Comments on: A note on the Wikipedia Usability Initiative

By: Billigflüge

Billigflüge — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:49:56 +0000

Hello and good day,

it is amazing what wikipedia makes possible. It is not only a big archive with many informations, it grew up to a very big community, which includes many members!

I appreciate what Mr. Naoko Komura recommends to the readers of his short text!

Thank you very much!

By: Steven Walling

Steven Walling — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Thanks for the further explanation Naoko. It puts a large part of my concern to rest. Easing the logistics of a new project is most certainly a top priority, and it’s good to know that Wikia will be one part of a comprehensive look at usability by the project.

By: Naoko

Naoko — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:51:39 +0000

On the space front, the bid from the Wikia’s space was matched to the equivalent office space in SOMA. Leasing office space from the walking distance location has a great advantage for the project team and the WMF. As the project team will meet with the WMF’s tech team regularly and administrative resource such as HR and Finance are shared, keeping the satellite office at walking distance helps save time from going back and forth. On the tech collaboration front, we are not treating Wikia’s development work as the solution. Their work is one of the modified MediaWiki we are evaluating along with what’s out there such as deki, uniwiki and numerous extensions developed by MediaWiki developers. The project team will produce its own code, but if the solution is out there already, why not collaborate, incorporate, and make it available for existing and next users of MediaWiki? Isn’t that an open source project all about?

By: Gregory Kohs

Gregory Kohs — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:54:39 +0000

More detail, please, on the note that “Wikia matched the best offer”. Were the other ten higher bidder also given the opportunity to match the best offer? Why was Wikia chosen on a “second and final offer” basis, rather than the good-faith firm that submitted the lowest offer?

I have to agree with Steven Walling, above. Considering that the last official arrangement between Wikia and Wikipedia was appointing Wikia employee Ryan “Essjay” Jordan to the Arbitration Committee, I would have thought the WMF would be hyper-sensitive to working in concert yet again with their neighbor down the street.

By: Steven Walling

Steven Walling — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:48:54 +0000

I’m very excited about the usability initiative, and I agree that we have some things we could learn from Wikia in that area. But as a devoted Wikimedian, I’d like to say that I find the idea of the Foundation working that closely with Wikia, literally and figuratively, discomforting. We already have enough people confused about the difference between the two organizations, and to be honest, this feels like nepotism.