Kept on Wikipedia:FactGrid
| Logo of FactGrid, the Cyanometer of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure | |
Screenshot | |
Type of site | |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multiple languages |
| Owner | Gotha Research Centre of The University of Erfurt |
| Editor | FactGrid community |
| Website | https://database.factgrid.de/ |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required for data input |
| Launched | 11 January 2018 |
FactGrid, a database for historians is a Wikibase instance that provides projects database services with the aim to interconnect research and to give data a long-term existence on a community-driven platform with public support.
The platform was initiated by Olaf Simons in 2017/2018 in a cooperation between the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt and Wikimedia Germany. It is currently supported by around 400 users in about 50 projects ranging from Assyriology to Contemporary History. The number of 750,000 database items was passed on 19 February 2024. All services are free and financed by the NFDI4Memory consortium of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).
Technical basis
FactGrid uses Wikidata's Wikibase software without major modifications of the user interface. The instance is set up without a docker image. The MediaWiki platform includes a WordPress blog as well as the FactGrid Viewer developed by Bruno Belhoste. This tool presents database information in structured compilations in direct communication with the database.[1] The FactGrid Viewer offers the special service of fusing transcript pages from MediaWiki text pages into the information stored on the Wikibase items.[2]
Development
The main incentive to create FactGrid as a sister platform to Wikidata was the idea of a platform that will focus on “original research” and that will work without further “notability criteria” - solely organized by the scientific community. Wikimedia projects would be able to cite FactGrid data as “externally published” together with information about the projects and the project teams that produced the data. The greater freedom granted to users on FactGrid is balanced by the greater transparency under which users are acting on the platform: The use of registered real name accounts is mandatory and all projects are requested to state their research interests with data they are generating on the platform.[3]
FactGrid data are CC0 licensed and open to any download, while they come with research metadata which can be easily quoted in external presentations. The platform is thus an interesting tool to move fresh data into public reception. The resource's size growth was approximately 100,000 database objects annually between 2018 and 2023. The current growth rate appears to be growing to 200,000 database objects per year with the tailwind of the ongoing NFDI process in Germany. The database fully supports the four languages of the bigger user groups: German, French, Spanish, and English.
Applications
- FactGrid Wikibase Datenbase: https://database.factgrid.de/wiki/Main_Page
- FactGrid Viewer: https://database.factgrid.de/viewer/
- Project blog: https://blog.factgrid.de/
- Project space: https://database.factgrid.de/wiki/FactGrid:Projects
- Sample queries: https://database.factgrid.de/wiki/FactGrid:Sample_queries
Further reading
- Charles B. Faulhaber/ Óscar Perea Rodríguez, PhiloBiblon as a Digital Tool for Historians of Medieval Iberia, UC Berkeley. http://dx.doi.org/10.21001/itma.2023.16.15 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9t279727
- Olaf Simons: Keine Selbstverständlichkeit: Citizen Science auf der FactGrid Wikibase-Plattform, in: René Smolarski/ Hendrikje Carius/ Martin Prell, Citizen Science in den Geschichtswissenschaften (Göttingen, 2023), S. 241–264. Google books
- Olaf Simons: Stadtgeschichte im digitalen Zeitalter – Der FactGrid-Gotha-Datens(ch)atz, in: Moderne Stadtgeschichte(n) und ihre Perspektiven, hrsg. von Alexander Krünes (Leipzig. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2023), S. 103–120.
- Patricia García Sánchez-Migallón: FactGrid, una base de datos para datos históricos, y su relación con Philobiblon, in Janus: Estudios sobre el Siglo de Oro, 5. Juni 2023. https://www.janusdigital.es/articulo.htm?id=244
This article "FactGrid" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:FactGrid. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ See Bruno Belhoste "Browsing FactGrid with the FactGrid Viewer" https://blog.factgrid.de/archives/2684.
- ↑ See for example, the compile page of FactGrid item Q6641.
- ↑ See the FactGrid Terms of Service.
