Between the Brackets: a MediaWiki Podcast
by Yaron Koren
A podcast about the people and ideas behind the MediaWiki software. Interviews with developers and users of MediaWiki, both for Wikimedia sites (Wikipedia, Wikidata, etc.) and the many uses of MediaWiki in companies, organizations, government agencies, etc.
Episodes
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Episode 216: Christian Erlinger
🕑 1 hour 12 minutes Christian Erlinger is a digital librarian and GLAM consultant; he is also the general chair for the MediaWiki Users and Developers Conference (MUDCon) Fall 2026, which will be held November 11-13, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Christian...
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Episode 215: Mahir Morshed
🕑 1 hour 25 minutes Dr. Mahir Morshed is a data scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) in North Carolina. He is also an administrator on Wikidata and the Bengali-language Wikisource. Links for some of the topics discussed: RENCI Proto-Open Knowledge Network: FRINK Abstract...
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Episode 214: BTB Digest 34
🕑 25 minutes Highlights from five recent episodes! Sandra Fauconnier notes the irony of centralization in the Semantic Web, Ad Strack van Schijndel discusses the workings of Juggel, Daniel Dobriy extols wikis for AI, Cory Massaro praises the translation abilities of Abstract Wikipedia, Shani...
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Episode 213: Waldir Pimenta
🕑 1 hour 32 minutes Waldir Pimenta returns to talk about the recent Wikimania, the hackathon-to-development pipeline, unionization and other topics. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimania 2026 team challenges Map the Gap (Wikimania hackathon team project) Wikinewsie WISE (semantic…
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Episode 212: Matthew Shell
🕑 1 hour 1 minute Matthew Shell is an IT project manager who is the creator of the MediaWiki-based wiki farm GoalStriving. GoalStriving is intended for personal, private wikis; it is ad-free and pledges to never sell or share any user information. Links for some of the topics discussed:...
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Episode 211: Shani Evenstein Sigalov
🕑 1 hour 34 minutes Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov is an educator, researcher, and long-standing Open Knowledge advocate, working at the intersection of education, technology, innovation and openness. She is the founder of the AI Bridges project at the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the...
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Episode 210: Cory Massaro
🕑 1 hour 31 minutes Cory Massaro is a staff software engineer on the Abstract Wikipedia team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Cory Massaro website Abstract Wikipedia Wikifunctions WikiLambda MediaWiki extension "Wikilambda the Ultimate" (2026 paper by Michael...
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Episode 209: Daniel Dobriy
🕑 1 hour 28 minutes Daniel Dobriy is the founder and managing director of the company Dobriy AI. He is also a researcher at WU Vienna University and Austria's Bilateral AI Cluster of Excellence. Links for some of the topics discussed: Dobriy AI Daniel Dobriy homepage Agentic Data Catalogue Web…
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Episode 208: BTB Digest 33
🕑 27 minutes Clips from five recent episodes! Liam Wyatt considers LLMs as a vessel for Wikipedia content; Steve Shattuck weighs Cargo against Semantic MediaWiki; Paul Vodrazka lays out how he became an AI coder; Noam Cohen defends Wikipedia from charges of bias; Wandji Collins recounts becoming…
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Episode 207: Ad Strack van Schijndel
🕑 1 hour 35 minutes Ad Strack van Schijndel is the founder and CEO of Juggel, a Dutch company whose product, also named Juggel, is an AI-centered MediaWiki distribution. Before founding Juggel, he was the founder and CEO of the MediaWiki-based consulting company Wikibase Solutions. Links for…
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Episode 206: Sandra Fauconnier
🕑 1 hour 3 minutes Sandra Fauconnier is an art historian by training who works on digital projects in the cultural sector. She has worked at different times for Wikimedia Nederland, the Wikimedia Foundation, and Wikimedia Sverige. Links for some of the topics discussed: Sandra Fauconnier user…
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Episode 205: Wandji Collins
🕑 52 minutes Wandji Collins is a software engineer and engineering manager at Tech Chantier, as well as a volunteer MediaWiki developer. Links for some of the topics discussed: Tech Chantier Between the Brackets Episode 36: Derick Alangi Wiki Mentor Africa Lexicographical data on Wikidata Page...
