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
Hi everyone,
We're excited to bring you an updated version of the Wikipedia Android app
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia&hl=en>,
rolling out now to the Google Play Store! [1]
This version contains the following updates:
- Access your favorite features more easily with bottom navigation: quickly
jump between the Explore feed, your reading lists, your recently-viewed
articles, and pages nearby you.
- When reading an article, the bottom toolbar now provides access to the
most popular actions (save to reading list, share, change language, find in
page, and table of contents).
- Reading lists and their contents are now searchable.
- A number of minor bug and crash fixes.
Want to help make the app even better? Read our getting-started
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps/Team/Wikipedia_Android_app_ha…>
guide, and start contributing!
[1] For devices without Google Play services, you may download
<https://releases.wikimedia.org/mobile/android/wikipedia/stable/wikipedia-2.…>
the app directly.
Cheers,
--
Dmitry Brant
Senior Software Engineer / Product Owner (Android)
Wikimedia Foundation
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_mobile_engineering
Cross posting to mobile-l and wikitech-ambassadors in case you don't follow
wikitech-l.
-Adam
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adam Baso <abaso(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 2:34 PM
Subject: CREDIT Showcase, Wednesday, 5-October-2016 - call for demos
To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Greetings -
The next CREDIT showcase is Wednesday, 5-October-2016 at 1800 UTC (1100 San
Francisco).
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/CREDIT_showcase
We look forward to seeing your demos! Please add them to the Etherpad and
mark your calendars:
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/CREDIT
We welcome works in progress and would be thrilled to see works from
Wikimedia community members, as well as staff.
If you missed last month's CREDIT, here it is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfBQ6H14_SM&t=54
Finally, If you would like to invite anyone to CREDIT, feel free to use
this template.
*Hi <FNAME>*
*I hope all is well with you! I wanted to let you know about CREDIT, a
monthly demo series that we’re running to showcase open source tech
projects from Wikimedia Community, Reading, Editing, Discovery,
Infrastructure and Technology.*
*CREDIT is open to the public, and we welcome questions and discussion. The
next CREDIT will be held on October 5th at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 18:00 UTC. *
*Here’s a link to the YouTube live stream
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCn-oeHQnpU>, which will be available
shortly before the event starts. There’s more info on MediaWiki.org
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/CREDIT_showcase>, and on Etherpad
<https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/CREDIT>, which is where we take notes and
ask questions. You can also ask questions on IRC in the Freenode chatroom
#wikimedia-office (web-based access here
<https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23wikimedia-office>). *
*Please feel free to pass this information along to any interested folks.
Our projects tend to focus on areas that might be of interest to folks
working across the open source tech community: language detection,
numerical sort, large data visualizations, maps, and all sorts of other
things.*
*Thanks, and I hope to see you at CREDIT.*
-
*YOURNAME*
-Adam
Hello mobile Wikimedians,
The Wikipedia iOS app team just released a small update to the app
store[1]. Version 5.2.1 addresses a handful of bugs with our new widgets,
improves responsiveness when swiping back to read previous articles, and
fixes problems saving pages.
It also includes some improved localizations, with expanded coverage from
our always amazing Translatewiki volunteers, and RTL language support in
the widgets.
Thanks,
Josh Minor
PM, Wikipedia app for iOS
[1] - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia/id324715238?mt=8
Hi all,
the wikidata team recently announced its plans for Wikidata support for
Wiktionary. This would make it possible to query Wiktionary content as
structured data, which should be very interesting for those who tried to
use Wiktionary as a word translation service (and suffered for it); I know
that at least the WMF Android app did that.
While the plan will take a while to implement, the proposal is now in the
last stage for comments on the data model, so this is probably the right
time to get involved and ensure that whatever APIs the apps would need can
easily be built on top of it.
