Wikipedia contains a huge amount of semi-structured information but not organized in a way where it's computable. In 2012
Wikimedia launched Wikidata (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikidata) to support formalised computable knowledge.
This is a simple treatment - see the link above for in-depth description
Wikidata defines Items. An item is any object which can be precisely identified and given a permanent unique identifier. Thus Ocimum tenuiflorum has the unique ID Q960124. Every Wikidata item (over 50 million) has a Wikidata page, e.g.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q960124. Note that unlike Wikipedia pages , Wikidata pages are language-independent. The page is large; here's the start
Wikidata pages are generally structured as
- header (language, label, description, aliases)
- Properties
- Identifiers
- Non-EN Wikipedia pages
The header contains:
- Label (the main "name" for the Item) - language-dependent.
- description. Free text describing the Item. Very useful when adding mouseover to lists of items.
- other names/aliases
The description and alises are often not filled and you can help by updating them.
- This is based heavily on ideas of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web *
Wikidata items can have many property statements, relating Items (QIDs) and/or values. Typically these are of the form:
Q960124 P31 Q16521 (references)
or
Q960124 P225 "Ocimum tenuiflorum" (language)(references)
The Items are an uncontrolled list (e.g. no permission is required), but the Properties (ca 6000) are controlled.
The first statement is typical - read as "O. tenuiflorum is-an-instamce-of-a taxon". Statements are often referred to as triples:
subject predicate object`
so we have:
- subject: Ocimum tenuiflorum (Q960124)
- predicate
instanceof(P31) - object: taxon (Q16521).
You are NOT expected to memorise the Q and P numbers! The online Wikidata tools can look them up by name interactively.
Properties are generally of two types:
- "isA" - the suject is some sort-of the object
- "hasA" - the subject contains one of more objects
Wikidata has qualifiers which make the triple more precise:
- language (if the object is a String)
- reference/s to add the validity to the statement.
Synonyms are inescapable in plant science! Wikipedia collects synonyms and provides a single page. Thus searching Wikipedia for "Ocimum sanctum" redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocimum_tenuiflorum. However Wikidata has a separate page for many synonyms, so "Ocimum sanctum" https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24852786 has:
Now! Shouldn't this page say it is a synonym of O. tenuiflorum? Yes! and that highlights an important part od Wikidata - it relies on US to keep it up to date. Note that many of its IDs point to O. tenuiflorum pages.
Wikidata has collected a huge number of identifier systems; at least 25 for plants alone. This is incredibly powerful as it makes it one of single points of entry for plant sciences. Here are some examples - great place to link out beyond Wikimeia - worth browsing!
- ITIS https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=507863#null (taxonomy)
- Encyclopedia of Life (https://eol.org/pages/480298) which has 12 attributes including habitat and an interactive distribution map.
- GBIF https://www.gbif.org/species/2927100 with a world map and many synonyms
- EPPO https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/OCISA many non-English names
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/181060-Ocimum-tenuiflorum Volunteer science observations!
- Kew World Checklist: http://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=137105 lists of countries
- Pollen database https://www.paldat.org/pub/Ocimum_tenuiflorum/300111
- Plants for a Future https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Ocimum+tenuiflorum
- Invasive species https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/110287 large list of distribution,tolerance, etc.
- FloraBase (Western Australia): https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/search/current/13969 "O. tenuiflorum" is not current!
This is the best place to find non-English Wikipedias
