During June 5, 12 and 19, the training course for cultural managers organized by Wikimedia Chile and Wikimedistas de Uruguay, Digitalize: what for, for whom? Good practices for digital heritage.

Throughout three online sessions, more than 200 cultural professionals from Latin America were trained in skills and capacities to strengthen open access to culture from their respective institutions. The sessions were led by Felipe Osorio and Patricia Díaz Rubio (Wikimedia Chile), Evelin Heidel and Nat Hernández (Wikimedistas de Uruguay), Víctor Quezada (Memoria Chilena) and Jorge Gemetto (Ártica).

The course addressed different obstacles faced by institutions in Latin America when trying to disseminate cultural heritage on the Internet: from the lack of institutional resources to problems of ownership of digitized works, concerns about the misuse of digital heritage or even the lack of clarity about the role of cultural mediators. Emphasis was placed on how these difficulties hinder the creation of effective digital strategies; and it was illustrated how, despite the investment of resources in the digitization of collections, institutions often fail to promote new uses, reach new audiences, or facilitate access to cultural heritage.

A roadmap for the digitization of culture in Latin America

This open course organized by Wikimedia Chile and Wikimedistas de Uruguay seeks to disseminate pioneering initiatives that have emerged from Latin America to digitize and disseminate cultural heritage online. The cycle was also framed in the unprecedented public policy promoted by the Undersecretary of Heritage of the Government of Chile in May of this year: the National Digital Heritage Strategy. The document, which emphasizes the material aspects of digitization, emphasizes elements necessary for effective digital heritage management, such as preservation, governance and accessibility to this information.

This roadmap promoted by the Government of Chile is in addition to other research carried out by Wikimedia structures in Latin America regarding scenarios on open access to culture in the region. These inputs helped to define the current needs in digital heritage management, to design more effectively the contents of each session, as well as to guide the exchange between speakers and participants.

In this context, attendees had the opportunity to learn about and share the objectives of projects for the digitization of cultural heritage and open access in countries such as Chile and Uruguay. Success stories were shared and training was provided on aspects of intellectual property such as copyright, its limitations and exceptions, the public domain and Creative Commons and RightsStatements licenses for the management of and access to heritage in digital environments.

Why and for whom to digitize cultural heritage? The need for capacity development in the region.

The course was well attended and positively received by cultural promoters and professionals. It was highlighted as a pioneering initiative of these characteristics in Latin America, the lessons learned were valued and the fact that it was free and open was celebrated.

At the closing of the course, course participants were invited to answer an anonymous evaluation survey. Here we share some comments received:

“I am from Chile, but it caught my attention and motivated me to see a variety of countries represented, mainly in the chat sessions, so it would be great to have a second opportunity to learn about other work experiences, which are surely being developed.”

“I am very grateful for the opportunity, I hope you keep me in mind for future courses like this one.”

“A very enriching workshop that leaves you wanting much more.”

“Very interesting to discover how Wikimedia works, may these training sessions be repeated! Thank you very much!

“I greatly appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to imparting such valuable knowledge. I hope to be able to apply everything I have learned in my daily work.”

You can review the recordings of the classes of this course in the Youtube channel of Wikimedia Chile: Good practices for digital heritage 2024.

In the spirit of collaboration, we launched the UHAS Wiki Club in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Ghana and the University of Health and Allied Science library department to empower educators to use open digital spaces. 

Traditionally, libraries have been the cornerstone of information access. However, the advent of the internet and digital technologies has significantly transformed how information is accessed and managed. E-libraries and online information repositories are becoming increasingly popular, providing users with a vast array of resources at their fingertips. This shift necessitates that librarians adapt by developing new digital skills to remain relevant and effective in their roles.

In the modern digital landscape, one of the essential skills for librarians is effectively utilizing online platforms such as Wikipedia, Wikidata, and other Wikimedia projects. However, managing and contributing to these digital platforms requires specific skills and knowledge.To address the gap in digital proficiency, Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) and Goethe-Institut Ghana have collaborated to empower librarians in Ghana through the WikiSkills For Librarians Workshop. This joint initiative aims to bridge the digital skills divide among librarians by equipping them with the skills needed to navigate the Wikimedia space.

The UHAS Wiki Club: A Platform for Empowering Librarians

As part of our goals to impact librarians in Ghana, we held a 2-day WikiSkills For Librarians Workshop at the University of Health and Allied Science(UHAS) Library Department. After the workshop, the UHAS Wiki Club was officially launched.

 Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) and Goethe-Institut Ghana donated three internet routers to the University of Health and Allied Science Library Department as part of the club’s establishment to aid with internet access.

The UHAS Wiki Club serves as a platform for librarians to learn, share, and grow their digital skills. The club seeks to build librarians’ capacity in Wikipedia editing, Wikidata contributions, content creation, and information management. These activities enhance their digital literacy and enable them to contribute to the global knowledge base, making information more accessible to everyone.

Looking ahead, the UHAS Wiki Club aims to expand its reach, involving more librarians and educators from various institutions across Ghana. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, the initiative seeks to create a network of digitally proficient librarians who can lead the way in the digital transformation of libraries.

The collaboration between Open Foundation West Africa, Goethe-Institut Ghana, and the University of Health and Allied Science Library Department marks a significant step towards empowering librarians in the digital age. By equipping them with the skills to utilise open digital spaces effectively, we are enhancing their professional capabilities and contributing to the democratisation of information access. 

This initiative exemplifies the power of collaboration in driving positive change and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their background, has the tools to succeed in the digital world.

Welcome to “Don’t Blink”! Every month we share developments from around the world that shape people’s ability to participate in the free knowledge movement. In case you blinked last month, here are the most important public policy advocacy topics that have kept the Wikimedia Foundation busy.

The Global Advocacy team works to advocate laws and government policies that protect the volunteer community-led Wikimedia model, Wikimedia’s people, and the Wikimedia movement’s core values. To learn more about us and the work we do with the rest of the Foundation, visit our Meta-Wiki webpage, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) (@WikimediaPolicy), and sign up to our Wikimedia public policy mailing list or quarterly newsletter. 

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Protecting the Wikimedia model
(Work related to access to knowledge and freedom of expression)

Reflecting on Wikimedians’ participation in the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum
[Read about participants’ reflections in English and French, and find out more about this year’s panels] 

This was a big year for Wikimedians at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) in Accra, Ghana. DRIF is a conference hosted by Paradigm Initiative where digital policies in Africa are debated and shaped, and partnerships are formed for action.

The Wikimedia Foundation celebrated its third year of sponsoring DRIF by granting scholarships to four Wikimedia volunteers so they could attend the event. The grantees were part of a group of over twenty Wikimedians, including locals and Foundation staff, who shared learnings on topics like preventing electoral disinformation, promoting access to education in offline environments, and supporting inclusion of women in online spaces. We recently interviewed a few of those attendees, organizers, and speakers to learn about their experiences and the benefits of participating at regional conferences like DRIF. 

Participants discussed how they were able to share information about the Wikimedia model with others at the conference. Ceslause Ogbonnaya (Igbo Wikimedians User Group) said:

It always makes me smile when I meet people who call us “ghost workers” because they don’t see the work that we do to add content to Wikipedia, but read our edits on Wikipedia. I enjoy letting them know that we are regular people, just like them, who chose to make a change by documenting free and open knowledge using the Wikimedia projects.

When asked about learnings and insights from their participation, some themes that emerged were lessons on the importance of digital security in the run-up to elections and the power of local librarians to become advocates for digital rights and inclusion within their communities. Other participants highlighted the importance of the connections they made at the conference, both with other actors in the digital rights space in West Africa and across the region, and with fellow Wikimedians at a reception generously hosted by Open Foundation West Africa.

For more information, read about participants’ reflections in English and French, and find out more about this year’s panels.

Weighing in on public consultations about Artificial Intelligence
[Read our blog post summarizing the comments]

Recently, various departments and teams throughout the Foundation have worked together to submit comments in response to several governmental and intergovernmental consultations related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), its development, applications, and governance. In the comments and replies we submitted, we shared Wikipedia’s decades of experience and lessons learned with AI and machine learning (ML).

These submissions include:

• A response to a request for information on AI in the context of international development, which was conducted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In our comments we encouraged the Agency to prioritize inclusion of all stakeholders and to make their consultations as specific as possible to ensure the issues are clearly explained and the right voices get heard. 

• Input on the regulation of “dual-use” or open foundation AI models to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). In our comments, we argued that making information about AI models and weights more open and available to the public would lead to more benefits than attempting to keep model information locked behind proprietary doors. Those benefits include allowing researchers to identify flaws and vulnerabilities, counteract biases, and improve the performance of AI tools.

• Comments on AI and copyright protections to the US Copyright Office. In our feedback, we emphasized the need for proper attribution when AI systems use Wikimedia projects, including with hyperlinks to sources. Providing attribution this way not only gives proper credit to the authors, but also enables people who use AI systems to access additional information that allows them to verify the answers to their questions. 

• Feedback on the United Nations AI Advisory Board’s interim report addressing the global governance of AI. In our comments, we echoed several of the points we raised in our comments to the USAID, aimed at improving conditions for a more diverse set of stakeholders to participate in conversations about AI governance. 

• We have also provided input at several stages of the Global Digital Compact process, including in the form of an open letter where we asked for AI and ML to support and empower people, rather than replace them.

Find out more in our blog post, which summarizes our comments and their common themes. 

