User:Protnet/Multilingual Semantic MediaWiki

This proposal is dropped.

This was a difficult proposal and there was no chance I could finish it in such a short period.

Semantic MediaWiki is in the top of my interests and I will keep working on it.

Multilingual Semantic MediaWiki

Public URL: https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=User:Protnet/Multilingual_Semantic_MediaWiki
Bugzilla report: Bug 46522
Announcement: (link to the announcement of your proposal at the wikitech-l mailing list.

Name and contact information

Name: Ioannis Protonotarios
Email: ioannis@protonotarios.eu
IRC or IM networks/handle(s)
Web Page / Blog / Microblog / Portfolio: My business website (Greek): http://office.protonotarios.eu
My personal blog-like wiki (Greek/English): http://meta.protonotarios.eu
Resume (optional)
Location: Athens, Greece
Typical working hours: 8:00-15:00 (till mid-June), 9:00-13:00 & 18:00-24:00 (July, August) (EET)

Synopsis

Internationalization (i18n) is essential to Semantic MediaWiki. After all, an ontology is by definition a linguistic construct. It stores knowledge using natural language. Therefore SMW users should be able to create their own language semantic patterns and not be forced to mix text in their language with english semantic notation in the same sentence. Full i18n will make Semantic MediaWiki more semantic!

Under construction: This is the proposal pasted directly from the ideas page

Semantic MediaWiki would benefit from being multilingual-capable out of the box. We could integrate it with the Translate extension. This can be done in some isolated steps, but there is a need to list all the things in need of translation and define appproach and priority for each of them. Some of the steps could be:

Fix the issues that prevent full localisation of Semantic Forms.
Enhance Special:CreateForm and friends (all the Special:Create* special pages by Semantic Forms) to create forms that are already i18ned with placeholders and message group for Translate extension.
Make it possible to define translation for properties and create a message group for Translate extension, similar to what CentralNotice does (sending strings for translation to Translate message groups).
- There are lot of places where properties are displayed: many special pages, queries, property pages. Some thinking is required to find out a sensible way to handle translations on all these places.
- Currently In most wikis, properties names are supposed to be hidden to the user, e.g. queries results are usually shown in infobox-like templates (whose labels could in theory be localised as all templates).

Translate would be fed with the strings in need of translation. Localised strings/messages would be displayed based on the interface language, that in core every user can set on Special:Preferences and with ULS is made way easier to pick for everyone including unregistered users.

Skills: PHP and web frontend, has used Semantic MediaWiki and Semantic Forms is a plus.

Possible mentors: Niklas Laxström, Yaron Koren.

Deliverables

Please describe the details and the timeline of the work you plan to accomplish on the project you are most interested in (discuss these first with the mentor of the project):

Participation

About you

Education completed: Electrical & computer engineer MSc.

Education in progress: Currently a student in post-secondary level (though irrelevant to IT - I study education) while waiting to start my second master's in IT coming October.

How did you hear about this program?: I knew about this program from various extensions I have used in the past but I heared about this year's applications from a friend in Greek Wikipedia.

Will you have any other time commitments, such as school work, another job, planned vacation, etc., during the duration of the program?: I have school till mid June but only during the evenings. I also work but as a free-lance engineer so I am able not to undertake any jobs during the summer which is a dead period anyway for my line of work.

We advise all candidates eligible to Google Summer of Code and FOSS Outreach Program for Women to apply for both programs. Are you planning to apply to both programs and, if so, with what organization(s)?: No

Past experience

Please describe your experience with any other FOSS projects as a user and as a contributor: I am a proud FOSS user and supporter for many years. As a contibutor I have done many little things in many projects. The last 3 years I have focused mainly on MediaWiki when I setup my first wiki. I now maintain 7 live semantic wikis on various subjects. This forced me to get my hands dirty and start dealing with bugs, coding, patches etc. I have not yet created a complete extension (well maybe a hello-world-ish one) but I have succesfully moded a couple of those. In terms of Semantic MediaWiki I have created complex ontologies (and more complex templates to support them). Last but not least I am an active Mediawiki translator and I have translated most of semantic extensions to Greek myself. I have also created a MediaWiki glossary and many translation guidelines. As a wikipedian I have started a Greek Wikipedia Education Program focused on adult education.

Please describe any relevant projects that you have worked on previously and what knowledge you gained from working on them (include links)

What project(s) are you interested in (these can be in the same or different organizations)?: My main interest is MediaWiki, Semantic MediaWiki along with some major extensions such as Semantic Forms, Semantic Maps etc, as well as the Translate extension and on the other hand CSS capabilities in site design. That's why I couldn't resist and tried to apply to both areas.

Another topic that I am very interested in is duplicate image finding. My thesis was on image processing and I have done some personal research on this but for the moment I'll stick with wikis.