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Episode 204: Noam Cohen
🕑 1 hour 15 minutes Noam Cohen is a journalist and writer who has written extensively about Wikipedia since 2007 for publications including The New York Times and Wired. He is the author of the 2017 book The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking...
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Episode 203: Paul Vodrazka
🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Paul Vodrazka is a shift leader in the CNC (computer numerical control) department at the Winnipeg-based company Custom Castings. He manages the internal wikis for Custom Castings, and is also the author of the MediaWiki extension Layers. Links for some of the topics…
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Episode 202: BTB Digest 32
🕑 23 minutes It's another BTB Digest! Hear clips from five recent episodes. Cormac Parle notes the challenges in structured data in Wikimedia Commons, Vera de Kok reminisces about her early years as a Wikimedia photographer; Stephen Harrison cautions against dismissing AI encyclopedias; Brian...
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Episode 201: Steve Shattuck
🕑 58 minutes Steve Shattuck is a retired research assistant who created and runs the wiki AntWiki. Links for some of the topics discussed: AntWiki Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) AntWeb "Bamboo Specialist" category on AntWiki Australian Ants: Their Biology…
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Episode 200: Liam Wyatt
🕑 1 hour 14 minutes It's the (belated) 25th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia - and the 200th episode! For this special episode, we have the return of Liam Wyatt (username Wittylama), a longtime Wikipedia volunteer and commentator, the first-ever Wikipedian-in-residence, and now a Senior...
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Episode 199: Shlomit Lir
🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Shlomit Lir is a writer, editor, and researcher at the University of Haifa, specializing in the politics of knowledge. Since 2024, she has been a public critic of Wikipedia, especially relating to its coverage of Israel. Links for some of the topics discussed: "The Bias…
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Episode 198: Brian Wolff
🕑 1 hour 35 minutes Brian Wolff is a longtime MediaWiki and Wikimedia developer. He returns to the podcast for (maybe) one last in-person discussion before his move to Calgary, Alberta. We talk about political goings-on at the Wikimedia Foundation, developments in the software world, and random...
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Episode 197: Between the Brackets 2025 Holiday Special
🕑 58 minutes It's the holiday special! Special guests, a musical performance (all from the MediaWiki world), and a tale of a life-changing encounter.
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Episode 196: Stephen Harrison
🕑 1 hour 37 minutes Stephen Harrison is a tech lawyer and journalist who has been writing about Wikipedia since 2018, including for Slate and The New York Times. He joins us to talk about all the Wikimedia-related events of the crazy month of October 2025, including the release of Jimmy Wales'...
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Episode 195: BTB Digest 31
🕑 28 minutes Clips from five recent episodes! Dan Andreescu considers a new "Datawiki" project, Wojciech Pędzich makes use of the Wikipedia sound logo, Thomas Chin retells a piece of Wikimedia development lore, SJ Klein contemplates the use of "Abstractese", Matt Latourelle explains…
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Episode 194: Vera de Kok
🕑 1 hour 57 minutes Vera de Kok is a freelance photographer, developer and wiki consultant who was named Media Contributor of the Year at the 2025 Wikimania conference for her contributions to both Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Links for some of the topics discussed: "I'm Wikipedia's "Media...
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Episode 193: Cormac Parle
🕑 1 hour 17 minutes Cormac Parle is a principal software engineer in the Product & Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech team Wikimedia Foundation Structured Content team Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons Stoat...
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Episode 192: Matt Latourelle
🕑 52 minutes Matt Latourelle is director of technology operations for the wiki-based website Ballotpedia. Links for some of the topics discussed: Ballotpedia "Ballotpedia and MediaWiki" (talk by Matt Latourelle and Joseph Sanchez, MediaWiki Users and Developers Workshop Spring 2025) "How we...
