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design-decisions · vrandecic2014wikidata

Revision 897bf479-2596-4d17-a921-1f62fad4e082 · 8/26/2026, 9:15:32 PM UTC
Claim ID
design-decisions
Assertion
Vrandečić and Krötzsch describe seven design decisions characterising Wikidata: open editing by any user; community control over both the data and its schema; plurality, allowing conflicting data to coexist rather than assuming global agreement on the true value; secondary data, recording facts as published by identified primary sources rather than as absolute truths; multilingual data, with a single site rather than per-language editions; easy access through exports in formats including JSON and RDF under terms permitting the widest possible reuse; and continuous incremental evolution.
Quote
Plurality. It would be naive to expect global agreement on the "true" data, since many facts are disputed or simply uncertain. Wikidata allows conflicting data to coexist and provides mechanisms to organize this plurality. Secondary data. Wikidata gathers facts published in primary sources, together with references to these sources; for example, there is no "true population of Rome" but rather a "population of Rome as published by the city of Rome in 2011."
Quote language
en
Locator
section: Introduction – essential design decisions
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