Grants talk:IEG/WikiTrack

Feedback

Hi Hari Prasad Nadig,

Thanks for submitting this proposal. I've got a few initial comments/questions about it:

1. Where/how are you hosting WikiTrack currently? To be eligible for an IEG, we need to know that you've got a hosting plan that doesn't make you dependent on WMF engineering for servers - can you please provide this information as soon as possible this week?
2. For your measures of success, we'll want to have a sense of your targets - how many downloads, and what amount/type of engagement would make you consider this 6-month project successful?
3. You are responsible for notifying the community about your proposal so that they can endorse it or give feedback to help us understand how useful such a project would be for the Wikimedia community. Usually, people notify the community via a link in an appropriate wiki's village pump, on mailing lists, etc. I'd encourage you to do this as soon as you can, and post the link to wherever you gave notification into your "Community Notification" section of your IEG proposal. This can be good practice for engaging with your target audience throughout your project, because we find that the most successful IEGs are those which have good communication channels to engage with those that they hope will use their tools.

Best wishes, Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:26, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Siko, thanks for the feedback. Ended up checking this a bit late. The project will not depend on WMF Engineering for server space. The code can be hosted in bitbucket or github or Google Code.

Another 10,000 downloads or more with community engaging in giving feedback for the apps collectively seems fair as of now. Would love to see more users downloading it though. --H P Nadig (talk) 18:37, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Two quick comments

• Re #1 above, I think Hari is describing a mobile app, running entirely client-side, and using Mediawiki public APIs. This requires neither hosting nor cooperation from WMF Engineering. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 17:13, 15 April 2014 (UTC)
• I'd like to join Siko in encouraging community discussion of this proposal very soon, i.e. so that some discussion is available for the committee to take into account. It seems to me one relevant community to inform, in addition to the user communities in the Indian languages already covered, is the Mediawiki community itself, at mediawiki.org. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 17:13, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Asaf, thanks! I'll act on this asap. --H P Nadig (talk) 18:39, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Eligibility confirmed, round 1 2014

This Individual Engagement Grant proposal is under review!

We've confirmed your proposal is eligible for round 1 2014 review. Please feel free to ask questions here on the talk page and make changes to your proposal as discussions continue during this community comments period.

The committee's formal review for round 1 2014 begins on 21 April 2014, and grants will be announced in May. See the schedule for more details.

Questions? Contact us.

Please note that eligibility is dependent on the proposer having a hosting plan that does not rely on WMF. If your project is recommended for funding, we will work with you to gather information about your plan before an IEG can be approved. Siko (WMF) (talk) 23:43, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Nice idea

I am guilty of lots of "ghost edits" because when I am scanning Wikipedia on a handheld device, I don't bother to fix anything. Any little bit you can do to make mobile more attractive to editors is important so I would totally support this proposal! Jane023 (talk) 18:45, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Jane023, Thanks much for the support! --H P Nadig (talk) 18:40, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

small question

Hi! Would you, please, tell us:

• how many hours do you expect to develop this app? rubin16 (talk) 06:48, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
• what does "Number of downloads and Editor engagement measured by appropriate Analytics" as a success metrics mean? How many download would you consider as a success for the project? rubin16 (talk) 06:48, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
• what will be the language of the consolidated app? Will it have any localization? Will it be possible, for example, to port localization files to translatewiki.net and then merge into app?

Thanks rubin16 (talk) 06:48, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

rubin16, Many thanks for the comments. The present set of apps have already crossed more than 38,000 downloads. In a span of six months, another 10,000 downloads should be a fair number.

Localization shall be useful, yes. Although I didn't plan that for this phase, I think it should be doable knowing that there's a thriving community at translatewiki.net that we can count on for translations! :-) Many thanks for bringing this up though. Having worked on localization for better part of last 10 years, I do realize how important that is. --H P Nadig (talk) 18:49, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Rubin16, to answer your other question - I'm looking at around 50 hours of programming, testing and close to 10 hours of design at this moment. Thanks, --H P Nadig (talk) 06:27, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, please ensure you use a format supported by translatewiki.net (android string.xml format is fine) and to start i18n as first thing, so that you have feedback from translators during the development (see translatewiki:Translating:New_project).

Other than that, frankly I've not understood what the app actually does (a sort of aggregator of recent changes feeds, is my best guess so far) but I like two things the proposal focuses on i.e. 1) a pilot which showed interest in the community (bottom-up prioritising), 2) a budget below 10 k$ (a relief after all the expensive paid editing initiatives proposed by other grantees!). --Nemo 07:47, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Nemo, thanks for the support! It can be a handy app for contributors who'd prefer to keep an eye on their favorite projects on the go or to keep an eye on the watchlist or to just check some User Contributions. Having said that, would love to see the app extended further to as I mentioned on the proposal, "to analyze the edits, quantify them and track the projects in many different ways" in next few phases with some support and feedback. --H P Nadig (talk) 18:56, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Overlap with current features

Hey all. This is a great idea, but I am wondering whether you've considered the overlap with existing/upcoming mobile features. Particularly:

1. Editors on all projects can log in and use their watchlist today, via mobile web (i.e. m.wikipedia.org).
2. The iOS and Android apps for Wikipedia are currently undergoing a major rewrite. Have you talked to the apps team about whether they are going to support watchlists?

