Between the Brackets: a MediaWiki Podcast

🕑 1 hour 15 minutes Noam Cohen is a journalist and writer who has written extensively about Wikipedia since 2007 for publications including The New York Times and Wired. He is the author of the 2017 book The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball, which was just released in paperback form with a new introduction by the author. You can also see this interview in video form, on YouTube. Links for some of the topics discussed: The Know-It-Alls website Noam Cohen's Wikipedia user page "Wikipedia:Noam Cohen" page (includes links to Noam's articles about Wikipedia)

🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Paul Vodrazka is a shift leader in the CNC (computer numerical control) department at the Winnipeg-based company Custom Castings. He manages the internal wikis for Custom Castings, and is also the author of the MediaWiki extension Layers. Links for some of the topics discussed: Custom Castings "Computer numerical control" Wikipedia article Layers MediaWiki extension Layers code on GitHub "Claude (language model)" Wikipedia article "Lindy effect" Wikipedia article

🕑 23 minutes It's another BTB Digest! Hear clips from five recent episodes. Cormac Parle notes the challenges in structured data in Wikimedia Commons, Vera de Kok reminisces about her early years as a Wikimedia photographer; Stephen Harrison cautions against dismissing AI encyclopedias; Brian Wolff summarizes the philosophy of JavaScript gadgets, Shlomit Lir points out the tension between equity and neutrality, and more!

🕑 58 minutes Steve Shattuck is a retired research assistant who created and runs the wiki AntWiki. Links for some of the topics discussed: AntWiki Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) AntWeb "Bamboo Specialist" category on AntWiki Australian Ants: Their Biology and Identification (1999 book by Steve Shattuck)

🕑 1 hour 14 minutes It's the (belated) 25th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia - and the 200th episode! For this special episode, we have the return of Liam Wyatt (username Wittylama), a longtime Wikipedia volunteer and commentator, the first-ever Wikipedian-in-residence, and now a Senior Technical Partnerships Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, to talk about Wikipedia's past, present and future. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikipedia Weekly podcast archive at Internet Archive Wikipedia 25 virtual birthday party (video) "Wikimedia Enterprise Financial Report: Fiscal Year 2024 – 2025" (November 2025 Diff blog post) "Announcing New Wikimedia Enterprise Partners for Wikipedia's 25th Birthday" (January 2026 blog post) "Nominating Wikipedia for UNESCO Memory of the World: The never before told story" (November 2025 GLAM-Wiki talk by Liam) "Dealing with AI web crawlers at the WMF" (May 2025 presentation by Giuseppe Lavagetto) "Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call" (January 2026 essay by Christophe Henner)

🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Shlomit Lir is a writer, editor, and researcher at the University of Haifa, specializing in the politics of knowledge. Since 2024, she has been a public critic of Wikipedia, especially relating to its coverage of Israel. Links for some of the topics discussed: "The Bias Against Israel on Wikipedia" (2024 report for the World Jewish Congress) 2025 X post by Shlomit about then-candidate for the WMF Board of Trustees Ravan al-Taie "Smear Campaign Against Ravan, Wikimedia Foundation BoT Candidate" (response post by several Wikimedians) Larry Sanger's "Nine Theses on Wikipedia" "How Wikipedia's Pro-Hamas Editors Hijacked the Israel-Palestine Narrative" (2024 Pirate Wires article by Ashley Rindsberg) "Manipulated History" (2025 document for the World Jewish Congress)

🕑 1 hour 35 minutes Brian Wolff is a longtime MediaWiki and Wikimedia developer. He returns to the podcast for (maybe) one last in-person discussion before his move to Calgary, Alberta. We talk about political goings-on at the Wikimedia Foundation, developments in the software world, and random thoughts on classic sci-fi. Links for some of the topics discussed: "Wikimedia Foundation appoints Bernadette Meehan as Chief Executive Officer" (Wikimedia Foundation press release, December 2025) "Cárcel a dos hombres por 'paseo millonario' a vicecónsul de E.U." (March 2006 article in El Tiempo about Bernadette's brief kidnapping) Commons Play Listener Victoria Doronina email about WMF board of trustees candidate removals, October 2025 Temporary accounts for unregistered editors project "Encyclopedia Galactica" Wikipedia article "Stranger in a Strange Land" Wikipedia article

🕑 58 minutes It's the holiday special! Special guests, a musical performance (all from the MediaWiki world), and a tale of a life-changing encounter.

