Dear everyone,
As presented at last year's WikidataCon
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VxTlBNkyk>, Wikimedia Deutschland has
set out to find new ways for collaboration around Wikidata software
development to enhance the diversity of our movement, increase Wikibase’s
scalability and robustness and breathe life into our movement principles of
knowledge equity. With a grant from Arcadia
<https://www.arcadiafund.org.uk/>, a charitable fund administered by Lisbet
Rausing and Peter Baldwin, we will be able to implement such a
collaboration in the next two years.
Today, we are happy to share an exciting update on the progress of this
project with all of you. After spending the last few months with
conversations with the movement groups who were interested in joining such
a partnership, we have now reached a point where we can spread the news
about the future partners and projects that will shape this Wikidata
software collaboration.
Wikimedia Indonesia, the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and Wikimedia
Deutschland will be joining forces to advance the technical capacities of
the movement around Wikidata development and with this, make the software
and tools more usable by cultures underrepresented in technology, people of
the Global South and speakers of minority languages.
Wikimedia Indonesia, a non-profit organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia
and established in 2008, is dedicated to encouraging the growth,
development & dissemination of knowledge in Indonesian and other languages
spoken in Indonesia. Since then, Wikimedia Indonesia has supported the
development of 14 Wikipedias in the languages spoken in Indonesia, 12
regional Wikimedian communities spread across the country, and two
Wikimedia project-based communities.
For this project, in collaboration with Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia
Indonesia wants to build up a software team of their own in the course of
the next 2 years. The tools will hopefully help under-resourced language
communities contributing to the flourishing of their languages online
through lexicographical data, and also involving the local language
communities in contributing to lexemes in Wikidata.
Igbo Wikimedians is a group of Wikimedians that are committed to working on
various wiki projects related to Igbo language
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_language> and culture. The user group
is organizing projects around community building in the Igbo community,
content improvement for Wikipedia and its sister project and has
established its own Wikidata hub in 2021.
The Igbo Wikimedia User Group and their program of the Wiki Mentor Africa
<https://m.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Wiki_Mentor_Africa> is aiming at
building up technical capacity in African Wikimedia communities by
mentoring African developers for Wikidata Tool Development. Wikimedia
Deutschland will support the user group in the implementation of their
project and mentoring program.
Wikimedia Deutschland has been founded in 2004 as a member’s association
and is located in Berlin, Germany. Wikimedia Deutschland support
communities like the Wikipedia community, develop software for Wikimedia
projects and the ecosystem of Free Knowledge, and wants to improve the
political and legal framework for Wikipedia and for Free Knowledge in
general.
Specifically, Wikimedia Deutschland has been working on the development of
Wikidata since 2012. Since then, an active and vibrant community of
volunteer editors and programmers, re-users, data donors, affiliates and
more has formed around Wikidata.
Wikimedia Deutschland will be responsible for the administrative setup of
those collaborations and the communication with Arcadia. We are also happy
to share our experiences and knowledge about establishing software teams,
software development in the Wikidata/Wikibase environment, the Wikidata
community and providing support for emerging tech communities.
If you want to find out more about the partnership, you can read up on this
on our project page on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Software_Collaboration_for_Wikidata>,
where we will keep updating the community on the progress of this
collaboration. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please
use the talk page there to get in contact with us.
We are all excited to see those collaborations coming to life!
With kind regards,
Igbo Wikimedians User Group
Wikimedia Indonesia
Wikimedia Deutschland
--
Maria Heuschkel
Projektmanagerin
Softwareentwicklung
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de
Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit
teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
Hello everyone,
Here are a few updates from the Wikidata development team.
You can find the *development updates of 2022* on this page:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Development_plan/archive2022/status_…
This page will give you an overview of the outcomes of the various
development goals of last year, both for Wikidata as a platform and the
Wikibase ecosystem.
You can find the *development plan for 2023* on this page:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Development_plan This page gives you
an overview of the main goals of the development team, and the activities
we plan to run in the first part of the year (updates will be added
throughout the year).
If you have any *questions or feedback*, feel free to use the related talk
page: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:Development_plan
On behalf of Mohammed that will soon be back and will follow up on this
topic,
Best,
--
Léa Lacroix
Community Engagement & Events Consultant
Contractor for Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Hello all!
