If Wikipedia can implement the things I talked about so far (topic-specific chat rooms, forums, topic-specific resource announcement and discovery) right on wikipedia.org, then certainly it's the most ideal solution. But as Thomas Dalton said, if Wikimedia Foundation continues to take a "purist" stance and only wants to build the encyclopedia itself and ignores the wonderful potential of Wikipedia as a global infrastructure for topic-based communication (unlike "friend-based communication" like social networks) and topic-based resource sharing (e.g. announcing or finding products, books, jobs, etc. for a specific topic), then we have to implement all this on a separate website or as a separate program ("Wikipedia Explorer").
On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 5:30 AM, Gregory Varnum admin@wikiqueer.org wrote:
I tend to agree that MW focus should be on the web applications - including mobile. However a free (and ad-free) third-party Adobe AIR app that integrates new web features with services offered by other sites in ways not otherwise allowed by WMF policies - might be interesting for folks that enjoy browsers like Flock and such (which I know is a surprisingly large audience)
I'm not personally that socially oriented (beyond sharing things on FB, Twitter and G+) - so chat and such wouldn't interest me personally. As far as the app experience, I do occasionally use Mac OS X Dictionary's ability to browse Wikipedia from time to time. That pretty much fills that void for me the few times a year I feel it.
-greg aka varnent
On Dec 27, 2011, at 4:15 PM, John Du Hart wrote:
I personally would prefer to see such new features added directly to Wikipedia instead of focusing on another product. Remember, this is 2012, we don't need dedicated software for most things anymore.
On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 4:01 PM, Yao Ziyuan yaoziyuan@gmail.com wrote:
Remember there was MSN Explorer (desktop software) that let you browse
MSN
and use MSN services such as Hotmail?
Remember Google Earth (desktop software) that lets you browse the Earth
and
provides additional services based on the Earth?
We can also make a "Wikipedia Explorer" (desktop software) that lets you browse Wikipedia AND provides an added layer that enables users to:
- Chat/discuss with other users interested in the same topic (Wikipedia
article).
- Announce/find resources related to a topic (products, books, jobs,
anything).
- More.
I intend to see such a "Wikipedia Explorer" developed, or personally develop it. Any comments? _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
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