Commons:Structured data/Archive/2014/Issues without structured data

This page is presently inactive and retained primarily for historical interest.

This page about Structured Data on Commons dates back to 2014 and is outdated. For up-to-date information, check the current info pages about Structured Commons. You can leave comments on the talk page there.

This page is a work in progress page, not an article or policy, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable.
Please offer suggestions on the talk page.

Wikimedia Commons has issues and limitations that could potentially be helped by providing structured data with Wikibase. This list of issues and limitations is not necessarily comprehensive and is in no particular order of rank; feel free to suggest additions that might benefit from structured data.

InternationalisatioN and LocalisatioN[edit]

InternationalisatioN is changing the structure to make LocalisatioN easier.
LocalisatioN is translation of the information into all the languages.

Without structured data each file description must be translated independently.
Even where descriptions are similar it is difficult to reuse the translations.
Even where translations exist it is not practical to show the correct language to each reader and hide other languages.

Upload[edit]

English is required - contributing media is difficult to impossible if you do not speak English
Free fields in the upload forms leads to inconsistent data
Template parameters are not localized, making data inaccessible to non-English speakers
Current upload workflows provide limitless overlap of data

Edit[edit]

Editing data is a different user experience than upload, with an inconsistency in what data is editable
The file page has a confusing mental model - it is not clear what content is editable (i.e. wikitext and templates)
English is required for editing parameters and template content
Overlapping/redundant templates - data is often repeated and other parameters get dropped and it is not clear where/when, causing a maintenance burden
Not clear what, if any, template parameters are standard or not
No validation of data
Difficult to track derivative works when editing shared data

Search[edit]

It is currently impossible to filter or sort search results. In theory, with structured data this could be done (by author/license/resolution/media type/date/geolocation etc...)
Cannot search based on assessment criteria to find the best example of media being searched for
English-centric search results - For example, compare a search for the English word apple against the German word Apfel
Search does not disambiguate concepts, such as searching for "orange" does not differentiate between orange the fruit and orange the color
Search does not return related files based on concepts
No meta data in search results

View[edit]

Inconsistency in viewing...well, everything about data from file to file. This is impractical for human and machines alike.
Mobile experience in the File: namespace is inconsistent, lack of uniformity or just plain broken views
Design is hard-coded into templates and file pages, limiting data to what is hard-coded
No clear distinction between in-file data and other data in the description
As with editing, linking to derivative works for viewing is sub-optimal
Any alternatives you see to English when viewing a file page are achieved by hacks (like "init.")
No clear minimum requirements for data about a file
No clear access to related files aside from categorization

Re-use[edit]

Ambiguity in license requirements for multiple licenses
Ambiguity in attribution requirements for authors
Unclear usage restrictions
No clear way to indicate other used sources in reuse mix
Sub-optimal APIs
English is required for a substantial part of reading about re-use