The Search Platform Team usually holds an open meeting on the first
Wednesday of each month. Come talk to us about anything related to
Wikimedia search, Wikidata Query Service (WDQS), Wikimedia Commons Query
Service (WCQS), etc.!
Feel free to add your items to the Etherpad Agenda for the next meeting.
Details for our next meeting:
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Time: 16:00-17:00 UTC / 08:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 17:00 CET
Etherpad: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Search_Platform_Office_Hours
Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/vgj-bbeb-uyi
Join by phone: https://tel.meet/vgj-bbeb-uyi?pin=8118110806927
Have fun and see you soon!
Guillaume
--
*Guillaume Lederrey* (he/him)
Engineering Manager
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello all,
Following up on Tajh’s announcement email, the TDMP Retro team would like
to invite you to engage with us on this retro process. As was mentioned,
this retro will open the door for input from varied stakeholders and input
will be requested through multiple venues, to make sure all stakeholders
are able to contribute to the conversation.
As a first step, the core team would like to invite you to read our
planning document
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision…>,
and offer insights
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Technical_decision_making/Technical_Dec…>
on the administrative side of this retro process:
-
Are there any stakeholders we have left out?
-
Any unclear parts of the retro process?
-
What communication channels are important for engagement in the retro
process? Ex: Mailing list, Talk pages, IRC, other?
We will soon start working towards the next steps, which will delve into
the substantive input about the process from all stakeholders.
We are hopeful that this process will enable and encourage all voices to be
heard, and result in valuable insights into the needs and requirements of
the technical community when it comes to decision-making.
You can communicate with us through:
-
The MediaWiki talk page:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision…
-
Phabricator ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333235
-
Core team mailing list: tdf-retro-2023(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Thank you,
Moriel, on behalf of the TDMP Retro Core Group
Core group:
-
Moriel Schottlender (chair)
-
Daniel Kinzler
-
Chris Danis
-
Kosta Harlan
-
Temilola Adeleye
On Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 7:48 AM Tajh Taylor <ttaylor(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> TLDR: The Foundation will be conducting a retrospective on the Technical
> Decision Making Process.
>
> To the entire Wiki technical community,
>
> For quite some time now, we have experienced issues with the Technical
> Decision Making Process (TDMP). Volunteer contributors and staff have asked
> if we are still operating the Technical Decision Forum (TDF, the member
> body that participates in the TDMP). Communication about it from the
> Foundation has been inconsistent, and interest from the volunteer community
> in joining has been low. Some of our most senior engineers on Foundation
> staff have expressed that the process is flawed, doesn’t create room for
> discussion about the technical issues surrounding a decision, and doesn’t
> ensure participation by all stakeholders who may be affected by the
> decision. Suffice it to say, the current state of affairs leaves many
> participants wanting more.
>
> We must also remind ourselves of the purpose of a decision making
> process. The decisions are not meant to be random or isolated. They
> should be aligned to our technical strategy, and we should be able to look
> at the decisions we have made and understand how they advance our progress
> against that strategy. If the process is working as it should, the
> decisions that are produced should represent settled wisdom, and not need
> to be revisited too quickly. The goals for a well-run process include:
>
> -
>
> A straightforward, widely understood decision making process, that
> -
>
> Facilitates impactful technical decisions to be made in a timely
> manner,
> -
>
> Incorporates input from staff and volunteers in our technical
> community, with
> -
>
> Decisions that align with accountability for decision outcomes, and
> -
>
> Clear communication and transparent operations throughout the process.
>
> On examination of the contributing factors that have led us to this point,
> the factor that stands out to me is the need for clear accountability:
> accountability for the TDMP itself and accountability for each of the
> decisions we make. Technical decision making, beyond a certain magnitude,
> is a core organizational process for any engineering organization. It is
> therefore important for us to examine and improve this process from time to
> time to ensure organizational effectiveness. Not unrelated, regular
> retrospectives are a routine agile software engineering practice to enact
> continuous improvement. To keep our decision making process effective and
> efficient, we need to conduct regular retros. Overall accountability for
> maintaining an effective decision making process should rest with a person
> who is sufficiently able to marshal resources and address problems at a
> large scale – here at the Foundation, that resides in the executive level.
