Support the specific OpenRefine/SDC upload workflow from a IIIF endpoint

[trnstlntk]

When talking to potential users of the Structured Data on Commons (SDC) batch upload functionalities for OpenRefine, we hear a lot about the use case of IIIF endpoints.

IIIF is the International Image Interoperability Framework. According to the framework's website it is "a set of open standards for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. It’s also an international community developing and implementing the IIIF APIs. IIIF is backed by a consortium of leading cultural institutions."

Many cultural institutions around the world present their files through a IIIF endpoint. This is indeed a section-wide API standard.

Many IIIF endpoint managers are, or may be, interested to upload files to Wikimedia Commons leveraging this specific set of APIs.

1. In any endpoint, the source files to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons can be called upon in a specific standardized way.
2. Metadata about the files (if present) can also be called upon in the same kind of standardized way.

OpenRefine users can use both of these specific API calls, during project creation and while wrangling data inside OpenRefine. But that's advanced stuff, and we can make that process easier.

We can tackle this in various ways:

1. Lightweight, documentation-focused approach: we don't build specific features for IIIF users but we document the process well for them;
2. And/or (perhaps at a later stage, if we see a lot of interest in this) we indeed create a specific IIIF-focused feature or wizard, probably to be used during project creation.

[trnstlntk]

I have deliberately made this issue rather vague; feel free to edit.

Re: timeline: Support for IIIF endpoints was not included in the deliverables for the Wikimedia Foundation grant for SDC features for OpenRefine (since we are really only working on the very basics there), and we will absolutely not have time to develop specific features (second approach above). I'm not even sure if we will manage to document the approach well. However, I have been aware of this use case since the start, am keen to at least understand this use case better (asap, if we can squeeze it in), and support this as we hopefully continue working on SDC support after our current grant ends 😀.

Re: funding: Perhaps, after October 2022, we can do a bit of crowdfunding if there is significant interest from the IIIF community in this? Or this can be part of a WMF followup grant? And/or who knows, maybe there can be some IIIF/OpenRefine developer community overlap here?

Re: what we can maybe already do now: @lozanaross I am aware that you are also interacting with end users who have IIIF endpoints. Is it feasible for you to squeeze in a bit of time to look at this specific use case (and let me join that investigation)? Totally OK if not, considering our current time constraints 😇

[lozanaross]

Thanks @trnstlntk , this is a good description of the options so far - one of the participants in the Ghent workshop expressed real interest in this (even emailed me afterwards), so I can connect with her and get some sample manifests. Indeed, I think investigating this sooner than later will be good, so we can see if we can at least include it in our documentation deliverables (to be done in August / Sept.).

Regarding funding, I also see this as a good candidate for follow-up NFDI funding - we are allowed to go for same amount as this year again next year (or event double the amount).