{"id":262,"date":"2025-05-22T16:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.de\/2024\/?page_id=262"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:06:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:06:35","slug":"software","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.de\/2024\/en\/themes\/software\/","title":{"rendered":"Bit by Bit to Free Knowledge \u2013 how Wikimedia Deutschland is helping to shape the digital future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Free Knowledge needs free software \u2013 because only if the tools used to collect, structure and share knowledge are openly accessible to everyone, everyone can really participate. Wikimedia Deutschland is therefore not only committed to open content, but also develops the technical foundations that make knowledge available worldwide. Whether through open interfaces, transparent development or collaborative cooperation, the software department at Wikimedia Deutschland has continued to work at full speed in 2024 to strengthen Free Knowledge as a common good.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In a digital world where large tech companies are increasingly taking control of data and algorithms, a free and reliable knowledge infrastructure is becoming ever more important. By developing Wikidata further, we want to ensure that structured and verified data is available to everyone \u2013 independent of systems owned by individual companies. High-quality data should therefore be directly available and accessible to open source development teams, researchers and non-profit projects without having to rely on platforms with non-transparent algorithms. Our goal is to strengthen digital self-determination, counteract disinformation and create an open knowledge ecosystem that belongs to everyone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n \n It’s a match! AI meets Wikidata <\/span>\n <\/h2>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Wikidata<\/a> is one of the largest open knowledge sources in the world: high-quality, verified and freely accessible data on millions of terms and concepts is available \u2013 continuously updated by a global community of over 13,000 dedicated volunteers. This huge open knowledge graph is already used in numerous projects and records billions of data queries every month \u2013 and now Wikidata\u2019s potential is being expanded even further.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In 2024, we launched a new project<\/a> together with DataStax, a leading provider of AI database management, and Jina AI, a Berlin-based expert in intelligent search technologies. The goal is to make it easier for open source developers to access Wikidata data and thereby promote innovative, non-profit solutions in the department of AI applications. This is because many volunteers in the open source scene do not have the financial or technical resources to access large data sets for their projects \u2013 and this is exactly where the new project comes in.<\/p>\n

The key is the so-called technology for vector embedding: DataStax stores the structured Wikidata data in a special AI-assisted database that enables a semantic search. While traditional structured data requires exact queries, semantic search enables interaction with the data in natural language \u2013 the way humans speak and write. This type of processing is crucial as generative AI models are trained on natural language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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More than a database: the Wikidata knowledge graph<\/p>\n\n

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Wikidata<\/a> is more than just an ordinary database. While traditional databases often store information in isolation, Wikidata relates data. This means that it not only stores individual facts such as “Berlin \u2013 population \u2013 3,782,202, but also links such as “Germany \u2013 capital \u2013Berlin”. You can think of it as a huge, networked knowledge map where everything is interconnected. This is precisely why Wikidata is a knowledge graph \u2013 not a simple collection of data, but an intelligent network of knowledge.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n

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