Hello everyone,
This week, the multimedia team completed its planning for our next development cycle, which started on June 11 and ends on July 22, 2014.
Here are our plans for this 6-week cycle, which are informed by results of our last cycle.
1. Last Cycle ResultsHere are our key accomplishments from the last cycle, which ended on June 10:* released Media Viewer on most large wikis (25 million image views/day !)
* developed metrics system to track image views, key actions, image load and network performance
* collected 13k survey responses (~60% approval) and talk page feedback, processed comments to identify key issues
* developed final features and bug fixes based on community feedback (e.g. view original file, file page link, metadata visibility)
* solved critical bugs and technical debt for other multimedia tools (e.g. Image Scalers, GW Toolset, TimedMediaHandler)
* started Upload Wizard project: planning, bug fixes, code review, refactoring, metrics, user feedback, designs
* started Structured Data project: planning, discussions, research, code review
* defined annual plan for multimedia in 2014-15
We completed about 112 points in the last 6-week cycle (vs. 128 points in previous 6-week cycle, with 4 engineers instead of 3). That's about 19 points per week (or 15 points of planned development per week, excluding scope increase and meetings). Our estimated capacity for this new cycle is about 10.5 points/ week of planned development, as two of our engineers are taking vacations this cycle.
2. Next Cycle Goals
For this next 6-week cycle, we plan to wrap up the Media Viewer project and start work on our next two big projects for the coming year: Upload Wizard and Structured Data — while reserving about a third of our time to address critical bugs and technical debt for other multimedia tools.
This cycle, we propose to invest our time evenly between these main projects:
* Media Viewer - fix critical bugs, important feature tweaks (to address latest community feedback)
* Upload Wizard - planning and first steps (bug fixes, metrics, feedback, discussions, designs, code review, unit tests)
* Critical Bugs / Tech Debt - fix serious issues that need quick solutions (e.g. image scalers, GW toolset, timed media handler)
* Structured Data - planning with Wikidata and first steps (mockups, specifications, discussions, code review)
The Current Cycle wall now includes separate columns for Media Viewer (14-22 points), Structured Data (9 points), Tech Debt (18 points) and Upload Wizard (14-22 points). We don't expect to complete all these tasks in this cycle, as they exceed the anticipated team capacity for this period, but wanted to have the flexibility to choose between different options as circumstances dictate.
For an overview of the tasks we are planning on, read below or visit this updated cycle wall:
3. Media Viewer
For our first two weekly sprints, our focus will be on these Media Viewer improvements, to address community concerns on English and German Wikipedias:
* View original file (#630)
* View different image sizes (#664)
* Scroll down to see more info (#697)
* Show Commons link to logged out users (#429)
* Instant Opt-out (#703)
* Opt-out for anons (#704)
* Add tooltips to Media Viewer (#546)
* Disable MediaViewer for certain images (#511)
The features above are expected to deploy on all wikis tomorrow. Many of them are live already on Media Viewer sites, and we are starting to hear positive responses on our talk pages, with survey approvals trending up for English and German users.
Other tasks in development or analysis include:
* Make it easier to find image information (#706)
* Show attribution credits in download tool (#598)
* Make 'Commons link' and 'Use this file' more discoverable (#732)
* Improve Media Viewer UI on tablets (zoom/scroll) (#716)
* Remember the last selection for ‘Use this file' (#660)
* Track Media Viewer Opt-outs (/#558, #675)
* Track 'View original file’ and ‘Commons link' clicks (#715, #726)
To learn more, click on the relevant cards in our current sprint wall:
4. Upload WizardWe have started planning and development on Upload Wizard, which will be our main user-facing project in the coming year. For now, we are focusing on metrics, feedback, bug fixes, unit tests, code refactoring and a few small user interface improvements.
Here are some of the tasks we plan to take on this cycle:
* Metrics & Funnel Analysis (#305, #541, #603, #587)
* Analyze user feedback for Upload Wizard (#624)
* Code Refactoring Plan (#344)
* UI Improvement Plan (#342)
* First Unit Tests (#70)
* Show progress bar during upload (#651)
* Upload Wizard FAQ links (#625)
To learn more, check out this updated project page:
5. Structured Data
We are starting to work with the Wikidata team to plan this project, which aims to provide machine-readable data for media files on Wikimedia Commons.
Our main activities this cycle include:
* Planning meetings with Wikidata
* Mockups and schemas for a new metadata structure
* Community discussions to understand user needs and workflows
* Definitions for a high-level class for image metadata
To learn more, check out this new project page:
6. Critical Bugs / Tech Debt
We will continue to allocate about a third of our time to address urgent bugs and technical debt to gradually improve our multimedia infrastructure.
Here are some tasks we are considering for this cycle:
* Create poolcounter group for expensive thumbnails (#623)
* Pre-render thumbnails in all sizes on the back-end (#301)
* Fix TimedMediaHandler resource loading (#543)
* Push messages to logstash from JS (#127)
* Create vagrant role for Commons (#632)
* TimedMediaHandler Improvements (e.g. #729)
* GW Toolset Improvements
For a roadmap of our goals for these projects in future cycles, visit this planning page for 2014-2015:
Please let us know what you think of this plan — and if you have any questions or comments. You are invited to post your feedback on this mailing list, or on the discussion for this cycle plan page:
We look forward to discussing these topics with some of you in coming weeks.
Onward!
Fabrice - for the Multimedia Team
_______________________________
Fabrice Florin
Product Manager, Multimedia
Wikimedia Foundation