User:TheDJ/2018

Vision for MediaWiki/Wikimedia as of 2018[edit]

De-emphasize Wikipedia (and specifically the major 5). I'm of the opinion that Wikipedia has become so fixed as a form, a technology and a culture, that it has become our most significant barrier towards progress. Instead, I want us to invest in Wikidata, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wiktionary and lastly Commons. It is my opinion that by putting additional focus on these areas, we can build better software, faster and find more contributors. This will eventually benefit Wikipedia (trickle down) and it will do so faster than by focusing on Wikipedia.
App-ification: Long term I want to get away from the unified skin approach for reader and editor experiences, as well as the gadget and beta options etc and move toward a set of component based 'applications' that allows people to interact with the content in a way that is optimal to their workflow. These would all be JS-only, have fullscreen modes, capable of offline usage and be in a single design language. You can switch between WikiWand and Vector for readers and switch between vandal fighting, revision approval and VE as an editor. Users could publish and install new versions of these apps, auto update, or be pinned to a version.
Accept that our larger communities are not on the same page and actively compete with and sometimes undermine eachother. Stop trying to integrate them and instead see how we can use technology to create opt-in bridges between them.
Simplify experimenting with new communities. Starting a new sisterproject should be easier (not harder than creating a new tool on wmflabs), as experimentation has become harder within our existing projects. Feedback has made it clear that we have lots of voices that feel that there is no space for their knowledge within the movement and that they cannot get their ideas of the ground in the current structure. Lowering barriers around installation, maintenance and configuration of the wiki (in all forms), should help

These are some of my personal views. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 15:43, 17 January 2018 (UTC)