(The full thread is available at https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/
wikidata/2016-September/thread.html#9541 .)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lydia Pintscher <lydia.pintscher(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 6:17 AM
Subject: [Wikidata] Let's move forward with support for Wiktionary
To: "Discussion list for the Wikidata project." <
wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hey everyone :)
Wiktionary is our third-largest sister project, both in term of active
editors and readers. It is a unique resource, with the goal to provide
a dictionary for every language, in every language. Since the
beginning of Wikidata but increasingly over the past months I have
been getting more and more requests for supporting Wiktionary and
lexicographical data in Wikidata. Having this data available openly
and freely licensed would be a major step forward in automated
translation, text analysis, text generation and much more. It will
enable and ease research. And most importantly it will enable the
individual Wiktionary communities to work more closely together and
benefit from each other’s work.
With this and the increased demand to support Wikimedia Commons with
Wikidata, we have looked at the bigger picture and our options. I am
seeing a lot of overlap in the work we need to do to support
Wiktionary and Commons. I am also seeing increasing pressure to store
lexicographical data in existing items (which would be bad for many
reasons).
Because of this we will start implementing support for Wiktionary in
parallel to Commons based on our annual plan and quarterly plans. We
contacted several of our partners in order to get funding for this
additional work. I am happy that Google agreed to provide funding
(restricted to work on Wikidata). With this we can reorganize our team
and set up one part of the team to continue working on building out
the core of Wikidata and support for Wikipedia and Commons and the
other part will concentrate on Wiktionary. (To support and to extend
our work around Wikidata with the help of external funding sources was
our plan in our annual plan 2016:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2015-20
16_round1/Wikimedia_Deutschland_e.V./Proposal_form#Financial
s:_current_funding_period)
As a next step I’d like us all to have another careful look at the
latest proposal at
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Wiktionary/Development. It has
been online for input in its current form for a year and the first
version is 3 years old now. So I am confident that the proposal is in
a good shape to start implementation. However I’d like to do a last
round of feedback with you all to make sure the concept really is
sane. To make it easier to understand there is now also a pdf
explaining the concept in a slightly different way:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikidata_for_Wiktion
ary_announcement.pdf
Please do go ahead and review it. If you have comments or questions
please leave them on the talk page of the latest proposal at
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:Wiktionary/Devel
opment/Proposals/2015-05.
I’d be especially interested in feedback from editors who are familiar
with both Wiktionary and Wikidata.
Getting support for Wiktionary done - just like for Commons - will
take some time but I am really excited about the opportunities it will
open up especially for languages that have so far not gotten much or
any technological support.
Cheers
Lydia
--
Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher
Product Manager for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das
Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
_______________________________________________
Wikidata mailing list
Wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata
Apple has also recognized the incredible work from our iOS team and is
heavily promoting the Wikipedia app in their App Stores. Here are some
screenshots from two separate collections: "Do More on Your Lock Screen"
and "Enhanced for 3D Touch". We expect this to be a major driver in
awareness and new downloads.
Congrats iOS team!
On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 9:00 PM, Joshua Minor <jminor(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello mobile Wikimedians,
>
> A new version of the Wikipedia app for iOS was released to the App
> Store[1] this morning, alongside Apple's iOS 10 update. This version
> includes a number of iOS 10 compatibility features and improvements. We
> strongly recommend that users who have updated their OS also update to this
> version.
>
> This version includes:
>
> - Today widgets for iOS 10[2]. To add the Wikipedia widgets, go to the
> Today screen by swiping right on your lock screen. Then scroll down, tap
> Edit and then tap the green pluses next to our icons. We've added two
> widgets:
> - Continue Reading - Readers can now pick up exactly where they
> stopped reading an article.
> - Top Read - You can now see the top-read articles in your primary
> language Wikipedia.
> - Spotlight continuation: type a search in Spotlight, then see the
> results in the app.
> - Fix for Wikipedia Zero to help ensure users know when they are on a
> Zero network.
> - Fix an issue where the previously open article could be lost between
> sessions.
> - Other small bug and crash fixes.
>
> Thanks,
> Josh Minor
> PM, Wikipedia app for iOS
>
>
> [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia/id324715238?mt=8
> [2] http://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-10-lock-screen/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wmfall mailing list
> Wmfall(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wmfall
>
>
--
*Sheree Chang*
*VP of Strategic Partnerships*
*Wikimedia Foundation*
*149 New Montgomery Street, **6th Floor*
*San Francisco, CA 94105*
*+1.917.923.2833 <%2B1.917.923.2833>*
