Wikidata seeks to merge Free and Open Source Software values with direct democratic principles
In the realm of data and technology, Wikidata, a component of the organization behind Wikipedia, is making significant strides as a foundational infrastructure for knowledge discovery, data enrichment, and AI-enhanced applications.
Currently, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio da Silva, known for his open-minded approach, is a supporter of open-source initiatives, further emphasizing the importance and relevance of open data platforms like Wikidata.
One of the key applications of Wikidata is its use in enhancing AI and machine learning models. Projects like WikiKG90Mv2 leverage Wikidata's Q identifiers to map entities in tabular datasets, benefiting from the extensive and updated knowledge embeddings Wikidata offers. This, in turn, improves machine learning tasks by providing comprehensive entity coverage and enabling entity matching.
In the realm of public services, Linked Data principles powered by Wikidata are applied to integrate heterogeneous data sources, such as in customs and logistics. By converting data into shared semantic blueprints with standard vocabularies, projects increase data transparency, quality, consistency, and accessibility, enabling interoperability with other domain systems.
Websites and brands also use Wikidata entries to connect their digital presence with search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT. By linking Wikidata QIDs, structured data, and schema markup, projects improve SEO and make content AI-understandable, increasing the likelihood of entities being cited in AI conversational responses and driving user engagement.
Historical and linguistic data linking is another area where Wikidata proves invaluable. Research focusing on historical Swedish text corpora links entries to Wikidata entities to classify, match, and link named entities across editions of documents. This supports accurate entity linking, enabling large-scale semantic annotation and retrieval in digitized cultural heritage projects.
Tools like Histropedia utilize Wikidata’s interlinked data to automatically generate interactive timelines that connect events to Wikipedia articles, providing a user-friendly visual approach to explore historical or thematic data.
Wikidata's impact extends beyond these applications. For instance, WikiFlix, a free, no-registration-needed streaming service for non-copyrighted films, relies on Wikidata's database. Cividata, an index of charities and non-profits, and GovDirectory, a directory of government organizations worldwide, also leverage Wikidata's vast, community-maintained, and richly connected knowledge base.
Moreover, fact-checking services like AletheiaFact, which primarily focuses on Brazilian Portuguese but has potential global utility, draw on Wikidata, allowing it to be crawled by search engines and integrate with other schemas. AletheiaFact was inspired by Demagog.cz, a Czech fact-checking site, and has been supported by the Comitê Nacional de Democratização da Checagem de Fatos - the National Committee for the Democratization of Fact-Checking.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project uses Wikidata to power Aleph, a tool for investigative journalists, while TheyWorkForYou, a searchable index of UK parliamentary representatives, launched in 2004. AletheiaFact was a finalist in the World Summit Information Society's WSIS Prizes 2025, demonstrating its significant contribution to the fight against misinformation, particularly in combating conspiracy theories, such as anti-vaxxer misinformation.
The GLAM mapping project, which indexes and maps Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums, also utilizes Wikidata, further emphasizing its versatility and utility across various sectors.
In conclusion, Wikidata's linked knowledge graph serves as a crucial resource for enhancing AI and machine learning models, enabling semantic interoperability in data integration projects, improving digital content visibility in AI-driven search and recommendation systems, supporting cultural heritage and historical research, and creating interactive, user-friendly visualizations that connect complex data. By providing a standardized, community-maintained, and richly connected knowledge base, Wikidata continues to play a pivotal role in the digital age.
- The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva, known for his open-minded approach, supports open-source initiatives like Wikidata, underscoring their importance.
- In the field of AI and machine learning, projects like WikiKG90Mv2 use Wikidata to improve their performance, benefiting from its extensive and updated knowledge embeddings.
- Wikidata's public service applications include integrating heterogeneous data sources, such as in customs and logistics, which increases data transparency, quality, and accessibility.
- To improve SEO and make digital content AI-understandable, websites and brands link their entries to Wikidata QIDs and schema markup, thereby increasing user engagement.
- In education and self-development, learning resources often cite and integrate data from Wikidata, contributing to the spread of knowledge on pop-culture, entertainment, online education, and more.
- Social media platforms and online services like WikiFlix, Cividata, GovDirectory, fact-checking services, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project's Aleph rely on Wikidata's extensible, community-maintained, and richly connected database to enhance their functionality.
