Open Tool Registries! Resolving the Directory Paradox with Wikidata
Abstract
The talk introduces the conceptual framework for open and community-curated tool registries, posing that such registries provide fundamental value to any field of research by acting as curated knowledge bases about a community’s past and current methodological practices as well as authority files for individual tools. The modular framework of a basic data model, SPARQL queries, bash scripts, and a prototypical web interface builds upon the well-established and open infrastructures of Wikimedia, GitLab, and Zenodo for creating, maintaining, sharing, curating, and archiving linked open data. We demonstrate the feasibility of this framework for scholarly applications by introducing our concrete implementation of a tool registry for digital humanities rooted in *minimal computing* and care for the commons.
Full text
Till Grallert Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften NFDI4Memory NFDItalk 2025-10-06 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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Tools for Digital Humanities Outgoing Wikidata Query Service (https://query.wikidata.org/#%23title%3A%20Tools%20for%20Digital% schema%23%3E%0APREFIX%20schema%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fschema.org%2F%3E%0 achievements open data set (CC0) of 1600+ software tools linked open data on Wikidata versioned publications on Zenodo data model(s) for classification with TaDiRAH and collection building front end module constraints a small team: 2 reseachers, 2 RSE, 2 student assistants (all part time, fixed-term contracts) project funding claims we (mostly) solved the Directory Paradox the approach can be easily adapted to other use cases 3 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
1. Who are we? A quick intro to NFDI4Memory and Task Area Data Culture 2. Why tool registries and what is the Directory Paradox? 3. Our proposal 4. Addressing the Directory Paradox through minimal computing 1. Wikidata 2. Data models 3. Data 4. Interfaces 5. Conclusion 4 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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Figure 2: The eleven co-applicant institutions of 4Memory 6 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Figure 3: The 80+ participant institutions 7 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Figure 4: 4Memory’s six task areas 8 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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Figure 9: Source: https://xkcd.com/927 17 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Figure 10: Website of the GO::DH working group on minimal computing Figure 11: “ ”Endings Principles for Digital Longevity Figure 12: Digital Humanities Climate Coalition (DHCC) Toolkit 18 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Figure 13: Website of the GO::DH working group on minimal computing Brecht (“Schlechte Zeiten” 1967) Risam and Gil (“Introduction” 2022), §3 Gil and Ortega (“Global Outlooks in Digital Humanities” 2016), 29 > Das Haus ist gebaut aus den Steinen, die vorhanden waren > minimal computing connotes digital humanities work undertaken in the context of some set of constraints. This could include lack of access to hardware or software, network capacity, technical education, or even a reliable power grid > this implies learning how to produce, disseminate, and preserve digital scholarship ourselves, without the help we can’t get, even as we fight to build the infrastructures we need at the intersection of, with, and beyond institutional libraries and schools. 19 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
interests ethics, e.g. : Findability, Accessability, Interoperability, Reuse : Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics -> digital commons the specific context and and working conditions our access to skills, methods, labour time, tools, materials … FAIR CARE 20 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
minimalism as an end in itself destroying resources already at hand fashion purist principles minimalism as a means to an end balance our needs against the resources at hand acknowledge the inevitable impact of our actions minimal computing as meaningful computing Figure 14: Screenshot of a selling luxury kitchenswebsite 21 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
use what we already know use what we can afford long-term do not impose unnecessary costs on our users do not waste resources to the detriment of our planet learn techniques new to us develop skills grow communities 22 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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1. open and crowd-sourced: giving people ownership and agency 2. minimal data model: emphasising discoverability and connections 3. retain and build on existing data 1. existing infrastructures with a proven track record 2. open standards and public domain licenses 3. stable, versioned identifiers 4. value user base and user friendliness over technical purity 5. separate content/data and interfaces 24 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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TAPoR URI SSHOM URI wdt:P973 Q4417999 wdt:P366 "network analysis" rdfs:label "networkAnalysis" wdt:P9309 wds:Q5548660 (statement node) p:P366 wdref: (reference node) pr:P854 prov:wasDerivedFrom wdv: (value node) psv:P366 ps:P366 Q5548660 "Gephi" rdfs:label Q7397 rdfs:label "Software" wdt:P31 Figure 17: Schematic of our basic data model, using (Q5548660) as an exampleGephi 32 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
