[MediaWiki-l] ANN: Version 2.1.0 of the Memento MediaWiki Extension

All, Thanks to a few informal code reviews, version 2.1.0 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]. This release incorporates changes to enrich the code based on additional review and feedback from members of the WikiMedia team. The extension fixed a few bugs, now supports the newer JSON-based i18n system, and has removed three configuration options in order to streamline the code. We fully appreciate the feedback we’ve received and appreciate any additional feedback the community can provide. Our goal is to make the extension as solid as possible for MediaWiki users everywhere. The extension works with Memento clients [4]. Memento clients allow one to select a past date and time to browse, and then browse the web as if it were that date and time. Installing this extension in a MediaWiki installation allows Memento clients to seamlessly transition from using web archives to wikis, allowing one to view the past versions of web pages without interruption. This has numerous applications, from avoiding spoilers [5] to studying the evolution of legal discourse. Additionally, this extension attempts to address the issue of "temporal coherence", ensuring that old revisions of images and templates match the revision of the page they are embedded in. This functionality is still optional and experimental, but has received some interest from the community. Earlier this summer, we presented our experiences with reconstructing the past using MediaWiki [6, 7], and demonstrated using the extension to avoid spoilers in Game of Thrones [8, 9, 10] at WikiConference USA 2014. The extension is fully compliant with RFC 7089 [11], 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. Videos [12] and [13] show Memento at work in the web at large, the latter paying attention to navigation within Wikipedia. The Memento protocol is currently used by major web archives [14] and supported by the International Internet Presevation Consortium [15]. Though we have the support of web archives, the Memento team also considers time travel in MediaWiki to be a major use of the protocol. We really appreciate the feedback from the Wikimedia team and look forward to additional assistance and improvements. Thank you again, on behalf of the Memento Team, Shawn M. Jones Graduate Research Assistant Department of Computer Science Old Dominion University Email: sjone@cs.odu.edu<mailto:sjone@cs.odu.edu> Research group: http://ws-dl.blogspot.com Twitter: @shawnmjones — [1] https://github.com/mementoweb/mediawiki/releases/tag/v2.1.0 [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] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciClYjTnscs [11] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7089 [12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_70lQPOOIg [13] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtZHKeFwjzk [14] http://mementoweb.org/depot/ [15] http://netpreserve.org