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While tech and AI giants guard their knowledge graphs behind proprietary walls, a more open model is quietly powering innovative projects from So Paulo to Nairobi. Wikidata, the collaborative backbone behind Wikipedia’s structured data, has become the world’s largest free knowledge database. Lydia Pintscher, who leads the Wikidata project at Wikimedia Deutschland, oversees this enormous experiment in open collaboration. More than 25,000 contributors across 190 countries have built a database containing 116.6 million data points, edited nearly 500,000 times daily. Unlike with proprietary alternatives, anyone can access, query, and contribute to this growing repository of human knowledge. Developers can build upon this community-driven knowledge base without worrying about corporate gatekeepers or sudden API changes. Pintscher spoke with Fast Company about how open data challenges Big Tech dominance and enables innovation in underserved markets, and why transparency in knowledge graphs matters more than ever. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What are a few projects built on Wikidata that reflect technology’s potential for social good? There are many, but the ones Id like to highlight are: Govdirectory, making it easier for people to get in touch with their government and make their voices heard on topics that matter to them OpenSanctions, tracking politically exposed persons, their connections, and the sanctions imposed on them, ensuring that international sanctions are enforced Aletheiafact, a fact-checking project from Brazil combating misinformation Open Parliament TV, making it easier to track what politicians are saying in parliament about crucial issues Gestapo.Terror.Orte, a project helping to understand the atrocities of the secret police in Nazi Germany All of them are grassroots efforts, made possible or easier with the support of Wikidatas data and community. When developers could use proprietary APIs from major tech companies, why choose the more complex path of building on open data? Ill answer that question with another question: Do you want to be beholden to the whims of a major tech company that could decide tomorrow to no longer make the data available to you, or only make it available to you at a price, and under conditions you cannot agree to? Or would you rather work with and support a movement that cares deeply about access to knowledge for everyone? On top of that, Wikidata empowers you to be an active participant, not just a consumer. You found an issue in the data? Something you really care about is missing? You can go and make the changes in Wikidata yourself, directly. How does Wikidata’s approach differ from how companies like Google or Microsoft manage their knowledge graphs? The starkest contrast is the openness. In Wikidata you can literally go to the website, look up an entry, and sift through every single change that has ever been made to that entry to see how it got to where it is today. And beyond just being able to see what that entry looks like now or looked like in the past, you can also make an edit to it and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. Right there. With one edit. The second difference is the complexity and nuance with which we try to model the world. Since the beginning of Wikidata I have found so many beautiful, weird, and thought-provoking entities that really dont lend themselves to a simple model of the world. Did you know about that one year Sweden decided to have a February 30th, for example? Or all the countries that have more than one capital city? There are plenty of funny examples but also ones that really matter, such as disputed territories where other websites might decide to show you just one side of the dispute depending on where you access their site from. We cant have civil conversations when we dont even get shown that another view on a topic exists. Thats why I believe it is so important to surface at least some of that complexity. The world we live in is complex, weird, and beautiful, and the technology we use in that world needs to be able to reflect that. What’s the most notable technical challenge you’ve solved that other organizations building global platforms should know about? Making a knowledge graph the size of Wikidata publicly accessible and queryable to everyone is definitely a technical challenge, especially given the rate of changes and access to the data. Wikidata gets edited almost 500,000 times a day. Our SPARQL endpoint serves about 10,000 requests per minute, and it is growing every day. Building and maintaining infrastructure to support that with the resources of a nonprofit is definitely a challenge. What’s your sense of how open data projects will evolve over the next few years? Large tech companies have been extracting value from the commons for many years, be that in open data or free software. As a society, we need to understand that this is undermining the commons we all rely on, and we need to expect and demand better. I believe, especially in the age of LLMs and related technologies, that we need to understand what this technology is built on, and this is often happening without giving back. So I would like to see people contribute more to open projects like Wikidata and then build on that data, all the while giving back to the project they rely on. The alternative is a world where we as a society do not have influence over the technology we use every day and that democracy depends on. Instead, wed be beholden to the black-box technology we are given. Thats not a future I wish to live in. What do you mean about LLMs not giving back? These large AI companies are basically strip-mining the internet. They will undermine the source of a lot of the material that they’re training their models on. If they’re not sending people back to projects like Wikipedia or Wikidata, or many others, they’re basically cutting them off from the people who actually make the answers possible. Are you saying the sites providing the content might disappear? So someone put out a blog post about Stack Overflow analyzing how large language models influenced the traffic on their site. And the analysis suggested