2. No!
But something
has to be done…
C C - B Y- S A : H T T P : / / W W W. F L I C K R . C O M / P H O T O S / G A R R Y K N I G H T / 7 0 0 3 1 7 8 8 5 7 / S I Z E S / L /
3. ”Only 20 percent of the readership of the English-language
Wikipedia comes via mobile devices, a figure substantially
lower than the percentage of mobile traffic for other media
sites, many of which approach 50 percent.”
H T T P : / / W W W. N Y T I M E S . C O M / 2 0 1 4 / 0 2 / 1 0 / T E C H N O L O G Y / W I K I P E D I A - V S - T H E - S M A L L - S C R E E N . H T M L
4. People read more and more text on their mobile
devices.
On mobile, people want to check facts quickly.
Most of the (good) articles in Wikipedia are long.
6. PROS
• Mobile user wants to do a quick check on a subject.
• Even in a well-written article the introduction in the
beginning does not usually cover the key facts in the
article.
• An analogy: abstracts in scientific articles.
• Easy to create high quality texts: the character limit is
your friend.
7. HOW TO IMPLEMENT?
• As new service / startup / nonprofit?
• Mediawiki software (which Wikipedia runs on) is free and open
software - it is easy to set up a new wiki with a character limit.
• As Wikimedia Foundation new project?
• As a separate ”language” in Wikipedia (like English vs. Simple
English currently are)?
• As a new feature in Mediawiki and Wikipedia?
• On mobile browser, the 1000 character abstract is shown (with
an option to tap to the full article.
8. And: I don’t have time for this currently, please
steal the idea if you think it’s good.
– VESA LINJA-AHO