The Swerik MP catalog is now available

Since the fall, the Swerik project has worked to improve the metadata for members of parliament, back to 1867. Besides having all MPs in our database, we also have full coverage of birth date and death date, gender, chamber, and more – including a much-improved coverage of party belonging. Here is a simple catalog list of all the MPs with some metadata (party belonging will be added soon): https://swerik-project.github.io/person-catalog/

Important to note is that we build the Swerik MP database via Wikidata. Firstly, we extract MP metadata from various sources. Secondly, we upload this metadata on each MP-Wikidata page and, thirdly, we export the metadata from Wikidata that we want to include in the Swerik MP database. This makes it possible for other stakeholders (e.g. researchers, the Wikidata community, and citizens) to continue to build the MP database iteratively and openly, not bound to the specific agenda of the Swerik project.

To secure the quality of the Swerik MP database, we have created different so-called unit tests with manually created metadata that we know are correct. If someone makes incorrect changes on Wikidata that conflict with these manual edits there will be a raised red flag and the database won’t be updated until we have made sure where the error is.

Feel welcome to explore the Swerik MP catalog! Maybe you get curious about what the Liberal Brita Elmen and the Social Democrat Hildur Ericsson below did and said in parliament?