US Supreme Court rules on important NetChoice legal cases
[Read our analysis of the decision on Diff]

Since 2021, we have been following a pair of cases in Texas and Florida challenging laws that claimed to prevent “censorship” of certain viewpoints on social media and restricted social media platforms’ ability to enforce their own content policies. NetChoice, a trade association representing large social media platforms and other tech companies, sued in both states to block these laws from taking effect and state courts granted injunctions halting the application of the law.

The cases then made their way up to the US Supreme Court, where the Wikimedia Foundation filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief (.pdf file) explaining how the laws could infringe upon the First Amendment rights of Wikimedia volunteers. While it remains unclear if these laws would apply to the Wikimedia projects, enforcement of such a law could disrupt Wikimedia communities’ decision-making processes and could damage the quality and reliability of Wikipedia by forcing them to include non-encyclopedic content. 

In July 2024, the Supreme Court issued its decision in these cases. Ultimately based on procedure, the ruling claimed that lower courts needed to conduct additional analysis before they could rule on the cases because the laws had not yet been applied. NetChoice argued that these laws were designed to infringe its members’ First Amendment rights to free expression, and that their constitutionality should be assessed accordingly, but instead the Supreme Court called for the lower courts to base their interpretation on the scope of all possible applications of the laws. 

In the short term, this means that the two cases will be reinterpreted by the lower courts, who will decide on the constitutionality. Though the laws are still on hold for now, the preliminary injunctions blocking them from taking effect may not last forever. In the long-term, the Court’s insistence on requiring lower courts to address all possible applications of broad laws to determine their constitutionality raises questions about whether it will be more difficult to challenge broadly-drafted laws in the future. We will continue to monitor the status of these state laws, and will provide updates on any decisions by the state courts that may impact their implementation. 

For now, read our full analysis of the case on Diff or learn more about our “friend-of-the-court” brief in this blog post.

Providing input at stakeholder meeting for Global Digital Compact
[Read our open letter following the first draft of the Compact]

As a part of the ongoing process to revise the Global Digital Compact, the UN held a June meeting for stakeholders to share the second revision of the draft compact. Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead) represented the Wikimedia Foundation, sharing our input on how the draft could better address the positive vision we laid out in our open letter to the drafting committee. This was one of the last opportunities to influence the compact before it is finalized, and we are grateful to the UN for seeking input from all stakeholders, including those representing public interest projects like the Wikimedia projects. 

Protecting Wikimedia’s values
(Work related to human rights and countering disinformation)

Highlights from the Anti-Disinformation Repository
[Read the blog post series and more on Diff]

The Anti-Disinformation Repository is a collection of tools and activities identified during a mapping exercise that explored how Wikimedia communities and the Foundation address the challenges of disinformation. Throughout June, we took a closer look at three stories from the repository, all of which serve as powerful examples of how Wikimedia can serve as an antidote to disinformation. 

The first story highlights how an initiative on Wikidata has helped to improve public information on victims of political disappearances in Brazil. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines, and functions as a common source for other Wikimedia projects. Using Wikidata, volunteers from Wiki Movimento Brasil and partners worked to help fix a gap in public recordkeeping about victims of political disappearances between 1964 and 1985: it brought together multiple incomplete records into one set on the project. Hosting the information on Wikidata ensured its integrity and visibility over time, which will hopefully contribute to more truth, justice, and accountability for victims and their families. Read this story on Diff for more details.

The second entry looked at Wikimedians’ responses to disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved a multifaceted approach to providing neutral, fact-based information. Highlights of this work include initiatives like WikiProject COVID-19, a coordinated global volunteer effort to provide reliable resources about COVID-19 to volunteers and official collaborations—which included the Foundations’ work with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create accessible public health assets under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license. By coming together on projects like this, Wikimedians showcased their signature commitment to reliable and accurate information at a time when the world needed it most. Learn more about this story on Diff.

Our final story details some of the tools created and used by Wikimedians to counter disinformation on the projects. Volunteers editors are at the heart of addressing false or misleading information on Wikimedia’s projects. Over the years, these volunteers have developed multiple tools to help them in their work to detect harmful editing practices and safeguard the public from misleading information. Tools helping volunteer editors to focus their efforts on information integrity include Huggle, an editing interface which easily allows volunteers to identify vandalism, and Citation Hunt, a tool that identifies claims in articles which lack citations. Explore this story further on Diff

Discussing the Global Digital Compact at the 2024 Wiki Workshop
[Explore research and video presentations from the Wiki Workshop, and check out our latest on the Global Digital Compact]

On 20 June, researchers exploring all aspects of the Wikimedia projects gathered virtually for Wiki Workshop 2024. The workshop, which is the largest Wikimedia research event of the year, featured presentations on over forty extended abstracts, seven hall sessions focused on exchanging ideas and community building, and a keynote presentation from Dr. Brent Hecht, a Director of Applied Science at Microsoft.

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead) attended the conference and hosted a hall session discussing our campaign around the Global Digital Compact, which involves close partnerships with Wikimedia affiliates and an open letter that has reached 650 signatures at the time of this publication. The session was well attended and provided an fruitful opportunity to share with researchers interested in public policy how we think about and conduct global advocacy campaigns.

To read the research abstracts or watch recordings of the research presentations, visit the Wiki Workshop 2024 website. To learn more about the partnership between the Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates doing advocacy around the Global Digital Compact, check out this blog post.

Discussing AI as a public good at the second Seminar on Big Tech, Information, and Democracy
[Watch the recorded session (in Spanish) on YouTube]

From 6–7 June, the second Seminar on “Big Tech, Information, and Democracy” was hosted in Bogotá, Colombia to bring together experts, academia, and civil society to discuss important topics around internet regulation, agree upon possible research agendas, and identify actions that can be taken to advance digital rights. The forum, which built upon work conducted in the first seminar in December 2023, was hosted by the Information and Democracy Forum, Observatorio Latinoamericano de Regulación, Medios y Convergencia (OBSERVACOM), and Intervozes. 

Amalia Toledo (Lead Public Policy Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean) was a panelist in a roundtable discussion called “AI as a Public Good: Ensuring Democratic Control of AI in the Information Space,” which discussed OBSERVACOM’s publication of the same name (.pdf file, in Spanish). In this session, Amalia shared four key lessons from the Wikimedia model that could serve as a guide when developing regulations around AI. 

First, any regulation should be able to prevent AI from replacing humans, who are needed more than ever for knowledge building. Second, it should also be set to guide the development of these technologies with a commitment to work in a more transparent and open manner. Third, it should provide guidelines to increase trust by fostering collaborative governance models—or, at the very least, more meaningful stakeholder engagement. Fourth and finally, regulation should offer direction for these technologies to represent and serve a multilingual and diverse world.
Watch the recorded session (in Spanish) on YouTube.

Discussing disinformation responses on Wikipedia in an interview
[Read the interview (in German) on Silicon]

Silicon, a German technology news website, published an interview with Costanza Sciubba Caniglia about fighting disinformation on Wikipedia. In the interview, Costanza shared the importance of the “human factor” to ensure that the online encyclopedia contains neutral, fact-based information.

Wikipedia is shaped by all of the people who work on it, including the hundreds of thousands volunteers who add content in accordance with the project’s editorial guidelines and the administrators who uphold the rules and procedures that keep information on the projects reliable. Constanza discussed how these consensus-based decisions, which are made public in the articles’ history and Talk pages, can create the conditions for high-quality, reliable, and neutral knowledge.

She also highlighted the Foundation’s Disinformation Response Taskforce, which works with established volunteers to quickly identify and report potential information attacks during times of high risk like elections.

Read the interview (in German) on Silicon.

Announcements from our team

The third Global Advocacy quarterly newsletter is out! 

In the most recent issue, we explained why the Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates published an open letter calling UN Member States to commit to protecting public interest spaces on the internet like the Wikimedia projects. Other highlights include: key lessons from Rebecca Mackinnon’s (Vice President, Global Advocacy) interview about US legal cornerstone Section 230; an update on the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the US; and, reflections on how Wikimedia projects’ 20+ years of experience shape the public comments we submit to international institutions and governments in relation to AI.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more updates on our public policy work, interviews, upcoming events, and other news from the Wikimedia movement! 

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Follow us on X (formerly Twitter), visit our Meta-Wiki webpage, join our Wikipedia policy mailing list, and sign up for our quarterly newsletter to receive updates. We hope to see you there!

I just realized I never posted an abstract or draft on “Ethics and Rule Breaking Among Life Hackers.” This followed Hacking Life because I wanted to better evaluate the ethic of rule bending, breaking, stretching, or exploiting. Sadly, I never found a home for it because it’s a weird combination of practical ethics and pop-culture. Perhaps one day I will find a home for it, but until then:

https://reagle.org/joseph/2020/rules/ethic.html

Abstract: Life hacking is self-help for the digital age. Its gurus recommend that life—including yourself and others—be treated as a system of rules to be optimized or subverted. Self-help authors Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek) and James Altucher (Choose Yourself) advise that the rules of social life be hacked so to “make the impossible possible” and “get everything you want.” I analyze their advice relative to the interplay of abiding versus subverting the spirit or letter of a rule yields. This yields four different types of advice: that rules be bent, broken, stretched, and exploited. I consider each relative to the critiques of life hacking and Kant’s categorical imperative: “can you also will that your maxim become a universal law?” This effort yields a new avenue for engaging with popular culture, and these distinctions can help those who wish to hack (life) ethically and challenge those who do not.

We are excited to announce our new partnership with Hallo Welt! GmbH, making Professional Wiki an official BlueSpice reseller. This collaboration allows us to offer enhanced enterprise-grade MediaWiki solutions to our clients.

