Linking german parliament speakers to wikidata reveals metadata gaps
Linking Speakers of the German Parliament to Wikidata: Scope and Coverage of Metadata
DatabasesSocial and Information Networks
Summary
This paper connects all people who spoke in the German parliament from 1949 to 2021 with detailed information on Wikidata, like their background and awards. The authors look at how complete and balanced this information is, focusing on areas like gender and birthplace. They show that combining these datasets can help analyze parliamentary history but also point out that some information is uneven or missing. This warns users to be careful when using open data for research or analysis.
What this means in practice
- •For government data teams: Enhance parliamentary datasets by linking speech transcripts to enriched biographical metadata from Wikidata for better historical and sociological analysis.
- •For cultural heritage organizations: Improve records of political figures by integrating multilingual and transnational metadata for use in exhibitions and educational materials.
Authors
Thomas Haider, Arne Cypionka, Maximilian Teich
Abstract
This paper links all individuals who spoke in the German Bundestag between 1949 and 2021 to Wikidata, creating a longitudinal dataset that connects parliamentary speech transcripts with structured biographical metadata. We evaluate the coverage, composition, and potential biases of the retrieved properties and statements, with particular attention to gender, professional background, historical legacies, and transnational dimensions such as place of birth, languages, and foreign awards. The results demonstrate both the analytical potential of combining GermaParl with Wikidata and the importance of critically assessing uneven metadata coverage in open knowledge graphs.