Wikitech-ambassadors March 2014

wikitech-ambassadors@lists.wikimedia.org

17 participants
22 discussions

Fwd: Wikimedia engineering report, February 2014
by Guillaume Paumier 15 Mar '14

15 Mar '14

Hi, The report covering Wikimedia engineering activities in February 2014 is now available. Wiki version: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/February Blog version: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/03/15/engineering-report-february-2014/ We're also proposing a shorter, simpler and translatable version of this report that does not assume specialized technical knowledge: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2014/February/s… Below is the HTML text of the report's summary. As always, feedback is appreciated on the usefulness of the report and its summary, and on how to improve them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Major news in February include: - a call for volunteers to test the upcoming multimedia viewer<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/27/help-test-media-viewer/> ; - improvements to VisualEditor's media and template editors; - the launch of the Flow discussion system on two pilot talk pages on the English Wikipedia; - the launch of guided tours to 31 more language versions of Wikipedia, including all of the top 10 projects by number of page views; - improvements to the tools and process used to deploy code to Wikimedia production sites; - the release of the first archive of the entire English Wikipedia with thumbnails<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/offline-l/2014-March/001238.html>, for offline use. VisualEditor<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VisualEditor/Portal> In February, the VisualEditor <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor>team continued their work on improving the stability and performance of this visual tool to edit wiki pages; they also added some new features and simplifications. It is now easier to edit media items: users can set the position, alt text, size and type for most kinds of media item. When adding links, redirects and disambiguation pages are now highlighted to help editors select the right link, and changing the format or style of some text was tweaked to make editing clearer and more obvious. Adding and editing template usages is now a little smoother, auto-focusing on parameters and making them clearer to use. Page settings have expanded to set redirects, page indexing and new section edit link options. The extensive work to make insertion of "citation" references based on templates quick, obvious and simple neared completion. The deployed version of the code was updated four times in the regular releases. The Parsoid <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid> team continued with bug fixes <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Parsoid/Deployments> and improved image support in this parsing program that converts wikitext to annotated HTML, behind the scenes of VisualEditor. Part of the team has continued to mentor two Outreach Program for Women<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_7>(OPW) interns; this program ends mid-March. Others are mentoring a group of students in a Facebook Open Academy<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Facebook_Open_Academy>project to build a Cassandra storage back-end for the Parsoid round-trip test server. We have a first version of a Debian package for Parsoid ready. This package is yet to find a home base (repository) from which it can be installed. This will soon make the installation of Parsoid as easy as apt-get install parsoid. Editor engagement <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_editor_engagement> This month, the new Flow <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow> discussion system was launched on the talk pages of two English Wikipedia WikiProjects that volunteered to be a part of the first trial, WikiProject Breakfast<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Breakfast>and WikiProject Hampshire <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Hampshire>. We've continued to iterate on the front-end design of the discussion system based on user feedback, releasing a new appearance during the trial and starting work on a front-end rewrite for better cross-browser and mobile compatibility (to be released sometime in March). We also spent time making sure Flow integrates better with vital MediaWiki tools and processes (e.g., suppression and checkuser) and improving the handling of permalink URLs. In February, the Growth <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth> team first focused on releasing the new Wikipedia onboarding experience<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians>on additional projects. The GettingStarted <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted>extension was deployed to 30 Wikipedias, including all of the top 10 projects by number of page views. This marks the first time its task suggestions and guided tours were available outside English projects. The GuidedTour <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GuidedTour> extension was also deployed to those projects (as a dependency of GettingStarted), as well as the Czech Wikipedia and se.wikimedia.org. Late in the month, the team also presented its work at its first Quarterly Review of the 2014 calendar year (see slides and minutes<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_r…> ). Mobile <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Mobile_engineering> The Wikimedia Apps <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Apps> team primarily worked on basic editing functionality (using wikitext) for both logged-in and logged-out users, as well as account creation and login. The Mobile web projects <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_web_projects>team has been working on bringing VisualEditor to tablets; the functionality is currently in alpha. Once this feature is available, tablet devices will be redirected to the mobile site. Work has notably focused on "inspectors" (like the dialog used to add and edit a link) and fixing bugs. During the last month, the Wikipedia Zero<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero>engineering team added zero-data charge rating for secure HTTPS connections for select carriers, in cooperation with the Operations team. In collaboration with the Mobile Apps team, we integrated Wikipedia Zero into the forthcoming rebooted versions of the Android and iOS apps. We updated the legacy Firefox OS app with bugfixes from January, and prepared other bugfixes as well. Discussion with the Operations team and Platform Engineering continued on how to best implement the Wikipedia Zero portal. The team also continued the discussion on core ResourceLoader features, in support of a proof of concept HTML5 webapp. We also started work to make contributory features present for Wikipedia Zero users. Last but not least, we performed extensive analytics work on pageviews and page bandwidth consumption. In February, we launched Wikipedia Zero with MTN South Africa (Opera Mini browser only). MTN South Africa responded directly to the kids of Sinenjongo High School with an open letter to the students and the youth of South Africa. They said they agree that Wikipedia could give a boost to their education system, and that offering Wikipedia Zero is a small thing that could change everything (see video<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2lVRtWEvM>on YouTube). We also launched Wikipedia Zero with Safaricom, the largest operator in Kenya. We now have three partners in Kenya, covering 90% of all mobile subscribers. South Africa is our 23rd country to launch, and Safaricom is our 27th operator partner. The Mobile Partnerships team attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where we met with existing operator partners, prospective partners and tech companies who want to support the mission. At the conference, our Wikipedia Text pilot with Airtel Kenya and the Praekelt Foundation was nominated as a finalist for the GSMA Global Mobile awards in the education category. -- Guillaume Paumier Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation https://donate.wikimedia.org

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Announcing Compact Language Links beta feature
by Pau Giner 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

Compact Interlanguage Links<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Universal_Language_Selector/Design/Interlang…>have been launched as a beta feature on Wikimedia projects. This feature is intended to facilitate cross-language navigation by making the long lists of languages on the sidebar a shorter list which will be more relevant for each user. Users will be able to opt-in for the feature from the beta features settings (the "beta" link available at the top-right area when you are logged-in). The initial implementation has been done by Niharika Kohli as part of her OPW internship with the great help from the Language Engineering team and many other members of our community willing to improve language support. The beta feature has been created as part of the Universal Language Selector since it relies on several of its components. Thanks to all those involved! We are looking forward to improving the feature based on all your feedback. So feel free to leave your impressions on the project talk page<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Universal_Language_Selector/Design/Inte…> . Pau -- Pau Giner Interaction Designer Wikimedia Foundation

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Fwd: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC
by Quim Gil 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

Dear tech ambassadors, please help spreading this call for Google Summer of Code candidates in your projects. Thank you! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Quim Gil* <qgil(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Subject: URGENT call for geographical diversity in Wikimedia @ GSoC To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Please forward this email wisely. Yes, we need your help getting the word out. So far, all our GSoC candidates come from only two (neighbor) countries: India and Sri Lanka. While we are very happy seeing how popular Wikimedia is among technical students in the Indian subcontinent, we are concerned about the lack of candidates from anywhere else. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2014#Candidates GSoC 2013 had accepted students from 69 countries [1], and we have participants from eight.[2] We can discuss about the deep causes of this situation but... Considering that we have less than 9 days before the GSoC deadline for students (March 21 @ 19:00 UTC) we should focus on finding new candidates. There is still time to become a strong GSoC candidate for Wikimedia. Many project ideas in our GSoC page (linked above) have mentors available and no candidates yet. Go for them! Also, since our evaluation of candidates is based on their proposals published in mediawiki.org, Google's deadline is not a hard stop to keep improving your plans together with your mentors. April 7 is when we need to decide how many slots we will request, meaning how many teams (candidates and mentors with a common plan) we believe that can complete GSoC 2014 successfully. That date is more than three weeks from now. Diversity is an important factor for Wikimedia. We are putting a lot of effort promoting gender diversity in our outreach programs, and we are seeing good progress. It would be surprising to realize that a global project like Wikimedia has a serious problem with geographical diversity. Your ideas and actions to fix this situation are welcome. [1] https://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/ProgramStatistics [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013 PS: in comparison, FOSS OPW is doing a lot better, with five candidates from four countries https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/FOSS_Outreach_Program_for_Women/Round_8#Cand… coincidence? -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil -- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil

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[Reminder] Language Engineering IRC Office Hour today at 1700 UTC on #wikimedia-office
by Runa Bhattacharjee 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