that if people are just asking their programming questions to an LLM, why would they need to go to Stack Overflow anymore, right? But why is the LLM able to answer programming questions? Because it has been trained on something like Stack Overflow. So what should AI companies do to ensure the vitality of the communities they’re taking material from? Two things. One is recognition in the sense of “Hey, this answer you’re getting here is coming from these places,” and they’re starting to do that, so that people can find their way back to the source of that content. Andthe second is that they’re making a lot of money, and they should give some of that money back to the projects that are making them that money. How do you handle conflicts when contributors from different countries or just different perspectives disagree about how to structure or present information? There are community processes to handle editorial disputes, starting with discussing the pros and cons of different ways of describing a situation (in what is called a WikiProject) together with people interested in the same topic. Often, more senior editors can help resolve disagreements that way, for example, by pointing to best practices for modeling or by asking for references for a specific data point someone wants to add. Worst case an entry might get locked down by an admin if different parties cant stop editing back and forth on a particular point. Many potentially divisive topics thankfully never even escalate to that level, in part because of how Wikibase, the underlying software of Wikidata, is built. Based on many years of experience in Wikidatas sister project Wikipedia, from the start we centered it around the concept of verifiability. That means an editor cannot just show up and claim something. They need to have a reliable and trustworthy source for what they claim, such as an article in a reputable newspaper. Additionally, we allow differing views and even conflicting claims to stand side by side, something especially important for disputed territories, for example, and then add context to these claims that helps [explain] the nuance of the situation. This can include things such as which international body supports or does not support a specific territorial claim. Your 25,000 contributors span 190-plus countries. How do you ensure voices from marginalized communities aren’t drowned out by more resourced contributors? We are dedicating a lot of effort to ensuring that everyone can contribute data that is relevant to them and their communities. For example, we are running editing workshops across Africa to help more people make their first steps in contributing to Wikidata. We are also working on improvements to editing from mobile devices to make sure people who primarily or even exclusively access Wikidata from a mobile phone have a good experience contributing to the worlds knowledge. What has surprised you most about how developers worldwide have used Wikidata’s open data? What astonishes me the most is the fact that many of the applications people are building with the help of Wikidata are ones that I would never have imagined when we first started. Take KDE Itinerary, for example, the digital travel assistant that keeps track of all your travel documents andthanks to Wikidatareminds you to bring an adapter for your laptop when traveling to a country with different power outlets. Or eRutter, the historical sea-routing website that lets you imagine how you might have traveled from continent to continent in ancient times. A Bangladeshi developer with Wikidata can access the same data infrastructure as Google. How does open data level the playing field for innovation in the Global South? A lot of applications today are powered by data. As a developer, that means you dont just have to actually build your application, you also have to collect and maintain the data your application relies on. For a large company, that is not as big of a problem, but if you are an individual developer or small team, this really limits what you are able to build. This is where Wikidata is there to support you, with basic data about the things that matter in the world, from people to events to locations to culture, you name it. Thanks to a dedicated community of over 25,000 editors on Wikidata, you have access to up-to-date and reliable basic data to build upon. And not just that: Wikidata also provides you with links to 10,000 other websites, archives, social media sites, and more to make it easier to access additional data about the topics you need for your application.
Category:
E-Commerce
For more than a decade, the NBA tunnel has become a runway, transforming Jayson Tatum and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into style icons. NFL stars, on the other hand, have been slower to embrace fashion. But through the NFL’s first official fashion partnership, things might be about to change. Football players are soon going to get on-demand help in their pregame wardrobes. Today, the NFL announces that it is bringing Abercrombie & Fitch on as its first-ever official fashion partner. It’s a multiyear deal that allows the label to feature the NFL in its branding and open pop-up shops at NFL games. The initiative is bigger than just stores, though. Starting this season, players will also have access to a Style Concierge, in which in-house stylists from Abercrombie & Fitch will curate looks pulled from the brand’s latest collection, with a focus on denim and fitted bomber jackets. In a new campaign, players we’ll see styled by Abercrombie include Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers, Drake Maye of the New England Patriots, and Jake Ferguson of the Dallas Cowboys. The partnership signals the NFL’s desire to part of the cultural conversation around fashion. And as we’ve seen with the NBA and even moreso with the WNBA, intertwining style and sports can draw more attention to the league and bring in new fans. But it’s also an opportunity for the mall-famous American brand Abercrombie to appeal to male consumers and insert itself among the more fashion-forward labels NFL players have started to wear as in their tunnel walks, like Prada and Rick Owens. [Photo: Abercrombie & Fitch] Dressing