Wikidata Fellowships

Keen to try something with Wikidata! Got a crazy idea? Or a provocation? Or an idea that needs investigating?

Wikimedia Australia is offering two creative fellowships grants of $1000 (AUD) to develop a prototype or undertake an investigation using Wikidata. You will be matched with a Wikidatatician who will mentor you throughout your project offering resources, feedback and support.

We are open to applicants from all backgrounds and skill levels, and support proposals that involve investigations. We are looking for proposals that are enthusiastic, innovative or questing as opposed to requiring pre-existing technical skills.

What is Wikidata?

Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Launched in 2012, Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others.

Key dates

Applications open Monday 10 January 2022 closing midnight Sunday 27 February 2022 (whatever timezone you are in).

The Wikidata Fellowships will take place from from 1 March 2022 to 31 May, 2022. How these hours are completed is flexible. For example, if a fellow wants to work for a set time period or a few hours each week, that is fine so long as it is agreed upon between the mentor and the fellow.

Introduction to Wikidata Sessions

Know nothing about Wikidata? Or just want to know more? Attend one of our one-hour Introduction to Wikidata sessions:

• Saturday 29 January 2022, 11am AEDT - Register here!
• Wednesday 2 February 2022, 7pm AEDT - Register here!
• Thursday 10 February 2022, 2pm AEDT - Register here!

Guidelines

Eligibility

Creative Wikidata fellowships are open to any person in the Oceania region - students and educators, statisticians, programmers, creators and users, artists, activists or organisers.

Themes

Proposed projects may, but are not limited to investigating the following areas:

• Addressing gaps or diversity on Wikidata
• Bias on Wikidata
• Visualisation or creative realisations using Wikidata
• Accessibility on Wikidata
• Automation and Wikidata
• Ethics and open source data

Criteria

Proposed projects will be assessed by a panel based on the following criteria:

• Feasibility of idea within project timeframe
• Any Wikimedia editing experience (preferred but not essential)
• Alignment with Wikimedia Foundation mission, vision and values

This fellowship program comes under Wikimedia Australia Safe Spaces policy. Fellows are encouraged to collaborate where appropriate with the broader Wikimedia community throughout the fellowship period.

Outcomes

Fellows are required to write 750 words blog post or interview on their project for the Wikimedia Australia website (to be released under a Creative Commons license) by 30 June 2022. An image/s for use on social media and the above blog post (to be released under a Creative Commons license). A short 5-10min presentation sharing outcomes at a Wikimedia Australia Community Meeting Final online documentation of fellowship projects is required. Documentation can take many forms - a GitHub repository, a series of videos, a website - whatever is most appropriate for the work.

Grant

Wikimedia Australia will offer two fellowships of $1,000 AUD. Payment of the grant will be made in 50% installments: $500 AUD paid at the start of the fellowship, and the remaining $500 AUD upon its completion upon provision of a tax invoice. Fellows must complete the requirements of the fellowship for the stipend to be paid in full.

Ideas and related projects

• Wikidata and the ACMI API

Contact

To find out more contact Caddie Brain, Executive Officer
Email: caddie.brain@wikimedia.org.au