Commons:OpenRefine/Metrics/Uptake of Wikimedia Commons features in OpenRefine, June 2024

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This document collects statistics over nearly 1 year, collected on the occasion of the 2023-24 training grant to OpenRefine.

• Start point of data collection: July 2023
• Midpoint in January 2024
• Several other data points in between
• End point at end of grant (June 2024)

It will be interesting to repeat the statistics one year after that (i.e. June 2025) to see if the training and documentation efforts in 2023-24 have resulted in broader uptake.

The numbers are collected in this Google spreadsheet: 2023-24 Metrics / uptake of Commons features in OpenRefine

Who uploads to Wikimedia Commons with OpenRefine?

Number of uploaders

Date when data was collected	Number of uploaders	Number of uploaded files	Files per uploader
Jul 3, 2023	94	63657	677.2021277
Aug 19, 2023	105	74634	710.8
Sep 8, 2023	107	85545	799.4859813
Oct 4, 2023	113	95191	842.3982301
Oct 29, 2023	123	89112	724.4878049
Nov 28, 2023	128	100043	781.5859375
Jan 1, 2024	135	193554	1433.733333
Jan 29, 2024	139	208248	1498.18705
Apr 19, 2024	171	235012	1374.339181
May 28, 2024	178	240743	1352.488764
Jun 13, 2024	181	241679	1335.243094

Who uses OpenRefine for uploading to Commons - per category of user: GLAM staff, Wikimedia affiliate staff, Wikimedian

Most people who use OpenRefine to upload files to Wikimedia Commons do so in their capacity of staff member at a cultural institution, or on behalf of a cultural institution or partner (Wikimedia affiliate staff usually upload to Commons for this reason). After one year, "general Wikimedians" (non-institutional users) are stable around 12%.

The relative growth of Wikimedia affiliate staff users can be linked to one (exceptionally) large batch upload, supported by Wikimedia Israel, on behalf of the National Library of Israel.

• 
  July 2023: a majority of GLAM staff, followed by Wikimedia affiliate staff (who usually support GLAMs).
• 
  January 2024: Growth of Wikimedia affiliate staff. This growth can mostly be attributed to one large batch upload on behalf of the National Library of Israel.
• 
  June 2024: relative increase of GLAM staff again. The number of uploads by "general Wikimedians" stays constant.

Who uses OpenRefine for uploading to Commons - by region

Where known, uploaders have been categorized per region (using the classification of Wikimedia regions). In the beginning, the majority of uploaders came from Northern and Western Europe. Following the large batch upload on behalf of the National Library of Israel (mentioned above), the Middle East and North Africa region has become prominent too. A significant number of uploaders hail from Latin America, most notably Brazil.

• 
  July 2023:
• 
  January 2024:
• 
  June 2024:

Who uses OpenRefine for uploading to Commons - uploaders and uploads over time

There’s a steady growth in the number of uploaders, in a more or less straight line. The trend not yet climbing as a result of the 2023-24 training grant. The number of uploaded files and files per uploader is heavily influenced by the one large upload mentioned above.

• 
  Number of uploaders over time.
• 
  Total number of uploaded files over time. At some point, there is a small decrease which is due to file deletions.
• 
  Average number of files per uploader

Usage of uploaded files

Which percentage of files uploaded with OpenRefine is used in Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikisource and others)? In 2023 this percentage was relatively high (above 30%), after the large upload on behalf of the National Library of Israel the percentage became lower. Over 20% usage of files is still quite decent.

OpenRefine compared to other upload tools over time

How often is OpenRefine used for uploading to Wikimedia Commons, compared to other batch upload software? These numbers are available over time and have been compared across several pieces of software: the GLAMwiki Toolset (which became inactive in 2023), Pattypan, VicuñaUploader, Flickypedia and Sunflower (the last one is a new piece of software developed for MacOS). Take into account that this does not include all batch upload software, it does not include the standard UploadWizard, and it does not include custom bots.

When comparing to the total number of uploads to Commons per months, the tracked pieces of software combined account for 2 to 11% of new pages on Wikimedia Commons.

Downloads of OpenRefine’s Commons extension

Downloads of OpenRefine's Wikimedia Commons extension are gradually increasing over time, but numbers of downloads are not yet significantly growing as a result of the 2023-24 training grant.

Number of users and batches

In June 2024, around 150 Wikimedia Commons users have used OpenRefine for batch edits there. On Wikidata, OpenRefine had over 1,000 users at that time.

• 
  OpenRefine batches on Wikimedia Commons
• 
  OpenRefine batches on Wikidata

Uptake of the OpenRefine-Wikimedia Commons WikiLearn course

In April 2024, a self-paced online course for OpenRefine on Wikimedia Commons was launched on the learning platform WikiLearn. Enrolment numbers are as follows around end June 2024:

Enrolment / users who finished at least one module / users who finished the course (of whom beta testers):

• English: 226 / 44 / 14 (5)
• French: 39 / 10 / 0
• Spanish: 33 / 3 / 1
• Italian: 14 / 1 / 0

A similar course for OpenRefine with Wikidata is underway at the time of compiling this page.