25/09/2025
Launched in 2012, Wikidata is a free, multilingual database that turns data points into structured data – dates, places, relationships, coordinates – making them both human-readable and machine-readable. Instead of long paragraphs, Wikidata stores knowledge as statements, each one verifiable and reusable across projects.
Wikidata quietly powers Wikipedia’s infoboxes, supports academic research, fuels voice assistants, and connects datasets across languages and disciplines.
With more than a billion data points contributed by volunteers worldwide, it has become one of the most significant repositories of open knowledge on the planet.
In his article "How Wikidata Is Coding for Humanity", journalist Stephen Harrison spoke with Lydia Pintscher of Wikimedia Deutschland, who explained: "Wikidata is an open project where people contribute similar to Wikipedia, but instead of text … people are collecting data such as the number of inhabitants of a country, or the current head of government". Every fact added strengthens the foundation for both human understanding and technological innovation.
Harrison reflects that he always knew Wikidata was "the data-driven dimension of Wikipedia", but its practical impact often seemed abstract until these conversations revealed how deeply it underpins knowledge infrastructure.
Check out the interview ➡️ https://www.stephenharrison.com/p/how-wikidata-is-coding-for-humanity
