Denny, This is extraordinarily good news! I am thrilled that the Foundation and the Community has taken it on board. I think it is a truly seminal, pivotal project for promulgating free knowledge to all corners of humanity. I just could not be happier to know that you will be shepherding the work! Warmest congratulations!
Victoria > On Jul 2, 2020, at 9:38 AM, Denny Vrandečić <vrande...@gmail.com> wrote: > > 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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