[Wikimedia-l] Introducing Beta Features

[Fabrice Florin]

Hi all,

We're pleased to announce Beta Features [1], a new program that lets you
test new features on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites before they are
released for everyone.

Think of it as a digital laboratory where community members can preview
upcoming software and give feedback to help improve them. This special
preference page lets designers and engineers experiment with new features
on a broad scale, but not in a disruptive manner.

Beta Features is ready for testing now on MediaWiki.org [2]. This Thursday,
we plan to also deploy it on Wikimedia Commons and MetaWiki. Based on
test results, we aim to release it on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013.

Here are the first features you can test this week:
* Media Viewer — view images in large size or full screen [3]
* VisualEditor Formulæ — edit algebra or equations on your pages [4]
* Typography Refresh —  make text more readable (coming Thursday) [5]

Would you like to try out BetaFeatures now? After you log in on
MediaWiki.org, a small 'Beta' link will appear next to your 'Preferences'.
Click on it to see features you can test, check the ones you want, then
click 'Save'. Learn more on the BetaFeatures page. [1]

After you've tested Beta Features, please let us know what you think on our
discussion page [6] -- or report any bugs on Bugzilla [7]. For technical
documentation, visit the BetaFeatures extension page. [8]. You're also
welcome to join our IRC office hours chat on Friday, 8 November at 10:30am
PST, 18:30 UTC. [9]

Beta Features was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's Design, Multimedia
and VisualEditor teams. Along with other developers, we will be adding
new features to this experimental program every few weeks.

For now, we'd like to thank some key team members who made this project
possible: Ed Sanders, Jon Robson, Gergő Tisza, May Galloway, Vibha Bamba,
Aaron Schulz, Brion Vibber, Bryan Davis, Chris Steipp, Greg Grossmeier,
Keegan Peterzell, Quim Gil, Guillaume Paumier, Erik Moeller, Rob Lanphier, 
Howie Fung and Tomasz Finc, to name but a few. We're also very grateful
to all the community and other team members who helped create this system —
and look forward to many more productive collaborations in the future. :)

Enjoy, and don't forget to let us know what you think!


Fabrice, James, Mark and Jared
Wikimedia Engineering and Product Group


[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/About_Beta_Features
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures 
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Formulae
[5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Typography_Update
[6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:About_Beta_Features
[7] http://wmbug.com/new?product=MediaWiki%20extensions&component=BetaFeatures
[8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BetaFeatures
[9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours

_______________________________

Fabrice Florin
Product Manager, Multimedia
Wikimedia Foundation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia