BEACON files are an easy-to-create and easy-to-use means for connecting websites. The format was invented by German Wikipedians some years ago. It is used by libraries and institutional websites, mainly in the German-speaking world.
A German introduction can be found here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BEACON
An English introduction can be found here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/BEACON
For examples of the possibilities of the format, see:
http://www.bmlo.lmu.de/Q/PND=118539841
http://beacon.findbuch.de/seealso/pnd-aks?format=sources&id=118515055
Most existing BEACON files are based on GND authority data, but it's perfectly possible to use any other identifier.
As we try to convince the GLAM world to use this format, I think especially Wikidata with its wealth of authority data fields conncected to each other and to Wikimedia project websites should offer such BEACON files.
Those BEACON files could be updated by a bot on a regular basis (e. g. weekly), and be hosted on some official Wikimedia server.
Right now, the most important Wikidata BEACON file would probably be:
GND -> Wikidata ID
(including all Wikidata items that have a "GND identifier" field, and only those). For this one we don't even need a resolver tool, since the Wikidata URL format already works as a valid link resolver.
Others could be:
GND -> en.wikipedia
GND -> de.wikisource
GND -> Commons Category
VIAF -> en.wikipedia
VIAF -> Commons Category
SUDOC -> fr. wikipedia
etc. etc.
Also, BEACON files like
Wikidata ID -> wikimedia projects
or even
Wikidata ID -> some external identifier
could be useful.
I think retrieving the necessary data should be very very simple (it's just the simplest SQL query), and the resolver tool with its 1:1 functionality doesn't seem to be rocket science either. Something like https://tools.wmflabs.org/wdrdr/cgi-bin/index.cgi – with some tweaks like adding the project – might already do the trick actually.
Version: wmf-deployment
Severity: enhancement
Whiteboard: u=dev c=infrastructure p=0