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Episode 191: SJ Klein
🕑 1 hour 25 minutes Samuel J. "SJ" Klein is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He co-founded the Knowledge Futures project, served as director of content for One Laptop Per Child, and was on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees from 2009…
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Episode 190: Thomas Chin
🕑 1 hour 34 minutes Thomas Chin is a software engineer in the Data Platform Engineering team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Tea Time with Thomas & Ty podcast Wikimedia Foundation Data Engineering Team Thomas Chin user page on mediawiki.org Dependency…
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Episode 189: BTB Digest 30
🕑 28 minutes A new BTB Digest! Cindy Cicalese is surprised about the popularity of her PluggableAuth extension, Luca Mauri extols the benefits of Federation, Edward Chernenko laments the difficulties in running a humor wiki, Marijn van Wezel discusses GDPR compliance, Markus Glaser offers a...
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Episode 188: Wojciech Pędzich
🕑 56 minutes Wojciech Pędzich (roughly pronounced "VOY-chek PEND-zhik") is a longtime Wikimedia volunteer, having served as an administrator on the Polish Wikipedia, a Wikimedia Steward, a member of the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee, a board member of Wikimedia Polska, an organizer of the...
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Episode 187: Dan Andreescu
🕑 1 hour 33 minutes Dan Andreescu (user name Milimetric) is a staff software engineer in the Data Platform Engineering team, and an interim manager in the Experiment Platform team, both in The Wikimedia Foundation. Links for some of the topics discussed: Data Platform Engineering Team Experiment...
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Episode 186: Richard Heigl and Markus Glaser
🕑 2 hours 6 minutes Richard Heigl and Markus Glaser (pictured, left to right) are two of the three founders and heads of the German consulting Hallo Welt!, along with Anja Ebersbach. Hallo Welt! is best known for producing the MediaWiki-based software BlueSpice. Links for some of the topics...
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Episode 185: Marijn van Wezel
🕑 55 minutes Marijn van Wezel is a part-time developer at the MediaWiki consulting company Wikibase Solutions. He is also working on a master's degree in computer science at Radboud University Nijmegen. Links for some of the topics discussed: Marijn's user page on mediawiki.org Wikibase…
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Episode 184: Edward Chernenko
🕑 50 minutes Edward Chernenko is a software developer, with extensive experience in MediaWiki development and consulting. He is also the administrator of Absurdopedia, a Russian-language humor wiki that is part of the loosely-affiliated Uncyclopedia family. Links for some of the topics…
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Episode 183: BTB Digest 29
🕑 31 minutes (Star-studded) highlights from five recent episodes! Trevor Parscal says the Wikimedia Foundation has become political, Selena Deckelmann sheds light on her management approach, Jonathan Lee complains about Fandom's tactics, Denny Vrandečić disputes the idea that Abstract Wikipedia...
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Episode 182: Luca Mauri
🕑 1 hour 21 minutes Luca Mauri is an IT manager who in his free time runs the Italian-language Star Trek wiki WikiTrek - which in turn gets much of its data from another wiki, DataTrek, which runs on MediaWiki in conjunction with Wikibase. Links for some of the topics discussed: Luca Mauri...
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Episode 181: Cindy Cicalese
🕑 1 hour 21 minutes Cindy Cicalese is a principal engineer for the Developer Experience Group at the Wikimedia Foundation - but not for long, because she is leaving soon to go work at the startup Selfii, as their MediaWiki architect. Although not before serving as the general chair for the...
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Episode 180: Denny Vrandečić
🕑 2 hours 6 minutes Denny Vrandečić is the Head of Special Projects at the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as a visiting professor at King's College London. He is the is main creator of the Wikimedia sites Wikidata and Wikifunctions and co-creator of the MediaWiki extension Semantic MediaWiki; he...
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Episode 179: Ward Cunningham
🕑 1 hour 25 minutes Ward Cunningham is the inventor of wikis (although he prefers to use the mass noun "wiki"), which started with his website WikiWikiWeb in 1995; by an incredible coincidence, this episode is being released on the exact 30th anniversary of the launch of WikiWikiWeb. Ward is…
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Episode 178: Jonathan Lee
🕑 1 hour 39 minutes Jonathan Lee is the director of the MediaWiki-based wiki hosting company Weird Gloop. Links for some of the topics discussed: Weird Gloop "Why we're helping more wikis move away from Fandom" (October 2024 blog post) The RuneScape wiki OSRS ("Old School RuneScape") Wiki Fandom...