BlueSpice is a powerful MediaWiki distribution designed specifically for corporate use. It combines the flexibility and collaborative nature of wikis with features critical for business processes and requirements. As an official reseller, we can now provide our clients with this robust knowledge management solution, backed by our MediaWiki expertise.

Our partnership with Hallo Welt! enables us to offer a comprehensive suite of BlueSpice services, including:

• BlueSpice hosting
• BlueSpice installation
• Migration to BlueSpice
• BlueSpice development
• BlueSpice consulting
• BlueSpice support

These services complement our existing MediaWiki services, allowing us to provide even more value to organizations looking to implement or improve their knowledge management systems.

BlueSpice offers numerous advantages for enterprise users, including enhanced search capabilities, improved team collaboration tools, workflows, and advanced security features. It is an ideal solution for companies seeking a centralized, scalable, and user-friendly knowledge base.

Our team is ready to help you harness the full potential of BlueSpice. Check out our BlueSpice services.

Whether you are looking to implement a new wiki system, upgrade your existing MediaWiki installation, or explore the benefits of BlueSpice for your organization, we are here to help. Contact us today to discuss how we can support your knowledge management needs with BlueSpice MediaWiki.

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Feature news

• Editors using the Visual Editor in languages that use non-Latin characters for numbers, such as Hindi, Manipuri and Eastern Arabic, may notice some changes in the formatting of reference numbers. This is a side effect of preparing a new sub-referencing feature, and will also allow fixing some general numbering issues in Visual Editor. If you notice any related problems on your wiki, please share details at the project talkpage.

Bugs status

• Some logged-in editors were briefly unable to edit or load pages last week. These errors were mainly due to the addition of new linter rules which led to caching problems. Fixes have been applied and investigations are continuing.
• Editors can use the IP Information tool to get information about IP addresses. This tool is available as a Beta Feature in your preferences. The tool was not available for a few days last week, but is now working again. Thank you to Shizhao for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and 28 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.

Project updates

• There are new features and improvements to Phabricator from the Release Engineering and Collaboration Services teams, and some volunteers, including: the search systems, the new task creation system, the login systems, the translation setup which has resulted in support for more languages (thanks to Pppery), and fixes for many edge-case errors. You can read details about these and other improvements in this summary.
• There is an update on the Charts project. The team has decided which visualization library to use, which chart types to start focusing on, and where to store chart definitions.
• One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in Czech (voy:cs:) [1]

Learn more

• There is a new Wikimedia Foundation data center in São Paulo, Brazil which helps to reduce load times.
• There is new user research on problems with the process of uploading images.
• Commons Impact Metrics are now available via data dumps and API.
• The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter is now available.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

Within the WikiUNLP team, one of our most important goals is to establish and strengthen relations between the different Wikimedian communities and academia. We consider the Wikimedia projects, and Wikipedia in particular, as a powerful communication tool for public outreach of science, to highlight local lines of research, and to augment the public’s perception of science. This is why we—in an exploratory fashion—made a series of edits and interventions on archaeology-related articles to evaluate their long term impact.

We presented the results of this work at the National Congress of Argentinean Archaeology in 2023: a paper reflection on the possibilities of using Wikipedia to further the public outreach of Archaeology. There, we presented our analysis of articles—newly created and existing—with the aim of increasing visibility on specific contents that will help reduce geo-political and gender biases in Archaeology-related articles through editing their Wikipedia articles. We understand this to be a powerful and innovative way of communicating science from the Global South.

Later, we were invited to submit an article for Revista del Museo de Antropología, [Journal of the Museum of Anthropology], one of the most important academic journals of this discipline in Argentina. Our article was published under the title “Excavando Wikipedia. Apuntes sobre la comunicación pública de la arqueología en una enciclopedia libre y colaborativa” [Digging up Wikipedia. Notes on Public Outreach of Archaeology on a Free, Collaborative Encyclopaedia, with several members of Wiki UNLP as co-authors. 

This article was written to showcase the potential of the Wikimedia projects as communication channels for public outreach of science, taking Archaeology in Argentina as a particular example, and considering that potential readers of this article might know about Wikipedia in general, but are not editors. We included sections to explain briefly the general editing process, particular features of the Wikimedia projects that make them Free Knowledge and Open Science initiatives, and the potential reach of Wikipedia. We also presented our analysis on a series of Archaeology-related articles—biographies of researchers, academic journals on Archaeology, basic concepts of Archaeology—that were created or improved by members of the WikiUNLP team, as part of our volunteer work within the Wikimedia projects.

When it comes to the interventions done on archaeology-related articles, we considered two types: edits that contribute content to the encyclopedia and allow for access to new knowledge, and those that significantly improve the quality of the article, considering a more global, more inclusive vision, with gender-aware perspectives and from the Global South.

We analyzed the potential impact of these actions on the people reading the articles, measuring different variables such as page views throughout time. We were able to see several examples where the actions taken resulted in positive interactions with the readers who—based on the contents of the articles—we assume is made up mostly of people in academia. At the same time, we believe that creating new biographies on female Archaeology researchers contributed to making their life and contributions known, thus reducing the gender gap on Wikipedia. Similarly, creating articles on academic journals focused on Archaeology—and most of them being from Argentina—helped promote the existence and heightened visibility of the overall academic output on this discipline.

Last but not least, we believe that this article we published is but a single step towards building relationships between Wikipedia and the academic world—mostly Archaeology in this case—; these are ultimately fertile fields to actually delivering on the premises set by Open Science and Free Knowledge initiatives, where we conceive knowledge as a common, public good.

Would you like to know more about the work we do as Wikimedians of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata?

You can contact us at our social media accounts

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

Meta.Wiki

References: 

Zubimendi, M., Cueto, J. J., Béguelin, M., & Archuby, F. M. (2024). Excavando Wikipedia: Apuntes sobre la comunicación pública de la arqueología en una enciclopedia libre y colaborativa. Revista del Museo de Antropología, 17(1), 189–206. https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v17.n1.43539 

Alex Method, widely known in the Wikimedia community as Rwebogora, is a heavily involved Wikimedian from Tanzania. Since beginning his journey in 2019, Alex has made a profound impact on the Wikimedia projects, particularly in Wikimedia Commons. His contributions have been nothing short of extraordinary, making him the sole contributor from Tanzania to hit 100,000+ edits.

Alex’s expertise lies in photography and music, areas where he has shown his skill and creativity. His keen eye for detail and artistic flair have enriched the Wikimedia Commons repository, providing valuable visual resources that enhance the quality and comprehensiveness of numerous articles across various Wikimedia platforms.

While Alex’s home base is Swahili Wikipedia, his influence extends beyond linguistic boundaries. He has been an instrumental figure in elevating the quality of content in Swahili, contributing to its growth and development. His invaluable efforts are evident in the 2,403 edits he has made on Swahili Wikipedia.

Alex’s contributions are not confined to Swahili Wikipedia only. He is a good participant in the Wikipedia Article Wanting Photos challenges, which have seen him editing extensively on English Wikipedia as well. Through these challenges, he has made over 3,000 edits on English Wikipedia, a testament to his versatility and commitment to enhancing the visibility and quality of content across different languages.

Beyond his editing capacity, Alex is also a notable event organizer within the Wikimedia community. His organizational skills and leadership have been pivotal in mobilizing efforts and encouraging participation in various Wikimedia events. On Meta, he has made 2,814 edits, reflecting his active involvement in the strategic and administrative aspects of the Wikimedia movement.

Alex’s contributions span across multiple Wikimedia projects, each showcasing his dedication and hard work. Here is a summary of his edit counts across various platforms as per Xtools; https://xtools.wmcloud.org/ec/sw.wikipedia.org/Rwebogora

commons.wikimedia.org: 92,165
en.wikipedia.org: 3,777
meta.wikimedia.org: 2,814
sw.wikipedia.org: 2,403
http://www.wikidata.org: 911
wikimania.wikimedia.org: 144
incubator.wikimedia.org: 35
en.wikiquote.org: 1
it.wikipedia.org: 1
http://www.mediawiki.org: 1
Other projects: 0
All projects: 102,252

Hear the words from himself;

“I started on August 3, 2019. I was fascinated by the way contributions to Wikimedia projects were made. Initially, I had dreams of creating a website for my projects, but during my efforts to work on it, I bumped into the Wikimedia Tanzania group. They explained how I could engage with Wikimedia. I was pleased to join them through one of the Edit-a-thons held at Buni Hub in Kijitonyama, led by Anthony Mtavangu and the late Kipala. One of the people who has made a significant contribution to my efforts is Anthony Mtavangu, the co-founder of Wikimedia Tanzania, along with the late Kipala and Riccardo.”

….My goals regarding free knowledge are to ensure that Wikimedia’s vision is fulfilled by disseminating knowledge to everyone. Collaborating with my peers to reach even those communities that are still underserved. This is why I have been involved in various Wikimedia projects, and I am now coordinating the Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania, aimed at reaching people with disabilities, especially the Deaf community here in our country,” he added.

His final statement was;

“My expectations from the Wikimedia Foundation are that it will continue to support us so we can advance in our efforts, especially for our Swahili-speaking community.”

Muddyb
28, July 2024.

18/07/2024-24/07/2024

Mapping

• The proposal to specify ordering-only phone numbers, SMS-only phone numbers, and related tags is open for voting until Monday 29 July.

