Wikipedia Zero/status

Last update on: 2013-04-monthly

2012-02-29

Patrick Reilly continued work on our zero-rated MediaWiki extension. He spent the month cleaning up issues reported by our partners and prepped the extension for more scheduled partner testing in March.

2012-03-15

Patrick Reilly deployed Wikipedia Zero to production in prep for testing with Digi. We're continuing testing through the week

2012-03-21

We continued testing with Digi

2012-03-31

Patrick Reilly deployed the ZeroRatedMobileAccess extension to production, and we tested it with Digi.

2012-04-02

We finished styling issues for the Digi Malaysia launch and are prepping communication

2012-04-monthly

Patrick Reilly and Dan Foy have continued to support our Zero partner roll-outs. We're testing in new countries and are updating the Zero software as necessary. Due to our partners' confidentiality requirements, we haven't been able to highlight the specific areas where testing is happening. Moving forward, we are going to work with our partners to be able to disclose more.

2012-05-02

Patrick has continued to work with Dan about launch related zero issues

2012-05-17

Our focus lately has been working with Orange affiliates in Africa. Right now we are conducting tests in Tunisia, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Niger and Ivory Coast

2012-05-monthly

May saw the first official launch of Wikipedia Zero in Malaysia. Patrick Reilly, Dan Foy and others conducted tests in Tunisia, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Niger and Ivory Coast. Patrick worked with Dan to further improve the Wikipedia Zero extension.

2012-06-monthly

Dan and Patrick continued conducting tests with Orange in six different countries. Additional testing and refinement is under way with our partners in Bangladesh and Montenegro. Dan and Patrick continued conducting tests with our partners in Bangladesh and Montenegro. We debugged and resolved serious issues with our Opera Mini integration and general infrastructure.

2012-08-monthly

Configuration of partner data is now more configurable and various additional partners are now in testing mode. List of launches to follow.

2012-09-monthly

Configuration of partner data is now more configurable and various additional partners are now in testing mode. List of launches to follow.

2012-10-01

Working on streamlining the IP detection process as well as the overall configuration. New features for partners have also been added that relate to the UI (e.g., custom banner colors).

2012-10-monthly

This month, we've launched Wikipedia Zero with dtac Thailand and STC Saudi. We've also enhanced some diagnostics to inform the users of Zero if they are not using a known partner IP address. We continued to talk with potential new partners and made internal improvements to simplify the configuration process.

2012-12-01

This month we've worked with volunteer developers at the Bangalore DevCamp on our SMS feature, and are preparing for the launch of additional partners in the next few weeks.

2012-11-monthly

This month we've worked with volunteer developers at the Bangalore DevCamp on our SMS feature, and are preparing for the launch of additional partners in the next few weeks.

2012-12-monthly

During the month of December, Patrick Reilly, Dan Foy and the rest of the Zero team launched Wikipedia Zero with a new partner, Orange Congo. They resolved operational issues that prevented the team from accurately recording traffic from the Opera browser. They also helped on-board Brion Vibber to help in the interim while the team continues to look for permanent members. The team is very excited about its upcoming launches and will be announcing them as soon as possible.

2013-01-monthly

During January, Wikimedia was awarded a grant in the Knight News Challenge for our work in expanding Wikimedia mobile projects. Part of this grant will be used for Wikipedia Zero and the SMS/USSD projects to improve access to knowledge in the developing world. In addition, we've partnered with VimpelCom to provide Wikipedia Zero to at least 100 million additional customers this year.

2013-02-monthly

During February, we launched with a new partner, Orange Botswana. We've also begun testing with Vimpelcom for an upcoming launch in March. In addition, we've made improvements to the partner dashboard which tracks Wikipedia Zero usage.

2013-03-monthly

In March we added new telecom partners (such as Axiata Group Berhad) and fixed some bugs, and brought new staff online. We also won an SXSW Interactive "Activism" award for Wikipedia Zero. In April we aim to start improving the code and the IP detection.

2013-04-monthly

We deployed Mobile Web's MobileFrontEnd-ZeroRatedMobileAccess decoupling code to production. We also started the next point release to support more object-friendly JSON-backed carrier preferences, updated carrier preferences, fixed UI button rendering bug, and documented configuration parameters. Last, we added content to wiki pages, and prepared for the migration of non-embargoed content to public wikis.