🕑 1 hour 37 minutes Stephen Harrison is a tech lawyer and journalist who has been writing about Wikipedia since 2018, including for Slate and The New York Times. He joins us to talk about all the Wikimedia-related events of the crazy month of October 2025, including the release of Jimmy Wales' book, Larry Sanger's "nine theses", some near-violence in New York City, and the launch of the site Grokipedia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Nine Theses on Wikipedia by Larry Sanger "October Surprise: The 2025 Wikimedia Elections Fall into a Transparency Trap" (The Wikipedian blog post) WikiConference North America "Why Editing Wikipedia Is Becoming More Dangerous" (Slate article by Stephen Harrison, October 2025) Grokipedia Yaron's LinkedIn post about Grokipedia The Seven Rules of Trust by Jimmy Wales "Wikipedia co-founder slams 'Gaza genocide' page over 'egregious' anti-Israel claims" (New York Post article, November 2025) Jimmy Wales interview on Jung & Naiv podcast, November 2025

🕑 28 minutes Clips from five recent episodes! Dan Andreescu considers a new "Datawiki" project, Wojciech Pędzich makes use of the Wikipedia sound logo, Thomas Chin retells a piece of Wikimedia development lore, SJ Klein contemplates the use of "Abstractese", Matt Latourelle explains Ballotpedia's neutrality, and more!

🕑 1 hour 57 minutes Vera de Kok is a freelance photographer, developer and wiki consultant who was named Media Contributor of the Year at the 2025 Wikimania conference for her contributions to both Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Links for some of the topics discussed: "I'm Wikipedia's "Media Contributor of the Year"!" (September 2025 blog post by Vera) View of Delft (Vermeer painting) Orator Matcher tool New Q5 tool VisualFileChange Wikimedia Commons gadget identifierInput.js Wikidata gadget WikiPortraits Youp van 't Hek Wikipedia article Prem Radhakishun Wikipedia article "Autistic editors" essay on Wikipedia Greater Netherlands Student Association Wikipedia article "Wikipedia is Autistic" episode of Autistic Culture podcast "The Impact of the Wikipedia Editing Course for Autistic People" (December 2024 Diff blog post) "Playing for the 'German Team' – A Neurodiverse Wikimedian's Journey to Nairobi, or Brigadoon" (September 2025 Diff blog post) Birch Bay, WA Polar Bear Plunge Wikipedia voice intro project Mark Cousins Wikipedia article Mikko Hyppönen Wikipedia article Doktershuis (Landsmeer) Wikipedia article (won Vera 4th place in a Dutch Wikipedia writing contest) Behringer U-phoria UM2 (microphone USB interface) Photo taken during temporary blackout at Wikimania 2025 Photo taken during 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon Feline asthma Wikipedia article "Wie komt er alle jaren" on Wikimedia Commons

🕑 1 hour 17 minutes Cormac Parle is a principal software engineer in the Product & Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech team Wikimedia Foundation Structured Content team Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons Stoat playlist "Why you should give up on your dreams" (2021 talk by Cormac)

🕑 52 minutes Matt Latourelle is director of technology operations for the wiki-based website Ballotpedia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Ballotpedia "Ballotpedia and MediaWiki" (talk by Matt Latourelle and Joseph Sanchez, MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop Spring 2025) "How we categorize bias" (Ballotpedia essay) YouTube Ballotpedia channel

