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A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, also published as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter.
Paper: https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ase.70234
Article: https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-strategic-wikipedia-engagement-scientific-visibility.html
"Wikilambda the ultimate: the Wikimedia foundation’s search for the perfect language]"[1] by Michael Falk (of the WikiHistories project) uses Critical Code Studies methods to examine Wikilambda, the extension of the MediaWiki software that underlies Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia. (Wikifunctions, a collaboratively edited library of computer functions. is the newest Wikimedia project, launched in 2023. Abstract Wikipedia, a language-independent version of Wikipedia that the Wikimedia Foundation has been developing since 2020, relies on Wikifunctions and thereby Wikilambda to convert structured data from Wikidata into natural language.)
Published in the journal AI & Society, the paper argues that Wikilambda is an attempt to create a ‘perfect language.’
What does the author mean by a perfect language? The article refers to Umberto Eco's 1995 book The Search for the Perfect Language, which looks at various attempts in history to create ideal languages.
Umberto Eco (1995, 73) distinguishes two kinds of ideal language: the “perfect” and the “universal.” A “perfect” language is one that is “capable of mirroring the true nature of objects.” Such a language must analyse the world into its constituent parts, and provide means to build it back up again. Each word must correspond to a real component of nature, and each syntactic rule must correspond to a way that nature combines primitive elements into complex entities.
A “universal” language is ideal in a different way: it is a language “which everyone might, or ought to, speak.” Esperanto is an example among the spoken languages. Among programming languages, BASIC, Logo, Python and Scratch are examples of languages that are intended to be universally accessible.
Umberto Eco's book describes many such projects that have failed in the past, because language is not easily severed from symbolism or necessitate a significant learning effort, while not offering the advantages of connection it promised. to be developed[supp 1]
Falk argues Wikilambda is an attempt to create two ideal languages:
The proposed “template language” for Abstract Wikipedia is intended to be both perfect and universal: it will be perfectly able to express any fact, and universally accessible by writers all over the world. To implement this “template language,” the Abstract Wikipedia team has gone about developing another perfect and universal language: Wikilambda. This programming language will enable the people of the world to collaborate to build the constructors and renderers that will define and express the sum of human knowledge. According to the Wikilambda developers, Wikilambda is universal because it breaks the hegemony of English; it is perfect because it is not actually a language.
If WikiLambda indeed is an attempt to create ideal languages, it follows that it is at the same risks of failing as the many other such projects documented by Umberto Eco. The article analyzes why.
The article opens with a reference to Signpost's 2023 coverage of an evaluation of WikiLambda, which found the project "at substantial risk of failure"[supp 2].
"To make this case, I analyse the project on three levels. In Sect. 2, I describe the overall architecture of the Abstract Wikipedia project, and explain how the new programming language Wikilambda fits into the structure. In Sect. 3, I examine Wikilambda’s documentation, critiquing the arguments used by its developers to establish the perfection and universality of this new programming language. Finally, in Sect. 4, I closely read the source code for the “function orchestrator,” the JavaScript application whose job is to evaluate expressions in the Wikilambda language."
Background on Critical Code Studies Methods: https://stunlaw.blogspot.com/2024/12/reflections-on-method-for-critical-code.html
Other recent publications that could not be covered in time for this issue include the items listed below. Contributions, whether reviewing or summarizing newly published research, are always welcome.
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