[Foundation-l] Usability grant

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
This is great news, this makes me really happy. As I have been arguing
before, the lack of usability prevents many people from contributing to
wikis. Many of our projects are failing and, usability is a major factor in
this. Combine this with a lack of localisation for many languages, a digital
divide that prevents many demographies either by lack of infrastructure
and/or lack of skills. The great thing about usability is, that this is the
one place where it easiest for us to make a difference.

In the announcement it is said, that the experience for new contributors is
to be improved by the usability improvements funded by this grant. UNICEF
has done usability studies, giving newbies tasks to perform like creating
new articles. They have many videos and I understand that they may be
willing to share them with us for this effort. Based on their observations,
developers at UNICEF have developed a set of extensions that have proven
themselves in raising the collaboration of UNICEF wikis. These extensions
are in the WMF SVN, they are being localised in Betawiki and they have been
tested in the ExtensionTesting environment.

Marjon and Magnus have testified that MediaWiki is problematic for newbies
everywhere. Our lack of usability is hurting us and we have a self selecting
group of editors based on the ability in overcomming the problems of our
environment. Many demographics are not well represented and this leads to
bias and to the underrepresentation of the subjects these demographics have
an interest in. In the majority of our projects we are not even able to
raise a sustainable community.

With a significant grant received, it should be possible to create metrics
that measure the success of the work that we are about to do. Just receiving
the money and doing the things that seem to make sense does not cut it. In a
different thread I stated that 80% of our projects are failing. With an
improved usability, it should be possible to notice a difference. The
localisation work at Betawiki has doubled the number of languages that
provide a minimal support. Sadly we do not have any numbers how this has
affected the projects in those languages.

As the WMF has accepted this money for a targeted grant, and as Michael
indicates that the board feels strongly about this issue, I am lead to
understand that usability has been made a priority in the further
development of MediaWiki. Indeed improved usability will benefit more then
100% of the WMF projects, it will have a big impact on all the MediaWiki
projects out there, the projects by educational organisations like
Commonwealth of Learning, Kennisnet, the projects by hosting organisations
like Wikia and Wikiation, the small organisations like my "housing
community".

Given the investments in usability outside of the WMF already made, I do
urge the WMF to learn from what has already been done and to incorporate the
lessons learned, the software developed. I would love to see more
cooperation in the further development of MediaWiki with the other stake
holders in the MediaWiki software.
Thanks,
       GerardM


2008/12/3 Michael Snow <wikipedia at verizon.net>

> I'm happy to mention that the board has authorized the foundation to
> accept a significant grant, for which we just recently received the
> funds. This is a restricted grant specifically for use on a project to
> improve the MediaWiki software and the experience for new contributors.
> Not that this is a direct result of recent discussions here, plenty of
> people have mentioned the issue before, including Delphine as Ting
> points out. As you may know, grants take more than a day or two to put
> together, but it's relevant to mention anyway. I understand a press
> release with more details will be going out in the next day or so.
>
> While grants with restrictions should be considered with care (one
> reason for the board to be involved), we've indicated for some time that
> this is an issue the foundation feels strongly about addressing. As a
> result, any hesitation was really more about the challenges involved in
> executing the project. I don't know just how far this will carry us, but
> since it focuses on the underlying software, I hope it will benefit more
> than just "80% of our projects" - even the ones that don't need help, or
> don't think they do. I encourage volunteers to get involved in
> supporting the effort as the project moves forward.
>
> This grant is also from a source that has provided a smaller amount of
> funding before. It's gratifying when donors recognize the impact they
> are having and decide they want to add to it.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
>
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