Mapping campaigns

• [1] During project days at Margarete-Steiff-Gymnasium, students collected and entered ► data for OpenStreetMap and Wikidata using tools such as StreetComplete, Walking Papers, and OsmWikidataLink. They mapped local points of interest and georeferenced data, linking information between OSM and Wikidata. Activities included mapping buildings with house numbers, learning about geographic data structures, and presenting their work at the school festival with interactive projects such as Wikidata Guess and Wiki Trivia.
• As part of the OSM-US Trails Stewardship Initiative, trail data in southern Utah has been improved to reduce environmental damage and increase safety by correcting digital trail maps, such as identifying and closing unofficial routes that affected the habitat of the Mojave Desert tortoise.
• Martijn van Exel has counted OpenStreetMap changesets that mention MapRoulette, or its short link domain (mpr.lt), and shared the results.
• In Padua Municipality, Italy, technicians appointed by the municipality partnered with citizens to utilise ► OpenStreetMap for mapping plans under the Elimination of Architectural Barriers initiative in infrastructure planning.

Community

• Cidomo shared their enjoyable experience of mapping for OpenStreetMap while working across multiple countries.
• In ‘Mapping What Matters’, Christopher Beddow explores the evolving importance of maps, highlighting how they are more than just navigational tools; they shape our understanding of the world, influence decision-making, and reflect cultural and political values. The piece looked at the importance of contextualising data within maps, highlighting the role of cartography in critical social and environmental issues.
• At the State of the Map Europe 2024 conference Moritz Schott, from Heidelberg University, presented a methodology for identifying rare OpenStreetMap edits using a ‘unicorn index’, highlighting unique contributions that enrich the dataset and an interactive website for users to calculate their index.
• The Lemmy community has been discussing StreetComplete, comparing it to Pokémon Go, emphasising its usefulness in improving OpenStreetMap by encouraging users to complete mapping tasks while walking around, thus contributing to a useful public resource.

OSM research

• GeoSynth, an AI model designed to produce satellite images based on user-defined parameters, incorporates high-resolution satellite imagery and OpenStreetMap data in its training data.

Maps

• Apple Maps on the web is available in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Apple Maps directly from supported browsers. It is not available on Linux and does not run with Firefox.
• Vadym Klymenko wrote ► about his new interactive map of possible power outages in Kyiv, Ukraine. The project was implemented based on OpenStreetMap data, allowing users to visualise buildings in the city where the power may be cut off. Vadym Klymenko also expressed his gratitude to the OSM Ukraine team for the opportunity to use their tile server for free.
• MapComplete announced they have a new version that includes a map of gluten-free venues and a new barbecue and firepit theme.

OSM in action

• RadlLand Bayern has released ► an OpenStreetMap-based cycle path navigation application for the Bavarian region of Germany.
• DoudouOSM mentioned that the Belgian national newspaper, Le Soir, has used an OpenStreetMap basemap, including 3D buildings, to illustrate an article about the 21 July festivities celebrating the 11th anniversary of King Philip’s reign.
• A Setlist.fm user has created an interactive map of live music venues around the world, including clubs, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, and more. The project uses OpenStreetMap data and welcomes community contributions to expand and update the map, ensuring comprehensive coverage of live music venues worldwide.
• OpenCage’s Geoweirdness episode this week discussed time zone quirks around the world, starting with a map of global time zones from the tz database and promising a series of examples that highlight these quirks.
• susudata.de is offering historical ordnance survey maps, Swisstopo maps from 1930 and orthophotos, all with interactive sliders to compare these maps with current OpenStreetMap data.
• The Danish company Wind Pro is using OSM data for the geolocation of wind turbines. In the OSM tagging model there is a key dedicated to these objects. Further information can be found on Wikipedia.

Open Data

• The Open Data Ranking 2024 evaluated ► the German federal states on their open data initiatives, highlighting best practices and areas for improvement. The ranking aims to promote transparency and innovation by encouraging ► the publication and use of open data.
• The Overture Maps Foundation has announced their new Explore site that showcases the potential of its open maps datasets, including easy-to-use tools and interactive maps for better use of geospatial data.
• The Overture Maps Foundation announced the General Availability (GA) of several of its global open maps datasets. The GA release includes four themes: buildings, places of interest, national and regional administrative boundaries, and contextual base layers, including land and water data. The dataset schema also contains detailed address references that enable precise geocoding and data integration.

Programming

• nyampire blogged about the OpenStreetMap Statistics tool, from Piebro, that analyses OSM changeset files and creates graphs from various perspectives.

Releases

• Development Seed has released a new web application in beta. The Clay Explore tool allows interaction with Clay AI, the first open source AI model of the Earth, providing an advanced way to explore geospatial data such as features and locations of interest.
• A new app, AddisMap Transit, has been launched by Bandira AddisMap Enterprise to map Addis Ababa’s public transport routes, including the light rail system, bus routes and minibus taxis. Developed with support from the Digital Transport 4 Africa Innovation Challenge and Trufi Association, the app features route visualisation and real-time bus data, and is available in Amharic and English. The app uses OpenStreetMap data and aims to improve the efficiency of public transport in the city.
• Locus Map highlighted their app’s hidden features such as automatic zoom, terrain shading, dynamic elevation display and audio coaching, demonstrating its versatility for activities such as walking, cycling and geocaching, and emphasising its usefulness for professionals and hobbyists alike.

Other “geo” things

• Map Happenings recounted the history of MapQuest, from its origins with R.R. Donnelley’s cartographic services in 1967 to its rise as a leading online mapping service after launching in 1996, and its eventual acquisition by AOL in 1999 (we reported earlier).
• Hidden Hydrology explored the Atlas of Oblique Maps, a collection of landform representations using oblique aerial photography from 1961 to 1986, highlighting the ability of maps to represent complex geographical features and their historical significance in improving scientific communication with the public.
• Christoph Hormann explained how colour and noise are represented in satellite imagery, discussing the transition to 32-bit colour representation, the use of 16-bit values for image data, and the impact of atmospheric noise on satellite imagery, highlighting methods to reduce noise and improve image quality by aggregating multiple images.
• Google significantly reduced its Maps API prices in India shortly after the launch of rival mapping service Ola. In response Ola is offering free access to up to five million API calls per month for a year to encourage Indian developers to switch from Google Maps.
• Callum Booth examined the reliability and problems associated with Google Maps, highlighting inaccuracies, potential bias and privacy concerns. He discussed how Google’s dominance in digital mapping affects user trust and suggests the need for critical evaluation of the information provided by such platforms.
• Researchers at Caltech have developed a neural network that can autonomously build spatial maps by exploring environments in Minecraft, using predictive coding algorithms to learn and organise information similar to human cognitive mapping.
• The New York Times detailed a trek across Switzerland guided by hand-drawn maps, highlighting the intricate beauty and personal touches of these maps as they lead travellers through scenic landscapes, historical landmarks, and cultural experiences unique to Switzerland.
• Mikhail Sarafanov talked about algorithms for ranking rivers on maps and shared his QGIS plugin, which can rank vector data on rivers (including OSM data).

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
Saint-Étienne	Rencontre Saint-Étienne et sud Loire		2024-07-30
Potsdam	Radnetz Brandenburg Mapping Abend #8	✓	2024-07-30
	HOTOSM – Unlocking the potential of Field Mapping Tasking Manager		2024-07-31
Ondres	Panoramax Partie – Pays Basque Sud Landes		2024-07-31
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)		2024-07-31
Pool	State of the Map Congo		2024-08-01 – 2024-08-03
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2024-08-02
City of Bayswater	Social Mapping Sunday: Bayswater Station		2024-08-04
Gurgaon	1st OSM Gurgaon Mapping Party		2024-08-04
中正區	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #67		2024-08-05
	MapRoulette Community Meeting		2024-08-06
	Missing Maps London: (Online) Mapathon		2024-08-06
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2024-08-07
	iD Community Chat		2024-08-07
Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2024-08-07
Bochum	Bochumer OSM Treffen		2024-08-08
Salt Lake City	OSM Utah 20th Birthday Happy Hour		2024-08-10
Grenoble	apéro pour fêter l’anniversaire d’OpenStreetMap		2024-08-09
London	London OSM Birthday Party		2024-08-10
København	OSMmapperCPH		2024-08-11

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, TheSwavu, adiatmad, barefootstache, derFred, matheusgomesms, mcliquid, rtnf.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

The AfroCreatives WikiProject+film FESPACO in Tanzania is a significant initiative aimed at improving and expanding content related to the African film industry on Wikipedia. This project is part of a larger effort to bridge the content gap on Wikipedia, particularly focusing on the African film industry and its associated creative fields. The Afrocreative Wiki Project in Tanzania aims to mobilize creatives and professionals from the Tanzanian cultural and creative industries to enhance Wikipedia content about Africa’s creative economy, with a particular focus on the film industry. The project engages participants from the Tanzania Board of Film within the film industry, including actors, directors, producers, and technical staff. The participation has been robust, with a diverse group of contributors adding valuable content to Wikipedia.

Participants

On the 1^st and 7^th of June, 2024, the Global WikiEducation Initiative hosted two physical training on the Afrocreative WikiProject + Film FESPACO in Tanzania. The session attracted over 33 participants from Film industry professionals such as DSTV, AZAMTV and Educational Institutions from University of Dar es Salaam(UDSM).

