On 5 January 2011 22:16, Ryan Kaldari rkaldari@wikimedia.org wrote:
Having XML-based content would also enable a wide variety of new re-uses of Wikimedia content. People could build all sorts of custom apps, games, feeds, etc., without having to worry about broken syntax or resorting to screen scraping (like we do for our mobile site). It would also make implementing semantic features easier and thus could improve our search capabilities. Plus it makes a great Bloody Mary!
Before we go haring off - what would be *really* nice would be getting Magnus' WYSIFTW developed to a stage where it's fit to put in front of nontechnical users and do some decent usability testing:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WYSIFTW
Magnus does this stuff in his spare time. and has to get back to actual work - but there's a list of needed features (which of course anyone can add to) and I know he very much welcomes other people hacking on it.
It's not ready for prime time yet, but it's one of the most promising approaches I've seen in a while.
(And the nice thing about WYSIFTW is that it requires *no* action on server side - the only thing it needs right now is to be developed to a state where it can be usability-tested.)
- d.