Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Open-Call:URL-Structure

💡 In simple words: WikiDeal is looking for smart ideas about how to name its web addresses and how to organize its pages: one big wiki or several, addresses for each language, and what happens when a group joins WikiDeal with its own website name. If you have a good idea, you can send it in, and the best proposals can win a reward.

🎯 In 20 seconds (expert summary): This early bird open call invites proposals on URL naming and the general structure of wikideal.net: one or several domain names, root URLs per language and per sister project, the structure of URLs inside the marketplaces, and the rights and obligations of User Groups in terms of domain names. The expected outcome is a clear proposal, a clear plan. Its informal launch is planned for 21 July 2026, the opening day of Wikimania 2026 in Paris, and it is especially open to Wiki experts (experts in Wiki design and use). There is no deadline: the call closes once a first simple version of the structure is adopted by the delegates of the Ynternet.org Foundation. Rewards: CHF 1,000 in cash plus CHF 10,000 in Rewards (no guarantee*). Proposals go to info@wikideal.net with a mandatory AI transparency disclosure.

Open call: URL naming and general structure

Status	Open · early bird (for pioneers)
Informal launch	21 July 2026, opening day of Wikimania 2026 in Paris
Deadline	None: closes once a first simple version is adopted
Rewards	CHF 1,000 in cash + CHF 10,000 in Rewards (no guarantee*)
How to propose	Post on the discussion page of this call
Disclosure	AI transparency mandatory

Context

Everything in this section is an initial hypothesis, open to question: proposals that challenge these starting points are welcome.

The initial hypothesis is that one single MediaWiki would host the governance of the platform, because the various languages are expected to have exactly the same policies on almost everything. The same reasoning applies to the policies, the governance and the funding: same texts, same rules of the game, same agreements. These shared texts would form one of the general agreements for using the platform as a whole.

Conversely, sister projects could each have their own URL, or even their own domain name. Examples of possible sister projects: the arbitration chamber, the incubator, the observatories, blogs. Several URL options remain open, for example a root subdomain such as observatory.wikideal.net, or a separate domain such as wikidealobservatory.net. A comparison point is the sister projects of the Wikimedia ecosystem (Wikiquote, Wikispecies and others): wikis that are important in their own right, living next to the main encyclopedia with their own names.

Another idea being explored is a split between wikideal.wiki for the wiki side and wikideal.net for the marketplace and funding side. This is an option under consideration, not a decision.

The needs

This open call invites proposals on two closely related questions:

• the naming of URLs on wikideal.net: how page addresses are written, which prefixes and separators are used, and how languages appear in page titles;
• the general structure of the site: how spaces, portals and pages are organized.

More precisely, two families of questions would need to be settled.

Question 1: one or several domain names. Which root URLs per language, and which root URLs per sister project?

Question 2: the structure of URLs inside the marketplaces. How would the different marketplaces be distinguished from each other? Some current URLs are long, and some are very long. A real example is the address of an amendment page of the babysitting use case: Markets/en/Portal:Babysitting/Contract-Base-Amendment:Babysitting. Is that normal? Is the notion of portal and category well designed?

These questions aim at leading to a clear proposal, a clear plan. The person or team who takes this on would need to spend real time on it: propose a justified architecture, explain the reasons for being of each choice, and anticipate needs, realities and flows.

The current working structure is documented on the Site structure page. That structure is a temporary decision: anyone can propose to do it differently through this call. A good proposal describes a simple and coherent naming and structure scheme, explains its benefits and its migration cost, and remains compatible with a multilingual wiki.

A concrete use case

This call would advance through iterative action research: concrete cases feed the questions. Here is one such case.

An existing team says: "We have users for a service XYZ. We propose to migrate these users to WikiDeal, to associate our contract models, amendments and alerts, which are already deployed, to put them on the WikiDeal wiki, to adapt our smartphone application, and to constitute ourselves as a User Group." Then comes the question: "We would like our own URL for the MediaWiki. Is that acceptable?"

