Hello there, Cristian and others. This is really interesting, especially your survey! The browser-based geolocation relies mostly on wifi/wlan [1] and since apparently Italy for legal reasons has far fewer Wi-Fi Hotspots than other countries [2], it is interesting that you consider this browser-based geolocation superior still. All in all, I think that yes, it is invasive and therefor should not be used on Wikipedia. But I'd love to hear what other options people come up with. Oh, in case somebody hasn't seen this yet, do have a look at this hack showing current Wikipedia geonotices on a world map. Anyway, thank you for the good work! --Atlasowa (talk) 21:15, 18 July 2012 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for your reply, Atlasowa. I would be very glad seeing a strong participation in this discussion. I think the geonotice could be a good instrument to reach people, especially new editors who may be attracted by the fact that some of the editors of the encyclopedia they maybe only read every day are doing a meetup nearby. I would also like to see a more profound study,maybe a survey organized by WMF staff for a more effective discussion, maybe this is easier to achieve. Finally a clarifications on WiFi in Italy: yes, probably WiFi in Italy is behind other countries and probably the so-called "decreto Pisanu" held it back for a while, the good news is that law is no longer in force. -- CristianCantoro (talk) 00:15, 20 July 2012 (UTC)Reply
Let me also add that the weakness of Wi-Fi in Italy is about public Wi-Fi. Private Wi-Fi is as diffused as broadband connections, in fact, every major internet provider in Italy includes in its offers a router with Wi-Fi capability. -- CristianCantoro (talk) 18:56, 21 July 2012 (UTC)Reply

Cost seems to better defined than the benefit so far

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I think it would be useful to have a wider study of the accuracy of the current system. Privacy issues are always a concern.  I am not certain I could support gathering more exact information on users who are well-served by the current system. It would be more supportable, I think, if there were a way to turn on the browser-based system only for those who are in areas that are known to be poorly served by the current system. Or if you were to ask those who geolocate to known ambiguous areas to opt-in to browser-based geolocation. There is obviously a benefit for some people, but a cost to everyone if we were to switch wholesale. Further study to determine exactly how widespread and how significant the benefit would be something that I think might be useful.--BirgitteSB (talk) 17:29, 23 July 2012 (UTC)Reply

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