New subject: [Wikimedia-l] Toolhub 1.0 is launched! Discover software tools used at Wikimedia

14 Oct 2021

Hi All,

We are happy to announce the launch of Toolhub
<https://toolhub.wikimedia.org/> – a community-authored catalogue that aims
to make software tools
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub#What_is_a_%22tool%22?> used in the
Wikimedia movement discoverable to everyone.

Community developed tools – including web applications, bots, gadgets, user
scripts, lua modules, and more – play a significant role in the Wikimedia
projects. These software applications address a wide range of use cases
including finding bad faith edits and other content curation, bulk editing,
collecting statistical information, creating special citations, and much
more. About ⅓ of all edits are made by bots and tools. In addition,
semi-automated edits are helped by user scripts, gadgets, and other editing
assistance tools that run from the user's local computer or directly inside
the wikis. There are thousands of tools available, but how can you find
them?

With Toolhub, you can document and find tools
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub>, promote their use in your wiki
community, and help improve them by contributing data. You can create and
share lists of tools relevant to your work - for example, for GLAM tools,
or for wiki projects such as Women in Red.

This first release provides a core set of functionalities
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub/Roadmap>, and contains an initial
data set of about 1500 tools. Most of the initial tools in the catalog are
imported from the same data files developers have created for Hay's
Directory <https://hay.toolforge.org/directory/> which has been a major
inspiration for Toolhub.

Toolhub serves developers and users of tools alike. It is part of our
efforts to improve the infrastructure and services for technical
contributors, captured under one of Technology’s top level objectives in
the FY 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 annual plans: Tech Community Building
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technology/Annual_Plans/ERF_OKR:_Tech_Community_Building>.
We hope to continue conversations with developers and users of tools, plan
to improve Toolhub, and to further expand the functionality.

A collaborative system and open developer platform

Toolhub is built as an API driven platform that makes it possible to extend
and remix the catalogue, and to make collecting and reusing information
about tools as open and collaborative as we can. Everything that can be
done interactively with the Toolhub website can also be done remotely
through the API. We would love to hear from technical contributors
interested in using the Toolhub API
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Toolhub#API-use> to build new tools
that make new ways to add or consume information from Toolhub's catalog.

Our decision record
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub/Decision_record> and weekly
progress reports <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub/Progress_reports>
on Meta provide more insights in technical implementation details and
decisions made throughout the development process. The Toolhub/About page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolhub/About> provides information on
project origin, research, use cases, data model, and roadmap. This recording
from a lightning talk at ‘21 Wikimania
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2hNm7bKjDo> gives an overview of the main
aspects in 10 minutes.

Thank you <3

This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support, knowledge,
ideas and prior work of many. One of the nicest side-effects of a release
is that it’s a great opportunity to thank folks for their time and
contributions :-)

   -

   Husky <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Husky>, whose Hay's Directory
   <https://hay.toolforge.org/directory/> provided the foundation for the
   data model used by Toolhub and inspired some of its features.
   -

   Harej <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Harej>, for his invaluable
   contributions in the early stages of the Toolhub project.
   -

   Our 'advisory board' - Giuseppe
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:GLavagetto_(WMF)> (SRE), Risker
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Risker> (editor, admin), Reedy
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Reedy_(WMF)> (Security), Keegan
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan_(WMF)> (Community
   Relations), and Eran
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%9F> (volunteer
   developer & RTL expert) for providing their perspectives on key questions
   throughout the development process.
   -

   Giuseppe, Kunal <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Legoktm>, Manuel
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MArostegui_(WMF)>, Effie
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:EMouzeli_(WMF)>, Cole
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:CWhite_(WMF)> and Emanuele
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ERocca_(WMF)> from SRE and Majavah
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Majavah> for their help on finding
   and resolving deployment issues.
   -

   Dan <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Dzduvall> and Jeena
   <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:JHuneidi_(WMF)> from Release
   Engineering for help with build tooling.
   -

   Guillaume <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:GLederrey_(WMF)> and the
   rest of the Search Platform team for supporting our search index needs.
   -

   Manuel for supporting our database needs.
   -

   Niklas <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nlaxstrom-WMF> and the
   whole translatewiki.net community for help with localization and
   internationalization.
   -

   Rita <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RHo_(WMF)>, Olga
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:OTichonova_(WMF)>, Alex
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AHollender_(WMF)>, and Matthew
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MWilliams_(WMF)> from the Product
   Design <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Design> team for their feedback
   on the Toolhub user interface.
   -

   Scott <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:SBassett_(WMF)> from the
   Security team for our security readiness review.
   -

   Amire <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Amire80>, Kunal, Eran, Reedy,
   and Dan for contributing code to the project.
   -

   Ricordisamoa <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ricordisamoa>, Quim
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Qgil-WMF>, and the people
   participating in conversations on wikitech-l

<https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/KQ2KX4QW23TSIHS2NV4SXQKYK7J5A4JL/#6FSJO32PAHWBJZYMAB46WAZPZIP3H6FJ>
   for T115650 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T115650> which inspired
   this whole project.
   -

   Finally, a huge thanks to all the folks who gave input and feedback on
   the talk page, in Phabricator, and at sessions - this is really
   appreciated!

We hope that this new resource will be fun to explore, inspire you with new
ideas, and ultimately be useful for your work.

Feedback, bug reports, ideas and questions are more than welcome on the talk
page of the project <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Toolhub>, or in
Phabricator <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/3224/>. Bryan
(tech lead) & Seve (our new Product Manager) will be there to chat with
interested folks and help with any questions. We are looking forward to
evolving this project step-by-step and jointly with everyone!

Birgit – on behalf of Technical Engagement & our Toolhub project team

-- 
Birgit Müller (she/her)
Director of Technical Engagement

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>