08-07, 11:30–11:55 (Poland), Belgrade (8)
Language: English
MediaWiki, the software platform and interfaces that allow Wikipedia to function, needs ongoing support for the next decade in order to provide creation, moderation, storage, discovery, and consumption of open, multilingual content at scale. In this session we’ll take a look behind the scenes of what it takes to ensure MediaWiki serves us well as the software platform that needs to scale for billions of page views per month and empower a large, collaborative user base of editors and technical contributors. We will cover strategy, progress, open questions and challenges on the way to a sustainable future.
This session will give an overview of the work that is underway to ensure a sustainable future and evolution of MediaWiki, the software platform that powers Wikipedia and its sister projects.
Over the past year, the Wikimedia Foundation has built up a new MediaWiki product and engineering group with the goal to formulate a strategy for MediaWiki as the essential platform for Wikipedia and as an Open Source project, investing in platform improvements, and enabling more people to know and contribute to MediaWiki (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Product_Insights/Contributor_retention_and_growth). Since August 2023, we've been sharing regularly about this work in the developer-facing monthly MediaWiki Insights emails (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Product_Insights/Reports).
The goal of this session is to provide insights in our progress over the past months, give examples of what is required to sustain and advance the MediaWiki software platform, highlight challenges and open questions, and share how we are approaching this work in the upcoming months (See objective WE5 in the 2024/25 annual plan of the Wikimedia Foundation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2024-2025/Product_%26_Technology_OKRs#Draft_Objectives).
This overview is designed for both technical and non technical audiences who use MediaWiki in their work on the Wikimedia projects. No technical knowledge required to follow along - everyone is welcome to join!
Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/iRw444uS1-E?feature=shared&t=5698
MediaWiki has deeply shaped how contributors collaborate on the wikis, and vice versa. It is the software ecosystem that enables open collaboration on the Wikimedia projects, and even beyond. In this session we want to share and connect with collaborators around MediaWiki: Technical contributors as well as editors who use MediaWiki in their daily work on the Wikimedia projects.
What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?* –Average knowledge about Wikimedia projects or activities
How do you plan to deliver this session?* –Onsite in Katowice
What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below. –Collaboration, Product development
Birgit is the director of product for MediaWiki and Developer Experiences at the Wikimedia Foundation. She joined the Wikimedia movement as a staff member of Wikimedia Deutschland in 2014 and moved to the Foundation in 2019 to support Wikimedia's developer ecosystem as the director of Technical Engagement. Since 2023, she is focusing on evolving the MediaWiki platform and improving the experiences of developers within our ecosystem.