Wikimedia Discovery/FDC Proposal

The Wikimedia movement has content discovery issues. We have a wealth of content buried in Wikipedia, Commons, Wiktionary, and our other projects, which users simply cannot find in an easy fashion. Discovery’s opportunity is to improve content discovery mechanisms to connect the dots and build bridges between projects to alleviate this problem, and expose users to the wealth of relevant content that exists but they cannot find.

Discovery’s focus in FY 2015/16 was to measure and improve the fundamentals of search, and experiment with other content discovery mechanisms such as maps and complex queries to Wikidata. To that end, we launched the completion suggester in production on all wikis, piloted improvements to the search experience on wikipedia.org, launched experimental versions of a maps tile service and query service for Wikidata, and migrated all Wikivoyages to the new maps service.

In FY 2016/17, the Discovery Department strategic direction will focus on improving search and content discovery on Wikimedia projects. We will do this through improving our user satisfaction KPI across all Wikimedia projects focusing on surfacing imagery, maps, metadata, and sibling project content for on wiki and www.wikipedia.org search results. We will continue to explore new experimental mechanisms to encourage creation and discovery for community participation and innovation.