles.
Will’s visit affected my view of digital humanities because it showed me that you can connect with communities in more ways than one. Data comes in many forms, but it also provides information on the world and technology. The way Wikidata, as a platform, connects to digital humanities is by providing a place for communities to come together and create data and data visualizations. Using the data will let us understand how people work.
Having outreach to a community expert in an RHCS class helps me understand the importance of communication with a community. In order for us as people to grow and gain more knowledge about subjects, there needs to be access to data and ways to create more understanding.
The experience is connected to our reading of the 2nd chapter of The Humanities, Done Digitally by Kathleen Fitzpatrick. The connection is about how humanities is going digital, which is a good thing. A quote from the article is, “The particular contribution of the digital humanities, however, lies in its exploration of the difference that the digital can make to the kinds of work that we do as well as to the ways that we communicate with one another. These new modes of scholarship and communication will best flourish if they, like the digital humanities, are allowed to remain plural.”