Hello everyone!
We're excited to announce that the next Language Community Meeting is
happening soon - on November 28th at 16:00 UTC! If you’d like to join,
simply sign up on the wiki page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…>
.
This is a participant-driven meeting where we share updates on
language-related projects, discuss technical challenges in language wikis,
and collaborate on solutions. For example, in our upcoming meeting, we plan
to hear from contributors of the Wikitongues project and Fante
Wikimedia Community.
Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a
challenge you need help with, or a request for interpretation support, we’d
love to hear from you! Feel free to reply to this message or add agenda
items to the document here
<https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/language-community-meeting-nov-2025>.
Also, we’d like to highlight that the 9th edition of the Language &
Internationalization Newsletter (October 2025)
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…>
is
now available. This newsletter provides updates from the July–September
2025 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
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Newsletter:Language_and_Internationalization…>
on
its wiki page.
Are you interested in contributing to the technical work around language
development? See a curated list of technical contribution tasks here:
T407935 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T407935>.
We look forward to your ideas and participation at the Language Community
Meeting. See you there!
Cheers,
Srishti
*Srishti Sethi*
Senior Developer Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikibase and Wikidata Communities,
As mentioned in our latest announcements about upcoming strategic changes,
we decided to pour our energy into ecosystem-related activities such as
federation and data governance. As you might know, our Linked Open Data
Strategy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LinkedOpenData/Strategy2021/Wikibase> is
built on the idea that our products are capable of building synergies as
well as growing sustainably.
With this research project, we hope to get a more nuanced understanding of
which projects are perceived to belong into which product category. We aim
to synthesize and map how people currently use the three LOD products, what
their desired use cases are, and where the boundaries between these
platforms may need clarification or additional support.
This process is part of a broader strategy to ensure our hosting
infrastructure remains sustainable and mission-aligned.
A key outcome will be a clearer understanding of:
-
What kinds of projects are best suited for each LOD product
-
Where overlap, duplication, or ambiguity exists
-
How we can make more mission-aligned, predictable decisions on growth
and hosting
Process Design
You will be invited to participate in an asynchronous card sort exercise
where you will be asked to sort imagined projects into four categories:
-
1 - Wikibase Cloud
-
2 - Wikidata
-
3 - Suite or other ways of Wikibase hosting
-
4 - Wikibase is not a suitable software for this use case
Participants will be asked to explain their thought process aloud so that
we can also ensure that we’re considering the full dimensions of each use
case (e.g., technical needs, scope, resource requirements). The results
will inform product strategy across WBC, WBS, and WD—while also offering
key insights into ambivalent or complex areas that require further
discussion.
This approach ensures everyone can participate in their own time, without
needing to attend multiple meetings.
We’re offering two ways to participate:
1. Card Sort Research Activity (Primary Method)
-
Asynchronous (early- mid-July)
-
Approx. 30 minutes
-
No technical expertise required
-
Focused on sorting and classifying use cases
-
Recorded screen and microphone
-
Optional: follow-up interview (if you’d like to talk more)
2. Extended Stakeholder Group (Optional Additional Involvement)
Includes:
-
Asynchronous activity (above)
-
Research insights discussion (synchronous, 30-45 minutes, end of July)
-
Async policy draft review (end of August)
-
Group session (August, 1.5–2 hours)
Total time: ~3.5 hours
Compensation: 35 EUR (if eligible)
Participation
We aim to recruit at least 30, ideally up to 50 community members across
the LOD ecosystem to participate in the research activities, including:
-
Wikibase Cloud users
-
Self-hosted Wikibase users
-
Wikidata users who are invested in the broader Wikibase ecosystem.
-
At least 10 marginalized knowledge holders
Join us!
We will send a link to participate in the card-sort within the next week.
If you would like to participate in the Extended Stakeholder Group, please
reach out to us via email: annie.kim(a)wikimedia.de. We will share the
opportunities as they come up, likely at the end of July and the end of
August, respectively.
Thank you for your continued care and contributions. We're looking forward
to exploring this research with you! :)
On behalf of the Linked Open Data Ecosystem,
Valerie Wollinger (She/Her)
Community Communications Manager Wikibase
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30-577 11 62-0https://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! 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
Vorständin: Franziska Heine
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…
Hello, we would like to speak with AI or ML developers, data scientists,
engineers or those with experience with embeddings, LLMs, knowledge graphs,
or any kind of semantic or meaning-based search.
We are arranging *30-minute interviews* to better understand:
- What do AI/ML developers need from a meaning-based search for Wikidata
- Which features and filters matter most to you
- How would you use the results in your AI or data workflows
*Interested?* Then please book a chat with us:
https://greatquestion.co/wikimediadeutschland/sa00xu39
After completion, someone will shortly be in touch.
No interview preparation is required (just your experience with AI, ML, or
data workflows). While helpful, no prior knowledge of Wikidata or vector
search is necessary.
("What's a Wikidata Vector Database?" I hear you say...)
Play with it here: Wikidata Search <https://wd-vectordb.wmcloud.org/>
Read about it here: Wikidata:Embedding Project
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Embedding_Project>
Thank you!
--
*Danny Benjafield*
Community Communications Manager
Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30-577 11 62-0
https://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! 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
Dear community members,
We would like to inform you that the *Revitalising UK History 2:
Multilingual Expansion
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Revitalizing_UK_History_2>* online
event has been *rescheduled* due to ongoing technical issues with the Programs
& Events Dashboard. <https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/>
*New Date & Time:*
*Saturday, 17 January 2026*
4:00–6:00 PM (Nigeria / Africa–Lagos)
3:00–5:00 PM (UK time)
This upcoming session will focus on improving the multilingual coverage of
underrepresented UK historical figures on Wikidata. We will be working on
enhancing descriptions in languages such as Welsh, Scots, Cornish, Gaelic,
Manx Gaelic, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, French, Spanish, and more.
You can find the updated event page and registration details here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Revitalizing_UK_History_2
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to having you join us
for this important editing and learning session.
Warm regards,
*Josef Anthony*
Event Coordinator
Idoko Joseph (JosefAnthony)
Wikimedia Volunteer | Open Knowledge Advocate
*View my contributions
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JosefAnthony/Contributions>*
https://github.com/WolfgangFahl/snapquery provides
FAIR Management of Query Sets to Mitigate Query Rot in Knowledge Graphs.
snapquery hides the technical details of queries.
You can just run
snapquery cats --limit 3
[
{
"item": "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q378619",
"itemLabel": "Q378619"
},
{
"item": "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q498787",
"itemLabel": "Muezza"
},
{
"item": "http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q677525",
"itemLabel": "Orangey"
}
]
https://github.com/WolfgangFahl/snapquery/issues/56 calls for
implementing tiny subsets of Wikidata such as
# countries and capitals
# timezones
# airports
# languages
# units
as https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T329368 outlines.
With snapquery, each of these subsets just needs a proper name and query
definition, and you can run the query to get the list and cache it
locally as YAML, JSON, CSV, etc.
Creating the envisioned GitHub project should be much easier these days,
and with combined community and AI support, we should quickly be able to
pull this off.
If you'd like to participate, please comment on the Phabricator task.
Wolfgang and Tim
--
BITPlan - smart solutions
Wolfgang Fahl
Web:http://www.bitplan.de
BITPlan GmbH, Willich - HRB 6820 Krefeld, Steuer-Nr.: 10258040548, Geschäftsführer: Wolfgang Fahl