Wikibase is an open-source software suite for creating collaborative knowledge bases,
opening the door to the Linked Open Data web.
How does Wikibase work?
Take a look at how others use Wikibase, get to know our community and discover key elements.
Who is it for?
Any organization can use it to manage and open up their structured data, and many do—in particular, data-minded GLAM organizations across the world. Here’s a sampling of them and their projects using Wikibase.
Libraries
Libraries frequently find Wikibase well suited to their requirements: it provides librarians with powerful collaboration tools with no need for prior in-depth knowledge of linked open data principles.
Research
Wikibase offers the greenfield conditions often needed by collections with large bodies of custom data in order to create an accurate representation of the unique information in their hands.
Collections
Perhaps no subset of Wikibase’s usership leaps as readily to one’s mind as Digital Humanities: huge amounts of raw data, multiple collaborators, every project’s data structure wildly different and ripe for federation.
Science
We see universities and research groups using Wikibase for its flexibility and ease in collaboration, and we see it helping them bring fascinating bodies of information to light.
Getting started
Take a look at how others use Wikibase, jump right into our Docker quick start and setup instructions or dive deep into our developer resources.
For Novices
First time with Wikibase? Then this is the place to find friendly, newbie focused documentation as well as links to the WBaaS install suite, a simple step-through process for setting up your own Wikibase.
For Developers
Already a skilled developer with experience in databases and/or Docker? Then this is for you. Find all the expert tips and documentation on how to install and manage your own Wikibase instance.
Additional Support
The world is full of Wikibase users of all skill types and from here you can find access to the community groups that house them and ways to reach out to them. You can also find WMDE recognised service providers, other projects using Wikibase that are keen to help and other useful resources for all skill levels.
Showcases
Who is using Wikibase?
Rhizome
Rhizome, a digital arts organization located in New York City and the internet, has been using an independent Wikibase deployment for managing and displaying its core collection of artworks, and digital preservation activities, since 2015. Rhizome helped organize Wikibase workshops in Europe and the US and is a co-founder of the Wikibase Stakeholder Group.
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB)
is testing the productive deployment Wikibase for the Integrated Authority File (GND). Wikibase simplifies collaboration with libraries and various communities. The GND is used across the cultural and research sector when cataloguing, facilitating cross-sector and collaborative working in the semantic web.
Enslaved.org
Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade is an intersection between Data Science and history and contains the historical data of the people who lived through the slave trade. Enslaved.org uses Wikibase to interconnect different projects and historical databases in a Linked Open Data platform.
FactGrid
Factgrid is run by the Gotha Research Centre Germany at the University of Erfurt. It started out as a project to track the activities of the Illuminati, but it is now a collaborative, multilingual digital humanities project that collects historical research data. It uses Wikibase and has over 150 active community members.
TIB Hannover
TIB Hannover (German National Library for Science and Technology) are developing a test use-case of Wikibase to structure data and contextualise 3D models of cultural heritage assets. The project involves connecting a Wikibase instance with the 3D-viewing and annotation software Kompakkt. The work is carried out within the scope of the NFDI4Culture consortium part of the Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) initiative which addresses research data on tangible and intangible cultural assets.
Black Bibliography Project
Black Bibliography project is a collaborative initiative with faculty, library professionals, and graduate students from Yale and Rutgers university at its core. This project aims to revive the tradition of descriptive bibliography for African American literary studies. The Black Bibliography project uses Wikibase to collect and store data as well as to link information about Black authors, their publications, and their publishing collaborators to explore new histories of African American literary production.
BERD@BW and BERD@NFDI
BERD@BW and BERD@NFDI focus on improving availability, exchange and analysis of Business, Economic and Related Data (BERD). They are running a Wikibase instance that collects data from different sources on companies in Germany.
Europeana Eagle
Europeana Eagle is a multilingual online collection of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multimedia collections, which deal with inscriptions from the Greek and Roman World.