Mobile-l May 2016

mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org

16 participants
26 discussions

[Apps] Stripping content inside brackets from the first sentence of articles
by Dan Garry 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

Hi everyone, *tl;dr: We'll be stripping all content contained inside brackets from the first sentence of articles in the Wikipedia app.* The Mobile Apps Team is focussed on making the app a beautiful and engaging reader experience, and trying to support use cases like wanting to look something up quickly to find what it is. Unfortunately, there are several aspects of Wikipedia at present that are actively detrimental to that goal. One example of this are the lead sentences. As mentioned in the other thread on this matter <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mobile-l/2015-March/008715.html>, lead sentences are poorly formatted and contain information that is detrimental to quickly looking up a topic. The team did a quick audit <https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheets/d/1BJ7uDgzO8IJT0M3UM2q…> of the information available inside brackets in the first sentences, and typically it is pronunciation information which is probably better placed in the infobox rather than breaking up the first sentence. The other problem is that this information was typically inserted and previewed on a platform where space is not at a premium, and that calculation is different on mobile devices. In order to better serve the quick lookup use case, the team has reached the decision to strip anything inside brackets in the first sentence of articles in the Wikipedia app. Stripping content is not a decision to be made lightly. People took the time to write it, and that should be respected. We realise this is controversial. That said, it's the opinion of the team that the problem is pretty clear: this content is not optimised for users quickly looking things up on mobile devices at all, and will take a long time to solve through alternative means. A quicker solution is required. The screenshots below are mockups of the before and after of the change. These are not final, I just put them together quickly to illustrate what I'm talking about. - Before: http://i.imgur.com/VwKerbv.jpg - After: http://i.imgur.com/2A5PLmy.jpg If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks, Dan -- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation

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Results from similar articles A/B test
by Dmitry Brant 04 May '17

04 May '17

Hello all, As mentioned previously, the current version of the Android app contains an A/B test where it presents "read more" suggestions to the user, based on (a) the standard "morelike" query, or (b) the new "opening_text" query. Here are the results from the last ~10 days of the test[0]: - The clickthrough rate using the default morelike query is (and has been) around 15%. - With the new opening_text query, the clickthrough rate decreases to about 12%: [image: Inline image 1] Therefore, it seems that the new query has a nontrivial negative effect on CTR :( We'll plan on removing this test in the next release of the app, but we'll be happy to plug in a different or updated query, if it will be of further use to Discovery. [0] https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheets/d/1BFsrAcPgexQyNVemmJ3… (queries embedded as comments in the headers) -- Dmitry Brant Senior Software Engineer / Product Owner (Android) Wikimedia Foundation https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_mobile_engineering

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[Apps] New Android production release
by Dmitry Brant 31 May '16

31 May '16

Hello! We've just released an updated version of the Wikipedia Android app <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia&hl=en>, rolling out as we speak to the Google Play store! Here are the highlights from this update: * Reading Lists: In place of the old "Saved Pages", you can now organize the articles you browse into reading lists, which you can access even when you're offline. Create as many lists as you like, give them custom names, and populate them with articles from any language wiki! * "Edit here": Press and hold to highlight a word while reading an article, and select the "edit here" button to start editing at the highlighted location. * Show redirect source in search results, if applicable. * Update login authentication to work with the latest server changes. * Improved Wikipedia Zero banner design and persistence. * No longer download and widen high-quality images when on a metered connection. * Numerous crash and bug fixes. Thanks to the following contributors for their patches: Michael Basil <https://github.com/intrications>, Elad Keyshawn <https://twitter.com/EladKeyshawn>, maroloccio <https://twitter.com/maroloccio>, and Deskana <https://twitter.com/danjgarry>. Want to help make the app even better? Read our getting-started guide <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Wikipedia_Android_app_ha…>, and start contributing! Cheers, -- Dmitry Brant Senior Software Engineer / Product Owner (Android) Wikimedia Foundation https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_mobile_engineering

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Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Wikitech-l] Tech Talk: Integrating user behavior to design better products: May 31
by Pine W 28 May '16

