The history of MediaWiki and the prospective for the future
Bern, 2017-02-04 Magnus Manske
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MediaWiki_talk,_Bern,_2017-02-04,_Magnus_Manske.pdf Overview
● History of MediaWiki, with a focus on Wikimedia ● Usage, extensions and scripts ● Wikidata ● Of course, a few tools Pre-history
UseModWiki by Ward Cunningham
● Single file Perl script ● All data stored in file system ● Does not scale well ● No “special pages” beyond Recent Changes ● Default: delete revisions older than two weeks, to save disk space… ● Used for Wikipedia since 2001-01 Phase 2
● Mea maxima culpa ● Switch on 2002-01-25 ● PHP (for better or worse) ● Using MySQL to store data ● Based on UseModWiki syntax for backwards compatibility Brion Vibber Photo by JayWalsh CC-BY-SA 3.0
Tim Starling Photo by Lane Hartwell Nostalgia Wikipedia screenshot CC-BY-SA 3.0 Phase 3 / MediaWiki
● Massive refactoring/rewrite by Lee Daniel Crocker ● Proper OO, profiling functions ● Known as “Phase 3”, subsequently renamed “MediaWiki” (July 2003)
Lee Daniel Crocker Picture by User:Cowtung, CC-BY-SA 3.0 New features since UseModWiki (for Wikipedia)
● Namespaces ● Special Pages with advanced functionality ● Skins ● Local (later: Commons) file upload ● Categories ● Templates ● Parser functions ● Table syntax ● Media viewer ● Visual editor ● Kartograph MediaWiki today
● Most widely used Wiki software ● Over 2,200 extensions ● Customizable via JavaScript gadgets and user scripts ● Comprehensive API
Multiple caching mechanisms for large installations (e.g. Wikipedia)
● 6 million registered editors on English Wikipedia ● 1.5bn unique devices/month (all) Usage on Wikimedia sites Wikisource proofreading extension Commons Gadgets Commons user scripts (example: Commons Commander)
Commons Commander Wikidata
● Uses Wikibase extension ● Machine-readable (and writable) ● 25 million items (compare to 5 million English Wikipedia articles) ● Contains Wikipedia (and Wikisource etc.) language links ● Contains statements about items ● Data can be transcluded to Wikipedia ● “Paradigm shift” from text to structured data Wikidata items and statements Wikidata - different views The Wikidata ecosystem
Site links Statements Statements Site links etc.
and other WMF projects
Third-party users (e.g. VIAF, Histropedia) Wikisource and Wikidata
Scanned pages Wikidata item Wikipedia article on Commons about the subject described about the subject described in Wikisource article in Wikisource article
Transcribed pages Statement P921 on Wikisource (“main subject”)
Article (e.g. biography) Wikidata item as transcluded sections about the Wikisource article from transcribed pages Wikidata as the up-and-coming hub for “linked data”
● “Wikidata: the new hub for cultural heritage”
● “WikiGenomes: an open Web application for community consumption and curation of gene annotation data in Wikidata.”
● “Wikidata as a semantic framework for the Gene Wiki initiative”. Database (Oxford). 2016 Mar 17 Incoming!!!
● Third parties starting to use Wikidata as their “target” ● Simple, stable identifier ● Language-neutral ● Links to Wikipedia ● Links to other domain-specific sites ● Example: VIAF now links to Wikidata instead of English Wikipedia Histropedia Crotos
● Artwork browser ● Searches Wikidata ● Uses files from Commons Wikidata query
● Run complex queries across all of Wikidata ● Accessible through web interface or for applications by third parties ● Example: Largest cities with a female mayor (try that on Wikipedia, I dare you!) Tool Labs
~1.2 tools per maintainer
Me: 63 tools (including “bucket tools” with several sub-tools, >130 in total)
Picture by Henrik Bothe, CC-BY-SA-4.0 Mix’n’match
● Takes “catalogues” of external identifiers ● Name, description, type, URL ● Match them to Wikidata ● Semi- and fully automated matches ● Support functions for manual matching ● Can also edit Wikidata for you ● Allows third parties to download matches Wikidata game
● Wikidata lends itself to “atomic edits” ● Many good additions to Wikidata can be automatically extrapolated from existing data, but require human oversight ● Example: Images on a Wikipedia article are likely to depict the article subject, but many false negatives ● Simples Yes/No answers, skip-able ● “Distributed Game” lets others add their own sub-games via JSON ● Designed for mobile Free Image Search Tool
● Find Commons files for Wikidata items with no image, audio etc. ● Can use Wikipedia articles, Commons site search, coordinates in Commons files, Commons categories etc. ● Option to hide unsuitable matches in the future (so results get more relevant over time) WikiShootMe
● Show Wikidata items, Wikipedia articles, Commons images, Flickr free images on the same map ● Shows Wikidata items without an image (red circles) ● Upload files and add them to Wikidata (works also from mobile!) Outlook
● MediaWiki is here to stay ● Open code and open data make MediaWiki sites powerful ● Wikibase extension (Wikidata, Commons, Wiktionary) is the Next Big Thing (that’s already here) ● Easier to access information ● Easier to contribute ● Much to do Thank you