If we do the exercise of comparing the versions of the same article between the different editions by language of Wikipedia, we will be able to show how dissimilar they are to each other, varying in information and references. In general, articles in the English version of the portal tend to be richer in content.
Aware of this situation, the Wikimedia Foundation has announced a new project that proposes a new way to generate encyclopedic content in a multilingual way. This is Abstract Wikipedia, an initiative to allow more writers and readers to share knowledge in a greater plurality of languages.
The origins of this project go back to the beginning of the year, when Denny Vrandei, founder of Wikidata, published a document in which he presented a new idea: the development of a platform similar to the current Wikipedia, but that manages its contents using a notation which could later be translated into a large number of languages, in order to balance the concentration of the content without discriminating by language.
Within this new dynamic, a new tool comes into action to give life to the aforementioned proposal: Wikilambda. This component will act as the Abstract Wikipedia engine, since it will be in charge of channeling the contributions of all collaborators at a global level, to enter them into the database as abstract notation, to then process it and convert that data into statements emitted through natural language.
The execution of this initiative represents an important progress towards the democratization of access to knowledge, balancing access to it by leveling the volume of content on a scale similar to that of Wikipedia in English, which has the most robust version among its users. pairs.
Consequently, the momentum of this initiative would lead to the unification of the Wikipedia community of contributors, by concentrating efforts on a single reference portal where contributions can be made using the users’ native languages, without imposing the English.
This new paradigm, under which content is intended to be managed independently of the language in which it is expressed, seeks to enhance the service provided to the community by each of the Wikipedia editions, facilitating the addition of new content in more languages, making it easier to migrate from other editions of the free encyclopedia.
Abstract Wikipedia is intended to look and function like Wikipedia, but will be based on the powerful independent conceptual models of Wikidata. His idea is to mark a breaking point in terms of content management, rather than in the final experience that is provided to his readers. The official announcement mentions that this is an experimental project and may offer some communities great advantages, while other communities may participate less.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an American non-profit organization founded by Jimmy Wales as a way to fund Wikipedia and its sister projects. This is the foundation’s first new project in more than seven years.
The Abstract Wikipedia project was recently approved to start its implementation. Along with this milestone, Vrandei will join the ranks of the Wikimedia Foundation as a staff member and lead this initiative.
If you want to know more information about it, the Wikimedia Foundation portal has a section dedicated to this project, in which they describe the proposal and its operation in detail.