🕑 1 hour 25 minutes Samuel J. "SJ" Klein is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He co-founded the Knowledge Futures project, served as director of content for One Laptop Per Child, and was on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2015. Links for some of the topics discussed: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Wikimania 2006 The Underlay Public AI Network Captured Podcast

🕑 1 hour 34 minutes Thomas Chin is a software engineer in the Data Platform Engineering team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Tea Time with Thomas & Ty podcast Wikimedia Foundation Data Engineering Team Thomas Chin user page on mediawiki.org Dependency injection in MediaWiki code (provided by the MediaWikiServices class) "embarassment" (2009 blog post by Domas Mituzas about Michael Jackson-related Wikipedia crash) "After using ChatGPT, man swaps his salt for sodium bromide—and suffers psychosis" (August 2025 article) "Sealed, sold, delivered: How blind boxes like Labubu became a viral obsession" (June 2025 article) Jesse's Teahouse > Pu'er Tea Oranges

🕑 28 minutes A new BTB Digest! Cindy Cicalese is surprised about the popularity of her PluggableAuth extension, Luca Mauri extols the benefits of Federation, Edward Chernenko laments the difficulties in running a humor wiki, Marijn van Wezel discusses GDPR compliance, Markus Glaser offers a solution for collaborative editing in MediaWiki, and more!

🕑 56 minutes Wojciech Pędzich (roughly pronounced "VOY-chek PEND-zhik") is a longtime Wikimedia volunteer, having served as an administrator on the Polish Wikipedia, a Wikimedia Steward, a member of the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee, a board member of Wikimedia Polska, an organizer of the Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) meeting, and an organizer of Wikimania, among other things. He is currently one of six candidates for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Links for some of the topics discussed: 2025 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election Candidates Wojciech Pędzich candidate statement Playboy Carti English Wikipedia article Wikimedia Sound Logo announcement, July 2023 Project Rewrite, launched March 2021 Guinness World Record for longest Wikipedia editathon (100 hours, September 26–30, 2023, Warsaw) (Photograph by Robert Drózd, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.)

🕑 1 hour 33 minutes Dan Andreescu (user name Milimetric) is a staff software engineer in the Data Platform Engineering team, and an interim manager in the Experiment Platform team, both in The Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Data Platform Engineering Team Experiment Platform Team Wikimedia Statistics (Wikistats) Wikimedia Experimentation Lab Edge Uniques project

🕑 2 hours 6 minutes Richard Heigl and Markus Glaser (pictured, left to right) are two of the three founders and heads of the German consulting Hallo Welt!, along with Anja Ebersbach. Hallo Welt! is best known for producing the MediaWiki-based software BlueSpice. Links for some of the topics discussed: BlueSpice BlueSpice 5.0 announcement, April 2025 BlueSpice release history BlueSpice Docker installation guide Cognitive Process Designer MediaWiki extension Checklists MediaWiki extension Checklist (or BlueSpiceChecklist) MediaWiki extension AboutBlueSpice MediaWiki extension CollabPads MediaWiki extension "Warum Barrierefreiheit so viel kostet" ("Why accessibility costs so much"), July 2025 article in Linux Magazin that quotes Richard and Markus Open HTML to PDF library

🕑 55 minutes Marijn van Wezel is a part-time developer at the MediaWiki consulting company Wikibase Solutions. He is also working on a master's degree in computer science at Radboud University Nijmegen. Links for some of the topics discussed: Marijn's user page on mediawiki.org Wikibase Solutions WSSlots MediaWiki extension CookieConsent MediaWiki extension CookieWarning MediaWiki extension WikiGuard MediaWiki extension ArrayFunctions MediaWiki extension "Making your wiki Parsoid-compatible with ArrayFunctions" (talk by Marijn van Wezel and Jimmy van Delft at MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop Spring 2025) WSSpaces MediaWiki extension MWUnit MediaWiki extension

