Wikidata:WikiProject Civic Tech

WikiProject Civic Tech is a Wikidata community project to support anyone in developing datasets about civic resources in their city, and also to generally discuss best practices for Wikidata collaboration in civic tech.

Activities

model the metadata for civic tech and related concepts
query civic tech data subsets
share your project and ask questions

Frequently asked questions

What is civic tech?

Civic tech is any digital resource which improves interactions between people and their civic institutions, such as government and shared public amenities.

What is Wikidata?

Wikidata is the structured data project which is a complement to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.

What is a WikiProject?

A WikiProject is a place for Wikimedia community collaboration. See more information at Wikidata:WikiProjects.

What does WikiProject Civic Tech do?

While this is a good place to discuss civic technology itself, most people doing civic tech projects would benefit most from a referral to another specialized WikiProject. For example, go to Wikidata:WikiProject Govdirectory when trying to build data about government agencies, WikiProject Museums for museums, or WikiProject Lighthouses if you are cataloging your local lighthouses.

There are certain civic datasets which are necessary for local people to be informed citizens, and this project is a place for coordinating the development of city datasets with a focus on civic benefit.

What confidential, personal, or private data is here?

None! Wikidata accepts free and open public data.

Why bring civic data to Wikidata? Why not leave it in the original expert repositories?

Data which governments or expert organizations designate as public may still be challenging to access, interpret, correct, or share. By moving content into Wikidata, editors can collaborate to examine, remix, and reuse it.

How can I participate in this project if I am new to Wikidata?

Yes. If you have a civic tech project and want to explore Wikidata editing to support it, then post on this project's talk page. For general issues with Wikidata, ask anything at Wikidata:Project chat. Joining conversation at that main project chat is a great orientation for newcomers.

What is the easiest way for me get started?

With this WikiProject or with Wikidata in general, standard beginner advice includes learning to be a good Wikidata reader, making Wikidata edits as soon as possible, and learning how to ask questions. To read data from this project consider running and exploring queries. For first edits, consider trying to edit data from an organization or topic with which you are familiar. To ask a question post something to any of the Wikidata chat forums.