Key Activities and Goals:

1. Content Creation and Enhancement: The project aims to create and enhance Wikipedia articles about the history of African cinema, biographies of notable Tanzanian creatives, and notable Tanzanian movies, television, and series.
2. Workshops and Training: The project involves physical training sessions for film professionals and enthusiasts, aiming to equip them with the skills needed to contribute effectively to Wikipedia. These sessions were designed to encourage the creation of new content and the improvement of existing articles. All articles created can be found through the dashboard.
3. Collaboration and Community Engagement: The initiative engages with the Global WikiEducation Initiative Community, and the local creative industry-Tanzania Board of Film to ensure widespread participation and support. Two physical meetings help to gather feedback and foster collaboration among participants.
4. Targeted Contributions: The project targets various roles within the film industry, including actors, directors, producers, and technical staff, encouraging them to contribute their expertise to Wikipedia. This helps ensure that the content is accurate, comprehensive, and reflective of the current state of the African film industry​

Training Sessions and Feedback:
The project conducted multiple training sessions with presentation to equip participants with the necessary skills to contribute effectively to Wikipedia. These sessions covered topics such as:

Content Creation and Enhancement: Techniques for creating new articles and enhancing existing ones with reliable sources and relevant multimedia.

Wikipedia Editing Basics: Introduction to Wikipedia’s editing interface, guidelines, and policies.

Feedback from participants highlighted several positive aspects of the training:
Comprehensive Coverage: Participants appreciated the thorough coverage of Wikipedia editing basics and the hands-on approach.

Practical Sessions: The practical, hands-on sessions were particularly valued, as they allowed participants to apply what they learned immediately.

Supportive Environment: The training environment was supportive, with trainers available to answer questions and provide guidance throughout the sessions

Challenges

Despite the successes, the Afrocreative WikiProject faced several challenges:

1. Content Quality: Ensuring the quality and reliability of the content created was a significant challenge. New contributors often needed additional support to meet Wikipedia’s stringent content guidelines.
2. Lack of reference: Content creation about actors, film producers, movies and series was missing reliable sources and made it difficult to add them to Wikipedia.
3. Engagement and Retention: Sustaining participant engagement and retaining active contributors over time proved difficult. Many participants required ongoing motivation and support to continue contributing beyond the initial training sessions​

Recommendations

To address these challenges and enhance the effectiveness of the Afrocreative WikiProject, several recommendations are proposed:

1. Ongoing Training and Support: Offering continuous training opportunities and creating a support network for contributors can help maintain engagement and improve content quality.
2. Recognition and Incentives: Implementing a robust recognition and incentives program, such as awards and public acknowledgment, can motivate participants to stay active and contribute more.
3. Community Building: Fostering a strong sense of community among contributors through regular meetups, both online and in-person, can enhance collaboration and retention.
4. Partnerships and Collaboration: Building partnerships with local creative industry organizations and educational institutions can provide additional resources and support for the project​.

As LGBTQ+ individuals around the globe continue to pursue the freedom to express themselves openly, the work to record their histories is as crucial as ever. During Pride Month, Wiki Education’s June Speaker Series panel “Who is preserving LGBTQ+ history?” explored the ongoing documentation work on Wikipedia by LGBTQ+ people, students, scholars, and allies, and how anyone can contribute to the preservation efforts for current and future generations.

“It feels like where theory means practice in a really powerful way for students,” said panelist Dean Allbritton, who teaches with the Wikipedia assignment at Colby College. “[My students] are saying, I’m not just researching or understanding the plight or the lives of LGBTQ people throughout the world, but I’m actually making the invisible feel visible in a way that they feel personally and ethically edified by. And it’s just beautiful.”

The associate professor of Spanish enjoys the pivotal moment where the assignment “clicks” for his students – at the beginning, students often tell Allbritton that they’ve been taught to mistrust information on Wikipedia, but when they understand the need to cite all added content, their perceptions change.

“I just love that moment of discovery for them of what Wikipedia can do, and what it can offer particularly to groups that have been underrepresented throughout history,” emphasized Allbritton, reflecting on the Wikipedia assignment’s role in his course “Queer Spain”. “They learn a different, fact-based style of writing, research skills…and all of this is available through the Wiki Education program, which is incredible.”

Panelist Juana Maria Rodriguez, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, echoed Allbritton’s experience in empowering students to add LGBTQ+ content to Wikipedia as part of their coursework. Students quickly realize they are writing for a global audience and can’t simply jump to analysis without substantive research to support their edits, she explained. 

“It actually gives [my students] a sense of the incredible resources they have,” said Rodriguez, noting their access to information held behind paywalls. “That sense of reaching out, speaking to the world, is really impactful for them. Some have taken that extra step to translate pages, coming from their own desire to make this information more widely available.”

The panel also featured the perspective of historian Dan Royles, who traded his usual role of professor to become a student himself in a 2022 Wiki Scholars course focused on enhancing LGBTQ+ histories and content on Wikipedia. 

Drawing from his deep expertise and research for his book To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle for HIV/AIDS, Royles completely transformed the Wikipedia article on American AIDS activist Reggie Williams, expanding the brief text by adding nearly 3,000 words and 20 references.

Royles explained that just like students, he developed an appreciation for the rigor required to significantly improve a Wikipedia article. As part of his edits to Williams’ article, Royles added the names of William’s notable collaborators to encourage future additions on Wikipedia of their own impactful histories.

“The kind of iterative nature of Wikipedia, where our work is the groundwork for the work other people do later, is really valuable,” said Royles.

Margaret Galvan, Speaker Series panelist and assistant professor of Visual Rhetoric at the University of Florida, has taught with Wikipedia for several years, primarily in her course “Queer Comics”. 

“Wiki Education’s platform makes it really easy to teach with Wikipedia,” said Galvan. “They have modules where students learn about Wikipedia throughout the semester that you can adapt to your course.”

Galvan encouraged fellow faculty to teach with Wikipedia, underscoring the opportunity to engage students in critical discussions on topics including the idea of notability, particularly when editing content about underrepresented people or subjects. 

Catch up on our Speaker Series on YouTube, including “Who is preserving LGBTQ+ history?”, and explore recaps of our most recent programs on our blog:

• Wikipedia and education, globally 
• Wikipedia can shape the world, not just reflect it

Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education provides to instructors in the United States and Canada.

How the new center in São Paulo is already lowering Wikipedia load times.

One second ago, people around the world accessed Wikipedia 5,500 times. 

What those people likely don’t know is that what appeared on their screens came via a data center owned and run by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The Foundation’s global network of data centers makes the loading of Wikipedia articles and other Wikimedia content fast, secure, and private, no matter where on Earth you are located.

The Foundation recently opened a new data center in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the latest to open among the Wikimedia Foundation’s seven data centers across the world and is the first center in South America. As a result of the new center, the average time it takes a reader in Brazil to load Wikipedia dropped by one-third of a second. That’s important, because for every moment it takes to load a page, someone may get frustrated and become less likely to use Wikipedia in the future.

Opening a data center is fascinatingly complex. About 12 Wikimedia Foundation staff spent over ten months surmounting legal concerns, regulatory hoops, extended equipment delays, and employees physically installing servers into the data center to make the new center possible. 

Let’s break down how the Foundation accomplished this endeavor.

Just what is a data center? Why are there “servers” in it? 

You may have seen one of the many Hollywood movies where a main character needs to break into a room with a bunch of neatly arranged electronic towers and install a device to destroy the villain’s evil plans. Take Tron: Legacy or Mission: Impossible, for examples.

The accuracy of these fictional scenes can leave room for desire, but they get the idea across: the actors are plugging those devices into individual servers that hold a platform’s digital data, and when those servers are networked together, you have a data center. In real life, whenever you try to access a page on Wikipedia, the prompt goes to the Wikimedia Foundation data center nearest to you. In turn, that sends it to your device.

How do the Wikimedia Foundation’s data centers work? Why are they important?

The Wikimedia Foundation maintains seven data centers located in the United States, Singapore, the Netherlands, France, and now Brazil.

Most of these data centers are used to serve you “cached” versions of Wikimedia content. That means that the data centers try to keep a copy of that content on file after a person opens it for the first time. This practice allows us to quickly respond to whatever page you’d like to load and send it to you with a minimum of lag.

Still, it is impossible to overcome the physical limitations of distance. Prior to opening a data center in Brazil, someone living in Rio de Janeiro took twice as long to load a Wikipedia article as someone in New York City because they were that much farther from the nearest data center.

As part of our commitment towards knowledge equity, the Wikimedia Foundation has been steadily opening servers outside the United States since 2012. Each new location lowers the average loading time of all the regions it is connected to.

What goes into building a new data center? 

So much. Let’s break it down. 

Alright, let’s start with the legal matters. 

First up, the Foundation has to select a location for a new data center. This process involves months of work by the legal team to vet the laws and regulations governing each candidate location. Wikimedia websites collect only a vanishingly small amount of personal data from people who visit Wikimedia sites, and so any location that the Foundation selects has to pass our high privacy standards. They also need to determine the answers to more mundane questions, like tax liabilities.

Not coincidentally, this is very similar to the reason why the Foundation operates its own data centers, even as much of the tech industry has moved to cloud computing. For Wikimedia, it’s a simple choice: we believe in user privacy, and we believe that you should be able to read anything on our sites without fearing that a company, government, or anyone else is snooping on what you are interested in. 

In addition to all that, the data center in São Paulo presented the Foundation with new challenges because we had to find vendors that would work with us despite not being listed on Brazil’s National Registry of Legal Entities (CNPJ for short). This impacted our equipment purchases, our delivery plans, and even our acquisition of IP addresses. 

What else goes into selecting a location?

Wikimedia Foundation data centers need to be situated in a city where a number of submarine communications cables come ashore. These fiber optic cables run along sea floors all around the world and are the backbone of the internet. 

