Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats

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1 Microformats

[edit] Microformats

How can we use Microformats on Wikipedia (and, more generally, in WikiMedia)?

All microformats add semantic meaning to content which is otherwise, from a machine's point of view, just plain text. They allow data to be meaningfully detected and extracted by software, so that it can be reused, saved, indexed or aggregated.

It is easier to apply them to templates rather than individual pages. That also means that individual authors need not know the intricacies of microformat mark-up, only how to use the relevant template. Many of the templates on Wikipedia require minimal changes, to use microformats to present their existing content with added meaning. While the functionality may already exist in the Wikipedia template, adding microformat mark-up will make that functionality available to people using the same tools they use when visiting other sites.

There are strong indications that microformat support will be integrated into the standard build of Firefox 3.^[1].

[edit] Project members

Andy Mabbett (founder)
Omegatron

[edit] Button

Use {{User Pigsonthewing Microformats}} to show your participation in this project.

[edit] Banner

Put {{ProjectMicroformats}} on the talk page of relevant articles.

[edit] Currently available

[edit] Geo

Geo is for coordinates (latitude and longitude).

Geo allows waypoints to be indexed ("find me all places within 2 km of X"), looked up on other websites, or uploaded to devices, such as GPS units.

See Template:Coor/new, which applies the Geo microformat to coordinates on Wikipedia. Discussion at Template talk:Coor dms#Geo microformat.

[edit] Geo examples on Wikipedia

Geo (microformat)#Example
GeoTemplate, which is called by many thousands of other Wikipedia pages. Example: the coordinates (top right) in Great Barr link to a list of maps for Great Barr; the latter now has a Geo microformat.

[edit] Extensions

There are three active proposals, none mutually-exclusive, and all backwards-compatible, to extend the geo microformat:

geo-extension - for representing coordinates on other planets, moons etc., and with non-WSG84 schema
geo-elevation - for representing altitude
geo-waypoint - for representing routes and boundaries, using waypoints

[edit] hCard

hCard is for contact details of people (both article subjects and user profiles), organisations and venues.

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Microformats/hcard for more.

[edit] hCalendar

hCalendar is for events - so that they can be added directly to calendar or diary programmes or websites.

[edit] hAtom

hAtom is for making feeds.

[edit] hReview

hReview is for marking up reviews, and could be used by, for example, Template:Infobox Album.

[edit] Forthcoming

[edit] Citations

The proposed citation microformat will obviously be very relevant to Wikipedia, both for on-page citations and bibliographies, and for allowing people to cite Wikipedia, elsewhere. See Template talk:Cite book#Use in Bibliography and User:Omegatron#COinS for work which is laying some of the groundwork for application of that microformat, once it is ready.

Citation microformats would allow the look-up of cited articles or books in libraries or shops, and the extraction of citation data for the page being voted, if it is to be cited elsewhere.

[edit] Currency

The proposed currency microformat may be useful, especially if the suggestion to include a date field for historical amounts is included., for example, on 1922 in Germany

"Despite the ending of cash payments for the rest of 1922, the main cause of Germany's inability to pay, the steady depreciation of the mark, was ongoing. Towards the end of the year it assumed a disastrous rapidity. On August 1, the US Dollar still stood at 643 Marks to the Dollar and the British Pound at 2,850 Marks to the Pound. But on September 5 the dollar had already risen to 1,440 Marks and the pound to 6,525 Marks, and in December the pound was worth between 30,000 and 40,000 marks and the dollar between 7,000 and 9,000."

Currency would allow automatic conversion of amounts into other currencies ("how much is that in dollars?") or time ("how much would that be today?")

[edit] Species

The proposed species microformat would particularly suit "taxoboxes".

A "species" microformat would allow the disambiguation of common names, and the lookup of species in databases, recording software, etc. - and the look up from such sites or software, on Wikipedia.