Wikimedia-OpenRefine training and sustainability project

Since 2022, with support from a Wikimedia grant, it is possible to use OpenRefine to batch edit and upload files on Wikimedia Commons, with a focus on adding multilingual, linked, structured data to the files on Commons using the Commons Extension for OpenRefine.

This new Wikimedia Commons functionality in OpenRefine is especially useful for cultural institutions who want to upload files to Commons with linked, structured data. OpenRefine offers powerful import functionalities from various data formats (CSV, TSV, Excel sheets, XML…) and APIs (for those cultural institutions which use these). It also allows revisiting existing Wikimedia Commons files, improving their metadata, and adding multilingual structured data to them. Wikimedians in general can also use OpenRefine to batch upload their own or externally-hosted files to Wikimedia Commons.

For 2023-24, as part of its support for Wikimedia Commons, the Wikimedia Foundation is funding OpenRefine for bug fixes to its Commons features, for a train-the-trainer program, documentation, and a WikiLearn course. The Wikimedia-OpenRefine training and sustainability grant is for a duration of 12 months, it started on July, 1st 2023 and is led by Sandra Fauconnier with a total budget of USD 50,000.

Updates regarding the grant progress will be posted on the project’s info page on Wikimedia Commons.