"How a Chaos Monkey Created Wikipedia Mobile" - Mobile-l

Maryana Pinchuk

10 Feb 10 Feb

11:28 p.m.

Hmm. I wasn't around in 2008, but I have a really hard time believing that the mobile gateway this guy wrote has much resemblance to current MFE (which according to mw.org was created in 2011 <https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension:MobileFrontend&dir=prev&action=history>). And responsive design isn't the be-all end-all of mobile development – many top 10 web properties these days have custom experiences and features for different device classes, not just a single skin that shrinks (Facebook, YouTube, Quora, Twitter, etc.). Sounds like an attempt at self-promotion that inadvertently reveals this dude's n00bness ;) On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:12 PM, Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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http://unmatchedstyle.com/news/how-a-chaos-monkey-created-wikipedia-mobile.… Podcast interview with Hampton Catlin, who in 2008 "was brought on board to lead the development of Wikipedia’s mobile project. ... Upon his departure, he assumed that Wikipedia would do a responsive rewrite, but noted that the mobile site he created is still being used, although with a few new features." [disclaimer: haven't actually listened to the audio] -- Tilman Bayer Senior Analyst Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Maryana Pinchuk Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org

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Jeremy Baron

11:33 p.m.

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 9:31 PM, Dan Garry <dgarry(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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It sounds to me like this guy is talking about writing the old PhoneGap app, not the mobile website. Still, some insight from someone that was around then would be good!

I'm pretty sure Hampton was ruby mobile web interface which IIRC rewrote the desktop output on the fly. I think that was before there was a phonegap app? -Jeremy

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Rob Moen

10 Feb 10 Feb

11:33 p.m.

I think this predates the PhoneGap app. This believe this guy created the first Wikipedia IOS app. I wasn't around then either, I just remember hearing about it while we were making our own apps with PhoneGap. On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Dan Garry <dgarry(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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It sounds to me like this guy is talking about writing the old PhoneGap app, not the mobile website. Still, some insight from someone that was around then would be good! Dan On 10 February 2015 at 13:28, Maryana Pinchuk <mpinchuk(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hmm. I wasn't around in 2008, but I have a really hard time believing that the mobile gateway this guy wrote has much resemblance to current MFE (which according to mw.org was created in 2011 <https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension:MobileFrontend&dir=prev&action=history>). And responsive design isn't the be-all end-all of mobile development – many top 10 web properties these days have custom experiences and features for different device classes, not just a single skin that shrinks (Facebook, YouTube, Quora, Twitter, etc.). Sounds like an attempt at self-promotion that inadvertently reveals this dude's n00bness ;) On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:12 PM, Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

http://unmatchedstyle.com/news/how-a-chaos-monkey-created-wikipedia-mobile.… Podcast interview with Hampton Catlin, who in 2008 "was brought on board to lead the development of Wikipedia’s mobile project. ... Upon his departure, he assumed that Wikipedia would do a responsive rewrite, but noted that the mobile site he created is still being used, although with a few new features." [disclaimer: haven't actually listened to the audio] -- Tilman Bayer Senior Analyst Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Maryana Pinchuk Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Rob Moen Wikimedia Foundation rmoen(a)wikimedia.org

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Derk-Jan Hartman

11 Feb 11 Feb

8:56 a.m.

Yeah, and you should all listen to the interview instead of reading the article, it’s way!!!! different. He is right that, on the face of it, the way MFE works is not that different from his original ruby proxy, just with a lot more of refinement. We are closing the gap, and bringing more web and desktop together than ever before, but we still need MFE, and it still doesn’t give us everything that the desktop site gives us. DJ, One of those who was there :)

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On 10 feb. 2015, at 22:45, Tomasz Finc <tfinc(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: Hampton was our first contract mobile developer. He agreed to open source his iOS Wikipedia app and joined us to improve it. His second project was creating the Mobile Web Ruby gateway which was the first non WML experience for our mobile users and our first large experiment in mobile. He and I are still in contact every now and then and he's subscribed to this list. --tomasz On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Dan Garry <dgarry(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

It sounds to me like this guy is talking about writing the old PhoneGap app, not the mobile website. Still, some insight from someone that was around then would be good! Dan On 10 February 2015 at 13:28, Maryana Pinchuk <mpinchuk(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

Hmm. I wasn't around in 2008, but I have a really hard time believing that the mobile gateway this guy wrote has much resemblance to current MFE (which according to mw.org was created in 2011). And responsive design isn't the be-all end-all of mobile development – many top 10 web properties these days have custom experiences and features for different device classes, not just a single skin that shrinks (Facebook, YouTube, Quora, Twitter, etc.). Sounds like an attempt at self-promotion that inadvertently reveals this dude's n00bness ;) On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:12 PM, Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

http://unmatchedstyle.com/news/how-a-chaos-monkey-created-wikipedia-mobile.… Podcast interview with Hampton Catlin, who in 2008 "was brought on board to lead the development of Wikipedia’s mobile project. ... Upon his departure, he assumed that Wikipedia would do a responsive rewrite, but noted that the mobile site he created is still being used, although with a few new features." [disclaimer: haven't actually listened to the audio] -- Tilman Bayer Senior Analyst Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Maryana Pinchuk Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

-- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

_______________________________________________ Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l

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