Hi, This is really an exciting news. This ambitious project will fill up the knowledge gaps in different languages for sure and will definitely play a vital role in preserving endangered and near-extinct languages in future.
Best wishes, Bodhisattwa On Thu, Jul 2, 2020, 21:54 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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