Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

WikiForLife

This is a proposal for a new Wikimedia sister project.
WikiForLife (currently "Projects for Life")
The logo for the project, if you already have one
Status of the proposal
Statusunder discussion
Details of the proposal
Project descriptionA collaborative edition and collective intelligence web platform project whose very ambitious aim is to "help limit/resolve problems of public interest throughout the world", by sharing our knowledge, ideas and skills and empowering people.
Is it a multilingual wiki?Just one multilingual wiki
Potential number of languagesAs many languages as possible
Proposed taglineTogether, let's help improve living conditions on Earth!
Proposed URLwikiforlife.org (currently https://www.projectsforlife.org and the prototype is at https://proto.projectsforlife.org)
Technical requirements
New features to requireSeveral extensions : Semantic Mediawiki, PageForms, SocialProfile, Translate, Maps, EmbedVideo, ConfirmEdit, MobileFrontend, AddThis, etc. Certainly some PHP code adaptations and possibly create certain screens in another technology (React for example). And the devlopment of a mobile application.
Development wikiNo
Interested participants
See the "People interested" section (at the end of the page)

Proposal

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I am a 42 year old Frenchman who has worked in IT for 20 years and a little contributed to the french Wikipedia. In parallel with my full-time work and my family life, I have been carrying out a non-profit project since 2018 which I would like to talk to you right now.

Moreover, since 2020, people have joined me and we are currently a collective of around ten volunteers who work, in our free time, on this collaborative edition and collective intelligence web platform project (for the moment named "Projects for Life") whose very ambitious aim is to "help limit/resolve problems of public interest throughout the world".

Rationale

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Many people feel alone and powerless in the face of the challenges of our world (climate change, biodiversity collapse, thirst, hunger, pollution, violence, diseases, armed conflicts, sexism, racism, poverty, etc.) and often let politicians and associations/NGOs manage these problems. But we think that is not enough. We ALL need to act more, organize ourselves, coordinate ourselves and share our knowledge in order to be more effective.

Description of the project

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In order to achieve this goal, we wish to create a positive and active global community by allowing as many people on Earth as possible (citizens, associations/NGOs, businesses, schools, universities, etc.) to share all the knowledge that we have about the problems, solutions, actions and actors around the world. And this in the most objective/neutral way possible, citing our sources each time.

Concretely, we want to allow everyone to carry out the following actions on the platform:

1) Declare (and update) past and present problems of public interest (environmental, health, social and economic) which affect our world (local problems or addressed at the scale of a city, region, country, continent or on a global scale).

For example: Climate change, World hunger, Hunger in Somalia, Food waste in New York, Domestic violence in France, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, HIV/AIDS in Africa, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poverty in Bangladesh, etc.

Each article describing a problem would contain fixed sections (with photos/videos) to provide information:

  • the problem type,
  • the scale at which the problem is addressed (global, continent, country, region, city or local),
  • the dates of the problem,
  • a summary of the problem,
  • the history and indicators allowing you to follow the evolution of the problem (since its appearance until today),
  • a precise description of the current situation,
  • the causes and consequences of the problem (you can here make links with other problems),
  • and, above all, all the actions (already carried out, in progress or to come) around the world against this problem.

Here is a list of the problem types (in French sorry) we have identified (this is a baseline and will surely evolve): https://proto.projectsforlife.org/index.php?title=ProjectsForLife:Types_de_probl%C3%A8me

2) Declare (and update) the positive actions carried out or organized (by associations/NGOs, companies, governments, etc.) to combat these different problems. These actions can be collective (open to citizens) or not. These actions can be local or organized at the scale of a city, region, country, continent or on a global scale.

For example: Earth hour 2023, Sidaction 2023 in France, Waste collection on Larmor beach in February 2022, Installation of Interceptor 002 on the Klang River in 2019 by The Ocean Cleanup, etc.

Each article describing an action would contain fixed sections (with photos/videos) to provide information:

  • the action type,
  • the scale at which the action is organised/realized (global, continent, country, region, city or local),
  • the dates of the action,
  • the main fought problem,
  • a summary of the action,
  • its objectives,
  • who can participate,
  • a precise description,
  • its results (impact on the issue),
  • etc.

3) Declare (and update) the existing solutions (technical or not) implemented in these actions, making it possible to combat these different problems. These solutions implemented in a place could inspire people to use them in actions in another places (if possible).

For example : Carrotmob campaign, Wind turbine, COVID-19 vaccine, Fundraising, Fill the bottle challenge, Petition, Solidarity race, etc.

4) Declare (and update) existing actors: natural or legal persons (associations/NGOs, collectives, companies, administrations, educational establishments, universities, governments, etc.). Each article describing an actor would contain fixed sections (with photos/videos) to provide information:

  • a summary of the actor,
  • his biography/history,
  • the positive actions he organized, realized or in which he participated,
  • etc.

5) Allow members to exchange/discuss among themselves and about problems, actions, solutions and actors

6) Allow citizens to find collective actions in which they can participate, declare themselves participants and ask questions to the organizers of the actions (if these organizers have created an account on the platform)

7) Allow members to translate the content of the platform into as many languages as possible (in addition to the automatic translation tool) so that as many people as possible can also contribute in their language and share knowledge on problems, actions, solutions and actors of our world with the greatest number of people

8) LATER - Allow members to directly tackle an issue by creating or joining problem-solving groups on the platform (following a problem-solving process). These working groups (made up of associations/NGOs, citizens, businesses, etc.) would organize themselves and reflect to try to determine new actions to take (actions which would be declared on the platform)

9) LATER - Allow everyone to submit ideas for innovative solutions (by donating these ideas to the community) and try to make them a reality thanks to the skills provided by members of the community (with a principle of eco-design). These innovations would be open source and then implemented in actions to combat the problems they fight


Here is a video presentation of our project (in French):

How WikiForLife aligns with Wikimedia Foundation mission ?

