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| Abstract Wikipedia | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Wikimedia Foundation |
| Website | meta |
Abstract Wikipedia is an in-development project of theWikimedia Foundation. It aims to useWikifunctions to create a language-independent version ofWikipedia using itsstructured data.[1] First conceived in 2020 (with a precursor proposal in 2013), Abstract Wikipedia has been under active development ever since, with the related project of Wikifunctions launched in 2023. The project has proved controversial. As envisioned, Abstract Wikipedia would consist of "Constructors" (templates for abstract statements), "Content" (the abstract statements themselves), and "Renderers" (which wouldautomatically translate abstract statements intonatural language).
On 7 August 2013,Denny Vrandečić, the co-founder ofWikidata, suggested "an extension of the template system" where template calls would expand into content based on the language of the user.[2] For example, a template call such as{{F12:Q64|Q5519|Q183}} could be variously expanded byTemplate:F12/en into "Berlin is the capital of Germany.", and byTemplate:F12/de into "Berlin ist die Hauptstadt Deutschlands."[2] This has been viewed as a predecessor of Abstract Wikipedia proper.[3]
Vrandečić proposed it again in aGoogle working paper in April 2020,[4] formally proposed in May 2020 (asWikilambda). It was approved by theWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees in July 2020 asAbstract Wikipedia.[5][6][7]
In April 2021, Vrandečić published an overview of the system in the computer science journalCommunications of the ACM.[8]
In January 2023,The Signpost reported on the slow progress of the Abstract Wikipedia project.[9] According to an evaluation by fourGoogle Fellows working on the project, it was at a "substantial risk of failure" due to its poor technical plan.[9] The Google Fellows recommended that Abstract Wikipedia be decoupled from Wikifunctions, that Wikifunctions refine MediaWiki's support for programming inLua rather than having a completely new language, and that Abstract Wikipedia converge on a unified approach tonatural language generation (NLG) that builds on open source software if possible.[9]
The Wikimedia Foundation staff responded to this report by completely rejecting the idea that Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions could be separated, and accusing the Google Fellows of making "fallacies and false comparisons".[9] The Wikimedia Foundation also stated that using existing NLG pipelines likeGrammatical Framework could not support certain languages such as theNiger–Congo B languages, and would also "replicate the trends of an imperialist English-focused Western-thinking industry."[9]
On 26 July 2023,Wikifunctions officially launched to the general public.[10]
The Abstract Wikipedia project would consist of three main components:[11]
Each version of Wikipedia, once Abstract Wikipedia is deployed, could choose between three options:[12]
LINK_TO_Q would be added in order to enable linking to Abstract Wikipedia content.As a preliminary example, content from Abstract Wikipedia could look like:[13]
Article( content: [ Instantiation( instance:San Francisco (Q62), class: Object_with_modifier_and_of( object: center, modifier: And_modifier( conjuncts: [cultural, commercial, financial] ), of:Northern California (Q1066807) ) ), Ranking( subject: San Francisco (Q62), rank: 4, object:City (Q515), by:Population size (Q1613416), local_constraint:California (Q99), after: [Los Angeles (Q65),San Diego (Q16552),San Jose (Q16553)] ) ])
This would translate into English as "San Francisco is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the fourth-most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose."