For some time now I've thought that possibilities for data visualization in Wikipedia (or in MediaWiki) are pretty bad. So I'll describe one idea below and would like to get some feedback. Reason is simple: I'd like to give this task to one university student so that he could solve that issue.
What I'd like to see is some development, that would make it possible for user to create visualizations inside MediaWiki. Something so easy that a child could do that. Like this https://infogr.am/. Workflow example: 1) user selects sth like Create Data Visualization, 2) has some selections about cart type, colors, etc, 3) place to write down text (title, axes, description) and 4) a table to fill in with data (values + their text labels). That could then be saved as one revision. After that every other user could edit this graph with the same selections and data tables just like users edit articles and edit history is saved and easy to compare.
Image files like thi https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilt:VikiArtiklitearv.jpgs or that https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_map_exports_2010_Estonia.svg are ridiculous and fixes like that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Pie_chart are not that flexible, pretty and easy to use as what we need. So lets move forward. There are plenty of GPL licensed solutions that could be integrated with MediaWiki. But I can't be only one thinking about this. So what should I know about that topic so that this work could really be useful? I.e. how to avoid reinventing the wheel (like building something already in development) and how to be sure that it could be easily incorporated later? Who would be the perfect people to talk about this topic?
Also: are there some very specific tasks within this data visualization topic that suite well as a research project(s) for an IT student(s)?
Regards, Ivo Kruusamägi
P.S: I also have some development plans for a web platform that will help to gamify organizing media files in Wikimedia Commons (coordinates, categories, descriptions, quality assessment, etc). Sort like adding an additional data layer and when everything works fine then migrating that information into Commons. Any great ideas there as well? (not so great ideas could be sent to list :P )
P.S 2: There is this feedback platform named WikiComment http://wikicomment.ut.ee/. Some testing is need by wikipedians :)