How can we make Wikipedia more interactive for readers?

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The WMF's Reading team focuses on building an inclusive reading and learning experience for our readers across different platforms. Photo by Lia Chang, CC BY-SA 2.0.
The WMF’s Reading team focuses on building an inclusive reading and learning experience for our readers across different platforms. Photo by Lia Chang, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Last week, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Reading team kicked off a reading consultation in order to collect answers to the question of “How can we make Wikipedia more interactive for readers?”. The target is to gather ideas from our broad and diverse community that includes our editors, who create Wikipedia, our readers, as well other web or product enthusiasts.
Interactivity has been one of the themes that were requested by users in a general community consultation carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation last year. While the theme of interactivity is broad, and might not be easy to define, we are breaking it down into simpler components:

  • In terms of content, how could Wikipedia content be made more interactive in order to make learning about your subject of interest easier?
  • In terms of users interaction, how can we bridge the gap between readers and editors to help both groups learn more about each other and to help readers better understand how Wikipedia works?

In this consultation, we are looking forward to lessons from the process, including how easy it is for newbies to fill in a form through desktop and mobile. While we are still working on enhancing our mobile editing experience, below we are attaching snapshots of how to add your ideas through the mobile interface. Below is a quick demo of how to add ideas if you are checking the link from your phone and you aren’t logged in, i.e you don’t have a Wikimedia account.
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Main page that you will see when you click the link (left). Click on the box and start typing the title of your idea (right).
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You can continue without logging in, and your IP will be shared publicly (left). Start typing the details of your idea (right).
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Just add a summary, eg:something as simple as “adding an idea” (left). Click OK (right).
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Click the pen if you need to further edit your idea.
If you have an idea that you think can help make interaction with content and other users on Wikipedia more effective, please check the link here and add your idea. You can even start with just a concept and others can add to it (it is a wiki, after all!). Someone from our team will discuss your idea or get in touch with you (if you are logged in). You can always revisit your idea and continue the discussion on the talk page for that idea. For general comments or questions feel free to write to reading [at] wikimedia [dot] org
It has been over a week already, and so far we have received 20 ideas that suggest alternative ways of how information could be displayed on Wikipedia. Take a look at those and feel free to discuss or add your new idea. This consultation is expected to run for 4 weeks. Towards the end, we will promote the ideas that seem to have the most promise to discuss how can we move forward.
We’re looking forward to your revolutionary ideas and input.
Moushira Elamrawy, Community Liasion
Wikimedia Foundation

Screenshots by Moushira Elamrawy, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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I’m interested in the reasoning that caused you to exclude users from your ‘best picture’ competition.
I don’t see how not meeting certain criteria makes me less able to, and prevented from, judging pictures. My eyesight is as good or better than most since I recently had cataract surgeries and I’m confident in my ability to decide whether I like one picture more than another which is what those eligible to vote will do.

[…] How can we make Wikipedia more interactive for readers?: Within the first, the WMF Reading team received 20 ideas that suggest alternative ways of how information could be displayed on Wikipedia. Take a look at those and feel free to discuss or add your new idea. This consultation is expected to run for 4 weeks, finishing at the end of April. Towards the end, we will promote the ideas that seem to have the most promise to discuss how can we move forward. […]

I don’t know why do you want to make the IP adress public, in case that someone is not logged in. Expecially, because on mobile devices it is very common not to have your own dedicated IP adress. What if my IP adress is just one picked from a whole class of adress and in the next ten minutes i will have another one choose by the network?