28 May '16

Perhaps of interest also to a few Maps, Mobile or Wikidata folks. Pine On May 28, 2016 21:37, "Rachel Farrand" <rfarrand(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > Please join for the following tech talk: > > *Tech Talk**:* Integrating user behavior to design better products > *Presenter:* Pau Giner > *Date:* May 31, 2016 > *Time: *19:00 UTC > < > http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Tech+Talk%3A+Integ… > > > *Length:* 30 minutes > Link to live YouTube stream <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLeTABdcdR4> > *IRC channel for questions/discussion:* #wikimedia-office > > *Summary: *The design process helps us to find solutions that respond to > the user needs. However, this process needs to rely on actual user behavior > to make sure we are addressing the right problems with the best possible > solutions. > > Wikimedia projects are developed in the open and they reach millions of > users in very different contexts. This makes it challenging to integrate > the different observed behaviors, measured actions, opinions and other > forms of feedback. > > After applying the design process on different Wikimedia projects, I want > to share some good practices and lessons learnt when integrating user > behavior to inform product decisions, and how you (in whichever role you > are playing) can help designers to better support this process. > > *Feel free to forward this email to any other relevant wikimedia lists.* > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

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[Apps] Android Wikipedia beta app release (2.2.146-beta-2016-05-23)
by Stephen Niedzielski 28 May '16

28 May '16

The Android team[0] is pleased to announce a new Wikipedia Android app beta release, v2.2.146-beta-2016-05-23[1]. This revision contains the following new fixes and functionality[2]: * Introducing Reading Lists: In place of the old "Saved Pages", you can now organize the articles you browse into reading lists, which you can access even when you're offline. Create as many lists as you like, give them custom names, and populate them with articles from any language wiki! * Update authentication to work with the latest server changes. * Add "edit here" to the long press menu. * Check Wikipedia Zero status on page load instead of on network state change. * Improved Wikipedia Zero banner design. * No longer force downloading and widening HQ images when on a metered connection. * Numerous crash and bug fixes. Included in this version are patches from first time contributors, Michael Basil[3] and Elad Keyshawn[4], and repeat contributors, maroloccio[5] and Dan Garry[6]. Nice work, devs! You too can help make it better! Read our getting started guide[7]. We can't wait for your contributions! -The WMF Android team [0] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team#Android_App [1] Rolling out at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia.beta [2] A complete list of changes is available at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/APAW/history/master/;beta/2.2.1… [3] https://github.com/intrications [4] https://twitter.com/EladKeyshawn [5] IRC: maroloccio, https://twitter.com/maroloccio [6] IRC: Deskana, https://twitter.com/danjgarry [7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Wikipedia_Android_app_ha…

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Mobile Content Service Phab board workflow
by Adam Baso 23 May '16

23 May '16

Migrating thread to mobile-l. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Max Binder <mbinder(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Fri, May 20, 2016 at 3:58 PM Subject: Mobile Content Service Phab board workflow Hey iOS/Web/Android, The MCS Phab board[1] used to have "Doing" and "Code Review" columns. This was somewhat redundant with existing workboards, notably Android's sprint boards (Android has been the primary contributor to MCS, but doesn't officially own the work). It was weird to move the same task into "Doing" and "Code Review" on different boards, so we simplified the flow and removed the "Doing" and "Code Review" columns from MCS's Phab board. What this means for you: *If you do MCS work, tag the task with your own team's workboard.* For Android and Web, this means tagging it with your sprint board. For iOS, this means tagging it with your release board. As always, talk with your POs and teammates before pulling in work. As the work is resolved in sprint/release boards, the tasks will also disappear from the MCS board (same as the relationship that tasks have between backlogs and sprints). If you're looking at the MCS board, you'll be able to tell if a task is in-flight by noting the tags on the tasks on the boardview. For example, tags for "Mobile-App-Android-Sprint-82-Lead" and "Patch-for-Review" would indicate that a task is in-flight on Android's sprint board, and in code review. This will prevent redundancy of process, and will also let POs on each team know what their team's devs are working on without having to hunt down MCS tasks in Phab. Please reach out with any questions. Max [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/mobile-content-service/

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Wikipedia v5.0.5 for iOS Beta
by Joshua Minor 20 May '16

20 May '16

Hello mobile Wikimedians, *TLDR:** if you have experienced crashes with recent versions of Wikipedia for iOS, please update to the latest iOS (9.3.2). If you're a beta tester also install the new beta (5.0.5). Then tell us if you still have crashes.* Since our last feature update (5.0.3) we've seen a notable increase in crashes and instability in Wikipedia for iOS. We released a hot fix (5.0.4) which resolved some of the issues, particularly with loading the Explore feed content. However, we've needed more time to investigate, and work with Apple and other iOS developers to resolve, the largest source of crashes. In particular we urge our app users to update to the latest iOS (9.3.2) released earlier this week. This OS update has improved stability for apps using Swift, and in our case users should see an elimination of the most common type of crash. Today beta testers will also see a first release of v5.0.5 of the app. If you are a beta tester, please download the latest update from TestFlight. If this new version crashes: - Note any details of what you were doing when you experienced the crash. - Re-open the app (if you can) and wait a few seconds for the Crash Reporting prompt to pop up (if it ever does). - If the crash reporting doesn't open go to Settings > Help and feedback > and click "Report a bug" - If you can't even reopen the app cause it crashes so darn much, send me an email directly (jminor(a)wikimedia.org) I particularly want to thank our beta testers, some of whom reported issues starting in 5.0.3. We value and take your testing feedback seriously, and I apologize that we weren't able to prevent these issues despite your reports. Thanks, Josh Minor Product Manager, Reading

