Hey Amir! Thanks for your questions. It’s sunday (for me 0400 on a Monday) and a mailing list isn’t the right venue for a full detailed explanation for this but I’ll give a little background.
James is correct that the work in this area is coming out of the strategy process and the recommendations it produced [1] [2] and is part of broad improvements we are aiming to make to Wikimedia APIs. [3] We are aiming to improve the experience for both free knowledge and community users, along with large scale users. Many of the people working on this are brand new (just a few weeks in) and just getting their feet under the table. Right now they are just experimenting on concepts relating to the data “, as part of their onboarding and their early research work to understand the problems and challenges. Everything is “early days” as they say. There is a lot to learn and work on, and right now none of it is set in stone. Even the name is mainly a placeholder (Bulk API might be a more accurate description). The feedback and concerns that were provided during the strategy process will be required reading and will help guide us initially. We will definitely need to seek the expertise and insight of our communities both editing and technical to ensure it is not just successful but in keeping with our movement's ideals. The community can expect to see requests for input and feedback in the coming months. Given we are very early in this process there will definitely be further documentation on the work planned and some initial details will be available ASAP. My genuine apologies that this didn’t happen already. Many thanks Seddon [1] From https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Improve_User_Experience : ** Make the Wikimedia API suite more comprehensive, reliable, secure and fast, in partnership with large scale users where that aligns with our mission and principles, to improve the user experience of both our direct and indirect users, increase the reach and discoverability of our content and the potential for data returns, and improve awareness of and ease of attribution and verifiability for content reusers. [2] From https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Increase_the_Sustainability_of_Our_Movement#Financial_sustainability : * Building enterprise-level APIs (with high standards of availability, throughput, and usability). ** Engage partners in the development wherever appropriate, incorporating the needs of a spectrum of small, non-commercial, and larger commercial reusers. ** Explore fees or sustainability models for enterprise-scale commercial reusers, taking care to avoid revenue dependencies or other undue external influence in product design and development. ** Develop appropriate safeguards to ensure continued free, unrestricted access for non-commercial, research, and small to moderate commercial use. [3] For example https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Core_Platform_Team/Initiatives/API_Gateway On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 10:23 PM Amir Sarabadani <ladsgr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the pointers, I personally disagree with some parts of it (e.g. > Twitter is a company and we are an NGO) BUT since it passed the community > consultation (and I somehow missed it to raise my feedback), I don't want > to be vocal about the high level reasoning behind the project. > > What I would extremely appreciate is more transparent communication to the > community about such large changes (especially sooner). Something like a > two-line text on a phabricator has lots of potential for misunderstanding. > > Thanks again. > > On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 9:44 PM James Heilman <jmh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Further details are forthcoming from WMF staff. > > > > J > > > > On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 1:42 PM James Heilman <jmh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Was discussed here > > > > > > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Iteration_1/Revenue_Streams/1 > > > > > > and > > > > > > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Iteration_1/Revenue_Streams/1 > > > > > > James > > > > > > On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 1:37 PM Yair Rand <yyairr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > >> The strategy recommendations include the text: "Explore fees or > > >> sustainability models for enterprise-scale commercial reusers, taking > > care > > >> to avoid revenue dependencies or other undue external influence in > > product > > >> design and development. / Develop appropriate safeguards to ensure > > >> continued free, unrestricted access for non-commercial, research, and > > >> small > > >> to moderate commercial use." Earlier versions elaborate somewhat, and > > >> there > > >> were considerable reservations expressed about the idea during the > > >> process. > > >> > > >> It is quite concerning. > > >> > > >> -- Yair Rand > > >> > > >> בתאריך יום א׳, 14 ביוני 2020 ב-14:33 מאת Amir Sarabadani < > > >> ladsgr...@gmail.com>: > > >> > > >> > Hello, > > >> > Today I stumbled upon this public phabricator ticket [1] created by > > >> someone > > >> > from WMF starting with: > > >> > "My team is creating bi-weekly HTML Dumps for all of the wikis, > except > > >> for > > >> > wikidata as part of the paid API project." > > >> > > > >> > I have so many questions: > > >> > - What is the "paid API" project? Are we planning to make money out > > of > > >> our > > >> > API? Now are we selling our dumps? > > >> > - If so, why is this not communicated before? Why are we kept in > the > > >> dark? > > >> > - Does the board know and approve it? > > >> > - How is this going to align with our core values like openness and > > >> > transparency? > > >> > - The ticket implicitly says these are going to be stored on AWS > ("S3 > > >> > bucket"). Is this thought through? Specially the ethical problems of > > >> > feeding Jeff Bezos' empire? (If you have seen this episode of Hasan > > >> > Minhaj's on ethical issues of using AWS [2]). Why can't we do/host > > this > > >> on > > >> > Wikimedia infrastructure? Has this been evaluated? > > >> > - Why is the community not consulted about this? > > >> > > > >> > Maybe I missed announcements, consultations or anything, forgive me > > for > > >> my > > >> > ignorance. Any pointers is enough. I also understand diversifying > our > > >> > revenue is a good tool for rainy days but a consultation with the > > >> community > > >> > wouldn't be too bad. > > >> > > > >> > [1]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T254275 > > >> > [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maXvZ5fyQY > > >> > > > >> > Best > > >> > -- > > >> > Amir (he/him) > > >> > _______________________________________________ > > >> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > >> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > >> > Unsubscribe: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > > , > > >> > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org > ?subject=unsubscribe> > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > >> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > , > > >> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > James Heilman > > > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian > > > > > > > > > -- > > James Heilman > > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > -- > Amir (he/him) > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> -- Seddon *Community and Audience Engagement Associate* *Advancement (Fundraising), Wikimedia Foundation* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
