Between the Brackets: a MediaWiki Podcast

🕑 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