Brion Vibber wrote:
We've gone a bit off topic into the question of whether we should spend any time on mobile at all, it seems. :)
Well, I think that's expected when the question was (broadly) where do we go from here? I think native or non-native support is a false dichotomy: there's a broader question of what we want the mobile experience to be. I don't think the answer to this question really exists currently.
Finite developer resources exist in other areas than API development. I'll be honest; I think a good mobile app will pull in more users and do more good than just making a few API tweaks and hoping something happens.
Fair enough. But I really would strongly urge you (and/or the mobile team) to better define what the goals are for mobile interaction, maybe in an RFC. What do you want people to be able to do from mobile devices? What's realistic now? What's realistic in five years from now? What's realistic on 4G and what's realistic on whatever slow connection users have elsewhere?
One in progress is the GeoData extension which is now collecting coordinates on en.wikipedia.org and once the search back end is deployed will make location-based search a first class citizen instead of relying on tool server hacks and third party services.
Hmmm, I actually see this as more of a counter-example: Max was able to devote some time to creating a GeoData extension that has broad applicable use to Wikimedia wikis and to the free content movement. Just imagine what he could be doing if he weren't battling (for example) the article editing interface on a Samsung Nexus. I see your point about mobile development feeding APIs and vice versa, I'm just not sure where the value comes from the _Wikimedia Foundation_ working on mobile development instead of devoting more energy and resources to tools exactly like the GeoData extension.
MZMcBride