Reading/Multimedia/Media Viewer/Release Plan



Here is our proposed release plan for Media Viewer, a new tool for browsing multimedia content which is now in beta on Wikipedia and other MediaWiki sites.

This new tool is being developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's multimedia team, to support these goals:
 * Provide a richer multimedia experience, to match user expectations
 * Display images in larger size, on the same page where you click
 * Reduce confusion when users click on thumbnails

We are grateful to all the community members who helped create this tool, through a series of discussions held in 2013 on multiple channels. We now invite other Wikimedia community members to test the beta version, give us more feedback -- and help bring it to more users in coming months.

We are now working on beta version v0.2 of Media Viewer, with a focus on better user interface, faster image load, more file info and attributions, still images only -- as well as improved 'Use this file' tools (e.g.: share, embed, download).

We plan to release this version gradually out of beta, starting with limited tests on a few pilot sites at the end of this quarter. Based on pilot test results, we plan a wider release of Media Viewer v0.2 next quarter.

The proposed plans below are for discussion purposes. We expect to adjust these plans based on community and team feedback.

Releases
We propose to test and deploy Media Viewer gradually, in several separate releases:

Pilot
Test Media Wiki by default on a few pilot sites with smaller, tech-savvy communities.

FIrst Pilot Second Pilot
 * MediaWiki.org
 * Wikimedia Commons
 * Catalan Wikipedia
 * Hungarian Wikipedia
 * Korean Wikipedia
 * Thai Wikipedia
 * Vietnamese Wikipedia
 * Polish Wikipedia
 * English Wikivoyage

Note these are just preliminary suggestions for our first pilots. We are in the process of contacting each community to see if they would be interested in hosting a pilot on their site. We are also open to suggestions of other sites for this pilot phase.

Large Wikis
Based on pilot test results, we plan wider releases on larger wikis, which will require rapid responses to community feedback:
 * Dutch Wikipedia
 * English Wikipedia
 * French Wikipedia
 * German Wikipedia
 * Italian Wikipedia
 * Japanese Wikipedia
 * Portuguese Wikipedia
 * Russian Wikipedia
 * Spanish Wikipedia
 * Swedish Wikipedia
 * Other sites?

All Wikis
If all goes well with the large wiki releases, we would turn on Media Viewer by default for all other wikis, a few weeks later.

Timeline
These tentative release dates are now being discussed with our team and community:
 * March 13? - First limited pilot release: turn on feature by default on Media Wiki.org
 * March 20? - Second limited pilot release on a few small pilot sites TBD
 * April 10? - Third limited pilot release on a few more pilot sites TBD
 * April 24? - Fourth release on large sites TBD
 * May 8? - Fifth release on all wikis

Note these are just preliminary suggestions for our release schedule. We are discussing these proposed dates with team and community members to assess their feasibility.

Announcement
Here is the announcement which we invite you to adapt when introducing Media Viewer to your community.

Feel free to shorten it as needed for your purposes. This announcement will also be posted on the Wikimedia Foundation blog later this week.

Help Test Media Viewer


We invite you to try out Media Viewer, a new tool for browsing multimedia content, which is now in beta on Wikipedia and other MediaWiki sites.

Today, viewing images on our sites can be a frustrating experience for casual users: when you click on a thumbnail in an article, you are taken to a separate page where the image is shown in medium size and surrounded with a lot of text information that can be confusing to readers. Media Viewer aims to improve this viewing experience by showing images in larger size, as an overlay on the current page. To reduce visual clutter, all information is shown below the image, and can be expanded at a click of a button. Read more below.

This new tool is being developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's multimedia team and they now invite you to try out in beta version. The plan is to gradually release this tool in coming months -- starting with a few pilot tests this quarter, with wider deployments in the next quarter.

How it works
With Media Viewer, you can click on any image thumbnail to see it in large size, without visual clutter. You can see the file name and author credits at the bottom of the screen -- and view more information in an expandable panel below the image. You can also expand the image to full screen, for a more immersive experience -- or browse through all images in an article or gallery by clicking on the next and previous arrows. The 'Use this file' tool will make it easier to share images with your community, add them to articles or download them for your own purposes -- with full attribution to contributors. User response so far suggests that Media Viewer provides a richer multimedia experience, right where users expect it. They tell us they can see the images more clearly, without having to jump to separate pages -- and that the interface is more intuitive, offering easy access to images and metadata.

How you can help
Can you help us test Media Viewer in coming weeks? To try it out, log in to any Wikimedia site and click on the small 'Beta' link next to 'Preferences' in your personal menu. Then check the box next to 'Media Viewer' in the Beta Features section of your user preferences — and click 'Save'. Then click on any thumbnail image on that site to see it in the Media Viewer. For more info, check out these testing tips.

Try out Media Viewer and let developers know what you think on this discussion page. If you find any technical bugs, please [//bugzilla.wikimedia.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=MediaWiki%20extensions&component=MultimediaViewer report them here on Bugzilla]. Over 12,000 other beta testers have now enabled Media Viewer around the world. Here is an overview of the feedback they have kindly given us to help improve this tool. Many of their suggestions are now being implemented, as part of the development team's current release plan.

Next steps
The multimedia team is now working on beta version v0.2 of Media Viewer, with a focus on better user interface, faster image load, more file info and attributions, still images only -- as well as improved 'Use this file' tools (e.g.: share, embed, download). The team aims to release this version gradually out of beta, starting with a limited test on a few pilot sites at the end of this quarter. Based on test results, they plan a wider release of Media Viewer v0.2 next quarter.

What do you think of this feature? Should our community help test Media Viewer as one of the first pilot sites? If so, we may want to create a special discussion page to coordinate our efforts, as well as translate any part of the user interface that still needs work.

The multimedia team is grateful to all the community members who helped create this feature, through a series of roundtable discussions held in 2013, over multiple channels. To participate in future discussions, you are invited to join the multimedia mailing list. They look forward to more collaborations with you in coming weeks, so we can all improve Media Viewer together -- and providing a better experience to our users!