Thursday, October 12, 2017

#Wikisource - the proof of the pudding

A user story for Wikisource could be: As Wikisourcerers we transcribe and format books so that our public may read these books electronically.

The proof of the pudding is therefore in the people who actually read the finished books.  To future proof the effort of the Wikisourcerers, it is vital to know all the books that are ready for reading. It is vital to know this for books in any and all languages supported.

There are two issues:
  • The status of the books is not sufficiently maintained in all the Wikisources
  • There is no tool that advertises finished books
To come to a solution, existing information could be maintained in Wikidata for all Wikisources in a similar way as done for badges. With the information in Wikidata a queries can be formulated that shows the books in whatever language, by whatever author.

Currently there are Wikisources that do not register this information at all. This does not prevent us from making the necessary steps towards a queriable solution. After all adding missing badges at a later date only adds to the size of the pudding, not to the proof of the pudding.
Thanks,
     GerardM

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