“Long” tradition in the digital humanities Linked Open Data as part of used for ADHO, DHd conferences, journal articles, and tools partial, bi-directional mapping to Wikidata Project-funding imperfect to model evolving methods incompatible versions Classification organises a registry and allows to file, retrieve, and produce knowledge about an item. DARIAH Vocabs services 33 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Tools in collections collection wd:Q131847864 (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q13184786 4) collectionLabel Social Sciences and Humanities Open Marketplace count 1071 collection wd:Q3979414 (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3979414) collectionLabel Text Analysis Portal for Research count 964 collection wd:Q131847576 (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q13184757 6) collectionLabel Tool box of the Kompetenzwerkstatt Digital Humanities count 2 (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q131847864) (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3979414) (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q131847576) Wikidata Query Service (https://query.wikidata.org/#%23title%3ATools%20in%20collections%0A%23defaultView%3ATable% Q5548660 "Gephi" rdfs:label Q3979414 "TAPoR" rdfs:label Q2668072 rdfs:label "Collection" wdt:P31 wdt:P195 wdt:P31 Q131847864 "SSHOM" rdfs:label All tools can be easilly curated into collections, using collection (P195) pointing to an item for the collection. Figure 19: Schematic of the data model for modelling registries as collections, using (Q5548660)as an example Gephi 34 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
authors implementing a specific method (network analysis) author authorLabel Aamir Eric Bonamis Aditya Grover Allan Alves Rodrigues Search Wikidata Query Service (https://query.wikidata.org/#%23%20not%20that%20this%20is%20a% main.wikidata.org%0A%23title%3Aauthors%20implementing%20a%20specific%20method%20(ne authors (DACH) implementing a specific method (network analys 2 6 40 25 10 3 64 3 Wikidata Query Service (https://query.wikidata.org/#%23%20note%20that%20this%20is%20a% main.wikidata.org%0A%23title%3Aauthors%20%28DACH%29%20implementing%20a%20specific Classifying research output with TaDiRAH allows for assumptions about tool use 35 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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we mapped missing TaDiRAH classes to Wikidata we mapped/added all tools found in DiRT -> Bamboo -> we add all tools we use in our daily work bots add structured information based on source code repositories community adds items on a daily basis (unknowingly) TAPoR (3.0) Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) Open Marketplace Figure 20: Some examples 37 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Using a combination of bash scripts, SPARQL queries, and API calls, we download a subgraph from Wikidata and publish the RDF on Zenodo. Figure 21: to periodically download and release data setsWorkflow Figure 22: Weekly snapshots of our data set on Zenodo 38 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
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The allows to search for, view, and edit individual items Gephi (Q5548660) network analysis and visualization software package default for all languages No label defined – English Gephi network analysis and visualization software package Language Label Description Also known as Statements 0 references free software 0 references software instance of Linked Data Interface 40 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN
Does your query include Items describing scientific articles? The graph split affects your queries. Please learn more about it on this help page (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/WDQS_graph_split). × #title: Tools for Digital Humanities SELECT DISTINCT ?method ?methodLabel ?tadirahID (?methodColor AS ?rgb) ?tool ?toolLabel ?toolDesc ?image # order is relevant for the graph display. WITH { SELECT DISTINCT ?tool ?method ?methodColor WHERE { # select all items that have a TaDiRAH ID and are therefore assumed to be methods ?method wdt:P9309 ?tadirahID. BIND("7eb8ff" AS ?methodColor) # set rgb colour for method nodes # select all items which are linked to these methods through `has use` ?tool wdt:P366 ?method; # limit tools to software in the broadest sense wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q7397. } LIMIT 3000 } AS %tools WHERE { INCLUDE %tools # retrieve the logos and images for those tools that have them OPTIONAL { ?tool (wdt:P154 | wdt:P18) ?image .} SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Try it yourself 41 2025-10-06 | Till Grallert HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITÄT ZU BERLIN