VisualEditor

The Visual editor project aims to create a reliable rich-text editor for MediaWiki. It is being developed as a MediaWiki extension and currently being tested in the visual editor sandbox. It is possible that this would be a sufficiently large change to raise MediaWiki's version number to MediaWiki 2.0.

Rationale
The decline in new contributor growth is the single most serious challenge facing the Wikimedia movement in the year 2011. Removing the avoidable technical impediments associated with Wikimedia's editing interface is a necessary precondition for increasing the number of Wikimedia contributors.

Timeline
Some level of exploration was done in 2010 by the Wikipedia Usability Initiative.

The 2011 product whitepaper published by the Wikimedia Foundation's strategic product team identified rich-text editing as one of the "Great Movement Projects". Work subsequently started in May 2011.

First prototypes are expected in 2011; the final feature is expected to be delivered in late 2012. The Wikimedia annual plan, released July 2011, states a goal for the Visual Editor: "First opt-in user-facing production usage by December 2011, and first small wiki default deployment by June 2012."

Additional documents

 * User requirements:
 * Specifications:
 * /Software design/
 * /Bidirectional text requirements/
 * /WikiDom Specification/
 * Test plan:
 * Documentation plan:
 * User interface design docs:
 * Schedule:
 * /Task management/
 * /Todo list/
 * Release management plan:
 * Communications plan:
 * Status updates
 * Feedback page for developer prototype