On 24 Jul 2010, at 23:01, Jakob wrote:
...to attract more then a little fraction of the declining
number of Wikipedia authors we need a clear mission and usable
software for this task - I seen neither the one nor the other.
I think focusing on Wikimedia's citation needs is the most promising, especially if this is intended to be a WMF project.
As for mission -- yes -- let's talk about what problem we're trying to solve. Two central ones come to mind:
1. Improve verifiability by making it possible to start with a source and verify all claims made by referencing that source [1]
2. Make it easier for editors to give references, and readers to use them [2]
Are those the right problems? Are there others? [3]
To figure out what the right problems are, I think it would help to look at the pain points -- and their solutions -- the hacks and proposals related to citations. Hacks include plugins and templates people have made to make MediaWiki more citation-friendly. Proposals include the ones on strategy wiki.
Anybody want to take a look through?
Some of the hacks and proposals are listed here:
Could you add other hacks, proposals, and conversations related to citations, if you know of them?
-Jodi
[1] This can be done using backlinks.
[2] I think of this as "actionable references" -- we'd have to explain exactly what the desirable qualities are. Adding to bilbiographic managers in one click is one of mine. :)
[3] Other side-effects might be helping to identify what's highly cited in Wikipedia (which would be interesting -- and might help prioritize Wikisource additions), automatically adding quotes to Wikiquote, ...