Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Apps] Wikipedia Lite app?

[Yuri Astrakhan]

I also like the idea, but I think Android is a much better initial target,
as it is much more common in the low bandwidth market from what I gathered.
On Jan 31, 2015 8:52 AM, "Brian Gerstle"  wrote:

> Love the idea, and I agree with everything Monte said.  We might also need
> to drop some 3rd party libs to go super-ultra light, depending on their
> size.  Quick inspection shows the following:
>
>
>- AFNetworking: ~500 KB
>- hpple: 41 KB
>
> We'll need to be careful adding too many other frameworks to the light
> version, but we can use a separate target for it which doesn't link to 3rd
> party code.
>
> More importantly, we'll also need to thoroughly analyze CPU usage
> (primarily animations) and network efficiency—cache misses and extra round
> trips will kill the experience.
>
> Excited to talk about this next quarter!
>
> Brian
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:45 PM, Monte Hurd  wrote:
>
>> (Oh, the splash images I'm talking about on the iOS app are only shown at
>> startup and only for the brief second it takes the app to load. The reason
>> they take up so much space is older versions of iOS made you include one
>> version for your image for each screen dimension and density - that is, one
>> sized for 3.5 inch phones, one for 3.5 retina, iPad & iPad retina, iPad
>> mini & retina etc...)
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:37 PM, Monte Hurd  wrote:
>>
>>> That sounds like it may be the way to go!
>>>
>>> For iOS:
>>>
>>> Probably no time for a lite version this quarter, but maybe the current
>>> version could be made lighter?
>>>
>>> It could actually be a relatively simple thing to do. In fact, I just
>>> did a quick experiment:
>>>
>>> Our current iOS app weighs in at *4.38 MB*.
>>>
>>> By simply removing the splash images the app binary size drops to *2.37
>>> MB*.
>>>
>>> iOS 8 has some fancy new abilities to present non-images as splash
>>> screens, so I say we do this for iOS 8, drop the splash images for older
>>> devices, and pay very close attention to the change in binary size that
>>> results from any external libraries we use.
>>>
>>> We can also migrate a couple more images used by the iOS app to glyphs
>>> in our font - which is an easy process with the scripts I wrote a while
>>> back. This will save a bit more space. We could also do a couple spikes to
>>> see what other low-hanging fruit there is for trimming the binary size.
>>>
>>> I think we could get to under 2 MB without breaking a sweat, or even the
>>> need for a separate version.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 9:45 PM, Dan Garry  wrote:
>>>
 Hi everyone,

 Those of you who were at the Mobile quarterly review heard me mention
 Facebook Lite, an app that's designed especially for the developing world.

 Notably, their app has a lot of optimisations which make it good for
 users in developing world:

- It's only 252kB, good for limited data plans.
- It supports down to Android 2.2, good for older devices.
- It's data-efficient, good for 2G connections and for people on
limited data plans.

 From a development perspective, some advantages are:

- You no longer have to support older versions of Android in your
main app.
- You can tailor the performance of the lite app to the older
devices so it's faster.
- You can tailor the features of the lite app to the developing
market.

 So obviously there are a lot of advantages for our users if we do this.
 And, selfishly, I can't stress enough how much dropping Android 2.3 from
 our current app would speed up development. As an example, almost all of
 the edge cases with lead images occurred on 2.3 devices, and they required
 quite a lot of investigation and hacking to fix them up. Obviously we've
 not dropped 2.3 so far because it's a very strategically important part of
 our user base, which I'm sure Carolynne can attest to!

 I'd say that we should put some serious thought into whether we'd
 prefer to have a Wikipedia Lite app for the developing world, rather than
 our current "one app to rule them all".

 Comments? Questions?

 Dan

 --
 Dan Garry
 Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
 Wikimedia Foundation

 ___
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 Mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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>>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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>
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Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Apps] Wikipedia Lite app?

