Katherine, thank you for the warm welcome and your kind words! I am very happy to be given the opportunity to start this new project, and deeply honored by the trust and confidence of the Board and the Foundation.
Thanks to the many who have listened to me talking about this project in the last few years, read my papers and plans, commented on them, scrutinized them, and offered encouragement, criticism, and advice. Thanks to everyone who expressed their support and raised their concerns on the proposal page on Meta [1]. It is thanks to you that the Board was confident enough to make this decision. There is a lot of work in front of us, and I will continue to rely on your guidance and collective wisdom. We will need to foster a new community. Just as with Wikidata, I hope that some of you will become active in the new community, and I also want to make sure that we will be welcoming to new contributors. We want to extend and grow the Wikimedia movement not only with new functionalities, but also with new people. Settling in this new position will take quite a bit of my attention in the next few weeks, so please forgive me if I may be slow with answering your questions between now and then. One of the first things we’ll do is to set up new communication channels. We will continue discussing the project and planning on Meta [2] for now and also welcome you to the new, dedicated mailing list [3]. One of our first tasks together will be to find a name for the project. A first set of proposals have already been made [4], and I invite you all to come up with more ideas. We will start that off in July or August. Did I mention that you can join us on Meta [2] to discuss proposals for names, the project itself, and much more? Again, thank you all! I am super excited about figuring this thing out with you, and am looking forward to coming back to Wikimedia full-time. Stay safe, Denny [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Abstract_Wikipedia [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract_Wikipedia [3] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/abstract-wikipedia [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Name On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 9:24 AM Brion Vibber <bvib...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > I'm extremely excited about this project! > > Not only will this be directly useful on its own (and a fascinating project > in its own right!), but it will help our volunteer editors to ramp up good > base material to work with on the "prose" Wikipedias we already know and > love. > > The idea is really to make the structured data we've all been putting into > Wikidata available in a human-readable form at a big scale, that's still > able to be shaped and made into something real and readable by human > editors. By moving around where in the chain the data gets expressed as > human language, we hope to make something that's just as editable but much > more maintainable in the future and across multiple languages. > > -- brion > > > On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 9:04 AM Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > > > (A translatable version of this announcement can be found on Meta [1]) > > > > Hi all, > > > > It is my honor to introduce Abstract Wikipedia [1], a new project that > has > > been unanimously approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. > > Abstract Wikipedia proposes a new way to generate baseline encyclopedic > > content in a multilingual fashion, allowing more contributors and more > > readers to share more knowledge in more languages. It is an approach that > > aims to make cross-lingual cooperation easier on our projects, increase > the > > sustainability of our movement through expanding access to participation, > > improve the user experience for readers of all languages, and innovate in > > free knowledge by connecting some of the strengths of our movement to > > create something new. > > > > This is our first new project in over seven years. Abstract Wikipedia was > > submitted as a project proposal by Denny Vrandečić in May of 2020 [2] > after > > years of preparation and research, leading to a detailed plan and lively > > discussions in the Wikimedia communities. We know that the energy and the > > creativity of the community often runs up against language barriers, and > > information that is available in one language may not make it to other > > language Wikipedias. Abstract Wikipedia intends to look and feel like a > > Wikipedia, but build on the powerful, language-independent conceptual > > models of Wikidata, with the goal of letting volunteers create and > maintain > > Wikipedia articles across our polyglot Wikimedia world. > > > > The project will allow volunteers to assemble the fundamentals of an > > article using words and entities from Wikidata. Because Wikidata uses > > conceptual models that are meant to be universal across languages, it > > should be possible to use and extend these building blocks of knowledge > to > > create models for articles that also have universal value. Using code, > > volunteers will be able to translate these abstract “articles” into their > > own languages. If successful, this could eventually allow everyone to > read > > about any topic in Wikidata in their own language. > > > > As you can imagine, this work will require a lot of software development, > > and a lot of cooperation among Wikimedians. In order to make this effort > > possible, Denny will join the Foundation as a staff member in July and > lead > > this initiative. You may know Denny as the creator of Wikidata, a > long-time > > community member, a former staff member at Wikimedia Deutschland, and a > > former Trustee at the Wikimedia Foundation[3]. We are very excited that > > Denny will bring his skills and expertise to work on this project > alongside > > the Foundation’s product, technology, and community liaison teams. > > > > It is important to acknowledge that this is an experimental project and > > that every Wikipedia community has different needs. This project may > offer > > some communities great advantages. Other communities may engage less. > Every > > language Wikipedia community will be free to choose and moderate whether > or > > how they would use content from this project. > > > > We are excited that this new wiki-project has the possibility to advance > > knowledge equity through increased access to knowledge. It also invites > us > > to consider and engage with critical questions about how and by whom > > knowledge is constructed. We look forward to working in cooperation with > > the communities to think through these important questions. > > > > There is much to do as we begin designing a plan for Abstract Wikipedia > in > > close collaboration with our communities. I encourage you to get involved > > by going to the project page and joining the new mailing list[4]. We > > recognize that Abstract Wikipedia is ambitious, but we also recognize its > > potential. We invite you all to join us on a new, unexplored path. > > > > Yours, > > Katherine Maher > > > > Executive Director, > > Wikimedia Foundation > > > > [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract > > Wikipedia/June 2020 announcement > > [2] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Abstract_Wikipedia > > [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Denny > > [4] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/abstract-wikipedia > > -- > > > > Katherine Maher (she/her) > > > > Executive Director > > > > Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately > > directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia > > community. 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