I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. We
are currently grappling
with rather rudimentary approaches when it comes to uploading and reusing
video and music files...
The incredibly useful Graph has been down for quite some time. The
extensive capabilities of Wikidata query representations, particularly with
geolocated data on maps, appear to have barely scratched the surface.
Listeria frequently experiences issues and underwent a major update that
disrupted previous queries.
On a personal note, I attempted to create a dynamic digital library of
works under a free license using Wikidata for our Digital Humanistics
centre. However, I discovered that with the available tools, I would need
to code the presentation myself, as the options for reuse outside of
Wikidata were very basic.
On the whole, the Wikipedia experience remains challenging, especially
for newcomers. The much wanted Visual Editor developments and improvements
seem to have stopped years ago. The recent changes made by the 'Desktop
Improvement' team to the default Wikipedia skin seem to be more geared
towards readers than editors and have apparently worsened the overall
experience, according to feedback I've received from newcomers.
These are just a few instances that have underscored, and continue to
underscore, my belief that we are likely not on the path towards achieving
the objectives outlined in the 2023 Strategy.
My personal impression is that the issue doesn't necessarily stem from a
lack of funding to pursue these objectives but rather from the ineffective
expenditure and allocation of those funds. I wish I knew how to contribute
to changing or improving this situation.
It would also be great to see a comment/opinion from current CEO Maryana
Iskander on this state of affairs, and if there is some roadmap for
improving it.
Best,
Paulo
Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <galder158(a)hotmail.com> escreveu (terça,
23/01/2024 à(s) 11:03):
Dear wikimedians,
Nearly one year ago, the Graphs extension was disabled from all wikis,
because there was a security issue that should be solved (
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T334940). A wide team from the WMF
worked on a solution for some weeks, but after Northern Hemisphere spring
ended, summer came, then the monsoon season, and now it is again summer in
the Southern Hemisphere... and Graphs are still disabled. All the solutions
proposed have been dismissed, but every two months there's a proposal to
make a new roadmap to solve the issue. We have plenty of roadmaps, but no
vehicle to reach our destination.
Seven years ago, we were discussing our Strategy for 2030. We used
thousands of volunteer hours, thousands of staff hours and millions of
dollars to build a really well-balanced strategy. There we concluded that "*By
2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem
of free knowledge*". We also made some recommendations to improve the
User Experience (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Improve_U…)
and claimed that we wanted to Innovate in Free Knowledge (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Recommendations/Innovate_…).
Well, the situation is now worse than it was seven years ago, let me give
some examples:
- Graph extension is used in thousands of pages, some of them
highly relevant, as COVID or Climate Change information. There are
thousands of graphs broken now, and the only partial solution give is
loading these graphs as images, instead of promoting an interactive
solution.
- Meanwhile, a place like Our World in Data has been publishing
data and interactive content with a compatible license for years.
(Remember, "*By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential
infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"). Trying to add
this data and graphs to Wikimedia projects has been done by WikiMed, and it
is technically possible, but still blocked to deploy (
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T303853).
- Wolfram Alpha is like a light year ahead us on giving interactive
solutions to knowledge questions, even the silliest ones (
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=how+many+oranges+fit+in+the+Earth%3F).
We have good technical articles about a lot of things, but sometimes "*becoming
the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge*"
needs to provide solutions to exact problems, like the answer to an
equation, and how to solve it. That's also "free knowledge".
- Brilliant (
https://brilliant.org/) is brilliant if you want to
learn lots of things, like geometry or programming. Way better than
Wikipedia. But... you need to pay for it. How could we even try if we can't
add anything interactive to our platforms?
- We can build interactive timelines using Wikidata, but we can't
embed them at Wikipedia. Weird, because I can do it in any external page.
Hopefully, Histropedia will do it better.
http://histropedia.com/
<http://histropedia.com/>
- We could have something very special: inline links in video and
audio subtitles. We used to have them, but the new video infrastructure
doesn't allow it. Imagine a world where you can watch a video and link a
link in the subtitles just to know more about that.
- ...
The list can go on an on ("which phase the moon is today?"), but I
think that the idea is clear. We could have interactive content, but we are
going in the opposite direction, and every year we are further from our
goal, because other platforms are doing it better, way better. And this
seems like some wild ideas, but then I read the 2023-2024 annual plan
section called "Wiki Experiences" (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2023-2024/…)
and it looks like we should be going there. But we aren't.
I'm sorry if this e-mail feels bitter. My experience in the last years
is that we are now further of what we need that we were before, even if
many chapters and volunteers are trying to overturn it.
Thank to everyone who have been trying.
Galder
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