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For us, freely describing, sharing and translating all the elements described in paragraphs 1) to 4) align perfectly with the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation. As a reminder, these are the following:

  • the problems/issues of our world (at the global, national and local level),
  • actions (global, national, local) organized or carried out by actors (governments, NGOs, associations, politicians, etc.) against these problems,
  • the actors in question,
  • the solutions (implemented in actions) that exist

Indeed, in our opinion, these elements are educational content because they inform people, they teach them things. In addition, we, like you, have a strong need for editorial independence and wish to disseminate this knowledge free of charge and for many people to participate in enriching this content.

We also wish to provide an additional layer by enabling people to act (paragraphs 7), 8) and 9)) by allowing them to:

  • look for collective actions in which they can participate,
  • create/join public reflection/problem-solving groups,
  • submit ideas for new solutions or help bring these submitted ideas to reality

These three features could be integrated into WikiForLife or be in a separate project (wiki or non-wiki) which would interact with WikiForLife.

Prototype and MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

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A few years ago, we developed a first prototype of the platform (in French only), accessible here: https://proto.projectsforlife.org.

We also created a main site (which describes the project, the first experiment, the team, etc.): https://www.projectsforlife.org.

The prototype has not been updated for over 1 year.

We used the MediaWiki engine to create the prototype. Indeed, Wikipedia and its sister projects have interested me for a long time (I contributed in my small way to the French Wikipedia) and inspired me in large part for this project (collaborative global platform which works for the neutral knowledge share, common good, where everyone can contribute). We conducted an initial experiment with this prototype over several years (from 2020 to 2023). We are in the process of learning the lessons from this first experiment and a complete overhaul of the platform is underway in order to soon release an "official" MVP (simpler and more ergonomic). A new logo and a new visual identity have been defined (less environmentally oriented because the project also addresses health, social and economic problems).

In the MVP, there will only be features 1 to 6 (also 7 if it is possible to start from the beginning in multilingual).

Our needs/requirements

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The editorial independence of the project (problems, actors described on the platform, etc.) is a very important point for us and we would not like a partnership to cause this independence to be lost (we wish to be as neutral and objective as possible). Indeed, to fight against problems where certain actors (companies, governments, etc.) are involved, the projet must be as independent as possible.

Furthermore, in order to make the platform as attractive as possible, we were thinking of redeveloping certain screens in a more modern technology (React for example) by requesting the MediaWiki engine APIs. In particular the collective action search engine, allowing citizens wishing to take action to find the action(s) that might interest them. Certainly the devlopment of a mobile application too.

Finally, we would like a hosting as green as possible, the project to work correctly on old web browsers (especially for developing countries) and to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Partnership proposal

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In order to know if we should keep the Mediawiki engine for this MVP (which I hope), we would like to know if we share the same values and the same vision and if a partnership would be possible in the short, medium or long term (to become by example a new sister project of Wikipedia which could be called "WikiForLife" for example).

There could be links between "WikiForLife" and:

  • Wikipedia for actors, some problems, some solutions, some actions, etc.
  • WikiCommons for images and videos
  • Wikispecies for species
  • Wikidata for data about actions, problems, solutions, actors, etc.
  • etc.

Additionally, when declaring an element on "WikiForLife", it would be possible to pre-populate the text and data (with that present in Wikipedia, Wikispecies, Wikidata, etc.) and adapt it.


This partnership would allow us to possibly benefit from your technical infrastructures, your community of developers, your community of readers and contributors and your donation collections.

And this would possibly allow you to have a new dimension to your projects (participate in the limitation/resolution of global issues) and perhaps also increase your number of contributors and donors.

Proposed by

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The team of around ten volunteers currently active on this project (more about us here : https://3w.projectsforlife.org/a-propos.php)

Community Evaluation

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Community activity

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As on Wikipedia, members of the community will be able to:

  • create, modify, delete and translate content
  • chat with each other (on their discussion page)
  • chat on the discussion pages associated with the different articles/pages (problems, solutions, actions, actors, etc.)
  • apply for extended rights

They will also be able to:

  • connect with each other, complete their profile, perhaps send each other gifts and receive badges thanks to their contributions (with the SocialProfile extension)
  • declare themselves participant in collective actions (or withdraw)
  • LATER, create/join problem-solving groups and exchange with the members of these groups (following a recognized problem-solving process) to imagine and organize new actions
  • LATER, submit ideas for innovative solutions, positively criticize the submitted ideas and help the idea bearers to bring them to fruition (to create new solutions)

Number of active editors and editors with extended rights (assessment)

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There could be, as on Wikipedia, thousands of active contributors and hundreds of editors with extended rights because this project would add (in our opinion) a new dimension to the projects carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation: sharing our knowledge to improve the world !

It could attract a new audience (readers and editors) who wish to participate in improving living conditions on Earth.

Alternative names

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WikiLife, WikiIssues

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Domain names

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wikiforlife.org (we own this domain)

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Demos

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We made a prototype (in French only, sorry): https://proto.projectsforlife.org

It's imperfect and has not been updated for over 1 year but it will give you an idea.

We had about 20 editors with this prototype.

People interested

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