Wikimedia Commons

Commons:OpenRefine/Train-the-trainer program 2023-24

< Commons:OpenRefine
Illustration remixing a vintage, 1950s-style illustration of a female teacher in front of a classroom with children. The teacher points to a 'blackboard' which actually shows an OpenRefine screenshot.

OpenRefine is a powerful free, open source tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data. It is widely used by data scientists, data journalists, cultural institutions, and other professionals working with data. OpenRefine is also a popular tool to batch upload and batch edit data on Wikidata.

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 media files on Commons.

OpenRefine-Wikimedia train-the-trainer course, 2023-24 edit

To build capacity for training Wikimedians, organizations, and partners of the Wikimedia movement to use OpenRefine’s Wikimedia functionalities, OpenRefine offers a ‘train-the-trainer’ course which runs from November 2023 until April 2024.

The application period for this course is now closed. Thanks to all who applied!

OpenRefine training is in high demand in the Wikimedia movement and, broadly, among potential OpenRefine users. This ‘train-the-trainer’ course is meant to fill this gap. The course mentors a group of Wikimedians and partners to become regular, international and movement-wide teachers and advisors for OpenRefine’s Wikimedia features—with a focus on Structured Data on Commons.

After successfully completing this course, trainees will be listed as a certified OpenRefine-Wikimedia trainer who will regularly teach OpenRefine in the Wikimedia movement, including to its partners. A public list of certified OpenRefine-Wikimedia trainers will be made available on meta.wikimedia.org.

Curriculum edit

The curriculum of this train-the-trainer course included the following elements. Mandatory elements are in bold.

  1. General OpenRefine onboarding
    1. Follow the OpenRefine Library Carpentry course
    2. Discuss Library Carpentry course and its applicability for Wikimedians
  2. Master Wikidata editing with OpenRefine
    1. Read / follow Wikidata tutorials (including all the tabs on the page)
    2. Course participant must have made at least two Wikidata batch edits with OpenRefine in the last year
    3. Course participant must have made at least two Wikidata batch uploads with OpenRefine in the last year
    4. Course participant must have used QuickStatements from OpenRefine for batch uploading at least once in the last year
  3. Master Wikimedia Commons editing and uploading with OpenRefine
    1. Install and use OpenRefine's Wikimedia Commons extension
    2. Read / follow Commons tutorials for editing and uploading to Wikimedia Commons
    3. Course participant must have made at least two batch Wikimedia Commons edits with OpenRefine, using both wikitext and structured data, in the last year
    4. Course participant must have made at least two batch Wikimedia Commons uploads with OpenRefine, using both wikitext and structured data, in the last year
  4. Specialized OpenRefine and Wikimedia Commons tasks
    1. Use OpenRefine in the cloud on Wikimedia PAWS
    2. Use at least one non-Wikimedia reconciliation service
    3. Figure out how to do a mid-difficulty GREL operation o
    4. Use minimal Wikitext
    5. Figure out SDC data model for a certain type of files
    6. Create and use a schema template
    7. Set up a workflow that can be repeated
    8. Use somevalue/novalue
    9. Install and use a challenging non-Wikimedia OpenRefine extension (e.g. csv-reconcile, reconcile-csv, the RDF extension)
    10. Undo a batch using EditGroups, on Wikidata and on Wikimedia Commons
    11. Do a Commons batch upload or edit starting from a web API
  5. Interaction with OpenRefine ecosystem; help other people use OpenRefine
    1. Create an issue on GitHub and/or respond to an issue
    2. Post and interact on OpenRefine's forum: ask a question
    3. Post and interact on OpenRefine's forum: help someone who has a question there
    4. Improve some OpenRefine documentation
    5. Help a Wikimedian using OpenRefine, on their talk page, via Telegram, or any other means
  6. Create and improve training and documentation materials
    1. Collaborate on shared materials for the group: slides, datasets, GREL recipes
    2. Improve the basic OpenRefine course(s) on learn.wiki
    3. Contribute to / improve the general OpenRefine Library Carpentry course
    4. Improve OpenRefine documentation on Wikimedia platforms
    5. Translate training and documentation materials on any platform (OpenRefine documentation, on Wikimedia projects...)
  7. Teach own OpenRefine-SDC training and perform related support tasks
    1. Prepare at least one OpenRefine-Wikimedia training
    2. Create / search for good training datasets and share them with the group of fellow Train the Trainer participants
    3. Give at least one OpenRefine-Wikimedia training
    4. Assist a fellow Train the Trainer participant in their training or preparation
    5. Participate in peer feedback on the training that has been given
    6. Help trainee(s) who have questions

Participants edit

The following people are participating in the course:

Frequently asked questions edit

I want to learn to use OpenRefine for Wikimedia editing at my own pace. Do you have any pointers for me?

OpenRefine beginners tutorial, including first steps on using OpenRefine for Wikidata, by Emma Carroll (2019)

There are many online resources to learn OpenRefine and its Wikimedia features. We recommend the following for beginners:

In late 2023 and early 2024, there will also be a new OpenRefine course on WikiLearn.

See also edit

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