Research:Mobile Strategy Research

This page documents a research project in progress.
Information may be incomplete and change as the project progresses.
Please contact the project lead before formally citing or reusing results from this page.


Key Personnel

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Research Partners

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Project Summary

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In 2010, the Wikimedia Foundation developed a five-year strategic plan, which includes development of our mobile applications and properties as well as a geographic focus on India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, and Egypt/Arabic speaking countries. The Wikimedia Foundation currently maintains a mobile gateway (m.wikipedia.org) that allows users to access Wikipedia in different languages through mobile devices. Additionally, WMF also has an official iPhone application (which one, link?) which is downloaded ~150,000 times per month. There are also a number of third-party iPhone, iPad, and Android apps, the most popular of which include Wikipanion/Wikipanion Plus, Articles, and Quickpedia. We estimate that X% of Wikipedia users worldwide currently accesss Wikipedia through these mobile pathways.

Objectives

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  • To get a broad understanding of how Wikipedia readers access, read, search, consume, or otherwise use Wikipedia content on mobile devices.
  • To observe and understand Wikipedia editor's current editing practices, with an emphasis on mobile devices but to also including desktop and laptop computers and other devices used in their editing processes.
  • To get insights on cultural and technical ecology of Wikipedia in different geographies and environments, specifically the US, India and Brazil. Specifically to identify notable behaviors; preferences; barriers; mobile + data services, brands, and platforms; and content delivery that can develop our mobile growth.
  • To identify both needs + opportunities for mobile accessibility and development in US, Brazil, and India that can be extended to our entire community and users.
  • To present needs + opportunities and prioritize in collaboration with the mobile business + design + development team.


Works in Progress

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  | India | User experience research conducted in New Delhi and Bangalore. For details, see here.


  | Brazil | User experience research conducted in Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Porto Alegre. For details, see here.


  | United States |User experience research conducted in San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas. For details, see here.


  |Mobile Survey |Quantitative survey conducted in key geographies in nine languages. For details, see here.

  |India Brazil Mobile User Research Report | Report that outlines User experience research conducted in India and Brazil. For details, see here.

Methods

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Dissemination

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Wikimedia Policies, Ethics, and Human Subjects Protection

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Wikimedia consent form (link to Geoff's updated consent form)

Benefits for the Wikimedia community

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A better mobile experience.

Time Line

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See here.

Funding

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Funding for this work is provided by the Wikimedia Foundation.

References

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See the original Strategy page here.

Contacts

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Parul Vora and Mani Pande