2022:Submissions/Wikifunctions - A new Wikimedia project

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Wikifunctions - A new Wikimedia project
Ideal for newcomers
Tent 2 · Sunday August 14, (click for local time)


  • Language: English
  • Status: Live

Speaker(s)[edit source]

Denny Vrandečić
Nick Wilson

Abstract[edit source]

We will soon launch the first new Wikimedia project in ten years: Wikifunctions. Wikifunctions will provide a form of knowledge new to Wikimedia: a library of functions, to be collaboratively maintained and used in many different contexts. Functions can reliably answer questions that have never been asked before. In this session we will offer the community ample opportunity to learn about our plans, discuss them, and discover how this project will provide opportunities to support the work in their home projects. We will present how Wikifunctions will be the foundation for Abstract Wikipedia, a project to allow contributors to work on a truly global common baseline of knowledge for the encyclopedia that can be shared across languages.

Learning Outcomes[edit source]

  • What is Wikifunctions? What is a function, and how are functions useful to me?
    * How will we be able to use functions from Wikifunctions within the Wikimedia projects?
    * When and how do we plan to launch Wikifunctions?
    * How will Wikifunctions be the foundation for Abstract Wikipedia?

Biography[edit source]

Denny is the Head of Special Projects at the Wikimedia Foundation, working on Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia. He has been a Wikipedian since 2004. He worked on Wikidata at Wikimedia Deutschland. After that, he worked at Google on the Knowledge Graph. He joined the Wikimedia Foundation in 2020.


More info[edit | edit source]

Session notes from Etherpad[edit | edit source]

Presentation, slides, links to material shared[edit | edit source]

Mentioned things include:

Questions during the session[edit | edit source]

  1. Where can I get the Wikifunctions swag!? (Nice shirt)
  2. May we have a large language model similar to https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.08239.pdf please? My understanding is that in addition to dual process theory, it needs optimization of, "Sensibleness, Specificity, Interestingness, Safety, Groundedness, Informativeness, Citation accuracy, Helpfulness, and Role consistency." Ref.: w:Dual_process_theory#System_1 -- Can we get this by holding an ORES improvement competition between e.g. the status quo and NVIDIA?
    • Denny: Problem with large automatic language models is that you can't edit them, which is a key part of the Wikimedia way, so we are looking instead at rules-based language translations, which our community can edit when they think things are wrong.
    • Denny: We might also use language models in the future, e.g. to select between different outputs from rules-based systems, but that's in the future.
  3. I've just found out that labels of object properties like Z10024/Mushroom can be translated. However, I tried to do the same with Z4/Type or Z2/Persistent object. Their properties are not translatable using the normal edit interface. Are the core types properties going to be translatable too?
    • Denny: They are going to be editable, but there are special rules. You won't be able to change the core model without very special rights, as that could make lots of issues.
  4. How is your time plan holding up? Still launch this year?
    • Denny: Originally we wanted to launch last year, but then COVID happened! We don't want to make any promises but we hope that the launch will go forward in the next few months. The Beta that we announced last week lets people see where we are and track progress towards being ready. We want to continue a discussion with the community about what is appropriate and needed before we launch.
  5. Have you had any new insights on what's going to be possible in the future? (like any cool things you didn't think about before)
    • (not answered at the time)
  6. I've heard previously that it would be possible to export a Wikifuctions "article" on Wikipedia projects. How to make sure this export doesn't erase the previous content put there?
    • If there is local content in a Wikipedia, content from Abstract Wikipedia will not override that. The local content always "wins".
    • Section 1 here should help further explain the vision for the options each Wikipedia will have: m:Special:MyLanguage/Abstract Wikipedia/Components
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