Submissions/Wikipedia Mobile The Trojan Horse - Why MediaWiki has a separate mobile site

From Wikimania 2013 • Hong Kong
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2013.

Watch session on YouTube

Submission no.
5024
Subject no.
C4


Title of the submission
Wikipedia Mobile - The Trojan Horse
Type of submission
presentation
Author of the submission
Jon Robson and Maryana Pinchuk
Country of origin
USA
Affiliation
Wikimedia Foundation
E-mail address
jrobson@wikimedia.org
Username
jdlrobson
Personal homepage or blog
http://jonrobson.me.uk
Abstract

The glorious ancient city of Troy is having trouble attracting new residents, is showing its age and is need of some repair. Could a horse offered to Troy, that no one is paying much attention to, revitalise or cause destruction and chaos in this city?

Detailed proposal

While desktop contributions to Wikimedia projects are declining and pageview growth has slowed, mobile pageviews are rapidly increasing – is mobile a threat to our projects, or can we make it our ally? We will talk about why the Wikimedia Foundation mobile features team has created a separate mobile site and how we are using it to break apart and rebuild Wikipedia from the ground up. We'll discuss how we've breached the bounds of traditional desktop reading and contribution, in order to capture the essence of what makes Wikimedia projects so exciting to read and edit. This includes touching on how we've thought through the problem of acquiring new users and empowering existing ones in a space that is radically different from what they are used to, as well as discussing the ways we have re-imagined existing Wikimedia contribution workflows like watchlists, editing, and uploads. Finally, we'll share what we've learned that could potentially reinvigorate the spirit of boldness on the desktop site and help rescue it from collapsing under its own weight.

Hopefully you will leave excited and more aware of how mobile could potentially be a disruptive force... for good or bad.

Track
  • Technology and Infrastructure
Length of presentation/talk
25-50mins (TBC)
Language of presentation/talk
English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Special requests


Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).

  1. Slashme (talk) 19:20, 7 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Awjrichards (talk) 23:20, 11 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Pginer (talk) 00:11, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  4. អមីរ ឯ. អហរោណិ 06:44, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Tfinc (talk) 21:54, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Daniel Mietchen (talk) 23:25, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Howief (talk) 20:05, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 23:38, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Vishnu (talk)07:56, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Sbouterse (talk) 17:16, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Multichill (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Superbellymonster (talk) 03:15, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]