How do you build a data center? 

With a hardworking team of Wikimedia Foundation staff and a dream! 

Each data center requires a significant amount of physical hardware that needs to be purchased and sent to the desired location. This includes: 

• Physical hardware like servers, routers, switches, cabling, and power
• The data center colocation provider
• Network circuits like peering, transport, and transit with redundancy

This work is more complicated today than the early days of Wikipedia. But the Wikimedia Foundation’s continued focus on improving technical infrastructure has meant that the Foundation can now worry less about when and how often Wikipedia will break and go down. Instead, the Foundation can devote its resources to improving the lived experience of readers and editors around the world, such as reducing their loading times.

Unfortunately, all that equipment cannot install itself. Servers do not put themselves on racks, nor can they plug themselves into the correct ports or swap out cables that prove to be faulty. They also cannot label ports to make sure that anyone doing future maintenance on those servers understands how and why they are wired. Instead, for each data center the Foundation has opened in recent years, staff members have gone to each location to set everything up.

Having people on-site for the installation process is also useful when someone needs to figure out solutions for when—not if—things go wrong.

For example, to set up the São Paulo data center, the Foundation shipped down four pallets full of equipment for staff members to install over the course of one week. The first three pallets made it through customs and to the data center on time. The other, which included all of the team’s routers, switches, and cables, did not—it was delayed by mandatory documentation and pending approvals. It only arrived on the last day of the team’s planned work, and they completed 2 to 3 days of work in the final 12 hours before their flights left for home.

Setting up a new Wikimedia data center is complex and delicate work.  Twelve staff members spent upwards of 1,600 hours over ten months to study legal issues, select a location, find vendors who would work with us, order the equipment, send it to the right destination, have some of it not arrive in time, and get everything installed anyway. And that’s just the beginning of the journey. We hope that this data center will provide fast and reliable access to Wikipedia across the region for many years to come.

This is just one of the reasons why the Wikimedia Foundation exists. It takes on daunting tasks behind the scenes so that people everywhere can contribute to and access the sum of all knowledge. 

The Wikimedia Foundation’s Research team is excited to announce the recipients of the 2023 Wikimedia Foundation Research Fund! This year’s round of funding continues our commitment to expanding and strengthening the global network of Wikimedia researchers. We aim to support projects that support the technology and policy needs of the Wikimedia projects and advance our understanding of the Wikimedia projects.  

The Selection Process

We received 76 proposals this year from countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South Americas. Similar to previous years, our selection process involved a two-stage review. In the first stage, applications went through a technical review process by established Wikimedia researchers. The Wikimedia community was invited to provide feedback to Stage I proposals on Meta-Wiki. Out of the original pool of applications, 13 were advanced to Stage II. The applicants were asked to submit more detailed descriptions of their proposed work incorporating feedback from the technical reviewers, technical chairs, the Research Fund chairs, as well as the broader Wikimedia community. The same technical reviewers who reviewed Stage I submissions also reviewed Stage II submissions, overseen by the technical chairs who provided recommendations to Research Fund chairs. The Fund chairs made the final decision on which proposals to fund, with 9 grantees ultimately awarded funding. Collectively, they will receive 270,687 USD to support their work. 

Funded Projects

Developing Wikimedia Impact Metrics as a Sociotechnical Solution for Encouraging Funder/ Academic Engagement

This research will explore how to encourage scientists to engage with Wikimedia by developing and designing Wikimedia Impact Metrics. The goal is to create metrics that are useful for both scientists and Altmetric aggregators, promoting the recognition of Wikimedia contributions in academic circles. The study will also survey Wikimedians to identify meaningful metrics, build a basic prototype, and seek community feedback, with the aim of fostering a supportive community and developing future funding opportunities.

System Design for Increasing Adoption of AI-Assisted Image Tagging in Wikimedia Commons

The purpose of this project is to investigate system designs to increase the adoption of AI-assisted image tagging in Wikimedia Commons. Objectives include investigating cognitive distinctions, identifying areas of agreement on AI-generated tags, exploring design strategies for contributor adoption, and highlighting features for an engaging AI-assisted tagging experience. Anticipated outcomes include improved contributor acceptance and experience with AI-assisted image tagging, along with enhanced metadata quality, ultimately benefiting the accessibility, searchability, usability, and multilingual support of Commons.

Investigating Neurodivergent Wikimedian Experiences

This project will focus on exploring discussions about being neurodivergent and participating in Wikimedia projects. The researchers will conduct a content analysis of existing public discussions about neurodiverse Wikimedians to investigate present discourse and define a research area. Following this, they will create a set of research design recommendations for future research on neurodivergent Wikimedians given that studying demographic groups requires careful planning and risk considerations. The potential impact of this work is to increase understanding of how to support Wikimedian wellbeing, including through understanding the challenges faced by neurodivergent Wikimedians.

Bridging the Gap Between Wikipedians and Scientists with Terminology-Aware Translation: A Case Study in Turkish

This project addresses the gap between the escalating volume of English-to-Turkish Wikipedia translations and the insufficient number of contributors, particularly in technical domains. Leveraging expertise from academics’ collaborative terminology dictionary effort, the researchers propose a pipeline system to enhance translation quality. The focus is on bridging academic and Wikipedia communities, creating datasets, and developing NLP models for terminology identification and linking, and terminology-aware translation. The aim is to foster sustained contributions and improve the overall quality of Turkish Wikipedia articles.

Addressing Wikipedia’s Gender Gaps Through Paid Media 

The 2030 Wikimedia Strategy aims to address gender gaps and make Wikipedia more inclusive. To attract skilled women to join the Wikipedia community, a survey will be designed and distributed via targeted paid social media distribution to determine the willingness of female participants to contribute or edit Wikipedia articles. The performance of the campaigns will be analyzed to develop a blueprint of strategies for reaching potential female editors on different social media platforms.

Cover Women

In this research project, the main page of Wikipedia will be analyzed across the seven longest-standing Wikipedia editions: English, German, Catalan, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish. This study will delve into the possible gender and intersectional bias in the page’s daily content, newsroom guidelines (principles and standards 1 that govern the dissemination of information), and in the insights from the volunteer community who decide which information gets disseminated to the public on the main page. The researchers hope to actively contribute to editing communities by addressing the daily challenges and needs in crafting front-page content.

Wikimedia versus traditional biographical encyclopedias. Overlaps, gaps, quality and future possibilities

This research project aims to enhance collaboration between traditional biographical dictionaries and online platforms like Wikipedia and Wikidata. By comparing entries from the Czech Wikipedia and the Biographical Dictionary of the Czech Lands (BDCL), the project looks to identify gaps and needs in biographical documentation. The researchers’ goal is to propose solutions that will improve cooperation, ensure comprehensive and accurate biographical information, and ultimately enrich the content of both Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Development of a training program for teachers to use Wikipedia as a resource for collaborative learning and the development of skills for digital citizenship

In this project, the researchers will design and pilot a training model for school teachers using the Wikimedia projects as a learning environment to foster digital citizenship and 21st century skills. The designing process will be conducted by an exploration of the teacher’s perceptions and needs regarding the use of Wikimedia for digital literacy and citizenship. To achieve this goal, a case study will be carried out with teachers from three different types of school centers in Chile (public, private, and subsidized). The research methods will include in-depth interviews, surveys, and focus groups. After designing the initial training model, it will be implemented in a pilot with teachers from the three participating schools. To evaluate the implementation, class observations and interviews with teachers and students will be carried out. The training model and all of the resources developed in the context of this research will be disseminated within the Wikimedia and Education Community through different collective instances.

Wikidata for the People of Africa

This project aims to use natural language generation (NLG) to expand Wikidata entries with high-quality labels and descriptions in Bantu languages, starting with isiZulu and focusing on the geopolitical domain. By leveraging the Grammatical Framework (GF) to differentiate between abstract and concrete syntax, the project intends to streamline the process for other Bantu languages. The goal is to address the lack of Bantu language representation on Wikidata, enabling speakers to contribute and access data in their native languages, thus enhancing the multilingual support of Wikimedia projects.

Looking Forward to the Future of Wikimedia Research

These funded projects aim to support researchers who might otherwise not have ready access to funding and who are located in emerging communities. We prioritized research proposals that are in collaboration with Wikimedia volunteer developers or affiliates and attempt to serve a specific purpose, with the aim of creating real impact for these communities, and the movement at large. We encourage the Wikimedia community and our broader network to support these projects in any way possible. Here are some ways you can get involved:

• Engage with the Researchers: Follow the progress of these projects and contribute your insights through Meta-Wiki discussions or other Wikimedia platforms.
• Share Knowledge and Resources: If you have expertise or resources relevant to these projects, consider reaching out to collaborate and share knowledge.
• Promote the Projects in Your Community: Help raise awareness of these initiatives within your local Wikimedia community or through social media to expand their reach and impact.

If you’re interested in applying for future research funds, keep an eye out for our next call for proposals. Stay updated by subscribing to the wiki-research-l mailing list for news on upcoming opportunities, events, and research-related announcements. We look forward to seeing how these projects unfold and the positive impact they will have on the Wikimedia community.

Happy new (nonprofit fiscal) year! 🥳 July 1 marked the start of the FY24-25 annual plan for Wikimedia Foundation. Together with colleagues, I've been working the last couple of months on lining up some interesting projects for improving anti-abuse capabilities on the wikis under the WE4.