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Episode 177: BTB Digest 28
🕑 37 minutes It's a BTB Digest episode! Bertrand Gorge lists his favorite extensions, Stephen Harrison contrasts himself with the characters in his novel, Richard Knipel justifies the Wikimedia Movement Charter, Tom Arrow (and others) consider the current state of Wikibase, Brian Wolff defends…
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Episode 176: Selena Deckelmann
🕑 1 hour 11 minutes Selena Deckelmann has been the Chief Product and Technology Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation since 2022. Before that, she worked for around 10 years at the Mozilla Foundation, eventually reaching the position of Senior Vice President, Firefox. Links for some of the topics...
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Episode 175: Trevor Parscal
🕑 1 hour 27 minutes Former Wikimedia Foundation developer Trevor Parscal returns to the podcast to talk about the happy (to many) news that Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a double life sentence for having created and run the "dark web" website Silk Road, was just released from prison. We also…
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Episode 174: Brian Wolff
🕑 1 hour 15 minutes Brian Wolff returns for a third episode! The security expert and longtime MediaWiki developer talks about his latest development projects, and Wikimedia goings-on, past and present. Links for some of the topics discussed: "New Calculator template brings interactivity at last"...
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Episode 173: Adam Shorland, Tom Arrow and Ollie Hyde
🕑 1 hour 42 minutes Adam Shorland, Tom Arrow and Ollie Hyde (pictured, left to right) show up together for the final episode of 2024! Adam (username Addshore) returns for his second appearance; he has since left Wikimedia Deutschland and now works at Lightbug. Tom and Ollie remain at Wikimedia...
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Episode 172: Richard Knipel
🕑 1 hour 19 minutes Richard Knipel (username Pharos) returns, for a special holiday-esque episode! He talks about recent developments with Wikispore, the Wikimedia Movement Charter, and Wikimedia New York City; and then we listen to some freely-licensed music from Wikimedia Commons. Links for…
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Episode 171: BTB Digest 27
🕑 26 minutes It's another BTB Digest, with clips from five recent episodes! Brent Laabs recounts the abortive renaming of Miraheze, Alex Stinson considers the uniqueness of different language Wikipedias, Paul Cereghino notes the challenges of finding wiki editors in the government, Valerio...
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Episode 170: Stephen Harrison
🕑 1 hour Stephen Harrison is a tech lawyer and journalist who has been writing about Wikipedia since 2018, including dozens of articles for the online magazine Slate as part of his Source Notes column. He is the author of the 2024 novel The Editors, which is about a group of editors of the...
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Episode 169: Bertrand Gorge
🕑 1 hour 9 minutes Bertrand Gorge is the co-founder of Triple Performance, a (currently) French-language-only wiki that holds resources for farmers. He also co-runs the company Neayi, which manages Triple Performance. Links for some of the topics discussed: Triple Performance Neayi "Rotations en...
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Episode 168: Asaf Bartov
🕑 1 hour 10 minutes Asaf Bartov is the lead program officer for the Emerging Wikimedia Communities project of the Community Development Team at the Wikimedia Foundation. He also runs Project Ben-Yehuda, which has been putting Hebrew-language texts online since 1999, and the Nemala project, which...
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Episode 167: Valerio Bozzolan
🕑 1 hour 42 minutes Valerio Bozzolan is a software developer and Linux administrator, as well as the president of the Italian Linux Society, the founder and head of Wikimedians for Software Freedom, a member of the volunteer technical commission of Wikimedia Italy, and an open source consultant...
About this show
A podcast about the people and ideas behind the MediaWiki software. Interviews with developers and users of MediaWiki, both for Wikimedia sites (Wikipedia, Wikidata, etc.) and the many uses of MediaWiki in companies, organizations, government agencies, etc.
Hosted by
Yaron Koren
Categories