+ Footnotes.
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 10:11 PM, Lila Tretikov <lila(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hi Mike,
We plan to publish a blog tomorrow that addresses some of the questions
raised here and confusion in the press. To briefly address your questions
specifically, here is where we are today: the the grant allows us to pursue
strictly (1) -- a better Wiki search. In that, it supports testing of some
of our hypotheses on how to best do this.
It is possible we could pursue (2) in the future (for example,
integrating a few specific ones such as OpenStreetMaps or Internet
Archive). At some point we have looked into (2+) -- adding broader
knowledge sources, though we didn't get into specifics there, and have
since decided against increasing the scope. I am not considering (3).
Going after general search engine traffic and users is inconsistent with
our mission. Our focus is on knowledge.
To be clear, search itself is only one aspect of the work of the
Discovery team. This team is also tasked with discovering how to better
interconnect our various formats of knowledge, thus amplifying the impact
of our volunteers' contributions. Only some of our knowledge is actually
connected and discoverable today, other is very hard to find. Search is a
simple, non-invasive point of entry into the Wikimedia knowledge ecosystem.
I welcome and appreciate the feedback and support of members of our
Wikimedia movement. Collectively, our thinking evolves as we learn. We
will continue to make hypotheses, test them, and adjust our path
accordingly.
Lila
[1] Wikimedia specific: index all of Wikimedia's content and make that
easier for users of the sites to find
[2] Wikimedia + selected others: like (1), but also allow some other
like-minded sources into the mix (limited, identified sources)
[2+] Wikimedia + other knowledge
[3] Google-scale: crawl and index everything (duckduckgo-like) all
content included (shops, goods, etc.)
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 3:34 PM, Craig Franklin <
cfranklin(a)halonetwork.net> wrote:
I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking
this Michael. Reading the
documents
I've seen, it seemed like (1) to me, but a lot of the assumptions seem to
lean towards (3). If it is (1), then that is an entirely reasonable
thing
for the Foundation to be putting development effort into. The problem is
that the statements in the grant documents are quite vague, and given the
rest of the shenanigans that the WMF has been involved in lately, people
are quite predictably jumping to the least flattering conclusion.
Cheers,
Craig
On 16 February 2016 at 05:36, Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net> wrote:
> On 15 Feb 2016, at 17:10, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com
wrote:
>
> Hoi,
> The notion that WMF should out google Google is stupid, certainly at
that
> kind of money.
I'm still confused about what kind of 'search engine' is actually being
proposed here. Is it:
1) Wikimedia specific: index all of Wikimedia's content and make that
easier for users of the sites to find
2) Wikimedia + selected others: like (1), but also allow some other
like-minded sources into the mix
3) Google-scale: index everything (duckduckgo-like)
... or somewhere on the scale between those points?
A lot of people seem to be assuming (3), others are liking the idea of
(1), but (2) (or maybe (1) leading to (2)) might be closer to the
reality?
Thanks,
Mike
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--
Lila Tretikov
Wikimedia Foundation
*“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”*
--
Lila Tretikov
Wikimedia Foundation
*“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”*