Women for Sustainability Africa participated in this year’s WikiForHumanRights campaign, collaborating with the University of Ghana’s Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies. The goal was to address the lack of information about climate change topics related to Ghana and Africa on the web through Wikipedia and its sister projects. One of the reasons we found this collaboration intriguing was because the students at the department are passionate about climate change and are already taking various courses on the topic. As young people are ardent about this area, we found the need to build their capacity on new ways they can address climate change and that was through Wikipedia; empowering them to contribute to knowledge for a sustainable Future.

We also collaborated with Climate and Development Knowledge Network CDKN Ghana, who led a session and supported us with a wealth of resources from the CDKN Knowledge repository on Ghana Regional Climate Change risk inventory to use in our Wikipedia documentation efforts.

We also collaborated with experienced Wikimedia groups in Ghana thus the Tamale and Wale Wale Wiki Hub who coordinated the campaign activities in the northern part of Ghana as well as an experienced Wikimedia Photographer – Francis Quasie whose key role had to do with curating photography and videography related content to Wikimedia Commons.

How it started

We connected with Dr. Agyeman Boafo, a lecturer at the University of Ghana’s C3SS Department, during the Plant and Green Entrepreneur Exhibition fair at the center. During our discussion, the topic of Wikipedia came up as he had seen us showcase a wikimedia event on our social media handles. We then scheduled a partnership meeting to discuss further and explore potential collaborations between Women for Sustainability Africa and the department. Among all the topics discussed, Wikipedia stood out as an area Dr. Boafo was particularly enthused about. As a department, their interest areas was how they can address climate change topics on wikimedia with their students. We identified the WikiForHumanRights campaign as an ideal initiative to join, especially since this year’s theme, #KnowledgeForSustainableFuture, aligns perfectly with our collective goals.

First Info session

In preparation for the WikiForHumanRights campaign, we hosted our first information session for students at the department. Nearly 40 attendees, including post-graduate students and lecturers, participated in this interactive and engaging session, with many asking questions. During the session, over 30 students successfully created their Wikipedia accounts. To facilitate further engagement and preparation for the upcoming two-day workshop, we also enrolled students in the department’s dedicated Wikipedia WhatsApp group.

Workshop Launch

As we launched the two-day workshop, we created an event registration page with resources to support students. The workshop was open to students from the department as well as Geography students taking climate change courses at the department. A total of 157 people registered for the workshop indicating the high interest of participation in the campaign. Of these, 80% stated that they had never contributed to a Wikimedia project, and about 90% mentioned that they did not belong to any Wikimedia affiliate. Regarding gender, 44% identified as women and 49% as men. Most participants (66.2%) were under 25 years old, while 24.2% were between 25 and 44 years old. In terms of profession, 63.7% identified as students, 6.4% as educators, and 7% as researchers. Prior to the workshop, participants were enrolled on the Wikipedia WhatsApp group for further engagement and support. 

Day 1

The first day of the workshop was attended by 50 participants,including a few external guests and lecturers. The session introduced students to the fundamentals of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. They practiced basic editing, starting with their user accounts. Five experienced Wikipedians led and supported the session, contributing to various sections. The session was highly interactive, with participants asking numerous questions and actively contributing to the discussions.

Day 2

On day two, the workshop focused on advanced editing techniques. Dr. Prince Ansah from CDKN joined as a resource person, engaging students in insightful exercises and emphasizing the role of Wikipedia in bridging the knowledge gap between expert research and public information. The CDKN repository was shared with students, allowing them to identify and document climate change incidents in Ghana that were missing on Wikipedia. Additionally, we were honored to have the founder of Global Climate Change Resolution present on heat waves, highlighting incidents we could document.

• Participants then engaged in a three-hour edit-a-thon, working collaboratively in groups based on various thematic areas:
• Climate Change and Health
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
• Water and Sanitation
• Heatwaves
• Regional Impact of Climate Change

Participants were asked to choose one or two articles to work on and to identify the knowledge gaps in the articles they selected. Many of the articles were missing significant information, which the students were eager to update. Participants felt fulfilled as they were able to make substantial improvements to existing Wikipedia articles. Most of the articles they contributed to already existed.

Who are we?

Women for sustainability Africa is a non-profit organization dedicated towards women empowerment and environmental sustainability. We achieve this through capacity building and advocacy. Over the past years we have trained 1000+ women and girls though our digital skills and advocacy programs. We have organized several wikimedia activities around women/gender and sustianbility this includes; Wikiforhumanrights campaign, Arts+Feminism, Wiki Women in Red, Mentor, Wikipedia Train the Trainers projects Follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok. Youtube. This initiative was birth by CoachAni a wikipedia passionate about women empowerment and sustainability.

Our esteemed team and trainers and partners played a crucial role in the success of the event:

• Anita Ofori: The main coordinator and lead for the campaign, whose leadership and organizational skills were instrumental in facilitating partnerships, coordinating the entire event and coordinating training.
• Dr. Yaw Agyeman– Lead partnership
• Ruby D-Brown: Led the session on the introduction to Wikipedia, providing participants with a solid foundation and also facilitating the edit-a-thon session.
• Jwale: Guided participants through the practical aspects of editing Wikipedia, ensuring they gained hands-on experience.
• Queen Murjanatu: Introduced participants to Wikimedia Commons, helping them understand the importance and process of uploading images.
• Phimilon: Provided unwavering support to participants throughout the training sessions.
• Kojo Owusu 2020: Supported in coordinating logistics and communication for the event as well as supported participants throughout the training.
• Prince Ansah– From CDKN Ghana
• Nii Djan– Global Climate Change Resolution
• Barrister– Student Cordinator
• Naana Afia– Student Cordinator

We are incredibly proud of the enthusiasm and commitment shown by all participants and trainers. Stay tuned for part 2 of this article!In part two of this article, we will highlight the outcome and impact of the campaign.

#wikiforhumanrights #Knowledgeforasustainablefuture

AfroLiterature: Quotes from African Literatures is a project focused on capturing and sharing Africa’s rich tradition of storytelling and oral wisdom. Our mission is to amplify quotes from African literature and document these quotes on Wikiquote, a sister project of Wikipedia.

The campaign kicked off with an online session on July 8, 2024, with over 30 participants in attendance. This session also served as the opening for the online writing contest.

The physical events were held on July 19 and 20 at Bukatee, Ilorin, Kwara State. Participants were introduced to Wikimedia projects, the campaign goals, and were trained on how to contribute to Wikiquote. The second day featured a hands-on edit-a-thon, complemented by engaging games related to Wikimedia projects to provide a fun break after the two-hour editing session.

So far, the campaign has resulted in the creation and improvement of 300 pages, and we are looking forward to more contributions.

As we continue this journey, we aim to enrich the representation of African literature on Wikiquote. By doing so, we hope to ensure that the wisdom and creativity of African writers are preserved and accessible to everyone.

• AfroLiterature:Quotes From African Literatures Meta-wiki page
• Campaign outreach dashboard

Update: On 1 July 2024, the US Supreme Court sent back to lower courts the Texas and Florida laws that aimed to limit social media platforms’ ability to moderate content. The scope of these laws is unclear and, if enforced, they could endanger Wikipedia’s volunteer-led content moderation model and the freedom of expression of volunteer editors. The Wikimedia Foundation is encouraged that the Supreme Court did not uphold these laws, and recognized that regulations targeting large, commercially-run web platforms can also impact other online spaces such as Wikipedia. We are grateful that the Court’s opinion includes language that supports the selection and curation of content, such as the work done by Wikipedia’s volunteer editors, as forms of expression protected by the First Amendment.

The Wikimedia Foundation will monitor the laws as the lower courts take action, and continue to advocate the right to freedom of expression. Learn more about the decision in this blog post.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, submitted an amicus brief today urging the US Supreme Court to rule in favor of NetChoice in the upcoming cases of NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC in order to protect community-governed free knowledge projects like Wikipedia. 

An amicus brief, also known as a “friend-of-the-court” brief, is a document filed by individuals or organizations who are not part of a lawsuit, but who have an interest in the outcome of the case and want to raise awareness about their concerns. The Wikimedia Foundation’s amicus brief calls upon the Supreme Court to strike down laws passed in 2021 by Texas and Florida state legislatures. Texas House Bill 20 and Florida Senate Bill 7072 prohibit website operators from banning users or removing speech and content based on the viewpoints and opinions of the users in question.

These laws have prompted NetChoice, a trade organization representing many of the largest multinational technology firms, as well as the Computer and Communications Industry Association, to sue the attorneys general of Texas and Florida (Paxton and Moody, respectively), citing violations of the First Amendment and other elements of the US Constitution. 

As the US Supreme Court prepares to consider these cases in 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation calls on the Court to strike down both laws, as they present a significant risk to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

In its amicus brief, the Foundation argued that the laws are unconstitutionally vague: while the drafters may have intended to target large, commercially-run social media platforms, the laws are written so broadly that they could potentially be applied to volunteer-run projects like Wikipedia. Wikipedia and other related free knowledge projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation have long-standing volunteer-led systems of content moderation. Yet the laws define “social media platforms” so broadly that they could potentially be applied to any website or service that allows people to exchange information over the internet. 

The Foundation also argued that, should these laws be applied to Wikimedia projects, they would violate the constitutional First Amendment rights of volunteer contributors by restricting them from editing and improving information on the platform. This would diminish the quality and useability of Wikipedia for billions of readers and users worldwide.

