Yay! Thanks for the positive note! This is appreciated! Stay safe, Denny
On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 1:44 AM Peter Southwood < [email protected]> wrote: > Based on my first read-through of the paper, I think this would be > something worth doing. > Cheers, > Peter. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Denny Vrandecic > Sent: 14 April 2020 02:53 > To: Wikimedia Mailing List > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal towards a multilingual Wikipedia and a new > Wikipedia project > > As some of you know, I have been working on the idea of a multilingual > Wikipedia for a few years now. Two other publications on this are here, I > have bothered you with mails about it here previously too: > > https://research.google/pubs/pub48057/ > > https://wikipedia20.pubpub.org/pub/vyf7ksah > > I've also been giving talks about the topic in several places about this > idea, some of them have also been recorded: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVA7YLwhTE > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLiJ6E9sG6U&list=PLQVG_tuf3Q2fji-CwqEDRJpZuf23wevrq&index=13 > > I gathered some awesome feedback in those few years (also from some members > of this list, thank you!), and I also implemented a few prototypes trying > out the idea, learning a lot from that. > > All of this has helped to sharpen the idea and come up with a more concrete > proposal. In short, the proposal is that we do a two-step approach: first, > allow for capturing Wikipedia content in an abstract notation, and second, > allow for creating functions that translate this abstract notation into > natural language (For simplicity, I gave this two steps names, Abstract > Wikipedia for step 1, and Wikilambda for step 2. I realize that both names > are not perfect, but that is just one of the many things that we can figure > out together on the way). > > I wrote up this proposal in a paper, which I uploaded to my Website almost > two weeks ago, and I also submitted it to Arxiv. And as soon as it was > published on Arxiv, I wanted to share it with you and see what you folks > think (I wanted to wait for it as Arxiv would allow the URLs to remains > table - my Website has gone down before and might so again). > > https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04733 > > The new proposal is much more concrete than the previous proposals (and > therefore there is much more to criticize). Also, obviously, nothing of > this is set in stone, and just like the names, I am very much looking > forward to hear suggestions for how to improve the whole thing, and I will > blatantly steal every good idea and proposal. I am not even sure what a > good venue for this discussion is, I guess, eventually it should be on > Meta?, but also about that I would like to hear proposals. > > Abstract Wikipedia is a proposed extension to Wikidata that would capture > the content next to the Wikidata items. Think of it as a new namespace, > where we could create, maintain, and collaborate on the abstract content. > Similar to the Wikidata-bridge, there should be a way to allow > contributions from the Wikipedias to flow back without too much friction. > The individual Wikipedias - and I cannot stress this enough - have the > choice to use some or any or all or none of the content from Abstract > Wikipedia, but I most definitely do not expect the content of the current > Wikipedias to be replaced by this. In fact, I have no doubt that any decent > article in any language Wikipedia will remain superior to the outcome of > the proposed new architecture by far. This is a proposal for the places > where the current system left us with gaps, not a proposal to turn the > parts that are already brilliant today dull and terrible tomorrow. > > Wikilambda is a proposed new Wikimedia project that allows us to share in a > new form of knowledge assets, functions. You can think of it as similar to > Modules or Templates, but a bit extended, with places for tests, different > languages, evaluation, and also for all kind of functions, not only those > that are immediately useful for one of the Wikimedia projects, and most > importantly, shared among the projects. So one of the first goals would be > to increasingly allow fo a place to have global templates, another idea > that has been discussed and asked for for a very long time. Wikilambda, > just as Wikidata, is expected to start as a project supporting the > immediate needs of the sister projects, and over time to grow to a project > that stands on its own merits as well. > > We don't really have an effective process for starting new projects, so I > am trying to follow a similar path that we took for Wikidata back then. And > back then it all started with Markus Krötzsch, me and others talking about > the idea to anyone who would listen until everyone was bored of hearing it, > trying out prototypes, and then talking about it even more, and improving > all of it constantly based on your feedback. And then making increasingly > concrete proposals until we managed to show some kind of consensus from the > communities, you, and the Foundation to actually do it. And then, well, do > it. > > So, I've done some of the talking, with researchers, with the public, with > some of you, and also with folks at the Foundation, to figure out what next > steps could be, and how this can be made to work. Here's a more concrete > proposal. Now I am here to see whether we can find consensus and be bold. I > want to hear from you. I want to hear what you think what the right place > is to discuss this (here, this list? Another mailing list? Meta? Wikidata? > Some Telegram or Facebook group? (OK, I was joking about the latter)). > Which parts of the proposal are good and which need improvement? Where is > more detail or clarification needed to allow for a meaningful discussion? > > Just as with Wikipedia and Wikidata and our other projects, this is a crazy > idea at first. Maybe even more crazy than our other projects. And the only > way there is a chance of us being successful is, if, eventually, thousands > of us work together on it. The only way this worked in the past is by being > open, start out collaboratively, discuss the path forward, and work towards > creating the project together. > > Stay safe, > Denny > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > -- > This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. > https://www.avg.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
