SJ Klein
From devsummit
| Tags | New Users, Strategy |
|---|---|
| Primary Session | |
| Secondary Sessions |
Our platforms should refocus on collaborating, drafting, and experimenting. Currently much focus is on polished presentation + restriction, hindering experiments and limiting participation.
__Technical aspects__
- Editing tools focus on fast smooth drafting: multiple simultaneous editors, suggested changes. A terse, readable history highlights major revisions of an article. Discussion is integrated into the draft interface, and toggled on / off.
- Articles can be forked & merged, supporting all sorts of experimentation. Different groups can work on parallel forks, merging later if they like. Newcomers not following a policy can be channeled to an individual branch while sorting it out, avoiding edit wars. Sandboxing helps avoid "deletion": questionable or disputed contributions can be sandboxed to a hidden or low-visibility personal page. [This is also conducive to distributing an online/offline federation of editors, e.g. over IPFS]
- Editing, creation, and uploading are encouraged prominently in every page interface. Matchmaking tools help creators find others with similar interests, learn + collaborate. Tools for similarity checking, merging, metadata / license review, + meta-moderation, help anyone contribute and learn new ways to do so. Deleted material [unless oversighted] is reviewable by all who know where to look.
- The reading experience focuses on contextual connections + human connections. Real-time conversation is available as an overlay while reading. Data-rich interfaces help readers browse multiple versions of an article, and get a sense of persistence, reliability, + interest. For instance, heatmaps for revised / controversial / commented areas; wikiblame for granular provenance; different colors for different sorts of cites; visual cues about how much complementary or conflicting knowledge is available in other articles, files, languages or Projects.
__Cultural aspects (& related tools) __
- Namespaces include every potentially useful topic: completeness, notability, + copyright uncertainty affect how things are presented, not whether they exist. Similarly, media repositories include all useful material that is legal to host.
- File uploads are welcome as contributions to the global commons even when they need work. Files are transcoded to free formats where possible. File formats with no free-codec options, or that cannot be thoroughly checked for malware, are stored in their own flexible repository [such as the Internet Archive]: using the same Wikimedia upload interface + metadata, and providing similar wikilinks to reference files from within the Projects.
- The newcomer experience is simple, flexible, + protected. Contributions from people who "don't know how to do it right" are welcome, and kept separate from the flow of updates from regulars, with their own visibility defaults. Matchmaking tools help newcomers find active work in their area. Blocks, deletions, + warnings happen only for spam / vandalism. Other concerns at worst hide their work from public view, with a friendly review with a peer after the first weeks. A broad group of peers can protect newcomers, for instance by redirecting concerns and complaints about a newcomer to themselves.
== It is time to move away from a "single latest revision viewable by all" model, and the conservative policies designed around it. We need a more flexible model embracing multiple working copies, long-lived drafts, and a greater freedom to experiment, collaborate, + create.