🕑 50 minutes Edward Chernenko is a software developer, with extensive experience in MediaWiki development and consulting. He is also the administrator of Absurdopedia, a Russian-language humor wiki that is part of the loosely-affiliated Uncyclopedia family. Links for some of the topics discussed: Абсурдопедия (Absurdopedia) Uncyclopedia Edward Chernenko user page on mediawiki.org Moderation MediaWiki extension AWS MediaWiki extension CreatePageUw MediaWiki extension

🕑 31 minutes (Star-studded) highlights from five recent episodes! Trevor Parscal says the Wikimedia Foundation has become political, Selena Deckelmann sheds light on her management approach, Jonathan Lee complains about Fandom's tactics, Denny Vrandečić disputes the idea that Abstract Wikipedia could replace regular Wikipedia, Ward Cunningham recounts coming up with the name "wiki", and more!

🕑 1 hour 21 minutes Luca Mauri is an IT manager who in his free time runs the Italian-language Star Trek wiki WikiTrek - which in turn gets much of its data from another wiki, DataTrek, which runs on MediaWiki in conjunction with Wikibase. Links for some of the topics discussed: Luca Mauri homepage WikiTrek DataTrek "Star Trek" article on English Wikipedia PageToGitHub MediaWiki extension RecentActivity MediaWiki extension Wiki2Ban MediaWiki extension

🕑 1 hour 21 minutes Cindy Cicalese is a principal engineer for the Developer Experience Group at the Wikimedia Foundation - but not for long, because she is leaving soon to go work at the startup Selfii, as their MediaWiki architect. Although not before serving as the general chair for the upcoming MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop (May 14-16 in Sandusky, Ohio, USA!). Links for some of the topics discussed: MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop Spring 2025 Selfii PluggableAuth MediaWiki extension

🕑 2 hours 6 minutes Denny Vrandečić is the Head of Special Projects at the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as a visiting professor at King's College London. He is the is main creator of the Wikimedia sites Wikidata and Wikifunctions and co-creator of the MediaWiki extension Semantic MediaWiki; he also leads the project to create the so-called "Abstract Wikipedia". This is his second time on the podcast. Links for some of the topics discussed: SPINACH ("SPARQL-based Information NAvigation for CHallenging real-world questions on Wikidata") Wikidata Walkabout Wikifunctions "Sketching a path to Abstract Wikipedia", Wikifunctions update, December 2024 Abstract Wikipedia/Google.org Fellows evaluation, December 2022 Abstract Wikipedia/Google.org Fellows evaluation - Answer, December 2022 Abstract Wikipedia Wikipedia article "Large Language Models, Knowledge Graphs and Search Engines: A Crossroads for Answering Users' Questions" (2025 paper by Aidan Hogan, Xin Luna Dong, Denny Vrandečić and Gerhard Weikum) RSS Wikipedia article (stands for RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) Interestingly, after we finished recording this episode, Denny showed me, on a screenshare, some of the current capabilities of LLMs; we asked it different questions, and one of the LLMs (I think from the "Llama" family) stated that the name of this podcast was "My Favorite Dystopia". I have no idea where that came from, but it's an eerily apt description of this particular episode, with its discussion of a possible (though maybe unlikely) replacement of Wikipedia with a massive set of function calls. Somehow the AI knew.

🕑 1 hour 25 minutes Ward Cunningham is the inventor of wikis (although he prefers to use the mass noun "wiki"), which started with his website WikiWikiWeb in 1995; by an incredible coincidence, this episode is being released on the exact 30th anniversary of the launch of WikiWikiWeb. Ward is also a computer science pioneer, and was heavily involved in the development of design patterns and agile programming. Since 2011, he has headed the development of the software Federated Wiki, originally known as Smallest Federated Wiki. Links for some of the topics discussed: Ward Cunningham Wikipedia article c2.com - Cunningham & Cunningham Inc. website Portland Pattern Repository "Using Pattern Languages for Object-Oriented Programs" (1987 technical report by Kent Beck and Ward Cunningham) WikiWikiWeb "Are Design Patterns Missing Language Features" wiki page "Singletons Are Evil" wiki page Federated Wiki Federated Wiki Wikipedia article