[Monte Hurd]

For sure. Always fun to think about optimising :) 


> On Jan 31, 2015, at 12:26 AM, Yuri Astrakhan  wrote:
> 
> I also like the idea, but I think Android is a much better initial target, as 
> it is much more common in the low bandwidth market from what I gathered.
> 
>> On Jan 31, 2015 8:52 AM, "Brian Gerstle"  wrote:
>> Love the idea, and I agree with everything Monte said.  We might also need 
>> to drop some 3rd party libs to go super-ultra light, depending on their 
>> size.  Quick inspection shows the following:
>> 
>> AFNetworking: ~500 KB
>> hpple: 41 KB
>> We'll need to be careful adding too many other frameworks to the light 
>> version, but we can use a separate target for it which doesn't link to 3rd 
>> party code.
>> 
>> More importantly, we'll also need to thoroughly analyze CPU usage (primarily 
>> animations) and network efficiency—cache misses and extra round trips will 
>> kill the experience.
>> 
>> Excited to talk about this next quarter!
>> 
>> Brian
>> 
>> 
>>> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:45 PM, Monte Hurd  wrote:
>>> (Oh, the splash images I'm talking about on the iOS app are only shown at 
>>> startup and only for the brief second it takes the app to load. The reason 
>>> they take up so much space is older versions of iOS made you include one 
>>> version for your image for each screen dimension and density - that is, one 
>>> sized for 3.5 inch phones, one for 3.5 retina, iPad & iPad retina, iPad 
>>> mini & retina etc...)
>>> 
 On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:37 PM, Monte Hurd  wrote:
 That sounds like it may be the way to go!
 
 For iOS:
 
 Probably no time for a lite version this quarter, but maybe the current 
 version could be made lighter?
 
 It could actually be a relatively simple thing to do. In fact, I just did 
 a quick experiment:
 
 Our current iOS app weighs in at 4.38 MB.
 
 By simply removing the splash images the app binary size drops to 2.37 MB.
 
 iOS 8 has some fancy new abilities to present non-images as splash 
 screens, so I say we do this for iOS 8, drop the splash images for older 
 devices, and pay very close attention to the change in binary size that 
 results from any external libraries we use.
 
 We can also migrate a couple more images used by the iOS app to glyphs in 
 our font - which is an easy process with the scripts I wrote a while back. 
 This will save a bit more space. We could also do a couple spikes to see 
 what other low-hanging fruit there is for trimming the binary size.
 
 I think we could get to under 2 MB without breaking a sweat, or even the 
 need for a separate version.
 
 
 
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 9:45 PM, Dan Garry  wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Those of you who were at the Mobile quarterly review heard me mention 
> Facebook Lite, an app that's designed especially for the developing world.
> 
> Notably, their app has a lot of optimisations which make it good for 
> users in developing world:
> It's only 252kB, good for limited data plans.
> It supports down to Android 2.2, good for older devices.
> It's data-efficient, good for 2G connections and for people on limited 
> data plans.
> From a development perspective, some advantages are:
> You no longer have to support older versions of Android in your main app.
> You can tailor the performance of the lite app to the older devices so 
> it's faster.
> You can tailor the features of the lite app to the developing market.
> So obviously there are a lot of advantages for our users if we do this. 
> And, selfishly, I can't stress enough how much dropping Android 2.3 from 
> our current app would speed up development. As an example, almost all of 
> the edge cases with lead images occurred on 2.3 devices, and they 
> required quite a lot of investigation and hacking to fix them up. 
> Obviously we've not dropped 2.3 so far because it's a very strategically 
> important part of our user base, which I'm sure Carolynne can attest to!
> 
> I'd say that we should put some serious thought into whether we'd prefer 
> to have a Wikipedia Lite app for the developing world, rather than our 
> current "one app to rule them all".
> 
> Comments? Questions?
> 
> Dan
> 
> -- 
> Dan Garry
> Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 
> ___
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> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> EN Wikipedia user page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brian.gerstle
>> IRC: bgerstle
>> 
>> ___

Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Wikimedia-l] Quarterly reviews of high priority WMF initiatives

[Tilman Bayer]

Minutes and slides from four recent quarterly reviews are now available:

Team Practices Group:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Team_Practices/January_2015

Engineering Commmunity Team:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Engineering_Community/January_2015

Release Engineering and QA (Quality Assurance) team:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Release_Engineering/January_2015

Mobile Partnerships (Wikipedia Zero) team:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Wikipedia_Zero/January_2015

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> to increase accountability and create more opportunities for course
> corrections and resourcing adjustments as necessary, Sue's asked me
> and Howie Fung to set up a quarterly project evaluation process,
> starting with our highest priority initiatives. These are, according
> to Sue's narrowing focus recommendations which were approved by the
> Board [1]:
>
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (mobile contributions + Wikipedia Zero)
> - Editor Engagement (also known as the E2 and E3 teams)
> - Funds Dissemination Committe and expanded grant-making capacity
>
> I'm proposing the following initial schedule:
>
> January:
> - Editor Engagement Experiments
>
> February:
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (Contribs + Zero)
>
> March:
> - Editor Engagement Features (Echo, Flow projects)
> - Funds Dissemination Committee
>
> We’ll try doing this on the same day or adjacent to the monthly
> metrics meetings [2], since the team(s) will give a presentation on
> their recent progress, which will help set some context that would
> otherwise need to be covered in the quarterly review itself. This will
> also create open opportunities for feedback and questions.
>
> My goal is to do this in a manner where even though the quarterly
> review meetings themselves are internal, the outcomes are captured as
> meeting minutes and shared publicly, which is why I'm starting this
> discussion on a public list as well. I've created a wiki page here
> which we can use to discuss the concept further:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews
>
> The internal review will, at minimum, include:
>
> Sue Gardner
> myself
> Howie Fung
> Team members and relevant director(s)
> Designated minute-taker
>
> So for example, for Visual Editor, the review team would be the Visual
> Editor / Parsoid teams, Sue, me, Howie, Terry, and a minute-taker.
>
> I imagine the structure of the review roughly as follows, with a
> duration of about 2 1/2 hours divided into 25-30 minute blocks:
>
> - Brief team intro and recap of team's activities through the quarter,
> compared with goals
> - Drill into goals and targets: Did we achieve what we said we would?
> - Review of challenges, blockers and successes
> - Discussion of proposed changes (e.g. resourcing, targets) and other
> action items
> - Buffer time, debriefing
>
> Once again, the primary purpose of these reviews is to create improved
> structures for internal accountability, escalation points in cases
> where serious changes are necessary, and transparency to the world.
>
> In addition to these priority initiatives, my recommendation would be
> to conduct quarterly reviews for any activity that requires more than
> a set amount of resources (people/dollars). These additional reviews
> may however be conducted in a more lightweight manner and internally
> to the departments. We’re slowly getting into that habit in
> engineering.
>
> As we pilot this process, the format of the high priority reviews can
> help inform and support reviews across the organization.
>
> Feedback and questions are appreciated.
>
> All best,
> Erik
>
> [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vote:Narrowing_Focus
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
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-- 
Tilman Bayer
Senior Analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Re: [WikimediaMobile] [Apps] Wikipedia Lite app?

[Florian Schmidt]

+1 for this idea. I still have an Android 2.3 device, but the Wikipedia app 
(and others too) is very slow and becomes more and more unusable, while it's 
agreat user experience on my Android 4.4 device.

If dropping 2.3 support means a faster development of the main Wikipedia app 
and the <2.3 users still have access to Wikipedia through a lite app (which 
will be faster and more usable) i would say: do it, it has advantages for both 
sides :)

Florian

Gesendet mit meinem HTC

- Reply message -
Von: "Dan Garry" 
An: "mobile-l" , "Carolynne Schloeder" 
, "Toby Negrin" , "Lila 
Tretikov" 
Betreff: [WikimediaMobile] [Apps] Wikipedia Lite app?
Datum: Sa., Jan. 31, 2015 06:45

Hi everyone,
Those of you who were at the Mobile quarterly review heard me mention Facebook 
Lite, an app that's designed especially for the developing world.

