Discussions/Mobile
The Discussion Room is a space for open and facilitated discussions at Wikimania. Participation of the audience in the session is critical, because there are no speakers, and there is no expert panel!
You can find a full overview of the discussion topics on the Discussion Room main page. Please note: there is limited seating available, and we're not saving any seats! Please be on time, but feel free to join during the midway break between two discussions.
Practical facts
- Topic
- Going mobile and keeping editing: needs and challenges to edit Wikipedia from mobile devices
- Date & Time
- Saturday 25 June, 11.15 - 11.55 h
- Notes
- etherpad
- Facilitator
- Shani Evenstein & Mike Peel
- Venue
- Primary School
Format
The Discussion Rooms host discussions with a specific style:
- Discussions of 40 minutes each;
- Clearly defined topic for each discussion, related to Wikimedia;
- Aiming to reach pre-defined goals during the discussion;
- Discussions take place in English;
- Discussions are moderated by a facilitator;
- There is no audience as everybody is expected to participate in discussions, and everybody is audience;
- Key lessons and points are documented live on etherpad, and may be processed later;
- Each discussion will come with a single recommendation of maximum 120 characters.
Each discussion targets specifically online Wikimedia projects, it lasts 40 minutes and it starts with a short 2-3 minutes introduction.
To set the tone of our discussions, we have three rules:
- Focus on YOU. We are interested in discussing and triggering individual action, things people can personally do and change to improve our Wikimedia projects and movement. We trust the discussion can be much more interesting if we do not focus on what others should do ("the others", Wikimedia chapters and Wikimedia Foundation).
- Be constructive and polite. Disagreements animate discussions and they can allow us to unfold all issues related to a topic. Let's avoid personal attacks, let's consider that we have different backgrounds and let's aim at making everybody comfortable in sharing their legitimate point of view.
- Be short and on topic. Let's create space for everyone to express his/her opinion.
Introduction
December 20, 2015 was the first ever day when mobile pageviews surpassed desktop pageviews on Wikimedia sites, a trend that is expected to continue. Half of Wikipedia readers are mobile now, but most editing is still done from the desktop. Many would argue that editing from a mobile device is not practical, or that our platform is not ready for that. Not only more and more Wikipedia readers access from mobile every time, there are also geographies where most Internet access is done from mobile devices —which are mostly emerging communities—, a whole potential for growth that right now keeps only partly explored.
This discussion is aimed at identifying ideas and key points to guide us all, readers, editors and developers alike, in that exploration.
Some topics that may be discussed in this session:
- How can we turn mobile readers into Wikipedia contributors?
- How can we prevent the shift towards mobile from leading into lack of new editors?
- What changes or new features would editors like to see to be able to contribute from mobile?
- What are developers doing to enhance the mobile editing experience?
- What kind of edits or contributions are more suitable for mobile editing?
- What issues arise when content written on desktop are read mobile devices?
- Should we adapt specific content for mobile? How can we respect the original authors?
Do you want to read up on the topic? Some suggested reading (not required to participate!):
- 2016 WMF Metrics Readership Trends Update
- New readership data (Wikimedia Foundation tech talk)
- Open discussion in the Wikipedia Weekly Facebook group
(This discussion topic is based mostly on these two proposals: 'Half of our readers are mobile now. What does this mean for editing Wikipedia?', 'Reaching new readers in the Global South - a proposal by WMF’s Global Reach team')