[Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing

Mon Dec 1 17:51:15 UTC 2008

Thanks for that, Gerard. In other terms I suppose my question would be this:
You've identified a problem (usability, particularly in languages with the
smallest or least technologically wealthy communities) and a partial
solution (usability extensions developed by UNICEF). Your post, though, had
the tone of hoping that readers would offer assistance of some sort - so
what assistance would you like? Was your post aimed primarily at the Board,
or is there something that other people could be doing as well?

Nathan

On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hoi,
> The software has been tested but not all extensions are considered ready
> for
> WMF production. I am establishing contacts with, among others, people at
> UNICEF to make sure that we identify the outstanding issues carefully and
> fix them efficiently. Given that the CreatePage extension requires changes
> to the skin, it may make sense to consider using a superset of monobook (I
> do not know how feasible this is).
>
> Given that the software is already being localised at Betawiki, we do not
> need to restrict ourselves to English. I understand that UNICEF uses some
> of
> their software in Swahili :) I would love to consider Swahili for this ...
> Kennisnet is interested in this functionality, that would make Dutch an
> option. It needs to be clear that it is not only Wikipedia projects that
> will benefit.
>
> The benefits from a more useable interface have little to do with a
> "simple"
> approach. Newbies are not able to contribute. Our need for more
> contributors
> and content is most dire in our smallest projects. Personally I am not that
> interested in using "simple" as a test environment. From my perspective, it
> should be there for all the projects that want it. Obviously, when this
> extension is localised first, it will be more effective.
>
> When we are to test this in a Wikimedia Wiki, we need to get involvement
> from Brion. It would help a lot when the WMF actively takes part in this
> collaboration and make usability a priority.
> Thanks,
>      GerardM
>
>