Thank you, Sarah for an excellent question. Sometimes I compare Wikimedia with an iceberg, only a small portion is visible.
When we started investigating this problem we found out that nearly 30% of searches on Wikipedia return no results at all. That motivated us to dig deeper. Since then we've made our first improvements (by about 1 million searches a day) , but we have a very long way to go...especially searching across sites. Commons for example is a very tough one that we will need to help one day. I encourage you to read through, I tried to explain our thinking the best I could, but I can always use help :) Lila sent from mobile. please excuse typos. On Jan 29, 2016 3:50 PM, "SarahSV" <sarahsv.w...@gmail.com> wrote: > Lila, thank you for posting this. I have no technical background, so I only > have a limited understanding of how the Discovery project works. But as an > editor and reader I've been frustrated by the limitations of Wikipedia > search. Even things that I know are there, because I added them myself, are > regularly not returned. Sometimes for reasons I can't fathom; sometimes > because I've mistyped something. > > It's the same with Siri on iPhone. I ask it something that I know is on > Wikipedia and it can't seem to find it. Or it will return a link to > articles in which certain terms appear. But people don't want to have to > look at whole articles. > > We have this enormous and wonderful amount of knowledge to some extent > trapped inside Wikipedia. How do we unlock it? How do we teach computers > how to find and deliver it? In future, could Wikipedia reply to questions > on people's phones, instead of Siri? > > This kind of research sounds very exciting, and the Foundation is > well-placed to do it. > > Sarah > > > On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 4:27 PM, Lila Tretikov <l...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > > > Hi Anthony, > > > > I know this request was for the Board, but I took time to explain as much > > as I could about the context of this grant and the work it funds as well > as > > to answer as many questions as possible that I have seen. I realize many > > people a curious about what it actually funds, so you will find the > > statement of work cut and pasted there. > > > > > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:LilaTretikov_(WMF)#Knowledge_Engine_grant > > < > > > https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fmeta.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FUser_talk%3ALilaTretikov_%28WMF%29%23Knowledge_Engine_grant&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHbv_CPFd5d3dh7WKET5YlNSZvHdA > > > > > > > Hope this answers some of your questions, > > Lila > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>