On Thu, Sep 5, 2024 at 8:15 PM Physikerwelt <wiki(a)physikerwelt.de> wrote:
>
> Dear Luca,
>
> the communication was good I think.
>
> However, I don't understand the decision process. Who is the
> responsible person, e.g., the product manager, who eventually decided
> to cut WDQS into pieces?
>
> Moritz
The decision was defined together by the Search Team at Wikimedia
Foundation and the people in charge of Wikidata at Wikimedia
Deutschland. In particular, Lydia Pintscher is ultimately responsible
for all Wikidata product decisions at WMDE.
I would like to stress how this decision was not taken lightheartedly.
It's been three years that we know that Blazegraph is on the verge of
failing, we wrote a playbook in case of dramatic failure,[1] and we
evaluated several alternatives to Blazegraph,[2] each with its pros
and cons.
While evaluating which way to go, knowing that no solution would be a
"magic wand" that would magically solve all our problems - in fact, no
"magic solution" exists, each comes with its load of problems and
costs - we came to terms with the fact that we needed more time and
the split was a harsh, but ultimately effective solution to buy some
time in the transition to the next backend.
Hope this helps.
L.
[1] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/WDQS_backend_up…
[2] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:SPARQL_query_service/WDQS_backend_up…
*Registration for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon is now open! *
*(with apologies for cross-posting)*
The annual Wikimedia Hackathon
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025> is organized by
the Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> in
collaboration with Wikimedia User Group Turkey (WMTR)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Turkey> and
will be taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, from May 2nd through May 4th,
2025 at the Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel
<https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/istrn-renaissance-polat-istanbul-hote…>
.
The Hackathon is an on-site, in-person event. Those people who cannot
attend the Hackathon in-person will be able to follow some of the program
content online, but should not register using the link provided below. More
information will be provided closer to the event on how to participate
remotely. Registration will be open until mid April 2025, or until we reach
event capacity.
The Hackathon event is free for all* to attend *and each person that
attends the Hackathon is required to register.
- Catering (lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks) will be provided during the
event.
- Covid-related equipment will also be available upon request (e.g. self
test kits and masks).
- We’ll have discounted room codes for those that want to stay at the hotel
venue, to be announced in the coming weeks.
- Check if your passport is up to date and if you will need a visa (or an
e-visa) to travel to Turkey, citizens of most countries can apply for an e-visa
online <https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa>.
Participants are expected to book their own travel arrangements and
accommodation. However, the Wikimedia Foundation is offering to take care
of travel and accommodation for a limited number of scholars and you will
be able to apply for a scholarship during the registration process.
Scholarship applicants - please note:
-
*Scholarship application and Wikimedia Foundation staff sponsorship will
only be available to request until December 10th, 2024. *
-
Priority will be given to scholars who can mentor or support in areas
of high demand and staff with ambitious or impactful projects.
-
Those that have requested a scholarship or sponsorship will be notified
by mid to late December 2024 about the status of their application.
-
All scholarships provided will adhere to the WMF travel policy
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Scholarship_travel_policy>
guidelines.
*Scholarship to this event will cover:*
-
Roundtrip airfare between your city of residence and Istanbul, Turkey -
arriving on May 1, 2025 and departing on May 5, 2025.
-
Private accommodation at the conference hotel for up to 4 nights
-
Medical Insurance Coverage for any scholars traveling outside of their
home country. (Scholars local to Turkey will need to use their regular
insurance coverage.).
-
Airport transfers between the Istanbul Airport (IST) and the conference
hotel.
-
All meals will be provided for the duration of the event (lunch, drinks,
snacks, and dinner will be provided on event days; breakfast will be
provided by the hotel for guests staying there). In addition, dinner will
be provided on Thursday before the Hackathon officially kicks off.
-
Fees associated with obtaining a visa to travel to Turkey (visa
application fees, and travel to in-person travel visa appointment (if
needed)).
-
Citizens of most countries can apply for an e-visa online
<https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa>.
*Scholarship to this event will not cover:*
-
Per diem costs on travel days.
-
Ground transportation costs between your residence and home airport.
-
Insurance for your personal possessions.
The Hackathon registration form runs on Pretix (a free, open-sourced
third-party platform that helps organize and manage events) which may
subject your data to additional terms <https://pretix.eu/about/en/privacy>.
For more information on WMF’s privacy and data-handling for the Hackathon,
please read the privacy statement
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Wikimedia_Hackathon_Privacy_Sta…>
.
