Primary Sources Tool

The Primary Sources Tool (PST) is a software tool developed for Wikidata, the collaborative knowledge base hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. It was designed to support a curation workflow for data donations to Wikidata, allowing Wikidata editors to review, edit, or reject data offered to the community. The workflow was integrated directly into the Wikidata interface as a gadget, meaning it could be enabled by individual users through their preferences. The tool originated from the donation of the Freebase database by Google. The first and current version of the PST was built on this donation, and the StrepHit team later proposed a radical uplift to create a next version. The tool's back end was written in C++ with SQL storage. Users could select datasets such as strephit-confident, soweego, or freebase, and then curate statements through a sidebar interface. The gadget was written in JavaScript and required browser support for that language. As of December 2023, the Primary Sources gadget has been disabled, as tracked in Phabricator task T352603. The tool is therefore no longer active, though its documentation remains on Wikidata. The PST represents an important experiment in community-based data curation and the integration of external datasets into Wikidata.

The Primary Sources Tool (PST) was created as part of an effort to integrate external datasets into Wikidata. Its first and current version stems from the donation of the Freebase database by Google. Freebase was a large collaborative knowledge base that Google acquired and later shut down; its data was donated to Wikidata and other projects. The PST was developed to provide a curation workflow so that Wikidata editors could review, edit, or reject data offered to the community. The tool was deployed as a Wikidata gadget, meaning it could be enabled by any user through their gadget preferences. It was written in JavaScript for the front end, with a back end in C++ using SQL storage. Users could select datasets such as strephit-confident, soweego, or freebase, and then curate statements through a sidebar interface. The tool was integrated into Wikidata's interface, with links in the sidebar for loading datasets and showing random items to curate. Based on community feedback collected since its deployment, the StrepHit team submitted a radical uplift proposal for a next version of the tool. Mock-ups for this beta version were made accessible on Phabricator. However, the original gadget was disabled in December 2023, as tracked in Phabricator task T352603. The tool is no longer active, but its documentation page remains on Wikidata.

• Freebase database donated by Google, forming the basis for the first version of the Primary Sources Tool.

• Primary Sources Tool deployed as a Wikidata gadget.

• StrepHit team submits a radical uplift proposal for the next version of the tool.

• Primary Sources gadget disabled in December 2023 (Phabricator task T352603).

• Primary Sources Tool (PST)

  A Wikidata gadget for curating data donations, allowing editors to review, edit, or reject data.

1. 1Wikidata:Primary sources tool - Wikidatawikidata.org
2. 2Wikidata:Primary sources tool - Wikidata (history)wikidata.org
3. 3Primary Sources Tool - Wikidatawikidata.org
4. 4Wikidata:Primary sources tool - Wikidatawikidata.org
5. 5Wikidata:Introduction - Wikidatawikidata.org