The Fandom When Taylor Swift starting dating Travis Kelce in the summer of 2023, the world tuned in to see what she would wear to his games. It was clear she put thought into her looks, picking outfits emblazoned with the Kansas City Chiefs’ logos and colors. She wore an oversized Chiefs jersey as a dress, paired with thigh-high Giuseppe Zanotti boots, or a custom puffer jacket emblazoned with Kelce’s number, 87. For the NFL, Swift’s sudden appearance at games was an unexpected boon. With the exception of players like the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow and the New York Giants’ Tyrod Taylor making waves with their pregame ‘fits, and Kelce’s paparazzi-strewn dates with Swift, NFL isn’t viewed as stylish brand. And so for the last five years, the league has been making a deliberate effort to make itself more stylish says Tracie Rodburg, the NFL’s SVP of global partnerships. It has brought on stylists to dress players, and last year, it even named its first-ever “fashion editor,” Kyle Smith, who is tasked with cultivating looks for stars when they are off the field. [Photo: Abercrombie & Fitch] But with Swift, the focus was also on what fans wear on game day. Today, the NFL says that women constitute 47% of its audience. And these female fans are often more style conscious than their male counterparts. They’re trying to put together looks that look cute, but also reveal their support for their team. “Fashion is an important part of the football experience, for fans,” says Rodburg. Abercrombie, which generated $4.85 billion in revenue last year, has seen firsthand how profitable it can be to create fashion-forward outfits for NFL fans. The brand skews female, and it was eager to attract more male consumers. So, in 2022, it decided to launch a small menswear collection of licensed NFL products, emblazoned with the logos of just a few teams. “When we’re thinking about how our customer spends their time, the NFL owns a big part of the weekend,” says Carey Krug, Abercrombie’s CMO. [Photo: Abercrombie & Fitch] (The bar for licensing product is much lower than an official partnership; it simply involves paying the NFL royalties for products made with team logos. And these royalties contribute to the NFL’s revenues, which hit a record $13.8 billion during the last fiscal year.) Abercrombie’s designers didn’t just slap logos on T-shirts. They thoughtfully incorporated vintage logos on trendy pieces, like cardigans and V-neck sweaters. The products sold out within weeks. So Abercrombie quickly expanded to creating products for women, kids, and even pets, featuring all 32 NFL teams. Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie’s CEO, said it became clear that the brand had the opportunity to serve women, who are often an afterthought when it comes to NFL merchandise. Now, you can find team logos on some of the brand’s most popular womenswear pieces, like its best-selling bra-free cami and its slightly cropped T-shirts. “We’re uniquely positioned to provide them with more options to represent their team beyond just game day,” she says. [Photo: Abercrombie & Fitch] Making The Partnership Official The popularity of Abercrombie’s NFL line was a signal to both organizations that it was worth partnering. Now Abercrombie is one of roughly 40 official NFL sponsors, that range from Verizon, which has the exclusive rights to mobile live streaming of games, and Applebee’s, a restaurant where many fans watch games. Official sponsors pay royalties to the NFL, but they also stand to benefit financially. Nielsen’s data suggests that fans exposed to NFL sponsors show a 10% increase in purchase intent. Another study, by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment found that 59% of avid NFL fans are more likely to try a sponsor product. This partnership is an opportunity to redefine the culture around the NFL fandom beyond the stereotype of shirtless fans in stands covered in body paint. And it will go far beyond just NFL-branded clothing. “In some of the campaign imagery to launch this partnership, there are players dressed in outfits that don’t feature NFL logos at all,” says Krug. [Photo: Abercrombie & Fitch] To this end, Abercrombie’s Style Concierge is an effort to help elevate players’ style. Players can request these styling services, which will give them access to an on-call Abercrombie stylist, as well as lots of free clothing to wear in tunnels and in other off-field appearances. In return, they may appear in Abercrombie’s marketing campaigns and social media. The brand says that there are many players already on the Style Concierge roster for the season, including Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers, Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions, and CeeDee Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys. Players styled by Abercrombie will be heavily featured in marketing and social media. If the debut campaign is any indication of what’s to come, this partnership is male-coded. The first images feature players, largely unsmiling, in a wood-paneled bar. They’re wearing jeans or joggers paired with shiny bomber jackets or hoodies. The aesthetic may not appeal to women, who make up the majority of Abercrombie’s customer base and seems like a missed opportunity to reach female fans. More broadly, Abercrombie’s close relationship with the NFL may alienate consumers who don’t see themselves as sports fans. For Abercrombie, there’s no Super Bowl ring in its future, but the NFL offers an opportunity promote itself as an omnipresent brand on game days, along with a trendsetter seen alongside much higher-end, fashion-forward brands like Kith and Fear of God worn by NFL superstars. Abercrombie has evolved over the past five years, shedding its image as the sexualized, exclusionary teen brand of the ’90s. Instead, it now caters to twenty-somethings, creating basics they can wear to the office and the weekend. While this has been a successful formula for the retailer, Abercrombie hasn’t stood out for being particularly cutting-edge. But this could change. “Athletes are some of the most important style influencers to our male consumer,” says Krug. “So it’s an incredible opportunity to put them in our clothes.”
