Wikimedia Discovery/Meetings/Checkin/2017-11-07

= Topics from the past =
 * Deployment schedule (train and SWAT) for upcoming (end of year) holiday period:
 * https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/engineering/2017-September/000475.html
 * Where’s Guillaume’s SPARK project?
 * https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vtbnty8_vwGnkA5fTg844-bM7aDcPBVmM_S9tV0Sz8/edit
 * Learning Circles
 * JClarity to help with WQDS (garbage collection and other issues) contract in progress
 * Discussion: How is Discovery feeling?
 * Director of Security — big news!
 * GDPR
 * http://www.eugdpr.org/

= Announcements, Information, Questions =
 * 2017 Community Wishlist Survey is open to proposals. Folks should probably keep an eye on the Search category. (I am - Chris)
 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Search
 * Supporting a new engineer in Research?
 * Trey’s latest blog post on advanced search techniques
 * https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/11/06/searching-techniques/
 * Haystack? Potential media search tool
 * http://haystack.weapons.systems/

= Scrum of Scrums = Are we blocked? Are we blocking? Other dependencies (in either direction) which don’t need to be called out as “blocked” (e.g. are progressing smoothly, have no urgency, etc.)
 * None
 * None
 * None

= Discovery News =
 * See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discovery/Status_updates

= Quick Quarterly Goals/KPI Update (if needed) = Discovery Roadmap FY 2017/18: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1N41eNrz0vFHJamLkhQjSFCOSiDg-bKr5H3ROchqwVJU/edit?usp=sharing

FY 2017-18 Q2 (Oct-Dec) goals: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Discovery#Projects

This status was last updated 2017-11-07. Completed/dropped goals may not be shown.

Tech:Search Platform
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technology/Goals/2017-18_Q2#Program_1:_Make_knowledge_more_easily_discoverable

Search:

1. Implement advanced methodologies such as “learning to rank” machine learning techniques and signals to improve search result relevance across language Wikipedias. 2. Improve support for multiple languages by researching and deploying new language analyzers as they make sense to individual language wikis. 3. Investigate how to expand and scale Wikidata Query Service to improve its ability to power features on-wiki for readers 4. Address technical debt:
 * Begin to automate the machine learning pipeline, starting by targeting eight to ten languages, other than English, that match (at a minimum) current performance and then deploy those models. (IN PROGRESS)
 * Investigate open source language software that is available and see if it can be converted into ElasticSearch plugins. (IN PROGRESS)
 * Investigate usage of fall-back languages (DONE)
 * Investigate fuzzy (phonetic) matching.
 * Continue general language support. (IN PROGRESS)
 * Work on sub-category filtering and searching within the Wikidata Query Service. (IN PROGRESS)
 * Convert existing Selenium tests to Node.js (IN PROGRESS)
 * Investigate ownership and maintenance of Logstash (IN PROGRESS)

Structured Data on Commons:

1. Commons search will be extended via CirrusSearch and ElasticSearch and Wikidata Query Service, to support searching based on structured data elements describing media. 2. Advanced search capabilities (e.g., Wikidata Query Service, SPARQL queries) will be updated to support the more specific media search filters and the relationships to the topics they represent
 * Determine advanced search requirements and measures for structured data on commons. (NOT STARTED YET)
 * Begin work on prefix- and full-text search in ElasticSearch on Wikidata in preparation for the Structured Data on Commons project. (IN PROGRESS)

WDQS: Wikidata Query Service goal for this quarter will be to work on sub-category filtering and searching within the Wikidata Query Service; it will be maintained by Stas and Guillaume to support the continued growth and use of the service; the Analysis team will help with statistics.

Audiences:Readers:Discovery
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Audiences/2017-18_Q2_Goals#Readers

Portal: Update the Wikipedia.org portal codebase to be completely automated for ease of ongoing maintenance.
 * Automate portal project updates: statistics and translations (IN PROGRESS)

Maps: Support the move to be more operationally centralized and roll out a new map style that has numerous updates and enhancements.
 * Finalize and deploy new map style; replicate maps test cluster in Wikimedia Cloud Service; monitor for critical bugs (IN PROGRESS)

Analysis: The team will continue to work closely with the Search Platform team to analyze A/B tests and other assorted data; they will also begin working on determining a baseline set of metrics for Structured Data on Commons. (IN PROGRESS)

= FYI =
 * Nov 11: US Holiday
 * Nov 12-13: PGConf Seattle (Paul out)
 * Nov 23-24: US Holiday
 * Dec 25-29: WMF Holiday week
 * Jan 22-23: Readers:Audiences offsite
 * Jan 27-28: Search Platform offsite (after all-hands)
 * OΟО
 * Erika at WikiLead Nov. 15-16
 * Guillaume on vacation Nov 20-24
 * Guillaume 2 weeks in Kenya probably in March… details to come
 * David out last week of February 2018 (2/26 - 3/2)