Flocks of birds: Writing from a perspective of seeing the beauty and potential of Wikidata and SMW vis-a-vis C.C. WUaS fit-wise, - and having been developing WUaS since 2007, in two different wikis thus far, WUaS (was Re: [Wikitech-l] Google Code-in update (WE NEED MORE TASKS!)), Overview of where WUaS is heading, MIT OCW Translated Courses, and WUaS in Spanish and Persian

Writing from a perspective of seeing the beauty and potential of Wikidata and SMW vis-a-vis C.C. WUaS fit-wise ...


Hello Q and A!

Great, greetings and thanks! WUaS is Creative Commons' licensed, like both Wikipedia (with its 285 languages and as wiki) and MIT OCW, as you'll see at the bottom of each of the 632 WUaS pages so far, almost all in English.

Here's one, main, possible project, - and most important for MIT OCW-centric WUaS in beginning to reach out to high school applicants this autumn 2013 to matriculate online next autumn 2014, in English, - as I see it:

1
The first project would be to begin to develop 8-10 wiki pages of inter-lingual WUaS in Wikidata / MediaWiki / SMW, say,  -

1) WUaS's front page -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University -

2) WUaS's SUBJECT_TEMPLATE - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE (and possibly Language and Nation State page templates) -

3) the main, WUaS Subjects' page -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects -

4) and a corresponding, main, Subjects' page in Spanish - (with parallels, as examples to these: 5) http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/English_language ... and ... 6) http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Spanish_language (which was this - http://es.worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Portada - but which no longer is working) -

7) the main WUaS Languages' wiki page planned for all 7,105 + languages, each of which will become a school or university -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages -

8) the main WUaS Nation States' wiki page planned for all 242 + countries, each a school or university, and many university-accredited in these countries -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States -


... and articulating them, if possible, in a beginning way, with related Wikidata's repositories, languages and countries, and with MediaWiki / Wikimedia tech bugfixes or improvements.

As an overview of where WUaS is heading, you'll find the 10, main, WUaS areas here, - 1) Courses & Schools, 2) Subjects, 3) Languages (All), 4) Nation States (All), 5) You at WUaS, 6) Research, 7) Educational Software, 8) Library Resources, 9) Museums, 10) Hardware Resource Possibilities  -  planned for large languages and many countries - http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2012/02/three-main-it-foci-at-world-university.html - of which the above 'Subjects,' 'Languages, and 'Nation States' are there. (WUaS plans that each WUaS country page and main language wiki pages, will become their own, beginning, online, accredited universities).

Would it be possible to articulate this with MediaWiki / Wikimedia tech bugfixes or improvements in creative ways?

Knowing only HTML, but not Wikidata or SQL, I think the above item 1 could take only 2-3 hours to do.


2
What would be involved to 'move' these 632 WUaS Wikia wiki pages into Wikidata / MediaWiki, SMW, information technologically?


*

Here are the MIT OCW resources World University and School is planning to build upon, as well as partially accredit upon, for free, C.C., WUaS, MIT OCW-centric university degrees -

MIT OCW audio-video courses
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/

MIT OCW translated-courses
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/

J (who lives in Spain), above, may also be able to help with developing the Spanish WUaS in Spanish.

Best regards and thanks,
Scott


*


Hi Q and A,

Thanks for your email.

I initially wrote to you in reply to the following two items in your email, Qui, which seemed to suggest openness to new or somewhat relevant projects, - and WUaS would also welcome Google Code-In's engagement, especially vis-a-vis G+ Profiles and the main 'You at World University' wiki page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/You_at_World_University - for example -

"Google Code-in update (WE NEED MORE TASKS!))"

"Being your case related to a non-Wikimedia project, it would be good
that the tasks themselves are related to MediaWiki / Wikimedia tech
bugfixes or improvements. If not, we are still open to your suggestions.

A. and me are tho two GCI org admins for Wikimedia, and we dislike
equally unnecessary process cruft.  :)  If you convinces us you are in!"


WUaS would like to articulate with the Wikidata database repository, and inter-lingually, if at all possible ... WUaS plans for becoming wiki schools in all 7,105 + languages, is a kind of growth story for Wikimedia's / Wikipedia's 285 languages, and thus potentially a way for improvement in coding vis-a-vis the Google Code-In, and especially through growth of Wikidata.

