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Submissions/The Wikipedia Mobile Experience

From Wikimania 2012 • Washington, D.C., USA

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2012.

Submission no. 676
Title of the submission
The Wikipedia Mobile Experience — Where We've Been and Where We're Going
Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation)
presentation
Author of the submission
Patrick Reilly
E-mail address
preilly@wikimedia.org
Username
Preilly
Country of origin
USA
Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
The Wikimedia Foundation
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)
The Wikipedia Mobile Experience

Wikipedia's current primary mobile experience is through the mobile site. An extension to our software (MediaWiki) called "MobileFrontend" manages that experience. This interface currently allows for only a passive reading experience and we want that to change. One of the most amazing things about the Wikipedia Community is the tireless dedication of our editor community. They create the seemingly endless content that is available for our half a billion readers each month. But currently, we don't allow them to contribute from their mobile devices. We want this to change... but, how do we accomplish this goal? I'll talk about various ideas ranging from small micro-level edits (e.g., spelling corrections) all the way to full-blown article editing. We will also explore what realtime collaborative multiuser editing might look like, as well as a mobile friendly version of the visual editor that is now in production.

But, simply allowing existing editors the ability to contribute isn't enough. We also want to encourage new users to contribute to the vast knowledge that is available today, and this doesn't need to solely be via textual based edits. We can provide a wealth of additional information, be it GPS coordinates or mobile photo upload contributions, among many other things. The sky's the limit when it comes to what we can provide for our mobile users to deepen and broaden the mobile experience for both contributors and readers alike.

For most people these days — when you are out and about you typically have your mobile device at your side ready and waiting, and we would love to take advantage of that fact. Many devices are capable of capturing audio and video as well as still pictures with their included cameras. We will dive into unique ways to harness those devices and utilize their capabilities to enhance the mobile experience for everyone.

We'll, also talk a bit about potential tablet based solutions to make curation and antivandalism work possible from mobile devices.

Come enjoy a quick look at how things are today and how things will be tomorrow, and help shape the future of Wikipedia on mobile devices. This presentation will include demos of what things might come to look like in the future (e.g., visual editing on an iPhone) for example. Your feedback and opinions about our direction are welcome during the Q/A portion of this presentation. Also, worth noting is that we are working hard to make our mobile frontend extension work on any and all MediaWiki installations so these improvements will enhance any wiki not just ours.

Track
Technology and Infrastructure
Length of presentation/talk
25 Minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
No
Slides or further information (optional)
Special request as to time of presentations


Interested attendees

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  1. Ryan lane (talk) 21:34, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  2. LeslieCarr (talk) 21:34, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  3. MaxSem (talk) 21:38, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Yuvipanda (talk) 21:40, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Asher Feldman (talk) 22:02, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Amir E. Aharoni (talk)
  7. HB-NCBI (talk) 03:59, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Tfinc (talk) 23:04, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Kul (talk) 04:42, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  10. --Guaka (talk) 23:03, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Logicwiki (talk) 07:42, 22 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  12. NaBUru38 (talk) 17:27, 7 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  13. Shujenchang (talk) 07:50, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  14. iwilsonjr (talk) 16:37, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  15. Nataev (talk) 17:09, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Your name here!
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