Wikipedia Zero

Wikipedia Zero overview
Wikipedia Zero is an initiative of The Wikimedia Foundation to enable free mobile access to Wikipedia in developing countries, sometimes referred to collectively as the Global South. The objective of the program is to reduce barriers to accessing free knowledge -- two of the largest barriers being cost of data usage and network speed.

This initiative is based on partnerships with mobile operators, whereby the operator agrees to deploy a version of Wikipedia in a way that their users do not need to pay for data access. Wikipedia Zero is the flagship partner program for 2012, and is the strategic priority for these partnerships. Additional partner programs are often implemented in conjunction or in advance of Wikipedia Zero in order to provide additional means for an operator's customers to both discover and access free knowledge on Wikipedia.

Purpose and Mission
We want to enable access to free knowledge for every last human being. For many readers in developing countries, their primary (and often only) access to the internet is via mobile. However, tall barriers exist that can prevent users from reading Wikipedia and accessing free knowledge on their mobile.

Cost - While handset prices have reduced sharply around the world, data costs are still prohibitively expensive for many users. From the 2010 mobile readers' survey, for example, we saw that 21% of users listed "too much data usage" as a critical barrier to access. That number rises dramatically when we consider people who have capable devices, but are not even yet mobile readers. We need to remove the cost of data as a deterrent to reading Wikipedia.

Speed - The mobile survey also pointed out that speed of connection is the top barrier (44% of users) for using Wikipedia on a mobile phone. Therefore, we need to offset this barrier by offering an experience that loads faster.

There are two outcomes to this. First, new readers will be encouraged to access free knowledge for the first time, knowing that there are limited barriers. Second, existing readers will not be obstructed from accessing knowledge when they need and want it.

Concept and Experience
Wikipedia Zero, hereafter referred to as "Zero," is a lightweight, text-only version of Wikipedia. Functionally, it is a view of the Wikipedia mobile site with images turned off (note that the option to turn off images does exist in all versions of the mobile site, but not as default); this, on average, decreases the amount of data transferred by 50%. The "zero" part refers to zero-rate, which means a partner operator does not charge data fees to the user when they access this version of the site. When users turn on images or click on external links, they will be warned about incurring data charges before continuing. Another version of the service will include links for individual images, and users will be warned when they click on an individual image link.

As part of the incentive for operators, there will be a persistent banner atop a Wikipedia Zero page showing the operator's name. The contents of the banner will be text only, with exact text to be negotiated with the operator (eg, "Free access from OperatorName").

Benefits to Partners
The benefits to users and the Wikimedia movement are clear. For supporting the mission, and undertaking the costs associated with deployment and data, the partner operator can also realize a number of very practical benefits. The first of which is the positive marketing and PR benefit to supporting the mission, and the opportunity of offering a unique service to new and potential customers. Additionally, data shows that 28% of existing readers would be more likely to buy services from an operator that provided Wikipedia Zero. Finally, by making it free and easy to access Wikipedia, a new generation of users will be introduced to the mobile web for the first time -- and, for many, will be seeing the true utility of it by learning to navigate Wikipedia.

Development and Implementation
There are several variables to consider in how Wikipedia Zero is deployed, which will differ among mobile operators:


 * how traffic can be isolated as zero-rated
 * the population of handsets and their capabilities
 * the current popularity of Wikipedia
 * how mobile content services are typically consumed
 * how operators will market Wikipedia Zero

Most of these variables differ considerably between regions and countries. For this discussion, the regions will be India, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. Latin America will be implemented as a second phase.



Zero-rated traffic
Identifying traffic to be zero-rated can be based on a range of IP addresses representing some part of the operator's web traffic, and a Wikipedia Zero landing page with some form of session tracking by URL.

In cases where there is no need to distinguish between paid and free traffic, or if the operator can specify an IP address range specific to free traffic, we can deliver that operator's version of Zero based on their IP addresses. In this case, we need to consider the data analysis requirements of identifying such traffic in usage data logs.

If an operator has both paid and free traffic in the same IP address range, we need to add the method of a specific landing page and tracking mechanism. This would be a specific start page, such as zero.wikipedia.org, from which we track users and also identify the operator by incoming IP address. This landing page satisfies the general use case of an operator linking certain traffic to the free version, or telling its users to use a specific starting point.

