Mailing List Archive

[Wikimedia-l] Re: The Wikimedia Enterprise API project
Hello Sam, thank you for the kind words.

And also thank you to Chris and Martin for yours.


With regards to the “optimizations” mentioned in the product update: usage
change over the course of 2022 wasn’t really the motivating factor here
(given it’s only been one year so we’re fully expecting fluctuations), It’s
more about trying to increase the system’s efficiency and limit areas where
things could break at scale - in preparation for future demand. There has
been some increase in costs over the 2022 calendar year, as shown in the
finance report’s bar-graph and associated paragraph, but that was primarily
due to staffing changes, not hosting costs.

Our initial system architecture focused heavily on Wikipedia database dumps
and now we’re focusing on expanding the “realtime” data feeds. We decided
to rebuild the architecture to look more like an event-based system, to
work alongside exported-data products, instead of adding on more services
on top of the dump generation.

As mentioned in the product update, for those interested in this topic
there are quarterly summaries of the technical work on the project’s
MediaWiki page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise#Updates
But, if you’d like to talk through the implementation details and the
thinking behind it, then the best format is a real-time conversation. I
encourage you to come to the “office hours” public meeting this Friday -
etails at the top of the project page on Meta. Even if you can’t make it to
that, we’ll make sure to discuss the product update and I’ll be uploading
the recording afterwards to Commons, with a timecoded summary of the
conversation.

Sincerely,

Liam


On Tue, 7 Feb 2023 at 23:29, Samuel Klein <meta.sj@gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris - My thoughts exactly. A satisfying report: useful, informative,
> densely linked.
>
> TLDR: revenue at 2% of the WMF total; projected to be cashflow positive
> this year.
> 9 FTEs, up-to-date landing page
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise>, even headshot
> photos for a majority of the team.
> (And a subtle reminder that we should consider doing something awesome
> with a community-led merch store!)
>
> Liam - for the product update, I'm curious how hosting costs + usage have
> changed over the year (and implications for what we learn to optimize)
>
> SJ
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 10:16 AM Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Liam! That looks admirably clear and very thorough - would be
>> great to see this level of detail and transparency in other aspects of the
>> WMF's work
>>
>> Chris/ The Land
>>
>> On Tue, 7 Feb 2023, 14:35 Liam Wyatt, <lwyatt@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> Following the initial announcement and project launch in 2021, and press
>>> release about first customers in 2022, the Wikimedia Enterprise team
>>> has today published the *first financial report* and a summary of a
>>> forthcoming *product update*.
>>>
>>> This has been published today on the Diff blog, here:
>>>
>>> https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/02/07/wikimedia-enterprise-financial-report-product-update/
>>> [also available in German
>>> <https://diff.wikimedia.org/de/2023/02/07/wikimedia-enterprise-finanzbericht-und-produktupdates/>
>>> ]
>>>
>>> One of the principles
>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Principles> of
>>> the Wikimedia Enterprise project has been “the publication of overall
>>> revenue and expenses, differentiated from those of the Wikimedia Foundation
>>> in general, at least annually”. We are therefore proud to present the
>>> inaugural edition of the Wikimedia Enterprise financial report – covering
>>> the calendar-year 2022, its first year of operations.
>>>
>>> The update also includes a description of some of the API features that
>>> have been under development. While the primary use-case is companies which
>>> consistently require very high-speed updates of very large amounts of
>>> Wikimedia content, it is important to note that there are several
>>> free-access methods.
>>>
>>> If you have written questions or comments about the update, please share
>>> them on the project’s talkpage
>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Enterprise> on Meta. As
>>> described in the blogpost, we consider this report covering the 2022
>>> calendar year to be a “beta” version. We are actively seeking feedback
>>> about how its structure, content, and explanations can be improved for the
>>> next edition in late 2023, which will cover the 2022-23 fiscal year.
>>>
>>>
>>> If you prefer real-time conversation: A public meeting will be hosted
>>> by the Enterprise team this Friday, February 10 @1900 UTC to discuss this
>>> announcement - details on the project homepage
>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise>.
>>>
>>> If you have any other questions please consult the FAQ
>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/FAQ>.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> * Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]*
>>>
>>> Senior Program Manager
>>> for *Enterprise,* *Campaigns, & WikiCite*
>>> Wikimedia Foundation
>>>
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>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266
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