Notably, their app has a lot of optimisations which make it good for users in 
developing world:
It's only 252kB, good for limited data plans.It supports down to Android 2.2, 
good for older devices.It's data-efficient, good for 2G connections and for 
people on limited data plans.
From a development perspective, some advantages are:
You no longer have to support older versions of Android in your main app.
You can tailor the performance of the lite app to the older devices so it's 
faster.You can tailor the features of the lite app to the developing market.So 
obviously there are a lot of advantages for our users if we do this. And, 
selfishly, I can't stress enough how much dropping Android 2.3 from our current 
app would speed up development. As an example, almost all of the edge cases 
with lead images occurred on 2.3 devices, and they required quite a lot of 
investigation and hacking to fix them up. Obviously we've not dropped 2.3 so 
far because it's a very strategically important part of our user base, which 
I'm sure Carolynne can attest to!

I'd say that we should put some serious thought into whether we'd prefer to 
have a Wikipedia Lite app for the developing world, rather than our current 
"one app to rule them all".

Comments? Questions?

Dan

-- 
Dan GarryAssociate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
Wikimedia Foundation___
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Re: [WikimediaMobile] wikimedia - build problems with mediaWiki's android platform - Stack Overflow

[Jeff Hobson]

Hi!

I actually ran into this issue myself recently and have brought it up with
the android app team. The reason for the sync failure is that one of the
dependencies is not being served by the request URL. The developer more
familiar with the Gradle setup (bearnd on IRC) was actually in travel on
Friday, so I'm sure he'll be taking a look at it next week.

Thanks,

Jeff Hobson
On Jan 30, 2015 10:57 PM, "cxysh...@yeah.net"  wrote:

> i'm a novice of wikimedia_android app, and i got problems when i tried to
> build and run the project in andorid studio 1.0.1.
> i need some help ,see this
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28248801/build-problems-with-mediawikis-android-platform
>  .
> besides ,this is my first time send email to mobile-l ,is there something
> i need to pay attention to .
>
> thanks a lot .
>
> --
> cxysh...@yeah.net
>
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Re: [WikimediaMobile] Hooking into Google Now's Cards

[Jeff Hobson]

+1, many android users (myself included) have Google Now right on their
home screen, so this is a great way to engage readers and editors. Ideas
off the top of my head: suggested articles on the morning/evening commute,
micro-edits (or at least suggested edits), location-based suggestions,
updates to watched pages, etc.

Thanks,

Jeff Hobson
On Jan 30, 2015 11:24 PM, "Yuvi Panda"  wrote:

>
> http://insidesearch.blogspot.in/2015/01/google-app-update-get-now-cards-from.html
>
> Suggestions for articles to edit / read / follow / whatever, and
> plenty of other things to do! :)
>
> --
> Yuvi Panda T
> http://yuvi.in/blog
>
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Re: [WikimediaMobile] wikimedia - build problems with mediaWiki's android platform - Stack Overflow

[Dan Garry]

Hey there,

Thanks very much for reporting this. We're sorry the build process isn't
working for you right now. We'll get it fixed as soon as possible!

I've created a card

in our current sprint to track this issue. We'll let you know when it's
fixed or if we have any questions.

Thanks,
Dan

On 30 January 2015 at 22:56, cxysh...@yeah.net  wrote:

> i'm a novice of wikimedia_android app, and i got problems when i tried to
> build and run the project in andorid studio 1.0.1.
> i need some help ,see this
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28248801/build-problems-with-mediawikis-android-platform
>  .
> besides ,this is my first time send email to mobile-l ,is there something
> i need to pay attention to .
>
> thanks a lot .
>
> --
> cxysh...@yeah.net
>
> ___
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>
>


-- 
Dan Garry
Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
Wikimedia Foundation
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