If the operator will track URLs in order to whitelist them or to implement a billing policy, then we will provide the format of the URL for that operator. The tracking URL will be the normal Wikipedia mobile URL with an identifier appended, consisting of a path and query string. Tracking via URL is a reliable and simple way to facilitate analysis of usage data.

In summary, a mobile operator must provide a range of incoming IP addresses and we will provide the landing page address and format of URL's specific to that operator. We also request that operators provide usage data, but we will perform logging and analysis as well.

It will be possible for operators to view online and request an update to their IP address range.

Images
Images present some unique challenges. If an image link is clicked, the user will receive a warning about data charges. But when the image is shown, the operator must know to charge for that data and then the user will still be in Zero, meaning the operator banner at the top will be visible and no other images will be visible.

We need to track the download of an image in a different way from other tracking in Zero.

Usability issues of landing page
In general, having a Zero-specific landing page is a useful feature and we can leverage this for anyone who wants to access an image-less mobile version. It is true that anyone can disable images at any time on the normal mobile site; however, it is also true that if someone goes to this page from a mobile network that is not one of our partners or via WiFi, we need to deliver a sensible user experience.

Therefore, when a user goes to zero.wikipedia.org and is not coming through a mobile operator's known IP address range, we will deliver the image-less Zero site but with no heading banner. If the user turns on images, there will be no warning about data charges.

Billing and stats
Another issue related to the Zero landing page is the tracking payload that is appended to subsequent URLs. To facilitate billing, we could append a query string including the word "zero" to subsequent URLs. For example:

en.m.wikipedia.org/?=zero

In addition to the usability and billing issues, there are two other considerations:


 * Partner stats
 * Internal analytics

For both of these purposes, it may be helpful to append a particular session ID to URL's which includes a simple way to identify the mobile operator.

Country-specific portal page
Finally, there is a major usability issue regarding default languages on the landing page. Every country has a unique preference for languages (and sometimes regions within countries), and the main Wikipedia portal page, i.e., www.wikipedia.org, is quite unusable on mobile phones.

Here is a stats page that provides a country-specific breakdown of Wikipedia use by language:

Page views by country

This leads us to a general usability initiative called country-specific portal page.

A general usability initiative in the mobile roadmap is to replace the main portal page, www.wikipedia.org, with a country-specific portal page. Since that portal overlaps in function with the Zero landing page, we will use that feature idea here and expand it slightly for carrier-specific use.

The design of the country-specific portal page includes three sections:


 * search bar, using the main language of the country by default
 * alternate languages, showing the next most popular languages that together with the main language, account for 95% or greater usage (with the exception of India)
 * a selection drop-down for all languages in the usual "alphabetical" order

This provides much greater ease of entry into Wikipedia use than the normal portal page. In addition, we want to identify a particular carrier in order to deliver a specific version of Zero. As mentioned above, we will match the incoming IP address against the IP addresses provided by carriers.

Identifying the carrier then directs how tags are assigned to an incoming request. This is described in detail here.

WAP view
The WAP version of the mobile site must be re-configured in general. Users accessing the mobile site from phones with only a WAP browser will see the site in a WAP-specific format. Currently that format is not optimal for small screen sizes and limited data access.

With Zero, the WAP version will include the operator heading banner and warning banner and should follow the same formatting principles of the main WAP view, once they are established.

New WAP view is an open enhancement bug, 31714.

Other operator programs
While Wikipedia Zero is the cornerstone of operator partnerships, it is one of several ways in which we will integrate with partners. The objectives of all operator partner programs are to either enable accessibility (reducing barriers or making it easier to access and navigate Wikipedia) and/or discoverability (driving awareness and trial of Wikipedia). For example, an RSS feed helps discoverability while an SMS program drives accessibility.

For each partner, we are encouraging an integrated program to drive discoverability and accessibility to their users. The range of integrations that operators can currently deploy are:


 * RSS feed of Today's Featured Article or In the News
 * Direct links to Wikipedia from portals / WAP
 * Wikipedia Zero
 * Android app
 * J2ME app for basic article browsing
 * USSD/SMS article search and limited delivery

The first four will be developed internally. The second two will be developed with partners.

Note on Local content
Trending articles in a region, whether in another language version or the English version of Wikipedia, is an important consideration in making Wikipedia relevant in many parts of the world, especially on mobile devices. If a mobile operator provides a feed of Today's Featured Article, it should be based on local content or local interests. Sometimes that can be satisfied by a non-English language version, sometimes not.

What we need is a mechanism for providing trending articles in a given region.