The probable answer is no. But a clear policy would need to formalize the rules of the game: as a User Group, here are your rights and obligations. Reformulated from the point of view of that team:

As a delegate of an existing user group that wants to migrate, what are my rights and obligations in terms of domain names? Can I keep my own domain name for the marketplace app? Also for the MediaWiki? Can I create my own MediaWiki? Can I simply be affiliated? Could it be white label?

All of this remains, notably but not exclusively, a matter of URL architecture. The white label case is a deliberately extreme example, included to test the limits of the policy.

Specific questions

The following questions may need to be treated, or may be eliminated during the call:

• white label;
• URLs and domain names;
• languages written in non-Latin scripts;
• HTTP and HTTPS.

These questions are probably resolved, in good part, within the Wikimedia ecosystem, but not only there, and they would need to be adapted to the WikiDeal reality. One starting hypothesis about that reality: many more User Groups on WikiDeal than on Wikimedia.

Two questions already documented on this page also belong here.

An example of a naming question to be settled by this call is the URL nomenclature of programs. Programs could live under the Market space, and the proposed pattern would be Programs/Name-of-the-program: each program would have its own coordinated subpage, for example .../Programs/Tourist-Experience. The current single page Market:Programs does not yet follow this target nomenclature; it is documented here as a case for proposals to address. No pages are renamed or moved for now.

Another question to be settled by this call is the creation of the categories used to classify contract models by portal. Users who copy a neutral contract model and adapt it would also need to determine in which portal their contract belongs (transportation, housing, personal services, and so on); the categories for this classification remain to be created. This is not only technical architecture but conceptual architecture: how to structure the marketplaces, at a time when current markets are extremely siloed, while WikiDeal aims at moving out of silos (see the operational philosophy page).

Status and timeline

This is an early bird open call, also called an open call for pioneers: it is launched before the steering committee is formed, and it is especially open to Wiki experts (experts in Wiki design and use). Its informal launch is planned for 21 July 2026, the opening day of Wikimania 2026 in Paris, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia.

There is no deadline: the call remains open until a first simple version of the structure has been adopted.

Rewards

This call offers:

• CHF 1,000 in cash, paid directly;
• CHF 10,000 in Rewards (no guarantee*): a conditional claim on future subscription revenue, convertible to CHF only when the platform generates sufficient revenue.

See Rewards Explained for how WikiDeal rewards are intended to work.

How to participate

If you want to respond to this call, go to the discussion page of this call and post your proposal there, including external links to documents hosted elsewhere if needed. You can also notify your participation by email to info@wikideal.net. Proposals are public: everyone can see what others have proposed. Rewards can be distributed across several contributors, based on an estimation of the impact and importance of each contribution. These calls are light and non administrative, in the spirit of micro calls for ideas: the rewards are intended to be distributed across several contributors who bring complementary ideas, comment on the proposals of others and help each other. The goal is several winners, not a cold competition with one winner and many losers.

Every proposal must include a full AI transparency disclosure: state which AI tools, if any, were used to prepare the proposal, and how. The general rules of the Open Call apply, in particular the rules of the game, which apply to all current open calls. Frequent questions are answered on the Open Call FAQ.

Closing condition

The call closes when a first simple version of the structure is adopted by the delegates of the Ynternet.org Foundation. For the moment, the steering committee is composed of the WikiDeal founder (see credits) and other committee members. It has not met yet; it intends to meet once the first donations have been received.

References

The following documents are working hypotheses, made to be questioned: everything in them is open to challenge through this call.

• One Wiki, Many Apps (June 2026): an architecture hypothesis with one wiki and many applications around it.
• URL structure proposal, version 2 (July 2026): a working proposal on URL naming.
• Markets portal content structure: a working view of the content structure of a market portal.
• Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia): the sister projects of the Wikimedia ecosystem, used here as a comparison point.
• Portal Structure Model: the copiable structure model of a market portal.

See also

• Open Call: main page
• Open Call FAQ
• Site structure (the current working structure)
• Open call: graphic charter
• User Groups