The on-wiki version of this newsletter edition can be found here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-12-13
--
Looking back at 2023
For Wikifunctions, 2023 will always be remembered: it is the year
Wikifunctions launched! It was an exciting year.
[image: Decorative text showing a dragon making up the number 2023]
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2023-01-01_new-year-illustration_by_David_Revoy.jpg>
We have come a long way from where we were at the beginning of the year
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-01-19>.
We reworked
the entire user experience
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-05-25>,
and we plan to continue updating and experimenting
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-12-06> with
it. In many ways, Wikifunctions is a first of its kind, and so, by
necessity, we are exploring new ways to interact and maintain a new form of
knowledge in the Wikimedia realm: functions. We also rebuilt the evaluators
on the backend shortly after making the site public, in order to run them
entirely on WebAssembly
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-10-25>,
which made our backend more stable and secure. The orchestrator has also
come a long way towards working more correctly and predictably.
The beginning of the year saw the completion of the
Google.org fellowship
program with us
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-01-25> and
the discussion around the fellows’ recommendations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-02-08>
and Maria
Keet’s reflections
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-04-19>. We
announced financial support from the Wikimedia Endowment
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-04-28>,
the Rockefeller Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-07-12>,
and
Google.org
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-07-17>,
totaling a sum of US$ 5 Million. We presented and demoed at numerous
conferences and community events remotely and in-person, most notably Wikimania
in Singapore
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-08-14>.
We reflected on Wikifunctions picking up the historic mantle of a *Compendium
of Calculations*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-02-17>,
also on the role it can play in the wider context of decolonizing knowledge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-03-02>.
And, last but certainly not least, we made Wikifunctions public
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-08-07>,
moved to general availability
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-11-07>,
and announced it to the world
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/12/05/introducing-wikifunctions-first-wikimedia-project-to-launch-in-a-decade-creates-new-forms-of-knowledge/>
.
Wikifunctions started with a limited set of types: just strings and
Booleans. And yet, we saw the creation of more than 500 functions, with
contributions from hundreds of volunteers. Particularly of note are the
creation of natural language related functions for seventeen languages
<https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Wikifunctions:Catalogue#Natural_language_String_operations>:
Bangla, Brahui, Breton, Croatian, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French,
German, Hindustani, Igbo, Japanese, New Persian, Punjabi, Rohingya, Sindhi,
and Turkish. In November, we already crossed half a million monthly
pageviews
<https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/wikifunctions.org/reading/total-page-views/normal|bar|2-year|~total|monthly>.
The community continues to take over important roles, such as managing
the Functioneer
role <https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Wikifunctions:Functioneers>
autonomously,
and creating the relevant policies for self-governance.
We plan to kick off 2024 by making new types available, and there are a lot
of improvements and new features that are going to roll out throughout the
year. We will have planning sessions in January, and update here
afterwards. One big question that will become more relevant and that might
need to be decided soon is around the location for the content for Abstract
Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-03-15>.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Abstract Wikipedia team,
current and past members! To the many teams and individuals throughout the
Foundation and Affiliates who have helped us and who have contributed to
the project. To the donors, and to the fellows. And, foremost, to all the
volunteers who have helped on every level and at every step of the project
and who are embracing this new Wikimedia project and making it your own.
You are incredible, and a joy to work with. Thank you all!
Thanks to a great 2023, and forward to an exciting 2024! Welcome to the
first year of Wikifunctions.
The next edition of the newsletter will be in early January. We wish you
all happy holidays, and peace and health for the new year!
Recent changes to Wikifunctions software
In our main work on support of custom Types (T343469
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T343469>), we've worked on both the
front- and back-ends this week. We're very close to completing the
re-design, -finement, and -build of the core control to select a Type,
which will let you fluently select a List of Strings as much as you today
choose a String (T351272 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T351272>).
We've changed the definition of a Type to add new fields to specify the
additional functions needed to serialise and deserialise a Wikifunctions
Type into a programming language's type and back again (T346991
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T346991>), and tested this on Beta
Cluster, where we've run into some bugs. We expect to fix these this week
and next, with the first new Types potentially coming to production in the
New Year.
We implemented checks for the restrictions that stop users creating new
Booleans beyond True and False or Units beyond Void (T349497
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T349497>). We switched our wrapped use
of Codex's "Select" component
<https://doc.wikimedia.org/codex/latest/components/demos/select.html> to
use it directly, now that we no longer need to add features to it (T347668
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T347668>). We've also completed our
audit of all error cases on the back-end, making sure we send proper,
translatable errors when they occur (T292804
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T292804>, T321114
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T321114>).
We designed and implemented a metrics system tracking UI interactions,
inventory of objects in the system, and usage statistics, to make sure that
features work well and identify patterns in usage calling for improvements
(for example, were users of Firefox to get much higher failure rates, that
might indicate a browser-specific bug that wasn't otherwise reported). We
recently fixed this metrics logging to also count edits using the "About
box" edit pencil to start, as well as those using the "Edit" tab (T350066
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T350066>). We deployed a dashboard
presenting visualizations of our reported metrics.
You can browse the full list of deployed changes
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.42/wmf.9#WikiLambda> for the
MediaWiki front-end for Wikifunctions. We didn't deploy any back-end
service changes to production this week. As we approach the end of the
Western calendar year, there will be a Wikimedia-wide pause in new code
deployment from next week until January 2024. We look forward to sharing
new improvements with you then!