Wikimedia launches programming challenge

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia, has announced the launch of a programming challenge. Participants of the Wikipedia Coding Challenge will create extensions to the MediaWiki software, which is the basis of the free Wikipedia online encyclopaedia.

Contestants can choose one of three challenges: a "Mobile Photo Upload" function for smartphones, a new slideshow format for Wikipedia images and a new interface to visually improve the way in which changes to articles are displayed. The winners of each category will receive an all-expenses paid trip to a Wikimedia event of their choice in 2012. Entries must be placed under the GPL or a compatible licence, and must be submitted by 7 November.

The challenge is also intended as a competition to find young programming talent. The Wikimedia Foundation has struggled with such pending development tasks as the new Visual Editor, or a new format for discussion pages, because it has been unable to fill all developer positions. At the same time, the Wikimedia organisation has increased its efforts to further develop the platform by adding project-independent calls for contributions to the Wikipedia pages. In September, for example, the Wiki loves Monuments campaign inspired contributors to add 166,000 images of monuments across Europe. A similar approach was chosen for the idea to declare Wikipedia a world cultural heritage site, which has been promoted via a petition form at wikipedia.de

See also:

• Wikimedia awarded $3.6 million grant for technology improvements, a report from The H.

(Torsten Kleinz / crve)