<https://pretix.eu/wikimedia/hackathon2025>
If you encounter any issues while registering, or have questions about the
registration process, feel free to contact the coordination team at
hackathon(a)wikimedia.org.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello,
Last week, we announced that a limited release of the “default values for
all languages” feature—introducing the language code "mul" for labels and
aliases—will soon be coming to Wikidata. We are currently working on
improvements for “mul” in the Termbox on Item pages. We’ve already received
feedback from some of you on the discussion pages, but we’d also love to
hear from those who prefer to *provide* *anonymous feedback*.
Please share your thoughts on this 5-10 minute anonymous survey until
August 4: https://wikimedia.sslsurvey.de/Wikidata-default-values-feedback
If you have any questions or concerns feel free to let us know in this
Phabricator ticket (phab:T356169 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T356169>
)
Many thanks for your time.
-Mohammed
On Mon, Jul 22, 2024 at 10:03 AM Mohammed Sadat Abdulai <
mohammed.abdulai(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
> *(This [SIGNIFICANT Change Announcement] is relevant for all Wikidata
> users working with Labels and Aliases.)*
>
> Hello,
>
> You may recall our previous announcement
> <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org/me…>
> inviting you to test out the “default values for all languages” feature,
> introducing the language code "mul" for labels and aliases, on
> https://test.wikidata.org. I'm pleased to announce that we are now
> proceeding with a limited release on Wikidata. This feature will be
> available for testing starting July 29.
>
> Note of Caution and Tips for Testing
>
>
> -
>
> To try out the new feature during this limited release, you need to
> add the language code “mul” to your Babel boxes
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Userboxes#Babel>. A full
> release will follow on the week of August 12, displaying default values to
> everyone by default.
> -
>
> Please refrain from starting any Bot-runs for mul during the limited
> release. We will use this limited release to test the performance and
> verify that everything works as planned. Bot-runs for mul should only
> commence after the full feature is released.
> -
>
> Please also test the help page
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help:Default_values_for_labels_and_aliases>
> explaining how to use the feature. It will be important to get this help
> page right, as the full release will initially contain an onboarding
> element that guides people to this help page.
>
>
> I would like to thank everyone who has participated in the previous
> testing phases or provided feedback thus far. We are eager to hear more
> from you during this limited release. Please do not hesitate to reach out
> with questions or concerns on the talk page of the Help page
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>,
> or for technical details, in this Phabricator ticket (phab:T356169
> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T356169>)
>
> There has also been some discussion on the help page
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>
> regarding the copy used for the language. We would like to reach a
> consensus before the full release. Join the discussion to add your thoughts
> and input on the thread. This week, a survey will be included in the Weekly
> Summary for those who prefer to provide anonymous feedback.
>
> Cheers!
>
>
> -Mohammed
>
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 9:00 AM Mohammed Sadat Abdulai <
> mohammed.abdulai(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
>
>> (This announcement is relevant for all Wikidata users working with Labels
>> and Aliases.)
>>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> We're excited to invite you to participate in the community testing of
>> the “default values for labels and aliases” feature. Based on a
>> long-standing community request around language fallback (T285156
>> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T285156>), and based on your feedback
>> from our previous announcement
>> <https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org/me…>,
>> we are currently testing this feature on https://test.wikidata.org
>> <https://test.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42> with the release planned for Q1
>> 2024.
>>
>> What is coming?
>>
>> 1.
>>
>> Default values for labels and aliases (mul): Items that repeat the
>> same label and aliases over and over are hard to maintain and can strain
>> our infrastructure, especially the Wikidata Query Service. As a solution,
>> we are introducing the option for default values in the termbox. The
>> default values are considered in the language fallback chain (language code
>> “mul”).
>>
>>
>>
>> 2.
>>
>> Visualisation of the language fallback chain: Previously, Wikidata’s
>> fallback chain was not visible in the user interface, making it challenging
>> to determine if additional information was needed. As a first step toward
>> improvement, we will now clearly show what content is already available via
>> language fallback in the placeholders for labels (including default values).
>>
>>
>> We need your feedback
>>
>> Please leave your feedback on Help talk:Default values for labels and
>> aliases
>> <https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Help_talk:Default_values_for_lab…>.
>> Your feedback will play a crucial role in verifying if the current version
>> is ready for Wikidata. Additionally, you can find some test Items, known
>> limitations and open questions there for you to review. We will analyze
>> your feedback one week after today's announcement.