🕑 1 hour 39 minutes Jonathan Lee is the director of the MediaWiki-based wiki hosting company Weird Gloop. Links for some of the topics discussed: Weird Gloop "Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom" (October 2024 blog post) The RuneScape wiki OSRS ("Old School RuneScape") Wiki Fandom RuneScape Grand Market tutorial video from 2017 "How to Make an Old Fashioned" (Mahalo.com instructional video from 2010)

🕑 37 minutes It's a BTB Digest episode! Bertrand Gorge lists his favorite extensions, Stephen Harrison contrasts himself with the characters in his novel, Richard Knipel justifies the Wikimedia Movement Charter, Tom Arrow (and others) consider the current state of Wikibase, Brian Wolff defends his old boss at the WMF, and more!

🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Selena Deckelmann has been the Chief Product and Technology Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation since 2022. Before that, she worked for around 10 years at the Mozilla Foundation, eventually reaching the position of Senior Vice President, Firefox. Links for some of the topics discussed: Mozilla Foundation Wikipedia article Media knowledge beyond Wikipedia: Response from the Selena Deckelmann, CPTO at the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikimedia Commons talk page discussion) "Wikipedia's value in the age of generative AI" (July 2023 blog post by Selena) Abstract Wikipedia project page on Meta-Wiki

🕑 1 hour 27 minutes Former Wikimedia Foundation developer Trevor Parscal returns to the podcast to talk about the happy (to many) news that Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a double life sentence for having created and run the "dark web" website Silk Road, was just released from prison. We also talk about the state of U.S. politics in general, and what it means for the tech world - and for Wikipedia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Ross Ulbricht Wikipedia article "More Speech and Fewer Mistakes" (Meta blog post, January 2025) "What is 'debanking' and why are Marc Andreesen and Silicon Valley talking about it?" (Fast Company article, December 2024) "Google stabs Wikipedia in the front" (The Register article, January 2014) "Since legacy media propaganda is considered a "valid" source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!" (Elon Musk X post, January 2025) SPINACH Wikidata Agent

🕑 1 hour 15 minutes Brian Wolff returns for a third episode! The security expert and longtime MediaWiki developer talks about his latest development projects, and Wikimedia goings-on, past and present. Links for some of the topics discussed: "New Calculator template brings interactivity at last" (Wikipedia Signpost article by Brian Wolff, January 2025) Calculator template on English-language Wikipedia BMI calculator on "Body mass index" article "John Travoltage" online electricity simulator "NPR boss Katherine Maher opposed 'free and open' approach at Wikipedia: 'White male Westernized construct'" (New York Post article, April 2024) "Katherine Maher's Color Revolution" (City Journal article, April 2024) Wikimedia Foundation Knowledge Equity Fund

🕑 1 hour 42 minutes Adam Shorland, Tom Arrow and Ollie Hyde (pictured, left to right) show up together for the final episode of 2024! Adam (username Addshore) returns for his second appearance; he has since left Wikimedia Deutschland and now works at Lightbug. Tom and Ollie remain at Wikimedia Deutschland, both working on Wikibase development, with a focus on Wikibase Cloud and the Wikibase API, respectively. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimedia Deutschland Lightbug "Alcohol preferences in Europe" Wikipedia article Wikibase Cloud "Visualizing Wikibase connections, using wikibase.world" (October 2024 blog post by Adam) Wikimedia API portal SPINACH Wikidata Agent Wikidata Query Builder

