Wikimedians for Data Organization and Quality User Group

The goal of the proposed Wikimedians for Data Organization and Quality User Group is to improve the organization and quality of data, particularly structured data, in Wikimedia projects. The user group will aim to make data in Wikimedia projects be more reliable, consistent, and above all useful.

Why?

Wikimedia projects are a prime source of information on the web, used by many and for many purposes. Most of this information is natural language text and graphics, but more and more of it is structured data, such as the data in Wikidata, the data in Wikimedia Commons, and even the data in Wikipedia infoboxes. Although this data is generally of good quality, there are errors in it ranging from simple errors of fact to mis-categorization of large swathes of data. These errors reduce the utility of Wikimedia Foundation projects and can make it hard or even impossible to build systems that use the data.

Problems in the organization of the data, including problems in the Wikidata ontology, often affect large swathes of data and thus the potential group is most interested in data organization.

Mission

The mission of the group would be to strengthen the integrity, reliability, and formal structure of data within Wikimedia projects, primarily Wikidata, by improving ontology design, logical consistency, and semantic interoperability.

The group would support the Wikimedia movement by

providing a central place to support improvements to data organization and quality;
developing educational programs;
organizing and supporting workshops and community discussions;
supporting community participation in research-oriented venues;
writing documentation;
supporting development of validation tools;
supporting development of tools to improve data organization and quailty;
publishing related research, such as on ontology modeling;
pressing for better support of structured data in the Wikimedia Foundation infrastructure; and
collaborating with Wikimedia Deutschland and other affiliates to ensure long-term consistency of structured data.

Operations

The user group would have scheduled meetings (probably monthly) where topics of interest from group members would be discussed and proposals generated.

The user group would provide a communications channel devoted to data organization and quality in Wikimedia projects. This channel would allow anyone with questions about data organization and quality could interact with experts in the area. This channel would serve as a place where anyone who has a proposal for changes that might affect data organization and quality (such as changes to the Wikidata ontology) could be posted for discussion and endorsement. This channel would be used by group members for developing proposals to improve data organization and quality.

Existing Activities

There are current and past activities that fit within this potential user group.

The Wikidata Wikiproject Data Quality has been active in improving the data quality of Wikidata. The project organized several Wikidata data quality days.
An effort to identify and prioritize issues in the Wikidata Ontology was run by Wikimedia Deutschland.
The Wikidata WikiProject Ontology helps define how the Wikidata ontology works and how it organizes the data in Wikidata.
The Ontology Cleaning Task Force in the WikiProject Ontology aims to help fix the problems in the Wikidata ontology.
The Mereology Task Force in the WikiProject Ontology aimed to improve the organization of information in Wikidata related to parts and wholes.
The project to reduce conflation in Wikidata is related to data quality.
The project to reduce redundancy in Wikidata is relevant because redundant data can slip out of alignment.
The course on the Wikidata Ontology aims educate people on how that Wikidata ontology works and how it organizes data.

What User Group Recognition would bring

The efforts described above have had positive effects, but have had problems with longevity and impact. The user group would provide an organization to group these and related efforts together and provide a sense of community for them. The user group would also provide:

representation as a stakeholder in decisions that affect the organization of data in Wikimedia projects;
a stable source of resources for regular activities such as courses, task forces, tool support, documentation, and onboarding; and
regular conference participation both for Wikidata/Wikimedia conferences, and for other relevant conferences.

Plans for First Year

Connect related projects mentioned above and integrate and support their efforts
Improve connection between Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikidata community interested in data organization and quality
Improve Wikidata documentation related to data organization and quality
- Particularly introductory documentation referred to on the Wikidata main page
Support new offerings of the Wikidata Ontology Course
Support and publicize events related to data organization and quality, such as the Wikidata Workshops

Membership Criteria

There are no strict criteria for membership.

A member:

Must have a Wikimedia account
Must have signed their name in the "members" section of our eventual User Group page.
Must adhere to the Friendly Space Policy.

In time, we may introduce a "voting member" eligibility requirement. Until then, all decisions will either be made by an initial User Group Board (the people who were involved in setting up the user group) or be voted on by all members. We commit to having a solid and democratic governance structure once we have access to significant resources.

Community engagement

We have expressed our interest in forming this User Group in relevant Telegram chats and most notably in the WikiProjects Days 2026.

We will continue community engagement by sending out invites to WikiProject talk pages, user pages, and Telegram chats.

Discussion

Please discuss aspects of the potential group in the discussion page. Consensus results of discussions can be added to this page.

Interested Parties

Add your Wikimedia username here to show your support for this effort. The easiest way to do this is to add a new list element containing four ~'s.