Hi Liam,
Thanks so much for your good feedback about Beta Features. (1)
I am glad you view this program as a positive development and think this tool can give
users more control over their experience, as well as encourage more reasoned conversations
during feature development, while reducing the stress for everyone. So like you, we're
very hopeful about the potential of this tool for enabling more effective collaborations
between foundation and community members.
Already, we're getting invaluable feedback on discussion pages like this one for Media
Viewer (2). On that note, a newer version of Media Viewer is now ready for testing on
MediaWiki.org, which displays larger images for a more immersive experience, as shown on
this demo page (3). This new version will automatically be deployed on English
Wikipedia's Beta Features section in early December, but we would love to get early
feedback, if anyone is interested. To learn more, check out this overview of that new
Media Viewer version. (4)
Last but not least, kudos to all the folks who contributed to this skunkworks program,
across many different teams: Jared Zimmerman, Mark Holmquist, James Forrester, Jon
Robson,May Galloway, Keegan Peterzell, and Erik Moeller, to name but a few :) While no
particular team had a mandate to start this program, we all felt it was the right thing to
do -- and just got it done. Sometimes the best projects come from these kinds of
serendipitous collaborations. :)
Onward!
Fabrice
(1) About Beta Features:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/About_Beta_Features
(2) Discuss Media Viewer:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer
(3) New Version v0.2 of Media Viewer:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lightbox_demo
(4) Media Viewer Next Version v0.2:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer#Next_Version
On Nov 22, 2013, at 12:39 AM, wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 13:38:30 +1100
From: Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: Mark Holmquist <mholmquist(a)wikimedia.org>rg>, Jared Zimmerman
<jared.zimmerman(a)wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Beta Features Launch Worldwide
Message-ID:
<CAAGzLhsj37moM+SY5sHsHXkgXqpodgzxf-CR3JYYR_uX5Fhs=Q(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
This is a very positive development in the manner by which new features are
given some visibility, tested and measured.
Making new features *opt-in*, and making it easy to return back is a
healthy way of getting wider usage and feedback IMO. Also, the ability for
a user to chose to automatically receive all new Beta functions, or to
manually select the individual elements that they like, is a nice touch
too. I think that, culturally as much as technologically, having a "beta
track" for ALL new elements is a good procedure to have. It will provide
consistent and clear expectations of what's happening (and a clear place to
provide feedback that is actually answered) - not having that is a large
factor IMHO in the negative reaction many features have previously
received.
I always really liked the manner in which the "Usability Initiative" (which
developed the vector skin a few years back) measured their success - the
proportion of people who turned "on" AND continued using new features. If I
recall correctly that was the first time the WMF used the "beta" concept
and I believe that the way it was rolled-out was the best practice example
of the WMF making a major change in a calm, clearly communicated,
responsive way. Interestingly, the things that caused controversy on the
day that that program's work became the default were the elements that were
added in at the at the last minute and therefore were not part of the Beta
- the v.2 logo, the 'collapsed' inter-language links box in the sidebar.
-Liam / Wittylama
wittylama.com
Peace, love & metadata
_______________________________
Fabrice Florin
Product Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)