>>
>> The next steps
>>
>> After you have left your feedback, please make sure that the guidelines
>> on Help:Default values for labels and aliases
>> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help:Default_values_for_labels_and_aliases>
>> are ready for the launch. You can also already plan bot-runs for mul,
>> but please be sure to start with uncontroversial cases. If there are no
>> blockers, we will then prepare a limited release on Wikidata in the
>> coming weeks. The limited release will only be visible if you put mul in
>> your Babel boxes. We will use this limited release to test the performance
>> and verify that everything works as planned. Please don’t start any
>> bot-runs for mul during the limited release. A full release will follow
>> a few weeks later, displaying default values for everyone by default, and
>> featuring an onboarding element that will guide people to the help page.
>> Bot-runs for mul can commence at this stage.
>>
>> Do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns in the talk page
>> of the help page
>> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Help_talk:Default_values_for_labels_and_alias…>
>> and for technical details in this Phabricator ticket (T356169
>> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T356169>).
>>
>>
>> Thank you for your support!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> --
>> Mohammed Sadat Abdulai
>> *Community Communications Manager, Wikidata*
>>
>> Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
>> Phone: +49 (0) 30 577 116 2466
>> https://wikimedia.de
>>
>> Grab a spot in my calendar for a chat: calendly.com/masssly.
>>
>> A lot is happening around Wikidata - Keep up to date!
>> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates> Current news and
>> exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our
>> newsletter (in German): Subscribe now
>> <https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/>.
>>
>> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
>> sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!
>> https://spenden.wikimedia.de
>>
>> Wikimedia Deutschland — Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
>> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg, VR 23855 B.
>> Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin,
>> Steuernummer 27/029/42207. Geschäftsführende Vorstände: Franziska Heine,
>> Dr. Christian Humborg
>>
>
Hello all,
I'm happy to announce that we started preparing our next Wikidata community
online event: the *Data Reuse Days 2025
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:Data_Reuse_Days_2025>*.
The event will be focusing on *how people and organizations use Wikidata's
data to build interesting applications and tools*. It aims to bring
together data reusers and editors to learn from each other and discover
cool Wikidata-powered applications. We will also cover technical aspects of
Wikidata and share research and ideas for the future of reusing Wikidata’s
data.
The event is taking place *online*, we will have sessions taking place
during *periods of 2 hours through 8 days: from February 18 to 27, 2025*.
You will be able to join sessions live, or to watch the replay later on.
You will find the schedule below on this page. The sessions take place in
English, and are open to everyone interested in the topic of data reuse.
We are welcoming proposals from Wikidata editors and reusers who want to
showcase their applications or facilitate discussions! You can *propose
sessions on the talk page until January 12th
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event_talk:Data_Reuse_Days_2025>*. We will
then select some of them and add them to the schedule. We are especially
welcoming demos of tools or applications using Wikidata's data, discussions
between editors and reusers, and technical presentations.
While waiting for the event to take place, you can also rewatch some
sessions from our last edition in 2022
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLduaHBu_3ejNaZk15ybdHNWY8z-FyunRm>.
If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to write on the talk
page or to reach out to me directly.
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, December 4, 2024
Time: 16:00-17:00 UTC / 08:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 17:00 CEST
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 everyone,
The next language community meeting is scheduled for a few weeks from
now—on November 29th at 16:00 UTC (Zonestamp! For your timezone <
https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1732896000>). If you're interested in
joining, you can sign up on this wiki page: <
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…
>.
This participant-driven meeting will be organized by the Wikimedia
Foundation’s Language Product Localization team and the Language Diversity
Hub. There will be presentations on topics like developing language
keyboards, the creation of the Moore Wikipedia, and the language support
track at Wiki Indaba. We will also have members from the Wayuunaiki
community joining us to share their experiences with the Incubator and as a
new community within our movement. This meeting will have a Spanish
interpretation.
Additionally, we wanted to highlight that the fifth edition of the Language
& Internationalization newsletter (October 2024) is available here: <
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…>.
This newsletter provides updates from the July–September 2024 quarter on
new feature development, improvements in various language-related technical
projects and support efforts, details about community meetings, and ideas
for contributing to projects. To stay updated, you can subscribe to the
newsletter on its wiki page: <
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…
>.
Looking forward to seeing you at the language community meeting!
Cheers,
Srishti & Oscar
*Srishti Sethi*
Senior Developer Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello, everyone –
We have our next LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group Session on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 17:00 UTC / 6pm CET (Time zone converter<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1733245200>).
If you anticipate attending the workshop sessions, please fill out this brief survey<https://forms.gle/tQqQiEt41uCmkiSZ6> to help us prepare relevant materials for you. You only need to fill it out once, no matter how many sessions you plan to attend.
Wikimedian Mahir Morshed is leading a series of four sessions focused on lexicographical data<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Lexicographical_data/Documentation> in Wikidata. We are looking forward to learning more about these Wikibase entities! Sessions will be held on November 5, November 19, December 3, and December 17, 2024 at our regular time of 9am PT / 12pm ET / 17:00 UTC / 6pm CET.
Here is the plan for the series sessions:
Session 1 (November 5)
This first session started with an introduction and discussion of the multitudes of uses for Wikidata’s lexicographical data, with specific examples and motivations provided for each use case, and ended with a listing of specific actions that can be taken depending on the language an editor wishes to improve. The remaining workshop sessions will elaborate on these actions.
Session 2 (November 19)
Working session covering ways to improve existing lexemes and tools to find lexemes to create
Session 3 (December 3)
Working session covering how modeling parts of complex lexemes in one language can be used to improve Wikidata’s ability to express concepts in other languages
Session 4 (December 17)
Working session covering how sentences can be modeled and formed using Wikidata lexemes and items
The call details are below. Working sessions will not be recorded, but demos and how-to sections will be made available as recordings. To receive notifications about upcoming calls and session information you can subscribe to the <https://groups.google.com/d/forum/ld4-wikidata> ld4-wikidata Google Group<https://groups.google.com/d/forum/ld4-wikidata>.
Call Details:
Date and Time: Tuesday, 3 December, 2024 at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 17:00 UTC / 6pm CET (Time zone converter<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1733245200>)
Zoom link to join meeting:
https://washington.zoom.us/j/99751624871?pwd=9aP5kaCixHlMRwCbppaZHitt8Un3wZ…
Meeting ID: 997 5162 4871
Passcode: 113059
Series event page: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Gr…
The LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group is associated with the LD4 Community and investigates how libraries can contribute to and better integrate library metadata with Wikidata to improve access to library resources on the web. The Affinity Group calls provide an informal space to share information and learn more about Wikidata.
Communication:
Ld4-wikidata Google group: <https://groups.google.com/d/forum/ld4-wikidata> https://groups.google.com/d/forum/ld4-wikidata
#wikidata channel on LD4 Slack: <https://ld4.slack.com/> https://ld4.slack.com/
Website: <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Gr…> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Gr…
On behalf of the LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group co-facilitators,
Hilary Thorsen
Resource Sharing Librarian
Stanford Libraries
thorsenh(a)stanford.edu
650-285-9429
Hello! *(with apologies for cross-posting)*
The annual Wikimedia Hackathon
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025> is organized by
the Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> in
collaboration with Wikimedia User Group Turkey (WMTR)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Turkey> and
will be taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, from May 2nd through May 4th,
2025.
Collaboration will happen - in person!
The Hackathon is an on-site, in-person event. Be sure to confirm if your
passport is up to date and has validity at least up to 6 months after the
event. Check to see if you can apply for an e-visa online
<https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa>, otherwise,
you’ll need a visa to be issued by your country to travel into Turkey.
Those people who cannot attend the Hackathon in-person will be able to
follow some of the program content online, but should not register using
the link provided below. More information will be provided closer to the
event on how to participate remotely.
Participants are expected to book their own travel arrangements and
accommodation. However, the Wikimedia Foundation is offering to take care
of travel and accommodation for a limited number of scholars.
Scholarship / sponsorship applicants - please note:
-
Scholarship application and Wikimedia Foundation staff sponsorship will
only be available to request through December 10th, 2024.
-
Priority will be given to those scholars who can mentor and/or
support in areas of high demand and those WMF staff with ambitious or
impactful projects.
-
All scholarships provided will adhere to the WMF travel policy
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Scholarship_travel_policy>
guidelines.
-
As a reminder, "no shows” may permanently impact a scholarship
recipients' eligibility to receive a future travel scholarship from the
Wikimedia Foundation.
-
More detailed information on what is covered by a scholarship / staff
sponsorship is available online
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025/Participants#Welcom…!>.
Those that have requested a scholarship or WMF sponsorship will be notified
by mid to late December 2024 about the status of their application.
Let us know if you’ll be attending by registering now
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025/Participants#Regist…>
!
The Hackathon registration form runs on Pretix (a free, open-sourced
third-party platform that helps organize and manage events) which may
subject your data to additional terms <https://pretix.eu/about/en/privacy>.
For more information on WMF’s privacy and data-handling for the Hackathon,
please read the privacy statement
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Wikimedia_Hackathon_Privacy_Sta…>
.
If you encounter any issues while registering, or have questions about the
registration process, feel free to contact the coordination team at
hackathon(a)wikimedia.org.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation