User:Minh Nguyen/Wikidata discussions

A reading list of discussions about wikidata=* and *:wikidata=* in the OpenStreetMap community over the years. This is by no means comprehensive, just a starting point for research.

Each of the mailing list links below is the start of a thread. In cases where the thread was cross-posted to multiple lists or spilled over to the next month, additional links are provided for convenience.

Wikidata key

Many of these discussions also touched on Wikidata subkeys by extension.

• Mihelić, Janko (February 26, 2013). “Wikidata tag”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2013-February/013077.html.  [1]
• ueliw0 (February 21, 2014). “wikidata instead of wikipedia”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2014-February/016547.html. 
• Talk:Proposed features/Wikidata
• Mabbett, Andy (April 1, 2014). “Feature Proposal - RFC - Wikidata”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2014-April/017144.html. 
• Betts, Edward (August 27, 2014). “Adding Wikidata tags to 70k items automatically”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2014-August/070617.html.  [2][3][4][5][6]
• Kolossos (December 28, 2014). “OSM-Tagging in Wikidata”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2014-December/071653.html. 
• Ramm, Frederik (May 27, 2015). “Can wikidata links help fight name inflation?”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2015-May/072982.html. 
• Mabbett, Andy (June 7, 2015). “Wikidata tagging”. openstreetmap/iD. GitHub. https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/2680. 
• Betts, Edward (January 17, 2016). “Review plan for adding 1, 164 wikidata tags in the West Midlands”. Imports mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2016-January/004236.html. 
• Betts, Edward (March 10, 2016). “OSM with Wikidata: now covers UK and Ireland”. Imports mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2016-March/004342.html. 
• d1g (June 21, 2016). “:wikidata и :wikipedia теги” (in Russian). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikidata-wikipedia/76143. 
• Saikia, Abhishek (October 26, 2016). “Joining Wikidata IDs to OSM”. mapbox/mapping. GitHub. https://github.com/mapbox/mapping/issues/242. 
• aseerel4c26 (November 17, 2016). “wikidata tag added to thousands of place nodes. Automated mass edit?”. OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikidata-tag-added-to-thousands-of-place-nodes-automated-mass-edit/77544. 
• Ganesh, Arun (November 8, 2016). “Scaling multilingual name tags with Wikidata”. PlaneMad's Diary. https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/PlaneMad/diary/39846. 
• Ganesh, Arun (November 21, 2016). “Time to cleanup the wikipedia:xx tags?”. PlaneMad's Diary. https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/PlaneMad/diary/39929. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (November 25, 2016). “Semi-auto converting Wikipedia -> Wikidata tags”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-November/077154.html. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (January 3, 2017). “Wikipedia/Wikidata admins cleanup”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-January/077297.html. 
• Betts, Edward (June 7, 2017). “Tool for users to add wikidata tags”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-June/078151.html. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (September 19, 2017). “Adding wikidata tags to the remaining objects with only wikipedia tag”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-September/078720.html.  [7]
• Nguyễn, Minh (October 2, 2017). “Display Wikidata label in Wikipedia field”. openstreetmap/iD. GitHub. https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/4382. 
• Ramm, Frederik (October 3, 2017). “Could we just pause any wikidata edits for a month or two?”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-October/079069.html. 
• AB-inf-x-chg-AB (October 5, 2017). “wikipedia- (und wikidata)-Verweise in OSM-Datenbank behalten?” (in German). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikipedia-und-wikidata-verweise-in-osm-datenbank-behalten/80986. 
• Krauss, Peter (August 6, 2018). “Part/whole confusion with Wikidata tag, and the need for enveloping parts into a whole”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2018-August/038249.html. 
• dieterdreist (May 28, 2019). “iD kann jetzt halb-automatisch brand und wikidata:brand tags setzen”. OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/id-kann-jetzt-halb-automatisch-brand-und-wikidata-brand-tags-setzen/87047. 
• pangoSE (August 9, 2020). “Roadmap for deprecation of name tags in OSM”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-August/085281.html. 
• Eisenberg, Joseph (October 8, 2020). “OSM ↔ Wikidata - new tool encouraging automated / mechanical addition of wikidata tags”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-October/085554.html. 
• ChillyDLesby (October 21, 2020). “Wikidata- plus Wikipedia-Tag?” (in German). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikidata-plus-wikipedia-tag/91419. 
• multichill (February 28, 2022). “Wikidata links toevoegen” (in Dutch). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikidata-links-toevoegen/95262. 
• hungerburg (June 17, 2022). “Wrong name taken from external source wikidata for German place names”. ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana. https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana/issues/428. 
• Konieczny, Mateusz (October 26, 2022). “Message in #general”. OSMUS Slack. https://osmus.slack.com/archives/C029HV951/p1666803031647969. 
• pangoSE (January 30, 2023). “Is there support for removing all name tags on objects with a Wikidata QID present?”. OpenStreetMap Community Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/is-there-support-for-removing-all-name-tags-on-objects-with-a-wikidata-qid-present/8374. 
• Map_HeRo (January 30, 2023). “Replace certain OSM tags by Wikidata/Wikimedia links”. OpenStreetMap Community Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/replace-certain-osm-tags-by-wikidata-wikimedia-links/8400. 

Wikidata subkeys

• Mihelić, Janko (February 26, 2013). “Wikidata tag”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2013-February/013077.html.  [8]
• Mabbett, Andy (April 1, 2014). “Feature Proposal - RFC - Wikidata”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2014-April/017144.html. 
• Talk:Proposed features/Wikidata
• Polyglot (July 31, 2015). “name:etymology:wikidata”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2015-July/073625.html. 
• Maturi0n (January 22, 2016). “Verlinkungen zu Wikipedia und Wikidata” (in German). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/verlinkungen-zu-wikipedia-und-wikidata/74767. 
• Jojo4u (January 30, 2017). “Massiver weltweiter Edit "species : name normalization"” (in German). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/massiver-weltweiter-edit-species-name-normalization/78252. 
• nicolasmaia (February 8, 2017). “Add name, brand, and brand:wikidata=* for common franchises”. osmlab/name-suggestion-index. GitHub. https://github.com/osmlab/name-suggestion-index/issues/38. 
• Ramm, Frederik (September 27, 2017). “Wikidata-Links” (in German). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wikidata-links/80892. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (October 9, 2017). “OSM wikidata links to Humans”. OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/osm-wikidata-links-to-humans/81024. 
• Polyglot (November 28, 2017). “part_of:wikidata key”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2017-November/034207.html. 
• Rasmussen, Leif (November 12, 2018). “Autofill "operator:wikidata" using the Operator field”. openstreetmap/iD. GitHub. https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/5484. 
• Mabbett, Andy (April 17, 2019). “Bank of India (and other) Wikidata tags”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2019-April/082427.html. 
• bikeoid (June 25, 2019). “Handle tag to disallow automatic brand tagging”. openstreetmap/iD. GitHub. https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/6577. 
• Mihelić, Janko (September 6, 2019). “"part:wikidata=*" tag proposal for multiple elements connected to the same wikidata id”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2019-September/047936.html. 
• Eisenberg, Joseph (September 14, 2019). “"not:brand" to mark a shop that isn't part of a chain?”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2019-September/048189.html. 
• Mabbett, Andy (March 3, 2020). “The benefits of cross-linking OSM and Wikidata”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-March/084260.html. 
• smootheFiets (April 21, 2021). “Brievenbussen: operator:wikidata + operator:wikipedia?” (in Dutch). OpenStreetMap Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/brievenbussen-operator-wikidata-operator-wikipedia/92964. 
• Mabbett, Andy (July 7, 2022). “Potential bot tasks relating to Wikidata errors”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2022-July/087631.html. 
• F., Dave (October 8, 2022). “not:brand:wikidata?”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2022-October/065830.html. 
• Sperlongano, Brian (January 6, 2024). “Proposed bulk removal of brand:wikipedia tag from United States POIs”. OpenStreetMap Community Forum. https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/proposed-bulk-removal-of-brand-wikipedia-tag-from-united-states-pois/107776. 