Hello, A quick reminder that the Language Engineering IRC office hour is happening later today at 1700 UTC on #wikimedia-office. Besides project updates, we have 30 mins open for discussions about the internationalization and localization projects in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Outreach Program for Women (OPW). Please see below for event details, agenda and local time. Thanks Runa Event Details: ========== # Date: March 12, 2014 (Wednesday) # Time: 1700-1800 UTC, 1000-1100 PDT (Check local time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140312T1700) # IRC channel: #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net Agenda: ====== 1. Ongoing Projects - Content Translation tool 2. GSoC and OPW - open house for Language Engineering projects 3. Q & A ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Runa Bhattacharjee <rbhattacharjee(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 10:09 PM Subject: Language Engineering IRC Office Hour on March 12, 2014 (Wednesday) at 1700 UTC To: MediaWiki internationalisation <mediawiki-i18n(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, wikitech-ambassadors(a)lists.wikimedia.org [x-posted] Hello, The Wikimedia Language Engineering team will be hosting the monthly IRC office hour on March 12, 2014 (Wednesday) at 1700 UTC/ 1000 PDT on #wikimedia-office. In this edition, we will be talking about our ongoing projects, like the Content Translation tool[1]. Also, we would like to extend this invitation specially to the students who are looking forward to participate in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2014 and Outreach Program for Women (OPW) - Round 8, for the Language Engineering projects[2] under Wikimedia. We will be happy to answer your questions about our work and projects. Please see below for the event details and check for local time at your location. Questions can also be sent to me before the event. See you all at the IRC office hour! Thanks Runa [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Intern… Event Details: ========== # Date: March 12, 2014 # Time: 1700-1800 UTC, 1000-1100 PDT (Check local time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140312T1700) # IRC channel: #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net Agenda: ====== 1. Ongoing Projects - Content Translation tool 2. GSoC and OPW - open house for Language Engineering projects 3. Q & A -- Language Engineering - Outreach and QA Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation -- Language Engineering - Outreach and QA Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation

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Would any other wikis like to try out a new search?
by Nikolas Everett 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

Dear Ambassadors, I'm looking for volunteer wikis to try out the new search that Chad and I've been working on called CirrusSearch. <sales pitch>Be a part of the second wave of wikis and influence new search features!</sales pitch> Reality: * We're reasonably sure CirrusSearch's language support is better than the current search. [1] * CirrusSearch indexes expanded templates. * CirrusSearch indexes articles within a few seconds of when they are changed. Articles that contain a changed template take longer but they are also updated. * Most of the special search syntax is the same. You can read the syntax here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Search/CirrusSearchFeatures What it means to volunteer: If you volunteer your wiki we'll turn CirrusSearch on in "secondary" mode where it'll keep itself up to date but all queries will still go through the old search. You'll be able to get search results from the new search engine for comparison by adding a url parameter to the search results page. If you and the community that you represent aren't immediately blown away by how much better it works we'll work with you to make it awesome. At some point, shortly after the new search has been deemed awesome, we'll switch CirrusSearch to "primary" mode and all queries will go through it. You'll be able to get at the old search results with a url parameter similar to the one that you used to test CirrusSearch. If anything goes wrong we'll switch you back to the old search. We'll keep that option open for a few months. So who is ready to help make search better? Nik Everett [1]: Some languages (20ish) will see a huge improvement because CirrusSearch understands their grammar and old search doesn't. Many other languages will see an improvement because CirrusSearch is happy to search all kinds of character sets while the current search isn't. Esperanto is very well supported by the old search so would get worse. eo wikis should probably wait until we've improved support.

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Moderation queue cleared
by Guillaume Paumier 11 Mar '14

11 Mar '14

Hi, The recent stream of e-mails was me clearing up the moderation queue. No one was actively looking at the queue, so there were hundreds of messages blocked there from months ago. The queue is now empty and I've added myself to the notification list, so the moderation should happen more quickly now. If anyone's interested in helping with moderation, please let me know offlist. -- Guillaume Paumier Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation

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Tech newsletter (2014, week 11)
by Tomasz W. Kozlowski 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

