Dear all, Those who know me or have read previous mails know that I like interactivity and augmented experiences. In the past, I have written mails to this list explaining why I think we are behind the needs of the people who come to our platforms for learning. That's why I'm writing you this text, which is not a newsletter, but might become one in the future.
Why interactivity, now Large language models can already produce fluent encyclopedic prose on demand, so plain text is fast becoming a commodity. What they can't easily replicate is a structured, interactive way to explore a topic, something a reader manipulates, compares, and watches change. Humans learn in a variety of ways, and text is only one of those ways. A compelling story, a multimedia layer, something that can be touched by the reader makes the experience better. If Wikimedia projects want to stay places to learn rather than pages to skim, that layer of discovery is where we can add value an LLM chat window can't. On the Basque Wikipedia we've spent the last few months building exactly that: interactive charts, maps, sliders, and even a wiki-race game, layered on top of our articles. A few recent examples below, in case other language communities want to copy the approach. What we've recently built (some examples) * Gizaki (Human: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizaki#Eboluzioa): a world population chart, and out-of-Africa interactive map (https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizaki#Historiaurrea), a draggable human-anatomy slider and an interactive compared anatomy template, and a 100-square waffle chart to make proportions visible at a glance that loads information from Wikimedia Commons .tab files. We also added videos from our project Ikusgela, and the great OWID visualizer (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:List_of_interactive_graphs), making this one of the richest articles in Wikipedia. * Zaldia (Horse: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaldi#Taxonomia): a foldable cladogram ({{klado tolesgarri}}) readers expand themselves, and a horse-human skeleton comparison via {{Irudi interaktiboa}} that makes anatomical differences visible instead of just described (https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaldi#Eskeletoa). * Izurri Beltza (Black Death: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izurri_beltza#Izurriaren_kronika): we replaced a static, hand-drawn plague map with a series of OSM-based interactive map ({{OSM kokapen mapa}}), so the epidemic's spread can be explored geographically. The text includes links to the map, and the map points to the text sections. * Hiruwiki: (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hiruwiki) a growing family of vanilla JS/CSS math gadgets now with physics capabilities. Because you can learn more by manipulating a sound wave than just looking at the math formula: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soinu#Soinu-uhinak. * Interactive climate data: we have been expanding geographical articles from official census data, and recently we have added climate data for the United States and France articles. This data comes from official sources (i.e. NOAA), and can be updated montly with the last data. The visualization makes a point on climate change. Take a look to the article about Alabama (https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama#Klima) or Bordeaux (https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordele#Klima). * Up-to-date thematic maps: let's say that you read that in your town the Gini index is 27,9. How do you compare it to the rest of the province? We can make interactive maps from data in Commons: Gini index in Gipuzkoa: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerrenda:Gipuzkoako_udalerriak_Gini_indizearen_arabera. Income by county in Illinois: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerrenda:Illinoisko_konderriak_errentaren_arabera. These maps are generated from data that can be updated easily in Commons. Copy it, and let's compare notes If your community wants to try something similar, get in touch: we're happy to share the templates, Lua modules, and gadget code behind any of these, and to help adapt them to another wiki's needs. We'd also love to hear what interactive elements other projects are already building, so we can borrow from you too. Best, Galder
_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/HJP6ZIDTGWN3NNUH77UDLQ2PQNXIFEGR/ To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