Category:
E-Commerce
I had just landed my first real (non-HR) job at an international company, fresh out of university, full of ambition, and eager to prove myself. I loved the work, worked hard, stayed late, and genuinely believed I was making my mark. So when I was called into a meeting with HR one sunny Wednesday morning, I came in smiling, half-expecting praise. Surely, my efforts had been noticed. Maybe even a promotion was coming. I walked into a glass-walled meeting room to find Susan from HR sitting alone, visibly uncomfortable behind her laptop. After a few awkward pleasantries, she launched into a stream of corporate jargon about shifting priorities and evolving strategies. I nodded along, trying to connect the dots. Then it hit me. Susan . . . are you firing me? She nodded and hurriedly mumbled something about exit services. It wasnt just the layoffit was the series of faux pas that came with it. No manager present. No warning. No privacy. Just a rehearsed speech, a bad PowerPoint, and zero empathy. At the time, I didnt know better. But years later, working in HR myself, I looked back and saw it clearly: a masterclass in how not to handle people. Why are we so bad at layoffs? You could argue that this was two decades ago, and things must have improved since then. But have they? Consider the CEO of Better.com firing 900 employees (almost 15% of the workforce) over Zoom in 2021. Or Tesla’s 2024 mass layoffs, announced via a Sunday-night email revoking system access immediately. For all our talk about employee experience, empathy, and psychological safety, we still fail the most basic test: treating people like people. We know that business change is inevitable. Strategies must evolve. Restructuring is often necessary. Agility is a business imperative. But if layoffs are going to happen, and they will, there are better ways to handle them. More human ways. Heres how: 1. Minimize Uncertainty Employees dont need perfect certainty. They need honest, consistent communication. No one can work efficiently in the dark, and uncertainty breeds anxiety, rumors, and disengagement. One former colleague described his layoff experience as well-executed, empathetic, and matter-of fact. Why? Because employees were kept in the loop. The level of uncertainty was reduced right from the start. No surprises. No corridor gossip. Just timely, transparent updates from leadership and direct managers. 2. Communicate, Again, and Again In too many companies, strategic changes are discussed only at the top, never cascading down. This leads to confused employees who feel blindsided when change hits. A 2024 survey by PwC found that over half of employees feel theres too much change at work happening at once, and 44% dont understand why change is happening at all. Explain the why. Share the rationale. Communicate clearly, regularly, and with authenticity. A well-executed change management plan is key for an organization in transformation. Transparency, even when it means delivering bad news, is better than silence. Trust is built not by pretending everything is fine, but by communicating honestly and early. 3. Make Managers Accountable It often seems that HR gets blamed for delivering bad news. But layoffs are business decisions, not HR ones. So, where are the managers? Managers should be active participants in staffing decisions and responsible for how they are communicated. They know their teams best. They should be trained and empowered to lead through these moments, not hide behind HR. 4. Invest in Skills, Even During Uncertainty Ironically, companies tend to cut learning and development budgets when they need them most: during transformations. But investing in employee development during times of change builds trust and signals long-term commitment. Even if roles change (or disappear), the skills remain. Todays workforce is eager to grow. PwCs survey shows that workers want to upskill, and many are open to using tools like generative AI to work smarter. Companies should meet them halfway, with upskilling, internal talent marketplaces, and support for career mobility. 5. Address Employee Stress Proactively Restructuring and transformation efforts create emotional fallout. Left unaddressed, this stress turns into burnout, turnover, and long-term reputational damage. Leaders must create safe spaces where employees can speak openly without fear of negative consequences. Listening and feedback loops must be real. At Netflix, for example, a People over Process culture means daily, constructive feedback is encouraged and acted on. That only works when leadership is visible, responsive, and truly engaged. 6. Build Resilience Resilience isnt about powering through, its about giving people tools to adapt. That means helping managers lead through change and equipping teams with emotional agility, psychological safety, and the ability to thrive in ambiguity. 7. Support the Survivors, Too Layoffs dont end with the people who are let go. The employees who remain are left navigating a mix of relief, guilt, and fear. And they keep on wondering, Am I next? Whats really going on? Can I trust anything I hear? Typically, what is left behind is a stressed-out workforce, a collapsing sense of loyalty, and a culture of fear. To avoid this, companies must address the emotional toll on those who stay. Leaders should overcommunicate, set expectations clearly, and offer both honesty and reassurance. Let people know theres a plan and where they fit into it. In a world where constant change is the norm, how we change matters just as much as why we change. The goal should not be just speed. Agility without empathy is chaos. But when done right, paced, thoughtful, and human centered, it can actually build trust, not destroy it. There are more compassionate ways to run a business. We just have to choose them.
Category:
E-Commerce
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