{"id":1368,"date":"2023-07-16T00:30:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T23:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exponentialdecay.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:40:17","slug":"talk-using-a-custom-wikibase-with-siegfried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exponentialdecay.co.uk\/blog\/talk-using-a-custom-wikibase-with-siegfried\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a custom Wikibase with Siegfried"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March I was invited by the LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group<\/a> to talk about my experiences using Wikibase with Siegfried, the file format identification tool. I don’t think I’ve talked about that work on here before but you can find links to my iPRES talk on my ORCID page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at the abstract and the content of the talk below.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The abstract for Using a custom Wikibase with Siegfried<\/em> was as follows:<\/p>\n

In 2020 Ross Spencer worked alongside the team at Yale University Library (Dr Kat Thornton, Euan Cochrane) and Siegfried Developer Richard Lehane to develop an integration for the popular file format identification tool, and Wikidata. The work has also been expanded with a little careful configuration to enable the integration to work with custom Wikibases as well. In this LD4 Wikibase working hour Ross will describe the Siegfried\/Wikidata\/Wikibase integration in more detail; engagement between the digital preservation and wikidata community; and the benefits he sees in this work for the discipline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wikibase<\/a> is a plugin component to the Wikimedia Software platform – the platform that Wikipedia uses. Wikidata is the most famous Wikibase implementation but it is also possible for the casual user to run one for themselves.<\/p>\n

Okay, previously casual would mean with a bit of development and software deployment experience, but soon, more users should have access via Wikibase Cloud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While I was running three instances of Wikibase this time last year (each for different purposes), my major experience so far came from developing an integration between the file format identification tool Siegfried<\/a> and Wikidata.<\/p>\n

The work is currently idle, though there is lots more work to be done, and you can get a view of that work on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I used the opportunity at the LD4 Wikidata event to describe the work and the remaining gaps, and effort needed by the digital preservation community to make more of what we developed connecting file format identification to Wikidata.<\/p>\n