View source for Submissions:2021/Global templates, and their special challenges for English, French, and Spanish languages

{{WCNA 2021 Session Submission
|theme=Global & Local, Relationship Building & Support, Inclusion & Diversity, Depth & Breadth for Newer Editors, Tech & Tools
|type=Presentation
|abstract=The most important technical issue with the Wikimedia wikis is the lack of capability to share the code of templates and modules across wikis. They implement some of the most notable features of our sites, such as infoboxes, formatted references, hatnotes, "citation needed", sports results tables, and thousands of others, but unlike it is with MediaWiki extensions (and to a certain extent, gadgets), using them across different wikis and localizing them is extremely difficult. Despite being very important and affecting practically all Wikimedia wikis, this problem is frequently overlooked and ignored. However, it is a problem, and many editors have repeatedly asked to address it since 2004. There is a proposal to address it, called "[[:mw:Global templates/Proposed specification, short version|Global templates]]". It has been supported by well over a hundred editors from many wikis, but three things are needed to implement it successfully:
* Unquestionable community consensus from many wikis, both larger and smaller.
* A commitment from MediaWiki engineering leadership to invest resources in developing the infrastructure for it.
* A plan, or at least a draft thereof, for using this infrastructure once it is deployed.

This topic was briefly presented at Wikimania 2021 under the title "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqr_RRkXIRA Global templates, component templates]", but this proposed presentation will be different in two important aspects:
1. It will be more detailed.
2. It will focus on the specific role of the communities of the English, French, and Spanish wikis in this process.

This presentation will:
* Show the problem.
* Show the proposed solution.
* Discuss the current status of development.
* Show the particular challenges that English, French, and Spanish wikis will have in the process.
* Give a stage for the communities of these wikis, and possibly others, to comment.
|academic=No
|author=Amir E. Aharoni
|email=amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il
|username=amire80
|affiliates=Wikimedia Foundation staff member, but this presentation is personal and not in my official WMF capacity
|time=40 minutes - 20 minutes presentation, and hopefully a lot of questions
|requests=1. Please schedule this as early as possible in the day. I'm in the UTC+3 time zone. 2. Would be nice to get it interpreted into Spanish and French.
|presented=Yes. Wikimania 2021 and some other events. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Global_templates/Status . However, I never did this with focus on English, French, and Spanish wikis, and this is important.
|present-other=Yes.
|status=Accepted
}}

Useful links:
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5BRvww_tj0&t=21m50s Video in English] (begins at 0 hours, 21 minutes, 50 seconds)
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5BRvww_tj0&t=21m50s Video in Spanish] (begins at 0 hours, 30 minutes)
* [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/06A4WS2fyNFtrlu0NPlLZn?si=DYf7yMCjRY-J7aQuaBboJg Global Templates Jam] (bonus soundtrack, Spotify). Includes ''[[:w:en:This Could Be the Start of Something|This Could Be the Start of Something]]'', ''[[:w:en:Just One of Those Things (song)|Just One of Those Things]]'', ''[[:w:en:You've Got What Gets Me|You've Got What Gets Me]]'', ''[[:w:en:Parisian Thoroughfare|Parisian Thoroughfare]]'', ''[[:w:en:I'll Be Hard to Handle|I'll Be Hard to Handle]]'', ''[[:w:en:There'll Be Some Changes Made|There'll Be Some Changes Made]]'', ''[[:w:en:One Note Samba|One Note Samba]]''.
* Slides: [[:commons:File:Global templates - Wiki-conference North America 2021.pdf]]
* [[Submissions:2021/Global templates, and their special challenges for English, French, and Spanish languages/Notes|Session notes]], with Q & A.
* General introduction: [[:mw:Global templates|Global templates]]
* Draft transition plan ('''please read and contribute!'''): [[:mw:Global templates/Transition|Global templates/Transition]]
* [[:mw:Global templates/Proposed specification, short version|Global templates/Proposed specification, short version]] (translated to many languages!)
* [[:mw:Global templates/Discuss|Global templates/Discuss]] - support, oppose, discuss
* [[:mw:Translatable modules|Translatable modules]]
* Related Community Wish, #1 in the 2021 survey (and most votes ever): [[:m:Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Translation/Templates translation|Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Translation/Templates translation]]
* Abstract Wikipedia / Wikifunctions (a distinct, but comparable project): [[:m:Abstract Wikipedia|Abstract Wikipedia]]
* <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[:w:en:Template:Cite Q|Cite Q]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki>