8. Reference examples and implementations
Usability of a standard is not easily tested during the development phase. In order to test usability, one needs to make a conceptual model using the terms inside the standard and fit the data against it. This is potentially a very technical and time consuming task, for which it is not easy to integrate the wider community into it. To serve this purpose, we’ve set up a Wikibase instance that contains all terms from the LtC standard: https://latimer-core.wikibase.cloud.
Wikibase is the underlying software package that drives Wikidata. Wikidata has proven to be an ideal tool to allow non-technical users to add information into a database. The approach also allows to model different ways of representing the information on collections. Having an easily accessible graphical user interface allows fast data entry for testing (see Figure 25).
Figure 25: Screenshot of a record in the Latimer Core Wikibase instance
Adding records inside the Wikibase is a way of testing the different use-cases and models of the standard. It also provides a way to prepare the standard for linked open data approaches. During the life cycle of the standard, the tool can still be used to point out weaknesses of the current version of it and provide useful insight in potential improvements.
In a later stage, it is planned to implement Shape Expressions in the Wikibase instance of the standard. These are expressions of the way the standard can be implemented and how a record should look like. This would allow us to provide tools to people to validate their records against a certain scheme.