If these features are already built/planned for mobile, I'm not sure it makes sense to invest in another app series for specific languages. Steven Walling (WMF) • talk 22:40, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

This would be my concern as well. Duplicating effort in a separate app doesn't make sense, it would be better to work with the mobile web and app teams to integrate this functionality. (Unfortunately the deadline for Google Summer of Code this year has passed, that might have been a better route to take.) the wub "?!" 22:09, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Steven, The wub, Valid points! In fact, I did have some conversations with the mobile team during the last Pune meet-up (in India). But then, we talked about how Diffs are presently handled and some new ways that the mobile team is trying out with that.

Looking at it as a tracking app for contributors and thinking long term on adding potential features to improve tracking of contributions and the patterns, I would tend to think that something like this shall be required. --H P Nadig (talk) 19:04, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Steven, just wanted to add that the idea is to roll this out for all languages, and not specific languages by consolidating it. What made me think this tool would be useful is the good number of downloads and high ratings we have seen so far for Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada Android apps. And this can be extended later to do plenty of useful stuff. --H P Nadig (talk) 06:33, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Echo

Would the tool be available to unregistered contributors, unlike Echo (notifications?
If not, how would this tool differ from it?
Would you reuse some of the codebase?

How does this proposal align with the fact that IEG does not fund extensions and wiki work? Gryllida 22:38, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Gryllida, thanks for the comments! The tool is meant for tracking the projects and yes, it is available for unregistered users even as of now.

Not thinking of re-using the codebase of the present app, but may do so if it is looking good. On re-using other code, well, if there's some good piece of code that can be used, sure! - in which case time could be spent on touching other aspects that could add value to the app. --H P Nadig (talk) 19:13, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

And Gryllida, this isn't an extension for mediawiki. It is an app that could be handy for editors. --H P Nadig (talk) 03:05, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Aggregated feedback from the committee for WikiTrack

Scoring criteria (see the rubric for background)	Score 1=weak alignment 10=strong alignment
(A) Impact potential Does it fit with Wikimedia's strategic priorities? Does it have potential for online impact? Can it be sustained, scaled, or adapted elsewhere after the grant ends?	6.8
(B) Innovation and learning Does it take an Innovative approach to solving a key problem? Is the potential impact greater than the risks? Can we measure success?	6.7
(C) Ability to execute Can the scope be accomplished in 6 months? How realistic/efficient is the budget? Do the participants have the necessary skills/experience?	8.2
(D) Community engagement Does it have a specific target community and plan to engage it often? Does it have community support? Does it support diversity?	5.7
Comments from the committee: This project hopes to enable current wiki editors to interact more with Wikipedia on mobile using functionality that mobile doesn't currently have. Mobile is a very important area. Would like to see engagement from the Wikimedia Mobile team to talk about how this app's features mesh with their development roadmap. If lack of notification could be addressed by adding features to Wikimedia mobile site/apps, not sure if a separate app is really needed. Project has a solid history of success behind it. The proposer is well suited to take on the well-scoped proposal. The budget is reasonable and realistic, making this a relatively low-risk project. Success is easily measurable. Want to make sure this app will be internationalized and usable for the majority of languages, not sure how difficult language support will be to do that. Grantees are aware of translatewiki - so, perhaps, it would be scalable. Would appreciate seeing a larger vision in the proposal - how will it lead to a larger impact on the Wikimedia projects.

Thank you for submitting this proposal. The committee is now deliberating based on these scoring results, and WMF is proceeding with it's due-diligence. You are welcome to continue making updates to your proposal pages during this period. Funding decisions will be announced by the end of May. — ΛΧΣ²¹ 00:00, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Round 1 2014 Decision

Congratulations! Your proposal has been selected for an Individual Engagement Grant.

The committee has recommended this proposal and WMF has approved funding for the full amount of your request, $2500

Comments regarding this decision:
We appreciate seeing a mobile tool aimed at supporting the needs of very active editors across the globe, and look forward to learning along with you as the project progresses! Please make a point of communicating on mobile-l@ as you have updates to share, and join #wikimedia-mobile on IRC, so that others working on mobile projects can follow your work as it moves forward.

Next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement and setup a monthly check-in schedule.
2. Review the information for grantees.
3. Use the new buttons on your original proposal to create your project pages.
4. Start work on your project!

Questions? Contact us.