[Wikimedia-l] Mobile starting page design for Zero users

[Yuri Astrakhan]

Zero <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> team would like
to be more involved with the community, and discuss the functionality of
the Zero starting page.

For Zero users, when visiting m.wikipedia.org, we have to show a custom
start page tailored to the specific mobile provider. A typical startup page
has a custom banner, e.g. "Free Wikipedia provided by [Company]", and a
list of common languages in that country. The language of the page is
always set to the provider's default language.

A partner suggested that we add some additional text on the startup page,
as otherwise the page looks empty and not very inspiring. That text would
be an HTML blob, similar to the WWW page, but significantly smaller due to
most devices having a tiny screen. The text would be different depending on
the default language set by the provider, and could also differ between
various projects - Wikipedia vs Wikinews. The text would be stored on
translatewiki, with the overrides residing in the project's MediaWiki: page.

The text could be a one sentence "welcome to {{SITENAME}}", it could be
some famous quote, a news item, word of the day, link to featured article,
or anything else the community may decide to post. See sample screenshots
for Android<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/zf03c69c9ea2c346cc28.png>,
iPhone<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/z219b703e8b6be6627b3.png>,
iPad<http://media.crossbrowsertesting.com/users/47339/screenshots/full/zf7c8f049d9edbfbab9a.png>
)

What would be the best process to maintain that text? What other possible
customization would be needed to make this beneficial? Please keep in mind
that most of the users coming to this page will be directed there by the
carrier advertising Free Wikipedia, so a lot of new users.

P.S. If you think this discussion should be on
meta<http://meta.wikimedia.org/>,
please let me know of the best location.