*(Cross-posting from Wikimedia-l, Wikitech-l, langdivhub-com)*
Hello everyone!
We're excited to announce that the next *Language Community Meeting* is
happening soon, *May 30th at 15:00 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. In our upcoming meeting, we plan to cover
results from a recent language onboarding experiment and hear experiences
from a Nigerian contributor who contributes to the Obolo wiki, which was
part of this experiment.
*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-may-2025>.
Also, we wanted to highlight that the 7th edition of the *Language &
Internationalization newsletter (April 2025)* is available here: *Wikimedia
Language and Product Localization/Newsletter/2025/April*
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Language_and_Pr…>.
This newsletter provides updates from the January–March 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 on its wiki page: *Wikimedia Language and Product
Localization/Newsletter*
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Newsletter:Language_and_I…>
.
Would you be interested in contributing to the technical workaround
language development? There is a newcomer-friendly core namespace-related
task waiting for your contribution: *T391725*
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T391725>.
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/>
Hello
The Editing team works on a new check
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Edit_check>: *Peacock check*.
The goal is to detect when a user adds promotional or non-neutral wording
to their Wikipedia edit: the visual editor would advise them to change
their text for better terms. The final goals are:
- to have more qualitative edits being published,
- to have fewer edits being edited or reverted by experienced editors,
- newcomers who learn about encyclopedic wording.
As we plan to use a model
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning#Models> to identify these
terms, we are compiling "signals" used on Wikipedia for
edits/sentences/paragraphs/sections/articles/etc. that contain non-neutral
language. We are looking in particular for:
- templates used to tag articles or elements within articles that are
promotional or not neutral,
- jargon and terms used in edit summaries when one edits or removes
promotional or non-neutral language,
- policies communities refer to when they explain what neutrality is.
We target the following Wikipedias: en, fr, de, es, ja, ru, pt, it, zh, fa,
pl, ar, nl, uk, ro, id, he, no, he, tr, cs.
To participate, please edit the following Phabricator task to directly add
your language: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T389445
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T389445>, or you can respond to me
directly.
If you have any questions, please let me know! :)
All the best,
Benoît
--
Benoît Evellin - Trizek (he/him)
Senior Movement Communications Specialist (Product & Tech)
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
*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