Hi! The latest tech newsletter is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/11 [1]. Below is the English version. You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you can add it to the next newsletter at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next [2]. More information on how to contribute is available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute [3]; you can also contact me directly. As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged. ------------------------- Latest tech news [4] from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations [1] are available. RECENT SOFTWARE CHANGES * The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf17 [5]) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 13 (calendar [6]). * You can now use the new search tool (CirrusSearch [7]) on all Wikiquote projects. You can now enable it in your Beta options [8]. VISUALEDITOR NEWS * It is now easier to edit templates. Complex tools are now in the "advanced" mode. * It is also easier to edit images. You now have more options and they are explained better. * VisualEditor adds fake blank lines so you can put your cursor there. They are now smaller and animated to be different from actual blank lines. * We have improved the tool to add special characters. The buttons are now larger. More changes are coming. * You can now use new keyboard shortcuts to undo the last action, clear formatting, and show the shortcut help window. FUTURE SOFTWARE CHANGES * You will soon be able to use a Beta option [8] to show a shorter list of language links. That way, Universal Language Selector [9] will only show languages that are relevant to you. You will still be able to search for other languages. * CirrusSearch [7] will soon automatically index newly imported pages. * It will soon be possible to use CSS to style buttons [10] in templates on all Wikimedia wikis, without needing JavaScript [11]. * An IRC discussion [12] with the Wikimedia Foundation Language Engineering team will take place on March 12 at 17:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion [13]). _TECH NEWS [4] prepared by tech ambassadors [14] and posted by MediaWiki message delivery [15] * Contribute [16] * Translate [1] * Get help [17] * Give feedback [18] * Subscribe or unsubscribe [19]._ Links: ------ [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2014/11 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News [5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/wmf17 [6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/Roadmap [7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Search [8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeat… [9] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Universal_Language_Select… [10] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Default_modules#Buttons [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript [12] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours [13] http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140312T1700 [14] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Ambassadors [15] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_d… [16] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute [17] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech [18] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News [19] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambass…

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Roadmap and deployment highlights - week of March 10th
by Greg Grossmeier 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

Welcome to the latest edition of the Wikimedia roadmap and deployments highlights email. Full schedule at: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deployments#Week_of_March_10th Other than the usual allotment of standing deploy windows for various teams (eg Flow, Parsoid, Search, and WP Zero) there aren't any deployments of special note. This of course doesn't take into account last minute/exceptional things. There is the normal MediaWiki train, as always. Also, the WMF Labs migration continues. For more info, see: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/labs-l/2014-February/002152.html == Tuesday == MediaWiki upgrades * group1 to 1.23wmf17: All non-Wikipedia sites (Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikiversity, and a few other sites) ** https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/Roadmap#Schedule_for_the_depl… ** https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/wmf17 == Thursday == MediaWiki upgrades * group2 to 1.23wmf17 (all Wikipedias) * group0 to 1.23wmf18 (test/test2/testwikidata/mediawiki) ** https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.23/wmf18 (branch/list of changes created on Thursday) As always, questions/comments welcome, Greg -- | Greg Grossmeier GPG: B2FA 27B1 F7EB D327 6B8E | | identi.ca: @greg A18D 1138 8E47 FAC8 1C7D |

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Language Engineering IRC Office Hour on March 12, 2014 (Wednesday) at 1700 UTC
by Runa Bhattacharjee 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

[x-posted] Hello, The Wikimedia Language Engineering team will be hosting the monthly IRC office hour on March 12, 2014 (Wednesday) at 1700 UTC/ 1000 PDT on #wikimedia-office. In this edition, we will be talking about our ongoing projects, like the Content Translation tool[1]. Also, we would like to extend this invitation specially to the students who are looking forward to participate in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2014 and Outreach Program for Women (OPW) - Round 8, for the Language Engineering projects[2] under Wikimedia. We will be happy to answer your questions about our work and projects. Please see below for the event details and check for local time at your location. Questions can also be sent to me before the event. See you all at the IRC office hour! Thanks Runa [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Intern… Event Details: ========== # Date: March 12, 2014 # Time: 1700-1800 UTC, 1000-1100 PDT (Check local time: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140312T1700) # IRC channel: #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net Agenda: ====== 1. Ongoing Projects - Content Translation tool 2. GSoC and OPW - open house for Language Engineering projects 3. Q & A -- Language Engineering - Outreach and QA Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation

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Tibetan Wikipedia Font Need Increase
by Phurbu Tsering 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

Hello guys, Tibetan language local Wikipedia was now content more 10000 articles. Its been growing day by day. Its improving a lot compare to other language have same standard language. But one biggest problem we are facing now is, its Tibetan font look very much small, may be problem of Wikimedia technical issue. As consult with many technical people. Still they didn't take any action till now. Dzongka Wikipedia, which share same font as Tibetan Wikipedia, are looking much perfect than us. I saw that many people are taking interest with Dzongka Wikipedia, but ignore about Tibetan Wikipedia. Hope any one, have idea about Wikipedia technical issue. Please have a look at our issue and solve this problem as soon as possible, we are waiting very long time for it. Yours sincerely Phurbu tsering

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Wikitech-ambassadors March 2014