Wikidata can be a great provider of lists of entities based on queries. Some lists are used again and again but it can be a bit hard to get them from Wikidata. We can regularly run queries and provide CSV downloads of generally useful lists of entities.
The lists that could be useful:
- countries and capitals
- timezones
- airports
- languages
- units
- ...
What would need to happen:
- open a repository on the Wikidata github org
- define the SPARQL query for the required list in a file in the repository
- run the query, generate a result CSV and upload it to the repository
- automate the above to regularly update the result CSV
- publicize that this is available
Why would this be useful?
- It'd encourage more streamlined modeling for the Items in these lists.
- It'd further position Wikidata as a provider of standard sets of entities.
- It'd make it easier to spot changes in the data similar to what happens with Listeria.
- It'd encourage discussion around sharpening the definitions of concepts like "country"