🕑 1 hour 19 minutes Richard Knipel (username Pharos) returns, for a special holiday-esque episode! He talks about recent developments with Wikispore, the Wikimedia Movement Charter, and Wikimedia New York City; and then we listen to some freely-licensed music from Wikimedia Commons. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimedia Movement Charter Wikispore "Grant project for Wikinews" proposal "World AIDS Day 2024 is marked around the world" (Wikinews article mostly written by Richard) "Wikicurious" Wikimedia NYC events WikiConference North America 2025 New Years Eve Cosmic Turtle Drop + Public Domain Film Festival (December 31, 2024) The music: Movement I ("Modéré") from the Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Robert Casadesus Unnamed Azande-language song performed by Dominique Manzadi "Grateful" by NEFFEX "Ego sum pastor bonus" by Waclaw of Szamotuly, performed by Collegium Vocale Bydgoszcz "Ochi chyornye" ("Dark Eyes") by Yevhen Hrebink and Florian Hermann, performed by Feodor Chaliapin Movement IV ("Allegretto con variazioni") from the clarinet quintet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by Vlad Weverbergh and the Terra Nova Collective WikiFlix

🕑 26 minutes It's another BTB Digest, with clips from five recent episodes! Brent Laabs recounts the abortive renaming of Miraheze, Alex Stinson considers the uniqueness of different language Wikipedias, Paul Cereghino notes the challenges of finding wiki editors in the government, Valerio Bozzolan argues for putting conference videos on PeerTube, Asaf Bartov warns about "weaponized AI" on Wikipedia, and more.

🕑 1 hour Stephen Harrison is a tech lawyer and journalist who has been writing about Wikipedia since 2018, including dozens of articles for the online magazine Slate as part of his Source Notes column. He is the author of the 2024 novel The Editors, which is about a group of editors of the fictional user-editable online encyclopedia "Infopendium" who are drawn together by dramatic events. Links for some of the topics discussed: Stephen Harrison website Source Notes blog/newsletter Stephen Harrison's list of Wikipedia-related articles More comprehensive list Reddit /r/pics subreddit (my apologies for casting aspersions - it's not that political any more! It was more political during the recent U.S. presidential election.) "Times of London: Wikipedia, AI, & THE EDITORS | An Audiobook Update" (October 2024 blog post)

🕑 1 hour 9 minutes Bertrand Gorge is the co-founder of Triple Performance, a (currently) French-language-only wiki that holds resources for farmers. He also co-runs the company Neayi, which manages Triple Performance. Links for some of the topics discussed: Triple Performance Neayi "Rotations en grandes cultures" (Triple Performance article about crop rotation) Neayi GitHub account Triple Performance Google Spreadsheets add-on Triple Performance Docker image

🕑 1 hour 10 minutes Asaf Bartov is the lead program officer for the Emerging Wikimedia Communities project of the Community Development Team at the Wikimedia Foundation. He also runs Project Ben-Yehuda, which has been putting Hebrew-language texts online since 1999, and the Nemala project, which publishes Hebrew translations of Ukrainian-language works. Links for some of the topics discussed: "Wikimania 2019 - Asaf Bartov" (episode of the podcast Scuola di Pensiero) Project Ben-Yehuda Nemala initiative WMF Community Development Team WikiLearn Wikimania 2023 program "Defending our wikis against weaponized generative AI" (talk by Asaf at Wikimania CEE Meeting 2024)

🕑 1 hour 42 minutes Valerio Bozzolan is a software developer and Linux administrator, as well as the president of the Italian Linux Society, the founder and head of Wikimedians for Software Freedom, a member of the volunteer technical commission of Wikimedia Italy, and an open source consultant for Wikimedia Switzerland. Links for some of the topics discussed: Istituto tecnico industriale statale Amedeo Avogadro (Italian Wikipedia article) Chiedi il rimborso del sistemo (in)operativo! ("Ask for a refund for the (non-)operating system!") PeerTube Wikimedians for software freedom "2021:Present and future" page "2022:Present and future" page FLOSS-Exchange listing video.linux.it (powered by PeerTube) Phorge homepage

