--- On Fri, 10/3/08, John at Darkstar vacuum@jeb.no wrote:
From: John at Darkstar vacuum@jeb.no Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Strategy document? To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 6:12 AM Some of my points, although not exactly strategy - more like desperatly needed features
- better references - why should the writer add metadata
for the references, this should be added automatically if possible, probably there should be a central store for this, and probably there should be partners for this
In Norway we have been talking to several newspapers, companies and institutions about how we can do this. We have some ideas, and in general it is to either use Dublin Core, or to synthesize similar data. Identification of the referenced documents are a real problem, as a lot of them has no valid digital identification.
There should also be some solution to the wikicodebloat in the text due to references. A much better mechanism should be used, as the present solution makes the wikicode completly unreadable.
- simpler editing - wikicode has become much to
complicated, especially with some of the more advanced templates, it should be possible to use a kind of simplified WYSIWYG editor
Just to be able to write the text in a WYSWYG-manner, and then add templates in special druids would help a lot. There are many peoples that wants to help out with the formatting, but few to actually write the text.
- guidance during writing - new editors have no idea of all
the bits and pieces that has to be added and there should be some kind of druid to help in the process
Made an attempt on this the last week. Its functional, well, something works... :]
- map symbols - we need a working map with symbols that is
better integrated with commons, that is, addition of new types of map graphics should be a lot simpler, also there should be some kind of mechanism to specify the level where something becomes visible
We also needs a map that is scaleable to a much higher level of details than presently. I think this will be a lot better in a few years.
I think that what we needs here is a real reason that triggers interest in using the maps and geoloc. Perhaps a better navigation model that explores geolocs can do something, for example a listing of articles about nearby areas.
- better statistics - it is necessary to get better
statistics, both to be able to say something about how we are used, but also to make decisions about what to use at portals and the main page
I think Eric Zachte could say a lot about this.
- better dynamic lists - Wikinews uses a very old and
simplified implementation of dpl, this needs an upgrade whatever that should be, also this kind of functionality should be available in Wikipedia
What do we need, and does DPL solves the problem? Is this good enough for general use? Does it need some kind of limiting mechanism? Should it be reimplemented?
- better portals - it is now a lot of portals that is more
or less dead, those needs better solutions and better integration with categories
Is it possible to make better portals? Especially, is it possible to make them such that they don't need any updating? I think they should be lot more dynamic and reflect our good articles, and at the same time reflect what people are reading. Especially on Wikinews. To do this we need better statistics.
A patch for the existing Extension:Intersection is made, but it seems like there are no discussion or interest in doing anything about it.
- automatic updates - a lot of places there are wikicode
instead of automatic mechanisms, it seems like there are some idea that wikicode is the goal instead of wikicode to be a tool, and this creates problems as people use to much time on maintaining wikicode
For example, is it possible to make magic words for one project available on other projects? What about common data, how can that be transfered with less manual work? What about common javascript code?
- common javascript store - gadgets are nice but they
should be delivered from a central store, not being reimplemented at each project
At no.wp we have a gadget to sort the iw-links, and a few other projects uses it, but each project maintain their own version. This is not very effective. Meta should be the store for such code, but only admins at meta has access to protected pages at meta.
A central store must also solve the problem with localization of javascript code. That means preprocessing the pages before delivery. Imagine something like a namespace on meta called "Gadgets" and a m4-parser or C-preprosessor that transforms the pages into correct code, and a template _() to do localization.
As long as we are creaing a wish list:
Ability to transcribe musical scores in wikitext.
More of a database aspect towards metedata
Abilty to download/print/export all subpages of a page at once.
Abilty to upload complete scans of books to Commons as one file.
Birgitte SB