MobileFrontend/Photo upload

This page is a DRAFT only.

Overview
This page is intended as a general discussion of photo uploads in the context of Wikipedia on mobile devices and related projects such as Wiki Loves Monuments. For specific documents on use cases and functionality, see the following:
 * Use cases
 * Wiki Loves Monuments App
 * Data and feedback
 * WLM App Workflow wireframes
 * General functional requirements
 * Web Basic Workflow mock-ups
 * App Basic Workflow wireframes
 * Advanced Workflow mock-ups
 * Advanced Workflow wireframes
 * Analysis
 * Initial enhancement bug 32286
 * Integration of campaign metadata in Upload Wizard 33341
 * Potential issues with the Upload Wizard mobile port

The ability to upload photos is a form of content contribution that is particularly suitable for nearly all mobile devices. Recently, community-led projects such as Wiki Loves Monuments used contribution of photos as a major form of increasing new participation in Wikimedia projects and bringing high-quality content to Wikimedia Commons that can improve the quality of articles in Wikipedia. The software that met the initial needs of that project is called Upload Wizard, and that has become a standard way to contribute photos on Commons.

The main goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive approach to photo uploads across a wide range of mobile devices, using a browser or app. In addition, while contribution of photos will naturally act as a type of contribution to articles on Wikipedia, they also offer many opportunities for sharing, rating, liking and gaming that are distinct from the forms of participation more directly related to articles.

Quality and quantity
Mobile photo uploads may add plenty of new contributions to Commons, but the question is, how good will they be? As noted below under curation, there is already a considerable burden of curation on the Commons community. Therefore, it is an important goal of this project to define metrics around the quality of uploaded photos and to track those metrics diligently.

iPhone constraint
One constraint that must be clarified up front is that iOS devices do not offer file access from a web browser. This means that browser-based upload is not easy to enable on iPhone or iPad. Device detection in that case must exclude usage of browser-based upload and reference an app-based approach.

Proposed solutions and phasing
In order to support Wiki Loves Monuments and take advantage of that contest's increasing popularity, the initial direction is to develop a WLM App, using the PhoneGap framework and re-using elements of the existing Wikipedia apps. This app will be for Android first and iOS second. The details of the WLM App are described in some of the pages referenced above, and below.

Depending on available resources, the next development milestone will be a web-based version of mobile uploads that re-uses the current Upload Wizard. This is currently proposed in two steps: Basic and Advanced. If timing allows, it may be possible to address minimal WLM functionality in the Basic version. It is not yet clear if the development of the Basic version will happen in the June-July timeframe, which could meet the timeframe of WLM in September.

With the Advanced version, the proposed timing is to learn from the WLM experience and develop both the web and app versions in parallel. In this case, the app versions will be extensions of the main Wikipedia apps. The Advanced version will include a seamless integration between WIkipedia articles and photo uploads, while also incorporating game dynamics related to contests.

Following this, depending on user feedback and relative success in increasing both the quality and quantity of contributions, there could be a further stage of development that introduces social dynamics, such as rating, following, liking, commenting and sharing.

Ideally, by next spring, mobile photo uploads will be in a strong position to influence the next WLM contest in a significant way.

Photo curation
Curation of photos on Commons is extremely backlogged, and it is likely that the new influx of photos from mobile uploads will add to this burden. In the case of WLM, a specific judging process deals with the curation of photos that are submitted for that contest.

Curation of photos on Commons can be enhanced through a separate project called New Page Triage. The version of NPT that supports file curation will be ideal for photos, and it is hoped that this will be available by the time WLM starts in September.

NOTE: It will be desirable to support the notion of maintaining a link between uploaded photos and their intended articles during the curation process, which is a proposed feature of the Advanced version.

Sequence and timeframes
The proposed steps in this project are as follows:


 * WLM App for Android (May-Aug)
 * WLM App for iOS (Jul-Aug)
 * New Page Triage for files (Jul-Aug?)
 * Basic web version (Jul-Aug or later, depending on resource)
 * Advanced web version (Oct-Dec)
 * Advanced app version as extensions of our Wikipedia apps (Oct-Dec)
 * Social version, web and apps (Jan-Mar)

WLM App
This is a standalone app that is specifically designed for the Wiki Loves Monuments contest. It will incorporate WLM camapaigns and monument data, and re-use the Nearby functionality currently in the Wikipedia apps. The upload process will borrow from the design of the Basic version but will be implemented from scratch. This app will rely on the Phonegap framework for quick development and portability.

The workflow of this app starts with a welcome to the contest and a way to select a campaign (typically campaigns are at country-level). Then the user can see nearby monuments, and there will be an obvious invitation to contribute a photo to each monument. From there the basic upload process will start.

Access to the monument DB is through an API currently residing on Toolserver. See Wiki Loves Monuments-specific approach for more details.

Basic version, web
The Basic workflow is based on current functionality using Upload Wizard on Commons.

In this workflow, users select a general upload command as the starting point. This launches the login process and opens a mobile version of Commons dedicated to the upload process with a brief explanation. From here, a mobile version of the upload wizard takes the user through the upload, licensing and description steps, and the licensing step is simplified by presenting the case of content created by the user as the default. Also the category can be pre-filled as "Android browser upload" or "Android/iOS app upload."

As noted above, since upload from a browser on iOS devices is not possible, device detection needs to treat iOS browsers as a special case that is excluded from this workflow. This means that when a user attempts to perform a photo upload from our mobile site on iOS, he will be directed to our app on the App Store, once our app supports this functionality.

Advanced version, web and apps
The Advanced version of photo upload is based on the use case of "Nearby article needing photo or geo-location data." And it will support game dynamics in the form of contests.

In this workflow, a user is browsing an article in the Nearby view that is marked as lacking a photo or geo-location data. An obvious invitation to contribute a photo is highly visible on the article (such as a blank box with a question mark and the text, "Add your photo"). Upon clicking the invitation, the user enters a process similar to the basic workflow, shifting automatically to Commons from Wikipedia with a brief explanation. In addition, an ID of some sort from the article is passed to the upload wizard.

While the photo is curated on Commons, the article ID remains with it and ultimately enables the photo to be placed into the appropriate article. Then the photo becomes part of the article editing process on Wikipedia. The upload process includes a way of extracting the geo-tag from the photo and preserving it alongside the article ID, so that the geo-location data can be added to the article later.

As noted above, curation of photos can be enhanced through New Page Triage for files, a separate project. Maintaining the link between uploaded photos and their intended articles is an important component of the curation process.

Eventually, we may consider a condensed workflow in which the article (or geo data) is added to the article at the same time as the photo is uploaded to Commons.