>
> The Foundation will be conducting a retro on the TDMP over the next couple
> of months. Because we don’t yet have a habit of doing retros on this
> process, and because there is a wide range of stakeholders we seek to hear
> from, the process will be a bit more structured than an ordinary retro, and
> will take more time. As we do more of these, we should get better at them.
> The feedback gathered through the retro will be used to make changes to
> improve the TDMP.
>
> Foundation staff will follow up with more information about the kickoff of
> the retro and what steps will follow. I am looking forward to wide
> participation in this retro.
>
> Here are the links to the relevant wiki page and Phab ticket:
>
> - Wiki page
> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision…>
> - Phabricator ticket <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333235>
>
> Thank you! And apologies for all the crossposting.
>
> Tajh Taylor (he/him/his)
>
> VP, Data Science & Engineering
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
>
--
Moriel Schottlender (she/her <https://pronoun.is/she>)
Principal System Architect, Architecture Team
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Architecture_Team>
Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/
*Fixing my list addressing errors...*
TLDR: The Foundation will be conducting a retrospective on the Technical
Decision Making Process.
To the entire Wiki technical community,
For quite some time now, we have experienced issues with the Technical
Decision Making Process (TDMP). Volunteer contributors and staff have asked
if we are still operating the Technical Decision Forum (TDF, the member
body that participates in the TDMP). Communication about it from the
Foundation has been inconsistent, and interest from the volunteer community
in joining has been low. Some of our most senior engineers on Foundation
staff have expressed that the process is flawed, doesn’t create room for
discussion about the technical issues surrounding a decision, and doesn’t
ensure participation by all stakeholders who may be affected by the
decision. Suffice it to say, the current state of affairs leaves many
participants wanting more.
We must also remind ourselves of the purpose of a decision making process.
The decisions are not meant to be random or isolated. They should be
aligned to our technical strategy, and we should be able to look at the
decisions we have made and understand how they advance our progress against
that strategy. If the process is working as it should, the decisions that
are produced should represent settled wisdom, and not need to be revisited
too quickly. The goals for a well-run process include:
-
A straightforward, widely understood decision making process, that
-
Facilitates impactful technical decisions to be made in a timely manner,
-
Incorporates input from staff and volunteers in our technical community,
with
-
Decisions that align with accountability for decision outcomes, and
-
Clear communication and transparent operations throughout the process.
On examination of the contributing factors that have led us to this point,
the factor that stands out to me is the need for clear accountability:
accountability for the TDMP itself and accountability for each of the
decisions we make. Technical decision making, beyond a certain magnitude,
is a core organizational process for any engineering organization. It is
therefore important for us to examine and improve this process from time to
time to ensure organizational effectiveness. Not unrelated, regular
retrospectives are a routine agile software engineering practice to enact
continuous improvement. To keep our decision making process effective and
efficient, we need to conduct regular retros. Overall accountability for
maintaining an effective decision making process should rest with a person
who is sufficiently able to marshal resources and address problems at a
large scale – here at the Foundation, that resides in the executive level.
The Foundation will be conducting a retro on the TDMP over the next couple
of months. Because we don’t yet have a habit of doing retros on this
process, and because there is a wide range of stakeholders we seek to hear
from, the process will be a bit more structured than an ordinary retro, and
will take more time. As we do more of these, we should get better at them.
The feedback gathered through the retro will be used to make changes to
improve the TDMP.
Foundation staff will follow up with more information about the kickoff of
the retro and what steps will follow. I am looking forward to wide
participation in this retro.
Here are the links to the relevant wiki page and Phab ticket:
- Wiki page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision…>
- Phabricator ticket <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333235>
Thank you! And apologies for all the crossposting.
Tajh Taylor (he/him/his)
VP, Data Science & Engineering
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi Everyone,
Today, Tuesday, March 28 is the final date of submission.
We are elated to receive more than 300 program proposal submissions for
Wikimania 2023.
This is not just for onsite in Singapore. Please consider submitting a
poster session proposal or a pre-recorded video session format. We love to
see your proposals under these session formats as well!
To submit one, just click the blue button at
https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2023:Program/Submissions
Kind regards,
*Butch Bustria*
Event Lead, ESEAP Wikimania 2023 Core Organizing Team