Summary: I can get a couple of Series 40 developer devices for
contributors of Wikimedia mobile projects for this platform.
Most of the discussion about Wikimedia mobile projects tends to default
to high-end devices. We definitely need to address those, but we
shouldn't forget about Internet enabled devices pointing to lower price
points.
A good example of this distortion is Nokia Series 40. It's the platform
selling by far more mobile devices in the world (hundreds of millions),
yet it hardly gets a decent page in Wikipedia ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_40
Anyway, there are some good developer news coming from this platform:
Ovi Browser - a proxy browser for efficient data usage
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Develop/Web/Ovi_Browser/
Series 40 Web Apps
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Develop/Web/Series_40_web_apps/ &
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Develop/Web/
Our work in the new mobile gateway should pay attention to this browser
and Opera mini, the main choices of Series 40 Internet users. It would
be also great if web developers (HTML/CSS/Javascript) would step in with
ideas for mobile apps targeting Series 40 (this morning I was thinking
how trivial would be to develop a Wikinews app).
If you have a convincing plan I can help you getting a developer device
for your work.
For those of you not knowing Series 40 check this gallery:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/?filter2=s40
We are talking about devices with mobile browser, many of them location
aware, equipped with camera, with support for dozens of languages also
in Asia and Africa, able to play music and video (Ogg support might be
tricky though). The price range is very diverse but to give you an idea
the price of the Internet enabled devices goes around 100€ (full price,
no contract). For many people these devices are the first (and
frequently only) tool to access the Internet.
Nokia plans to sell a billion Series 40 Internet enabled devices, and
other companies (most Europeans and Americans have never heard of) are
also incresing the sales in this competitive segment in countries like
India, China and surroundings. The good news is that (with some tuning)
your web apps will probably work on those as well, as well as on the
higher end platforms.
--
Quim
Hi, it's been some weeks since the first day I discussed with Tomasz and
Alolita about what a Wikipedia mobile app could be. We are at that point
where we need to share a common vision, so let's check how much we agree
already. :)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/App_Features_%
26_Roadmap#Rationale describes an app that imho would be great to have
for the Wikimedia community and beyond. Warning: there is no feasibility
check done on those features yet. But if you like them we might be able
to get someone with the skills to investigate what is easy, what is
though but doable and all the rest.
Developing those features through iterations in a reference
HTML5/CSS/Javascript implementation will make easier to have ports for
specific platforms, hopefully requiring just a little extra work (as
opposed to rewriting for each platform).
Being an open source application developed openly may also help getting
some of these "community features" implemented in the many commercial
apps around, currently focusing only on read-only use cases. If the
features are cool and we give them the code for free...
--
Quim
lately ive had a lot of my mind mobile- I wanted to amount to something
when I first saw this I thought it was a joke http://fur.ly/5lh2 now I
am recognized all over the place this will be worth your time
Welcome Patrick!
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: ext Daniel Phelps <dphelps(a)wikimedia.org>
Reply-to: <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcome Patrick Reilly
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:26:02 -0700
Sending on behalf of Tomasz Finc.
-----
Greetings All,
I'm super happy to announce that the engineering department has hired
its
first developer specifically for mobile. Patrick Reilly has joined us as
a
Sr. Software Developer for mobile and will be reporting directly to me.
Patrick's first responsibility will include porting our existing mobile
gateway to something a bit closer to our core architecture. He'll be
assessing the current list of features for the gateway and will begin
work
on the next generation of mobile infrastructure for the WMF. This is a
very
high priority project as it is carefully timed with the mobile research
work
that both Mani and Parul are leading for us. Both of these projects will
be
the foundation of our mobile efforts going forward and are being
actively
documented and discussed
at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects
I'm really happy to have Patrick in this role as he has a wealth of
platform
development experience on big web sites. Through his work at Big Tent
Design, Inc, OmniTI, Schematic, Media Revolution and numerous others
he's
really enjoyed building high traffic sites while keeping a focus on the
mobile experience.
Patrick continues to be active in the open source community by being the
evangelism team leader for the PHP group.
If you have any questions for Patrick or simply want to say hello then
you
can reach him at preilly(a)wikimedia.org or preilly on irc in
#wikimedia-mobile.
Please join me in welcoming Patrick Reilly to the Tech Department and to
WMF. We are very happy to have him join us.
--tomasz
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Hi Cheol, thanks for jumping in!
> We must mention the mobile strategy at first
>
> http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile
The Wikimedia mobile strategy and other good starting points (like the slides you also mention) are referenced at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Overview
Feel free adding any other interesting URL you are missing.
> I edited a page;
>
> http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_mobile_browser
>
> which has a few features I thought.
Ah, interesting page. What should we do with the useful pages at Strategy? They are good for... Defining a strategy, what we seem to be now past that point. It would be useful to have all the planning and specs work done in Meta.
What do you think?
> Some topics related to mobile Hackathon in Berlin are at at
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Berlin_Hackathon_2011 .
Same as with the strategy pages, can someone familiar with these Hackaton pages bring to Meta whatever is worth keeping and developing further?
--
Quim
Hi!
If you are in this list you probably want to know about
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects - which is the landing
page for all mobile projects now. Please watch, edit, expand...
Discussion is good in the Talk pages or here. Consider also joining the
#wikimedia-mobile IRC channel.
There are different areas increasingly connected where feedback and
contributions are welcome:
- Mobile gateway <---> Mobile browsers. If you are working / interested
in a specific mobie browser you can help testing, filing bugs, proposing
improvements...
- Mobile gateway + Wikimedia API <---> Mobile apps. Help listing what is
available for your preferred platform, contribute to the official
Wikipedia app and community projects. Get involved in the soon-to-start
discussion about the tactical steps to get the best coverage across
different platforms (e.g. relying on HTML5/CSS/Javascript + minimal
adaptations).
- Localization: making sure that all of the above works not only in
English and the main "commercial" languages but also in all languages
and scripts with Wikimedia content.
Who is interested? In which area would you like to start contributing?
It would be great if over time people interested in specific browsers,
platforms or languages would work together, becoming the natural landing
place for newcomers. This would also help the maintainers of those
browsers and platforms to work better with the Wikimedia community.
--
Quim
PS & one time disclaimer: I work at Nokia as open source advocate and I
have got some time to contribute to Wikimedia mobile projects.
Basically, Nokia is interested in improving the support of Wikipedia and
related projects in their mobile devices, but most of the homework to be
done is actually useful for any mobile platform. I'm here just like any
other contributor, aiming to get Wikimedia beauty and usefulness to all
mobile users.