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[IEEE-BIZ2016] Invitation for Participation
by Lubna Kanan 16 May '16

16 May '16

*************************************************************************** We apologize for multiples copies. Please circulate this CFP among your colleagues and students. *************************************************************************** 2016 Second International Conference on Big-data, Internet of things, nd Zero-size intelligence [BIZ] July 26-28, 2016 Manchester, United Kingdom http://sdiwc.net/conferences/biz2016/ All registered papers will be submitted to IEEE for potential inclusion to IEEE Xplore *************************************************************************** Paper due: June 26, 2016 *************************************************************************** The proposed conference will be held University of Salford, MediaCityUK, Manchester, United Kingdom, From July 26-28, 2016 which aims to enable researchers build connections between different digital applications. The conference welcomes papers on the following (but not limited to) research topics: - Foundational Models for Big Data - Algorithms and Programming Techniques for Big Data Processing - Big Data Analytics and Metrics - Representation Formats for Multimedia Big Data - Big Data Architectures - Cloud Computing Techniques for Big Data - Big Data as a Service - Big Data Open Platforms - Big Data in Mobile and Pervasive Computing - Big Data Management - Big Data Persistence and Preservation - Big Data Quality and Provenance Control - Management Issues of Social Network enabled Big Data - Big Data Protection, Integrity and Privacy - Models and Languages for Big Data Protection - Privacy Preserving Big Data Analytics Big Data Encryption - Security Applications of Big Data - Anomaly Detection in Very Large Scale Systems - Collaborative Threat Detection using Big Data Analytics - Big Data Search and Mining - Algorithms and Systems for Big Data Search - Distributed, and Peer-to-peer Search - Machine learning based on Big Data - Visualization Analytics for Big Data - Big Data for Enterprise - Big Data Economics - Real-life Case Studies of Value Creation through Big Data Analytics - Big Data for Business Model Innovation - Big Data Toolkits - Big Data in Business Performance Management - SME-centric Big Data Analytics - Big Data for Vertical Industries (Government, Healthcare, and Environment) - Scientific Applications of Big Data - Large-scale Social Media and Recommendation Systems - Experiences with Big Data Project Deployments - Big Data in Enterprise Management Models and Practices - Big Data in Government Management Models and Practices - Big Data in Smart Planet Solutions - Big Data for Enterprise Transformation *************************************************************************** The conference uses double-blind review by at least two reviewers, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity. All the registered papers will be submitted to IEEE for potential inclusion to IEEE Xplore as well as other Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) databases. In addition, BEST registered papers will be published in one of the following special issues provided that the author do major improvements and extension within the time frame that will be set by the conference and his/her paper is approved by the chief editor: * International Journal of New Computer Architectures and their Applications (IJNCAA) * International Journal of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (IJDIWC) * International Journal of Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics (IJCSDF)

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Reading planning for Q1 (from July to September)-- call for participation
by Moushira Elamrawy 13 May '16

13 May '16

Hello Everyone, Q1 Planning is coming soon. Staff and community are invited to add their ideas and suggestions for the work to be planned from the upcoming July till September. Please add your ideas here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Quarterly_planning/FY2016-2017/Q1 It is worth mentioning that this quarter, is most likely to be packed with pending tasks, so there might not be much room for new ideas, but that doesn't mean that we can always add and discuss Happy weekend! Moushira

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Mobile Content Service: naming of new endpoints for feeds
by Bernd Sitzmann 13 May '16

13 May '16

We plan to add more RESTBase endpoints to support the new "Explore feeds" feature in the apps. The currently proposed names are listed in [1]. It introduces a new top-level hierarchy, called "project". If you have issues with the current proposal or ideas to improve them please comment on the Phab ticket by Thursday, May 19, 2016. [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T132597 Thank you, Bernd Sitzmann Android app & Mobile Content Service

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Mobile-l May 2016