As some of you know, I have been working on the idea of a multilingual Wikipedia for a few years now. Two other publications on this are here, I have bothered you with mails about it here previously too:
https://research.google/pubs/pub48057/
https://wikipedia20.pubpub.org/pub/vyf7ksah
I've also been giving talks about the topic in several places about this idea, some of them have also been recorded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVA7YLwhTE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLiJ6E9sG6U&list=PLQVG_tuf3Q2fji-CwqEDRJ...
I gathered some awesome feedback in those few years (also from some members of this list, thank you!), and I also implemented a few prototypes trying out the idea, learning a lot from that.
All of this has helped to sharpen the idea and come up with a more concrete proposal. In short, the proposal is that we do a two-step approach: first, allow for capturing Wikipedia content in an abstract notation, and second, allow for creating functions that translate this abstract notation into natural language (For simplicity, I gave this two steps names, Abstract Wikipedia for step 1, and Wikilambda for step 2. I realize that both names are not perfect, but that is just one of the many things that we can figure out together on the way).
I wrote up this proposal in a paper, which I uploaded to my Website almost two weeks ago, and I also submitted it to Arxiv. And as soon as it was published on Arxiv, I wanted to share it with you and see what you folks think (I wanted to wait for it as Arxiv would allow the URLs to remains table - my Website has gone down before and might so again).
https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04733
The new proposal is much more concrete than the previous proposals (and therefore there is much more to criticize). Also, obviously, nothing of this is set in stone, and just like the names, I am very much looking forward to hear suggestions for how to improve the whole thing, and I will blatantly steal every good idea and proposal. I am not even sure what a good venue for this discussion is, I guess, eventually it should be on Meta?, but also about that I would like to hear proposals.
Abstract Wikipedia is a proposed extension to Wikidata that would capture the content next to the Wikidata items. Think of it as a new namespace, where we could create, maintain, and collaborate on the abstract content. Similar to the Wikidata-bridge, there should be a way to allow contributions from the Wikipedias to flow back without too much friction. The individual Wikipedias - and I cannot stress this enough - have the choice to use some or any or all or none of the content from Abstract Wikipedia, but I most definitely do not expect the content of the current Wikipedias to be replaced by this. In fact, I have no doubt that any decent article in any language Wikipedia will remain superior to the outcome of the proposed new architecture by far. This is a proposal for the places where the current system left us with gaps, not a proposal to turn the parts that are already brilliant today dull and terrible tomorrow.
Wikilambda is a proposed new Wikimedia project that allows us to share in a new form of knowledge assets, functions. You can think of it as similar to Modules or Templates, but a bit extended, with places for tests, different languages, evaluation, and also for all kind of functions, not only those that are immediately useful for one of the Wikimedia projects, and most importantly, shared among the projects. So one of the first goals would be to increasingly allow fo a place to have global templates, another idea that has been discussed and asked for for a very long time. Wikilambda, just as Wikidata, is expected to start as a project supporting the immediate needs of the sister projects, and over time to grow to a project that stands on its own merits as well.
We don't really have an effective process for starting new projects, so I am trying to follow a similar path that we took for Wikidata back then. And back then it all started with Markus Krötzsch, me and others talking about the idea to anyone who would listen until everyone was bored of hearing it, trying out prototypes, and then talking about it even more, and improving all of it constantly based on your feedback. And then making increasingly concrete proposals until we managed to show some kind of consensus from the communities, you, and the Foundation to actually do it. And then, well, do it.
So, I've done some of the talking, with researchers, with the public, with some of you, and also with folks at the Foundation, to figure out what next steps could be, and how this can be made to work. Here's a more concrete proposal. Now I am here to see whether we can find consensus and be bold. I want to hear from you. I want to hear what you think what the right place is to discuss this (here, this list? Another mailing list? Meta? Wikidata? Some Telegram or Facebook group? (OK, I was joking about the latter)). Which parts of the proposal are good and which need improvement? Where is more detail or clarification needed to allow for a meaningful discussion?
Just as with Wikipedia and Wikidata and our other projects, this is a crazy idea at first. Maybe even more crazy than our other projects. And the only way there is a chance of us being successful is, if, eventually, thousands of us work together on it. The only way this worked in the past is by being open, start out collaboratively, discuss the path forward, and work towards creating the project together.
Stay safe, Denny