Introducing Wikifunctions: first Wikimedia project to launch in a decade creates new forms of knowledge – Wikimedia Foundation

I’m a fan of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, and it is exciting to see a new project.

A “function” is a sequence of programming instructions that makes a calculation based on data provided. Internet users most commonly encounter functions when entering queries on search engines, such as the time difference between two cities, the distance between two locations, or the volume of an object. Functions operate behind-the-scenes to produce answers to these queries. For the first time, Wikifunctions will provide a library of functions that everyone, everywhere can access and contribute to.

Wikifunctions is interesting in part because it is functionally a bit different than other Wikimedia sites. Most of the functions I checked out you can run right on the site.