• Extension management platform - Creating an awesome extension management platform for MediaWiki, facilitating the installation, updating, removal and configuration of extensions.  Student: Jeroen De Dauw, Mentor: Brion Vibber
• Improve metadata support - Improve metadata support for uploaded media in MediaWiki by displaying embedded IPTC and XMP metadata.  Student: Brian Wolff, Mentor: Chad Horohoe
• General RDF export/import in Semantic MediaWiki - Extend the import/export functionality of Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) to allow also full, general RDF import.  Student: Samuel Lampa, Mentor: Denny Vrandecic.
• Javascript overhaul of Semantic MediaWiki – Improve and extend the Javascript for Semantic MediaWiki and some of its spinoff extensions, most notably Semantic Forms.  Student: Sanyam Goyal, Mentor: Yaron Koren
• Wikisource Legal Tool - Creating a tool to format judicial decisions, legal scholarship, and statutes for Wikisource.  Student: Stephen LaPorte  Mentor: Ariel Glenn
• Reasonably efficient interwiki template transclusion – allow MediaWiki users to insert (transclude) templates from a wiki to another on Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) wikis (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, etc.).  Student: Peter Potrowl, Mentor: Roan Kattouw

More detailed information on all of these projects can be found on our GSoC 2010 projects page.  Also, Wikipedia Signpost is highlighting this work over the coming weeks, starting with a summary of Brian Wolff’s XMP metadata project.

Though not all projects were finished completely as specified, all were completed to a sufficient degree that we felt very comfortable passing all of the students, and all of the students produced code we’re very happy to have.  Note that there is no guarantee that anything here will get beyond the proof-of-concept stage.  However, we’re hopeful that much of this work will find broader adoption, and we’re looking forward to that.

We hope that all of the students stick around as MediaWiki contributors long after the summer is over.  Please join us in thanking them for their participation this year!

Once again in 2010, Wikimedia Foundation is participating in Google Summer of Code.  I’m happy to announce that we’ve selected six students to participate this summer:

• Extension management platform
  Student: Jeroen De Dauw
  Mentor: Brion Vibber
  Goal: Creating an awesome extension management platform for MediaWiki, facilitating the installation, updating, removal and configuration of extensions. (student application)
• Improve metadata support
  Student: Brian Wolff
  Mentor: Chad Horohoe
  Goal: Improve metadata support for uploaded media in mediawiki by displaying embedded IPTC and XMP metadata (student application)
• General RDF export/import in Semantic MediaWiki
  Student: Samuel Lampa
  Mentor: Denny Vrandecic
  Goal: Extend the import/export functionality of Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) to allow also full, general RDF import. (student application)
• Javascript overhaul of Semantic MediaWiki
  Student: Sanyam Goyal
  Mentor: Yaron Koren
  Goal: Improve and extend the Javascript for Semantic MediaWiki and some of its spinoff extensions, most notably Semantic Forms – this would include transferring over much of the Javascript to use the jQuery library, which is now becoming a MediaWiki standard. (student application)
• Wikisource Legal Tool
  Student: Stephen LaPorte
  Mentor: Ariel Glenn
  Goal: Creating a tool to format judicial decisions, legal scholarship, and statutes for Wikisource. (student application)
• Reasonably efficient interwiki template transclusion
  Student: Peter Potrowl
  Mentor: Roan Kattouw
  Goal: The aim is to allow MediaWiki users to insert (transclude) templates from a wiki to another on WikiMedia Foundation (WMF) wikis (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, etc.). (student application)

We had an exceptional set of really great proposals this year, and an engaged mentor group helping with the selection process. It was both wonderful to have so many choices, and really sad that we couldn’t pick them all, but in the end, we had to narrow the list down. Our six slots represent 100% growth from previous years’ Summer of Code engagements and that’s a pretty exciting stretch.

To the students that weren’t selected: do know that we were inspired by the quality level of all of the proposals, and we had to turn down some really exceptional proposals. Please don’t be discouraged, and do consider us next year!

To the students selected: congratulations! Welcome aboard! We really look forward to working with you to make sure you are successful and have a great time in the process.

To everyone volunteering as a mentor who helped with the selection process: thank you for your effort and dedication! There was a lot to sort through, but I think we can all feel great that we have a group of very capable students on the case this year thanks to your work.

More detailed info available here.

Towards the Fun!

I’m very excited to announce that LiquidThreads, the next-generation discussion system that I’ve spent the last few months developing for the Wikimedia Foundation, is now in beta testing on liquidthreads.labs.wikimedia.org.

Sample of the LiquidThreads interface

(more…)

Reposting the announce from Roan’s wikitech-l mailing list post:

Yesterday, the selection of GSoC projects was officially announced. For MediaWiki, the following projects have been accepted:

• Niklas Laxström (Nikerabbit), mentored by Siebrand, will be working on improving localization and internationalization in MediaWiki, as well as improving the Translate extension used on translatewiki.net
• Zhe Wu, mentored by Aryeh Gregor (Simetrical), will be building a thumbnailing daemon, so image manipulation won’t have to happen on the Apache servers any more
• Jeroen de Dauw, mentored by Yaron Koren, will be improving the Semantic Layers extension and merging it into the Semantic Google Maps extension
• Gerardo Antonio Cabero, mentored by Michael Dale (mdale), will be improving the Cortado applet for video playback (I’m a bit fuzzy on the details for this one)

The official list with links to (parts of) the proposals can be found at the Google website; lists for other organizations can be reached through the list of participating organizations.

The next event on the GSoC timeline is the community bonding period, during which the students are supposed to get to know their mentors and the community. This period lasts until May 23rd, when the students actually begin coding.

Starting now and continuing at least until the end of GSoC in August, you will probably see and hear from the students on IRC and the mailing lists and hear about the projects they’re working on. To repeat the crux of an earlier thread on this list: be nice to these special newcomers, make them feel welcome and comfortable, and try not to bite them :)

To the mentors and students: have fun!

Roan Kattouw (Catrope)

Google Summer of Code is now open for student applications!

We’ve had 5 submissions come in so far… don’t be shy! :) Also don’t be shy about hanging out on our mailing lists and IRC channels and getting feedback from other MediaWiki developers on your project ideas.

The more feedback you get, the better you can make your submission… and the awesomer the result will be!

The application period ends April 3, 2009 at 19:00 UTC — don’t be late!

(We could still use a couple more project mentors too…)

We’re a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code again this year, and we’re dead set on making it our awesomest summer ever!

One key thing though is making sure that students and potential students have access to a mentor who can answer their questions and just help steer them into becoming an active member of our development community.

If you’re an experienced MediaWiki developer and would like to help out with selecting and mentoring student projects, please give us a shout! We’ll take you even if you live in the southern hemisphere. ;)

We need folks who’ll be available online fairly regularly over the summer and are knowledgeable about MediaWiki — not necessarily knowing every piece of it, but knowing where to look so you can help the students help themselves.

If you’re interested, don’t forget to apply soon! Student submissions will complete next week and we’ll need to start selecting then… (See Google’s FAQ on what mentorship organizations do and program eligibility.)

On 3/10/09 5:17 PM, Brion Vibber wrote:

I’ve just put in Wikimedia’s org application for Google Summer of Code 2009… Hopefully we’ll get in.

We’re officially in! Woo!

Student applications will open starting March 23, ending April 3. This intermediate week before applications open is a good time to chat us up with your ideas and try to pair up with potential mentors. :)