“These laws expose residents of Florida and Texas who edit Wikipedia to lawsuits by people who disagree with their work,” said Stephen LaPorte, General Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation. “For over twenty years, a community of volunteers from around the world have designed, debated, and deployed a range of content moderation policies to ensure the information on Wikipedia is reliable and neutral. We urge the Supreme Court to rule in favor of NetChoice to protect Wikipedia’s unique model of community-led governance, as well as the free expression rights of the encyclopedia’s dedicated editors.” 

“The quality of Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia depends entirely on the ability of volunteers to develop and enforce nuanced rules for well-sourced, encyclopedic content,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, Vice President of Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation. “Without the discretion to make editorial decisions in line with established policies around verifiability and neutrality, Wikipedia would be overwhelmed with opinions, conspiracies, and irrelevant information that would jeopardize the project’s reason for existing.” 

The Paxton and Moody cases, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in 2024, reflect a growing global trend of laws designed to regulate internet content, often in response to concerns about the perceived societal harms spread through large, for-profit social media platforms. In many cases, such laws inadvertently put projects like Wikipedia at risk. The Wikimedia Foundation encourages lawmakers around the world to consider the diverse internet ecosystem and to protect public interest projects like Wikipedia that host reliable, neutral, and well-sourced free knowledge. 

Learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation’s position on NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC in its amicus brief and this blog post. For email updates from the Foundation on public policy topics, sign up for this quarterly newsletter.

The Wikimedia Foundation extends its gratitude to Cooley LLP for their pro bono representation in this matter.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

For media inquiries, please contact press@wikimedia.org.

The post Wikimedia Foundation calls on US Supreme Court to strike laws that threaten Wikipedia appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

I sometimes see a bad mistake in a Hebrew translation of a message in MediaWiki, the software that runs Wikipedia. I check who made it, and see that it’s myself, a few years ago.

I post something like this on social networks every few weeks, but this time it’s special.

Here’s the timeline of a silly bug that took way, way too long to fix, and it’s 100% my fault:

• March 21, 2017, morning: I translate the message mobile-frontend-joined-years, which says “Joined X years go” next to the username on the mobile site. The message takes two parameters: $1 and $2. $1 is the gender of the user, so that it will be possible to write the verb “joined” in the correct grammatical gender. It’s irrelevant for English, but relevant for many languages. $2 is the number of years, so that it will be possible to write “year” or “years” correctly in “1 year”, “2 years”, “4 years”, etc. With Hebrew, the plural forms of years are a tad more complicated than in English: for the specific case of two years, a different plural ending is used: “3 shaním”, “7 shaním”, etc., but when it’s two, the word is “shnatáyim” (and the number is not written at all, because the ending already means that it’s 2). The way to do it in translations is to use the {{PLURAL}} syntax. In English, it looks like {{PLURAL:$2|$2 year|$2 years}}. In Hebrew (in transliteration into Latin letters), it would have to look like this: {{PLURAL:$2|shaná|shnatáyim|$2 shaná|$2 shaním}} (the first form is for 1 year, the second is for 2 years, the third is for some special cases where the singular ending is used even though the number is not 1, and the last form is for all other numbers).
• March 21, 2017, midday: A few hours later, I notice that I made a mistake and used $1 everywhere instead of using $1 for gender and $2 for plural. The likely reason I noticed it at that time is that I checked what things have to be translated. Since I’ve tried to keep the translation into Hebrew at 100% most of the time since 2010, there are usually few of those. Even though I had translated it already a few hours earlier, this thing showed up because our translation auto-validation system noticed that the $2 parameter is missing from the translation, and messages with mistakes are shown together with messages that are not yet translated. And here’s where I made another mistake: I fixed the appearance of $1 to $2 within the “PLURAL” values, but I left it as $1 in the beginning. As a result, the algorithm was trying to determine the plural form based on the gender, which obviously cannot work.
• And because now both $1 and $2 were used in the translation, our translation auto-validation system stopped noticing it as a mistake. I’m not blaming the system or the people who developed it. Auto-validation systems are built for catching the most obvious bugs. In theory, it can be improved to catch this bug, but it would require some work, and it’s probably not the most important thing to fix.
• August 28, 2017: It came to my attention that “Joined 2 years ago” appears in Hebrew as “2 shaním” and not as “shnatáyim”. I checked the translation, but didn’t notice that it says “$2” instead of “$1”. Instead, I reported a bug. Two developers tried to look at it and help, but didn’t come to any conclusions.
• July 23, 2020: A developer of the mobile web interface, who was probably going through old and forgotten bug reports, wondered whether this is still a bug. I said that it is.
• July 24, 2020: The same developer noticed that the translation says PLURAL:$1 instead of PLURAL:$2 and wrote a comment in the bug report. I didn’t notice it, even though I reported the bug. I guess I can use “the summer of 2020 was all weird COVID days!!” as an excuse.
• July 25, 2024: An anonymous Hebrew Wikipedia user noticed that issue again. I started investigating it, came upon my own old bug report, and finally noticed the correctly-identified problem in the translation.
• Immediately after that, I fixed the translation.

Over those seven years, I had several opportunities to fix this bug, and I didn’t do it. Now, I finally did.

And you know, this is horribly embarrassing, but I am really happy that this Hebrew Wikipedia user reported this bug today. And I wonder why doesn’t this happen much more often and in many more languages. There are definitely more bugs like this—some of them are in Hebrew, and I just haven’t noticed them yet, and many of them are in other languages. For example, when I was fixing this bug in Hebrew, I noticed that the translation of the same message into Belarusian had the same problem, and fixed it. Every now and then, I sporadically notice bugs of this kind in all kinds of languages, and I fix them when it doesn’t require actually knowing the language. Why doesn’t it bother people more often that some things are incompletely or incorrectly translated?

Over the last months, the Release-Engineering-Team of the Wikimedia Foundation put efforts into making improvements and fixing issues in Wikimedia Phabricator, our main software planning software. Here is an incomplete list of achievements:

• Reduced visual complexity by removing or hiding unused functionality, such as the Differential code review tool and other tools, and the contact numbers panel in personal settings.
• Made message improvements and user interface tweaks, such as explicitly linking from the Global Search to the Advanced Search to raise awareness of its existence, and disallowing creating projects with an empty description.
• Phabricator reuses your confirmed MediaWiki email address during registration of a new Phabricator account - no more manually entering your email address.
• If you have multi-factor authentication (2FA) enabled for your account, re-authenticating skips the additional OAuth access dialog on mediawiki.org.
• When resolving a task and explicitly not setting a task assignee, no disruptive "Action with no effect" warning is displayed.
• Pppery contributed many fixes to our neglected internationalization and translation setup (thank you!). This also made Slovenian and Sicilian translations available in the language user settings.
• Fixed inaccurate data in project reports and fixed anonymous access to burndown charts.
• Transparent embedded image files have a checkered background.
• Each Phame blog links to its atom feed.
• Fixed various crashes and exceptions.
• Improvements to fight vandalism and made the corresponding checks more performant.
• API user queries include the MediaWiki username if you have sufficient permissions.
• Corrected some bad and missing data in our database (thanks to Valerio for the Bugzilla data!).
• Deployed the latest stable Phorge version from upstream - see the full upstream changelog.
• Reduced the number of custom lines of code in our Wikimedia downstream installation by contributing some of our changes to the upstream Phorge codebase and by removing obsolete or uncommon custom code in our installation ("technical debt").
• Fixed PHP8 compatibility issues in upstream and in custom downstream code.
• Developers and testers of our installation can use the "lipsum" script again to create projects.
• In the meantime, the WMF SRE team also upgraded the host machines from Debian Buster to Debian Bullseye.

We hope you enjoy your Wikimedia Phabricator experience!

As usual, your thoughts and questions are welcome on the Phabricator talk page.

The demise of goo.gl is a good opportunity to write about how we built a less terrible URL shortener for Wikimedia projects: w.wiki. (I actually started writing this blog post in 2016 and never got back to it, oops.)

URL shorteners are generally a bad idea for a few main reasons:

1. They obfuscate the actual link destination, making it harder to figure out where a link will take you.
2. If they disappear or are shut down, the link is broken, even if the destination is fully functional.
3. They often collect extra tracking/analytics information.

But there are also legitimate reasons to want to shorten a URL, including use in printed media where it's easier for people to type a shorter URL. Or circumstances where there are restrictive character limits like tweets and IRC topics. The latter often affects non-ASCII languages even more when limits are measured in bytes instead of Unicode characters.

At the end of the day, there was still considerable demand for a URL shortener, so we figured we could provide one that was well, less terrible. Following a RfC, we adopted Tim's proposal, and a plan to avoid the aforementioned flaws:

1. Limit shortening to Wikimedia-controlled domains, so you have a general sense of where you'd end up. (Other generic URL shorteners are banned on Wikimedia sites because they bypass our domain-based spam blocking.)
2. Proactively provide dumps as a guarantee that if the service ever disappeared, people could still map URLs to their targets. You can find them on dumps.wikimedia.org and they're mirrored to the Internet Archive.
3. Intentionally avoid any extra tracking and metrics collection. It is still included in Wikimedia's general webrequest logs, but there is no dedicated, extra tracking for short URLs besides what every request gets.

Anyone can create short URLs for any approved domain, subject to some rate limits and anti-abuse mechanisms via a special page or the API.

All of this is open source and usable by any MediaWiki wiki by installing the UrlShortener extension. (Since this launched, additional functionality was added to use multiple character sets and generate QR codes.)

The dumps are nice for other purposes too, I use them to provide basic statistics on how many URLs have been shortened.

I still tend to have a mildly negative opinion about people using our URL shortner, but hey, it could be worse, at least they're not using goo.gl.