🕑 1 hour 7 minutes Paul Cereghino is a restoration ecologist for the U.S. federal government, where he also supports the development and adminstration of the Salish Sea Restoration wiki. Links for some of the topics discussed: Salish Sea Restoration wiki Salish Sea Wikipedia article "Do you love seafood? Here's how to eat it responsibly" (NPR article, September 2024) "I Want To Eat Fish Responsibly. But The Seafood Guides Are So Confusing!" (NPR article, March 2017) List of all restoration efforts

🕑 23 minutes It's another BTB Digest, with highlights from five recent episodes. Jeffrey Wang discusses competing for European users, Taavi Väänänen describes the RealMe extension, Megan Cutrofello defends video game wikis with "spoilers", Moritz Schubotz analyzes MediaWiki as a math publishing tool, Viktor Schelling reminisces on the early days of a consulting company, and more!

🕑 2 hours Alex Stinson is Lead Program Strategist for the Campaigns Team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimedia Foundation Campaigns Team WikiProjects Campaign PetScan List-Building Tool Research on Language-Agnostic Topic Classification Esperanza (2005-2006 project on Wikipedia) CampaignEvents MediaWiki extension Programs & Events Dashboard description Programs & Events Dashboard

🕑 1 hour 35 minutes Brent Laabs (user name Labster) is chair of the board and acting president of the WikiTide Foundation, the nonprofit foundation that runs the wiki farm Miraheze. Links for some of the topics discussed: Miraheze WikiTide Foundation Between the Brackets Episode 31: John Lewis All The Tropes wiki Miraheze-WikiTide merger FAQ Requests for Comment/Reorganization of Miraheze (December 2023) Requests for Comment/Miraheze's name and branding (April 2024) WikiForge DynamicPageList3 MediaWiki extension Miraheze finance page Miraheze donation page

🕑 1 hour 3 minutes Viktor Schelling is the Senior Principal MediaWiki Developer at Pegasystems. Links for some of the topics discussed: Pegasystems Wikipedia article Wikibase Solutions FlexForm MediaWiki extension Open CSP

🕑 1 hour 28 minutes Dr. Moritz Schubotz (developer username Physikerwelt) is head of research at the mathematics department at FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure. He is the author or co-author of the MediaWiki extensions Math and MathSearch, and the Mathoid application, among others. Links for some of the topics discussed: Dr. Moritz Schubotz CV and publications Math MediaWiki extension MathSearch MediaWiki extension MathML Wikipedia article MathJax Wikipedia article Mathoid The MaRDI (Mathematical Research Data Initiative) Portal (Wikibase instance) zbMATH Open Wikimedia Community User Group Math

🕑 1 hour 43 minutes Megan Cutrofello, better known as River, returns to the podcast. She is a freelance wiki developer who has worked with Gamepedia, Fandom and wiki.gg, among others. Links for some of the topics discussed: wiki.gg "What's going on with gaming communities moving from Fandom to Wiki.gg?" (2023 Reddit thread) River Writes blog The Sea of Thieves Wiki DRUID (Data Representation Ultra Infobox Design) infoboxes

🕑 21 minutes It's a BTB Digest episode! Hear clips from five recent episodes. Steve Schneider describes his remarkably AI-centered approach to teaching, Birgit Müller boasts about her team's success in improving code review, Srishti Sethi considers the usefulness of developer outreach programs, Alan Ang lists the steps in getting a knowledge base onto Wikidata, Guillaume Coulombe compares MediaWiki expertise to martial arts, and more!

🕑 38 minutes Taavi Väänänen is a site reliability engineer in the Wikimedia Cloud Services team at the Wikimedia Foundation. In 2022, when he was still just a volunteer contributor, he was named Tech Contributor of the Year by Jimmy Wales. Links for some of the topics discussed: Taavi Väänänen homepage Wikimedia Toolforge CentralAuth MediaWiki extension RealMe MediaWiki extension "Fediverse" Wikipedia article