And what did we learn while trying to get the answer? Over a series of four recent blog posts, we’ve been talking ourselves through the steps of using Wikidata to answer the question: “What is the gender breakdown of heads of government across the world?”. We’ve finally reached the stage where the data is in good enough shape to provide the…

Update: 2017–06–05. This mission is now over. But don’t despair, you can still help! There are now more missions like this over on the Wikidata:WikiProject Heads of state and government. Come join us! Welcome back. You are on post four of five of a quest to get complete information for…

Update: 2017–06–05. This mission is now over. But don’t despair, you can still help! There are now more missions like this over on the Wikidata:WikiProject Heads of state and government. Come join us! Welcome back! If you have just joined us, we are on a mission to build up all…

Update: 2017–06–05. This mission is now over. But don’t despair, you can still help! There are now more missions like this over on the Wikidata:WikiProject Heads of state and government. Come join us! Welcome back! This is part two of a five part series examining how to use Wikidata to…

Update: 2017–06–05. This mission is now over. But don’t despair, you can still help! There are now more missions like this over on the Wikidata:WikiProject Heads of state and government. Come join us! This is part one of a five part series examining how to use Wikidata to answer the…

Exciting news: I have recently started working with mySociety on the EveryPolitician project. I figured I should tell you about it as I’m going to be posting quite a lot about that here. Specifically, my job is to work out how how a deeper integration with Wikidata (see the background…

Lessons in online campaigning from a total amateur — In the run up to the UK’s recent referendum on membership of the European Union I ran what one might call my first “amateur Facebook Campaign.” The topic? Promoting remaining IN the EU. I received a very mixed bag of reactions but I would do it again in an instant…

So today, the land of my birth did something I was really hoping it wouldn’t: it voted to leave the European Union. And I’m terrified, because I have seen various signs that people did not recognise the enormity of this decision. I’m terrified that this could get very ugly. Whatever happens next, there is a real chance that people could get hurt, and the peace and stability afforded by the EU has…