Project

This project consists o twa pairts: Abstract Wikipaedia an Wikifunctions.

Abstract Wikipedia is a conceptual extension of Wikidata and the aspirational reification of a more accessible Wikipedia. Its goal is to let more people share more knowledge in more languages by automating translation, both linguistically and conceptually — that is, abstractively.^[1] In Abstract Wikipedia, people can create and maintain Wikipedia articles in a language-independent way. With the help of functions and code, any non-English language Wikipedia would be able to have this language-independent article translated into their respective language.

This will git us nearhauner til a warld whaur awbody can share in the sum o aw knawledge.

Whit is a function?

A “function” is a sequence o computer program instructions that maks a calculation basit on data ye provide. Functions ar a form o knawledge that can answer questions, lik how mony days hae passit atween twa dates or the distance atween twa ceeties. Mair complicatit functions can answer mair complicatit questions, such as the vollum o a three-dimensional shape, the distance atween Mars an Venus on a certain date, or whether twa species war alive at the same time. We already uise functions in mony types o knawledge inquiries, such as asking a question ti a sairch ingine. The templates knawn as {{convert}} an {{age}} in Inglis ar forbye ensaumples o functionalities that ar already uised in mony Wikipaedias, written in wikitext an Lua an manually copied ti ilka wiki whaur hit's wantit.

Mair ensaumples o function ar at Early function ensaumples, an gey rough sketches o hou the interface micht leuk ar ata Early mockups.

In short, functions mak a calculation on the data ye provide, an answer a question ye hae anent it.

This new Wikimedia project will big a librar o functions, written bi volunteers, ti help answer questions lik these across leids. Bi biggit oor librar o functions, we can enable mair fowk ti access an explore free knawledge in new weys.

Whit is Abstract Wikipaedia?

The term “Abstract Wikipaedia” itself refers ti the lang-term goal – that this librar o functions will somday enable the creation o leid-unthirlt airticles. Ance mair pieces o this project ar in place, this will mean that any wiki – especially smaw ti medium wikis – will dow ti dramatically increase the nummer o airticles available in their leid. It forbye means that eeditors can share knawledge frae their culture an contexts wi a muckler and mair global audience.

In ither words: we will dow ti combine the functions frae the new wiki, wi the data an leid-information in Wikidata, in order ti generate natural leid sentences in any supportit leids. These sentences can than be uised bi any Wikipaedia (or elsewhaur).

Timeline

• 2013–2020: Project discussion, research, an proposal
• Mey 2020: Project approved
• Julie 2020: Project announced; Development stairts on Extension:WikiLambda; Mailin list an ither channels creatit an in-depth discussions increase
• September 2020 – December 2020: Wiki o functions namin contest.
• December 2020: Stairt discussions for the Wikifunctions logo contest an submissions o proposals.
• August 2022: Launch Wikifunctions Beta
• July 2023: Launch Wikifunctions in production
• 2023/2024: Add more types to Wikifunctions
• 2024/2025: Using Wikidata in Wikifunctions
• April 2025: Ability to embed the result of a function call in pages, starting with dagwiki
• late 2025: First live functions for generating simple sentences in natural languages
• 2026: soft launch

Participate

• Eedit
  • Contribute to Wikifunctions
  • Work on lexicographic knawledge in Wikidata. This will be needit for Abstract Wikipaedia ti succeed an can be wrocht on the nou.
  • Translate the documentation pages here on Meta-wiki.
  • Translate the software interface on translatewiki.net (completion statistics)
• Discuss
  • Read the weekly updates (subscribe)
  • Talk:Abstract Wikipedia
  • Dedicatit mailin leet
  • Main chat: Telegram or IRC #wikipedia-abstract^connect (bridged together) (current logs, old logs)
  • Developer chat: Telegram or IRC #wikipedia-abstract-tech^connect (bridged together) (logs)
  • Regular meetings:
    • Volunteer's corner: This is a monthly meeting on the first Monday, from 18:30–19:00 UTC. It is currently hosted on the Google Meet platform (link). It is an informal space for code review, talking about what volunteers have achieved or how to approach a task, which task is best to pick up next, and similar. Volunteers can come in with questions, show progress, discuss things, tell us about their plans, or ask for ideas. If you need someone specific from the development team to join in, please let us know in advance.
    • Natural language generation (NLG) on Wikifunctions: This is a monthly meeting on the third Tuesday, from 16:30–17:30 UTC. More information.
    • Previous office hours: 2021-12-20, 2021-08-14 (Wikimania), 2021-06-22
• Develop
  • If ye want ti help wi development, please lat us ken.
    • You can see information about the Extension at Extension:WikiLambda and some developer tips at Abstract developer cheatsheet
    • Phabricator:tag/abstract wikipedia – Add feature requests and bug reports here. (See Phabricator for details on how to use it)
      • You can see a list of smaller development tasks – These are good first tasks for newer developers.
      • You can see these other good listings for open tasks: #fix-it tasks – unassigned tasks – nice-to-have tasks
    • You can email Sannita or write on the talk page if you'd like to work with us more closely.
• Try it oot
  • Wikifunctions is now available live at wikifunctions.org
  • on the Beta Cluster Instance
  • Volunteer as a design-interview tester.
  • Ye can see som early mockups for a rough idea o hou the uoser interface micht work.
  • An early prototype implementation is available on Github. This tae gae mebbe no langer be workin wi the latest MediaWiki releases.
    • The easiest wey ti dive into the prototype is bi readin the walkthrou.
    • Alternative implementation in GraalVM
• Foundation requests for work internally
  • You can refer to this guide that describes step by step how to request work internally.

Backgrund

See the Historic proposal page for the lang leet o relatit discussions, papers, videos, an comparable proposals.

Highlights include:

• (Inglis)Short introductory video ti Wikidata an the Abstract Wikipaedia idea (New York, 2019) (18 min)
• (Inglis)Capturin meanin: Toward an abstract Wikipaedia (short intro)
• (Inglis)Collaboratin on the sum of aw knawledge across leids (social aspects)

References