Sophox

Sophox is just one consumer of Wikidata tags, but these discussions give a sense of the more positive sentiment around Wikidata when it comes to practical applications of the data.

• Astrakhan, Yuri (May 12, 2017). “new Wikidata+OSM data in one RDF database”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-May/078029.html. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (June 7, 2017). “OSM+Wikidata intro video”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-June/078141.html.  [9]
• Astrakhan, Yuri (August 13, 2017). “OSM Wikidata SPARQL service updated”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-August/078431.html. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (September 16, 2017). “Name challenge - what to call the new OSM+Wikidata service?”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2017-September/078679.html. 

Data items

Data items are a structured representation of the information on a tag description page. They are completely unrelated to the practice of tagging individual features with Wikidata tags, but these discussions often digressed in that direction.

• Talk:Wiki/Archive 4#Wikibase
• Talk:Data items
• Astrakhan, Yuri (September 18, 2018). “OSM Wikibase is now live”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2018-September/081402.html. 
• Astrakhan, Yuri (September 18, 2018). “Fwd: OSM Wikibase is now live”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2018-September/039122.html. 
• Talk:Wiki/Archive 5#New Wikibase-based KeyDescription and ValueDescription templates
• Astrakhan, Yuri (September 25, 2018). “Use Wikibase data instead of parsing wiki text”. taginfo/taginfo. GitHub. https://github.com/taginfo/taginfo/issues/248. 
• Jordans, Tobias (May 18, 2019). “Add link to Wikibase / Data item”. taginfo/taginfo. GitHub. https://github.com/taginfo/taginfo/issues/263. 
• Eisenberg, Joseph (June 9, 2019). “Wikibase items instead of usual templates for wiki pages?”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2019-June/082654.html. 
• Lacombe, François (November 22, 2019). “Wiki templates and DataItems”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2019-November/083583.html. 
• Talk:Wiki#Transition to use data items when this can be done without loosing information
• Konieczny, Mateusz (January 15, 2020). “Deleting template parameters copied to data items”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-January/083871.html. 
• Konieczny, Mateusz (January 15, 2020). “Deleting template parameters copied to data items”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2020-January/050354.html. 
• Eisenberg, Joseph (February 18, 2020). “Creation of "Data Items" by bot for undocumented tags”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-February/084100.html. 
• Talk:Wiki/Archive 9#Enhanced not-found messages
• User:Angoca/Propuesta Páginas Español
• Slater, Grant (October 30, 2022). “Remove Wikibase extension from all OSM wikis”. openstreetmap/operations. GitHub. https://github.com/openstreetmap/operations/issues/764. 
• Rocha, Emerson (November 12, 2022). “Dismistifying Wikidata and standards compliant semantic approach on tags on OpenStreetMap to make tooling smarter on medium to long term”. fititnt's Diary. https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/fititnt/diary/400329. Retrieved November 13, 2022. 

Wikidata link in wiki infoboxes

This link connected a tag to a concept in Wikidata. It was completely unrelated to the practice of tagging individual features with Wikidata tags, but these discussions often digressed in that direction.

• Template talk:Description/Archive 1#Wikidata
• Eisenberg, Joseph (May 3, 2020). “Remove Wikidata parameter from Infobox on wiki (ValueDescription, KeyDescription boxes)”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2020-May/084637.html. 
• Konieczny, Mateusz (January 19, 2021). “RFC: remove alphanumeric code visible in infoboxes at OSM Wiki linking to Wikidata”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2021-January/058724.html. 
• Talk:Proposed features/remove link to Wikidata from infoboxes
• Konieczny, Mateusz (April 1, 2022). “RFC: remove alphanumeric code visible in infoboxes at OSM Wiki linking to Wikidata”. Tagging mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2022-April/064233.html. 
• Talk:Wiki#Remove wikidata parameters from infoboxes
• Marc_marc (September 30, 2022). “remove link to Wikidata from infoboxes is a valid arg to remove it from wiki page and data items ?”. OSM-talk mailing list. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2022-September/087798.html.