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
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
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
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
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…
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/
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
***************************************************************************
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)
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
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
