All,
Thanks to the feedback of Wikimedia developers, version 2.0.0 of the Memento time travel
Extension for MediaWiki has been released. The extension can be downloaded via [1].
Information on the extension is available at [2]. A demonstration wiki equipped with the
extension is available at [3].
The extension works with Memento clients [4] to allow one to browse pages on an
installation of MediaWiki as if it were some datetime in the past. This has numerous
applications, from avoiding spoilers [5] to studying the changes in law.
Recently, at WikiConference USA 2014, we presented our experiences reconstructing the past
using MediaWiki [6, 7], and demonstrated using the extension to avoid spoilers [8, 9].
The extension is fully compliant with RFC 7089 [10], which specifies the Memento protocol.
The effort was supported in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is a joint effort
between Old Dominion University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Memento protocol extends HTTP to support content negotiation with time, allowing one
to view past versions of web pages. This document [11] provides insight into the added
value that the protocol brings to MediaWiki. Videos [12], and [13] show Memento at work
in the web at large. The latter pays significant attention to temporal navigation in
Wikipedia, and hence illustrates that the Memento Team considers time travel in MediaWiki
platforms a major use case of the protocol. Video [14] shows how one could use the
Memento MediaWiki Extension to avoid spoilers in fan-based wikis.
The Memento protocol is currently used by major web archives [15] and supported by the
International Internet Preservation Consortium [16].
Once again, the Memento team is appreciative of all of the feedback from the Wikimedia
team, and just because we have reached 2.0.0 doesn’t mean that we don’t seek additional
input in order to improve the code.
On behalf of the Memento Team,
Shawn M. Jones
Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Computer Science
Old Dominion University
Email: sjone(a)cs.odu.edu
Research group:
http://ws-dl.blogspot.com
Twitter: @shawnmjones
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[1]
https://github.com/hariharshankar/mediawiki/releases/tag/v2.0.0
[2]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Memento
[3]
http://ws-dl-05.cs.odu.edu/demo/
[4]
http://bit.ly/memento-for-chrome
[5]
http://ws-dl.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-12-18-avoiding-spoilers-with.html
[6]
http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/Submissions:Reconstructing_the_past_with_…
[7]
http://www.slideshare.net/shawnmjones/reconstructing-the-past-with-media-wi…
[8]
http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/Submissions:Using_the_Memento_Mediawiki_E…
[9]
http://www.slideshare.net/shawnmjones/using-the-memento-mediawiki-extension…
[10]
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7089
[11]
http://www.mementoweb.org/wikipedia/
[12]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_70lQPOOIg
[13]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtZHKeFwjzk
[14]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciClYjTnscs
[15]
http://mementoweb.org/depot/
[16]
http://netpreserve.org