In seeking to become a major research university (WUaS would like to become the Harvard / MIT of the internet, and in all languages and countries, and accredited in larger ones), WUaS would also like to develop as a semantic wiki, - since 'Semantic wikis provide the ability to capture or identify information about the data within pages, and the relationships between pages, in ways that can be queried or exported like a database' - and thus potentially improve and grow SMW into other languages, in terms of inter-lingual research in all MIT OCW disciplines and departments - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-department/ . (For examples of two databases that WUaS would like to query, see the Bagpipe Tunes and Yoga Pose examples at the bottom of the blog entry - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/11/brown-headed-parrot-yoga-for-inner-ear.html - and, in addition, WUaS is planning Library Resources pages for all languages - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources - and all instrument and languages' Music School, - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School - with lots of further querying ahead).

For pedagogical reasons, and numerous other reasons, (and because WUaS is planning to accredit on MIT OCW to offer online, C.C. bachelor, Ph.D., law and M.D. degrees in many languages and countries), our project doesn't have anything to do with Wikiversity.

Beyond the Google Code-In's 'WE NEED MORE TASKS!',  - where I think these beginnings of WUaS in Wikidata and SemanticWiki would indeed improve them - what might you suggest to further explore such possibilities with Wikidata and SMW?

WUaS, in short, can offer 285+ multi-language development, and significant growth potential ... with related technical improvements.

Thanks and cheers,

Scott

Hi Scott,

I'm still struggling to find a specific description of potential GCI
tasks in your emails.

Imagine I'm a 13-17 years old student with no idea about your project
but some developing skills. Describe a task that will take me some hours
to complete, and do it in a way that I can see the starting point and
the desired end result.

All I could find is this:

> WUaS would like to articulate with the Wikidata database repository, and
> inter-lingually, if at all possible ...

(...)

> WUaS would also like to develop as a semantic wiki

This is not enough to define a GCI task. We can't ask GCI students to
define this on your behalf.

What is more important, GCI tasks must come with GCI mentors able to
support and assess the students' tasks. Can you provide this support?

I hope you understand now the point where we are stuck.

Q


Hi Q and A,

Thanks very much for your prompt reply. Please remember that I'm writing from a perspective of seeing the beauty and potential of Wikidata and SMW vis-a-vis C.C. WUaS fit-wise, - and having been developing WUaS since 2007, in two different wikis thus far.

In terms of GCI tasks, I'll come back to the initial 2-3 hour task of moving WUaS from Wikia to Wikidata/SMW (posted below), which I think a 13-17 year old could do with good mentorship, but which isn't necessarily in your or Wikimedia's bailiwick. From this initial technical improvement, with an all-languages' WUaS now hypothetically in Wikidata/Wikimedia/SMW, and with skillful mentorship, there are an amazing number of 2-3 hour GCI tasks that could emerge from this, but at present, I don't think WUaS has such mentoring capabilities to lay out a GCI task road map for this.

I'm including in this email RS, in Pennsylvania, who knows SQL, and has explicitly said he'd like to help develop WUaS technically, but may also be engaged full time with his own professional database work and family. R, could you help mentor such hypothetically 13-17 year old Google Code-In coders, and/or also be a contact person for such? Juan might also have some good ideas here. While I think Wikidata core-developer MK would also be an extraordinary mentor for the first steps of the growth project for Wikipedia/Wikidata, I suspect he has databases flowering around him, and may be a wee bit busy for such GCI mentoring, or road map building.

So, thank you, and let's hear perhaps what J (in Spain) and R (in Penna) might further have to say about possible 2-3 hour  tasks for Google Code-In coders, and technical fixes and improvements, - and vis-a-vis WUaS, Wikidata and SMW!

Thanks and cheers,
Scott




Hello Amir (in Iran!),

Would you have the SQL, Wikidata (and SemanticWiki) knowledge and skills to mentor from afar some Google Code-In coders, many of whom may be near Stanford University, in 2-3 hour projects, and vis-a-vis World University and School, with our plans for a MIT OCW-centric, accredited, CC university in Iran and Persian?

Persian language -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Persian_language -

MIT OCW in Persian -
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/persian/ -

Iran (Islamic Republic of) World University and School Links -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Iran_(Islamic_Republic_of)#World_University_and_School_Links.

Best regards,
Scott

(I'm copying this email to some other SF Bay Area friends from Iran and the Middle East).

...