Forwarding to additional lists which may have interested subscribers.
Thanks, Halley. :)
Pine🌲
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Halley Coplin via Wiki-research-l <wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
Date: Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Subject: [Wiki-research-l] Published: API Strategy Brief
To: <mediawiki-api-announce(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikitech-l <
wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, <wiki-research-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: Halley Coplin <hcoplin(a)wikimedia.org>
Hello and happy Friday!
An API Strategy Brief is now published on mediawiki.org:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Product_Insights/Artifacts/API_Str…
This strategy brief covers the direction we're taking Wikimedia's API
ecosystem over the next few years, including touching on topics like: why
APIs
are so important for powering the future of Wikimedia projects, how the
current landscape has grown fragmented and hard to navigate, what we're
doing to make it more consistent and better documented, and where community
developers fit in.
The strategy is written for and applies to anyone building on top of
Wikimedia APIs
<
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Product_Insights/Artifacts/API_Per…
>,
not just internal teams. This strategy was also predominantly informed by
conversations with Wikimedian developers through Listening Tours, Hackathon
engagements, and more, so I'd like to continue that trend and make sure our
strategy reflects what the community actually needs.
If you have thoughts, questions, or concerns, please feel free to post to
the talk page, or message me directly via email, Discord, Telegram, smoke
signals, or however else you'd like to get in touch.
Thanks!
Halley
[PS]: I am also starting to work on a companion doc that goes deeper into
our AI + API strategy, specifically. If that's a space that interests you,
or if you increasingly feel like you identify as a 'vibe coder', I'd love
to talk! :) Feel free to grab time on my calendar
<https://calendar.app.google/B6SBKQVgK7CQ8VXy9>, send your thoughts through
email, or comment on the talk page for the API Strategy Brief.
*Halley Coplin* (she/her)
Sr. Product Manager, MediaWiki Interfaces
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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Hello everyone,
The next Language Community Meeting is happening soon, on Friday, August
28th at 15:00 UTC! If you would 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 for sharing updates on
language-related projects, discussing technical challenges in language
wikis, and collaborating on solutions. In the upcoming meeting, we’ll hear
from Owobusingye <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Owobusingye> about
efforts to develop the Runyankore Wikipedia, a language spoken by over 3
million people in southwestern Uganda whose Wikipedia recently graduated
from the Incubator. We’ll also hear from DaSupremo
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:DaSupremo> about the localization of
Wikimedia features for Ghanaian language Wikipedias.
Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a
challenge you need help with 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-aug-2026>.
The 11th edition of the Language & Internationalization Newsletter (July
2026)
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…>
is
also now available. This newsletter provides updates from the April–June
2026 quarter, including new feature development, improvements across
various language-related projects and support efforts, details about
community meetings, and ideas for contributing to projects.
We look forward to your ideas and participation at the Language Community
Meeting. See you there!
Feel free to translate this message into your local language and share it
on your village pump or other community channels to help spread the word.
Cheers,
Srishti & Sadik
Srishti Sethi (she / her)
Senior Developer Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
(Copying this discussion from Wikimedia-l to the more specific email list
Wikidata-l.)
Hi Vahid, if you don't get answers to your remaining questions on
Wikidata-l then I suggest asking on
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat. Even if there was not
an external project involved, there probably are people who are interested
in data quality and language accessibility including Arabic translations,
and who may be willing to assist.
Regards,
Pine🌲
On Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 12:11 PM Lydia Pintscher via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hi Vahid,
>
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2026 at 8:05 PM Vahid Shaik via Wikimedia-l
> <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I run an Arabic-first prayer-times site (https://waqtazan.com). It is
> not a
> > Wikimedia project, but it leans on open geodata, and I have hit a gap I
> > suspect this community knows more about than I do.
>
> Great to hear!
>
> > We publish one server-rendered page per city, in Arabic. Our rule is
> that a
> > city ships only if it has a verified Arabic name — we never machine-
> > transliterate one, because a wrong place name in Arabic is worse than an
> > absent city. That rule is expensive: a large share of our live names
> still
> > fall back to GeoNames, which is inconsistent for Arabic, and cities
> without
> > a trustworthy name are simply excluded.
> >
> > Wikidata is the obvious candidate source. Before I lean on it, three
> > questions:
> >
> > 1. How reliable are Wikidata `ar` labels for settlements in practice? My
> > worry is that many are bot-imported transliterations rather than the
> > endonym a local reader would recognise. Is there a way to tell the two
> > apart at scale?
> >
> > 2. Labels are CC0, so there is no legal attribution duty. But what is the
> > community norm for a project reusing them at this scale? I would
> rather
> > over-credit than under-credit, and I would like to do it the way the
> > movement expects.
>
> Please see
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Data_access#Data_best_practices
> for an answer to this.
>
> > 3. Is anyone already working on Arabic labels for settlements outside the
> > Arab world — Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, West Africa? That is exactly
> > where our coverage thins out, and if there is an existing effort I
> would
> > rather contribute to it than duplicate it.
> >
> > Happy to be told I am framing any of this wrong.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Vahid
> > https://waqtazan.com
>
> Cheers
> Lydia
>
> --
> Lydia Pintscher - https://lydiapintscher.de - WD:Q18016466
> Portfolio Lead for Wikidata
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
> Phone: +49 30 5771162-0
> https://wikimedia.de
>
> 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
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> Vorständin: Franziska Heine.
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> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hello everyone,
The next Language Community Meeting is happening soon, on Friday, August
28th at 15:00 UTC! If you would 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 for sharing updates on
language-related projects, discussing technical challenges in language
wikis, and collaborating on solutions. In the upcoming meeting, we’ll hear
from Owobusingye <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Owobusingye> about
efforts to develop the Runyankore Wikipedia, a language spoken by over 3
million people in southwestern Uganda whose Wikipedia recently graduated
from the Incubator. We’ll also hear from DaSupremo
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:DaSupremo> about the localization of
Wikimedia features for Ghanaian language Wikipedias.
Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a
challenge you need help with 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-aug-2026>.
The 11th edition of the Language & Internationalization Newsletter (July
2026)
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/…>
is also now available. This newsletter provides updates from the April–June
2026 quarter, including new feature development, improvements across
various language-related projects and support efforts, details about
community meetings, and ideas for contributing to projects.
We look forward to your ideas and participation at the Language Community
Meeting. See you there!
Feel free to translate this message into your local language and share it
on your village pump or other community channels to help spread the word.
Cheers,
Srishti & Sadik
Srishti Sethi (she / her)
Senior Developer Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>