[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Wikimedia Enterprise API project

[Liam Wyatt]

Dear all, A lot has happened since March when we Introduced the Wikimedia
Enterprise API

and began community conversations about the project’s development. Now is
an important milestone to give everyone:
1) an update responding to community advice we’ve received;  and
2) to describe what is happening next.


The idea of an API for the specific needs of the commercial sector had been
discussed for more than a decade

(both for the purposes of improving user experience, and also to diversify
revenue). The announcement in March introducing the Wikimedia Enterprise
API generated a lot of Wikimedia-community and mainstream-media attention -
most notably in WIRED
.
Since then, the team has been hard at work building the actual product and
hosting many conversations (regular public meetings and participation in
events including SWAN, Wikimania, EMWCon, Clinic) - as well as a
considerable volume of discussions on our meta talkpage
.
All of this has generated lots of suggestions, which we have endeavoured to
incorporate and respond to before the actual commercial launch. On behalf
of the whole team, I thank the many many people who have been willing and
able to share constructive feedback with us over these months. Links to
recordings from those meetings/presentations can be found on our meta
homepage:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise


1. To that end, here are some updates in response to community advice:


WMF Board statement.

Subsequent to the most recent WMF Board of Trustees meeting, a statement
reaffirming their support of the project, and in particular its operating
principles relating to its future revenue, has been published. You can find the
board Statement here
,
and the Enterprise operating principles on Meta here
.
Consistent community feedback was that our published principles were good
and sensible, but for such a new and unusual thing in our movement, an
overt statement from the Board of Trustees was requested. This statement
affirms that:

   - Revenues of the WMF obtained from commercial activities shall not
   surpass 30% of the total planned revenue via all sources (including
   donations) in that fiscal year, and no further revenue would be sought
   beyond that limit;
   - The Board of Trustees will be notified in advance of any large
   commercial agreements, giving them time for review - exactly mirroring the
   procedure for large gifts;
   - Revenue obtained from Wikimedia Enterprise services is under the
   oversight and control of procedures for revenue raised by the Wikimedia
   Foundation and the revenue will not be earmarked for a specific program.

Each of these things were already noted on-wiki, but they were very much
worthwhile re-stating formally. Equally it bears repeating: the existing
APIs and methods of accessing Wikimedia sites remain. The creation of this
optional commercial service, designed for those with specific high
data-volume demands, does not change the experience (legally or
technically) for anyone else.
Relatedy, and also in response to community suggestions, the formal
contracts which define the legal relationship of the non-profit Wikimedia
Foundation to this commercial activity, have now been published on the
governance wiki and linked from the related section on the project’s

FAQ
.


Free technical access for the community.

You will soon be able to access a copy of the Enterprise dataset, refreshed
each fortnight, at the Wikimedia dumps portal .
Furthermore a ‘daily dump + hourly diff’ version is also already available, via
Wikimedia Cloud Services
 to
any users of Toolforge, Cloud VPS, or PAWS. Both of these are provided to
anyone, for free (in both ‘gratis’ and ‘libre’ senses of the word).
Importantly, and consistent with community feedback, neither of these
access methods require any special request process to access them, other
than the existing terms of service on those platforms.

Software development updates are published monthly on our page on MediaWiki
 (as is the API
documentation

[Wikimedia-l] Coolest Tool Award 2021: Call for nominations

[Andre Klapper]

Dear all,

It’s time for our third edition of the Coolest Tool Award! 

Tools play an essential role at Wikimedia, and so do the many volunteer
developers who experiment with new ideas, develop & maintain local &
global solutions and enhance the experience for Wikimedia communities.

We’d like to invite you all to nominate your favorite & most used tools
and help us celebrate the people who create them!

As no one can possibly know all the cool tools out there, we’re looking
for some help and inspiration: please point us to the tools that you
think are great - for any reason you can think of! 

Please go to https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Coolest_Tool_Award
to recommend tools by October 27, 2021. You can nominate as many tools
as you want by filling out the form multiple times.

Thank you very much for your ideas & recommendation(s)! 

The award is organized & selected by the Coolest Tool Academy 2021. We
plan to recognize the greatest tools in a variety of categories (for
examples, see last year’s categories). The award ceremony will take
place virtually again this year and we will provide more details soon
about the specific logistics and dates.

We will continue to spread the word over the next week, but if you get
the chance, please feel welcome to share this information with others
too!

Thanks :-)

Andre, for the Coolest Tool Academy 2021

-- 
Andre Klapper (he/him) | Bugwrangler / Developer Advocate
https://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/
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[Wikimedia-l] Report about Regional Hubs Ready

[Anass Sedrati]

Hello all,

I would like to inform you that I have published a report related to
Wikimedia Regional Hubs

from the perspective of the Arabic speaking community. The report is ready,
and complies background of the region, as well as different opinions and
analysis of the community views on hubs, before providing recommendations
on the way forward. It was funded by a rapid grant from the Wikimedia
strategy & governance team.

I believe that this report can be useful for all of you interested in the
implementation of Wikimedia hubs, and in the Wikimedia strategy in general.
I am also encouraging those who can to create similar reports for their
regions, so that experiences and insights are shared.

If anyone has a question, please feel free to contact me (through email or
on Meta ), and I will
be happy to discuss this further.

Have a good evening/day everyone!

Best regards,
-- 
-
*Anass SEDRATI*
Wikimedia MA User Group
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