Dear public-policy list,
A few minutes ago I published a variety of documentation texts on
Meta/MediaWiki.org and the following email (below) to Wikimedia-l, relating
to the ‘Wikimedia Enterprise API’ project (formerly known as ‘Okapi’). As
you can hopefully see in the linked documents (Essay, FAQ, Principles -
Much of which is also available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish)
the team have worked to ensure that the aspects of how this project relates
to our movement’s Advocacy issues are taken into consideration. I spoke
with quite a few people on this mailing list over the last few months and -
thanks to your comments - the documentation and transparency principles is
greatly strengthened.
For the interest of the members of this mailing list, I encourage you to
look at the “financial” and “legal” subheadings of the FAQ documentation,
and most importantly the “why charge?” subheading of the essay. Here:
https://Meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay#Why_charge
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay#Why_charge>This
sets out the arguments on the basis of principles for why this project is
not merely in alignment with Wikimedia's policy stance, but is actively
promoting it.
As mentioned in the email below, the team is running ‘office hours’ this
Friday and will also be attending other pre-existing community events. If
the Public Policy group would like to have a specific discussion on this
topic, I’m very happy to arrange something.
On behalf of the Wikimedia Enterprise team,
Peace, Love & Metadata
-- Liam Wyatt [Wittylama], Wikimedia Enterprise project community liaison.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Liam Wyatt <lwyatt-ctr(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 at 17:02
Subject: The Wikimedia Enterprise API project
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>, <
wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
Over the last few months, a small team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been
working on a project that has been discussed by many people in our movement
for many years: building ‘enterprise grade’ services for the high-volume
commercial reusers of Wikimedia content. I am pleased to say that in a
remarkably short amount of time (considering the complexity of the issues:
technical, strategic, legal, and financial) we now have something worthy of
showing to the community, and we are asking for your feedback. Allow me to
introduce you to the Wikimedia Enterprise API project – formerly codenamed
“okapi”.
While the general idea for Wikimedia Enterprise predates the current
movement strategy process, its recommendations identify an enterprise API
as one possible solution to both “Increase the sustainability of our
movement” and “Improve User Experience.”[0] That is, to simultaneously
create a new revenue stream to protect Wikimedia’s sustainability, and
improve the quality and quantity of Wikimedia content available to our many
readers who do not visit our websites directly (including more consistent
attribution). Moreover, it does so in a way that is true to our movement’s
culture: with open source software, financial transparency, non-exclusive
contracts or content, no restrictions on existing services, and free access
for Wikimedia volunteers who need it.
The team believes we are on target to achieve those goals and so we have
written a lot of documentation to get your feedback about our progress and
where it could be further improved before the actual product is ‘launched’
in the next few months. We have been helped in this process over the last
several months by approximately 100 individual volunteers (from many
corners of the wikiverse) and representatives of affiliate organisations
who have reviewed our plans and provided invaluable direction, pointing out
weaknesses and opportunities, or areas lacking clarity and documentation in
our drafts. Thank you to everyone who has shared your time and expertise to
help prepare this new initiative.
A essay describing the “why?” and the “how?” of this project is now on
Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay
Also now published on Meta are an extensive FAQ, operating principles, and
technical documentation on
MediaWiki.org. You can read these at [1] [2] and
[3] respectively. Much of this documentation is already available in
French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
The Wikimedia Enterprise team is particularly interested in your feedback
on how we have designed the checks and balances to this project - to ensure
it is as successful as possible at achieving those two goals described
above while staying true to the movement’s values and culture. For example:
Is everything covered appropriately in the “Principles” list? Is the
technical documentation on
MediaWiki.org clear? Are the explanations in the
“FAQ” about free-access for community, or project’s legal structure, or the
financial transparency (etc.) sufficiently detailed?
Meet the team and Ask Us Anything:
The central place to provide written feedback about the project in general
is on the talkpage of the documentation on Meta at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Enterprise
On this Friday (March 19) we will be hosting two “Office hours”
conversations where anyone can come and give feedback or ask questions:
-
13:00 UTC via Zoom at
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/95580273732
-
22:00 UTC via Zoom at
https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/92565175760 (note:
this is Saturday in Asia/Oceania)
Other “office hours” meetings can be arranged on-request on a technical
platform of your choosing; and we will organise more calls in the future.
We will also be attending the next SWAN meetings (on March 21)
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network, and
also the next of the Wikimedia Clinics
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Clinics
Moreover, we would be very happy to accept any invitation to attend an
existing group call that would like to discuss this topic (e.g. an
affiliate’s members’ meeting).
On behalf of the Wikimedia Enterprise team,
Peace, Love & Metadata
-- Liam Wyatt [Wittylama], Wikimedia Enterprise project community liaison.
[0]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/FAQ
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Principles
[3]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise
*Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]*
WikiCite <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite> Program Manager & Wikimedia
Enterprise <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Okapi> Community Liaison
Wikimedia Foundation