Thanks for organising this discussion! My takeaway from this was that there are strong arguments both for and against keeping the representation of an article as a single blob of wikitext/HTML.
The "against big blob of wikitext" argument is that it allows greater ease of editing article data in bite-size chunks because the data can be easily manipulated in a granular fashion over an API, and more easily allows API consumers (e.g. the mobile apps) to structure articles in whatever fashion they see fit. The "for big blob of wikitext" argument is that keeping it all as wikitext means we get content curation essentially for free using existing mechanisms (recent changes, watchlist, what links here, IRC feeds, etc.) and don't have to reinvent the wheel, for example Flow having to manually maintain mechanisms for hooking into these curation methods. Both approaches have merits and drawbacks. Of course, both the for and against arguments are possible to mitigate; one could structure the wikitext well enough to allow granularity and simplicity of editing in a seamless fashion, or one could hook into existing workflows for content curation like Flow has done. But, both of these would require extra work, so it seems there is no clear "one true approach" emerging right now. I'd be interested in participating in further sessions that aim to resolve this contention about article representation. In my opinion, it all boils down to which user workflow we, as a movement, prioritise the highest; if we can decide which workflow to prioritise, we can easily pick whichever solution lets us most easily satisfy that workflow. Thanks, Dan On 23 June 2015 at 16:01, Gabriel Wicke <[email protected]> wrote: > Vibha, > > sorry I missed your reply before the meeting. > > The discussion was mostly technical an centered around two main areas: > > - content storage and dependency tracking / change propagation > - page content representation, content composition and editing > > We collected and discussed a list of use cases and their respective > challenges on an etherpad [1]. In the end, we resolved to follow up with > more focused work around the two main themes. I'll summarize the discussion > in a task per area and post them here. > > Gabriel > > [1]: http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Content_platform > > On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Adam Baso <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Updated URLs, we're in R37 >> >> on air stream: http://youtu.be/RcE2kecrsIk >> Max of 15 users: >> https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/hoaevent/AP36tYdub-Rs4mI_4UjTEzTgU7GKBkgjV5s0kXASoA9Tno4gJK34_Q >> >> On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 12:18 PM, Vibha Bamba <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> This sounds fairly dev centric with Front end/ UX implications. >>> Will the discussion be fairly technical? Let us know if Design should >>> attend. >>> >>> ---- >>> Vibha Bamba >>> Senior Designer | WMF Design >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Gabriel Wicke <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Reminder: This is today! >>>> >>>> When: *Tuesday, June 23rd, 13:00 - 14:30 PT* [3] >>>> Where: >>>> * *https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/wikimedia.org/contentplatform >>>> <https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/wikimedia.org/contentplatform>* >>>> * *room 37* in the office >>>> >>>> On Fri, Jun 19, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Gabriel Wicke <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi all, >>>>> >>>>> a few of us have recently collected and roughly prioritized some open >>>>> architectural questions [1]. The area that stood out as needing most >>>>> urgent >>>>> attention is adapting our content platform to long-term changes in the way >>>>> users interact with our site [2]. People are using a wider range of >>>>> devices, from feature phones to multi-core desktops. Many users are >>>>> looking >>>>> for short factoids and definitions, while others prefer to immerse >>>>> themselves in detailed articles with rich multimedia content. >>>>> >>>>> MediaWiki is currently not very optimized to support such a diverse >>>>> set of use cases. To address this, we see a need to improve our platform >>>>> in >>>>> the following areas: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> - Storage: To better separate data from presentation, we need the >>>>> ability to store multiple bits of content and metadata associated with >>>>> each >>>>> revision. This storage needs to integrate well with edits, history >>>>> views, >>>>> and other features, and should be exposed via a high-performance API. >>>>> - Change propagation: Edits to small bits of data need to be >>>>> reliably and efficiently propagated to all content depending on it. The >>>>> machinery needed to track dependencies should be easy to use. >>>>> - Content composition and caching: Separate data gives us the >>>>> freedom to render infoboxes, graphs or multimedia elements dynamically, >>>>> depending on use case and client. For performance and flexibility, it >>>>> would >>>>> be desirable to assemble at least some of these renders as late as >>>>> possible, at the edge or on the client. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> We don't expect to tackle all of this at once, but are starting to >>>>> look into several areas. If you are interested in helping, then we would >>>>> like to invite you to join us for a kick-off meeting: >>>>> >>>>> *When: Tuesday, June 23rd, 13:00 - 14:30 PT [3]* >>>>> *Where: *A *hangout* link will be posted here before the meeting; >>>>> room 37 in the office. >>>>> >>>>> If you can't attend, then please have a look at our current notes and >>>>> let us know what you think [2]. >>>>> >>>>> Gabriel Wicke, Daniel Kinzler, Brion Vibber, Tim Starling, Roan >>>>> Kattouw, Ori Livneh >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> [1]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T96903 >>>>> [2]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T99088 >>>>> [3]: >>>>> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=MediaWiki+content+platform+kick-off&iso=20150623T13&p1=224&ah=1&am=30 >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Gabriel Wicke >>>> Principal Engineer, Wikimedia Foundation >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Engineering mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/engineering >>>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Engineering mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/engineering >>> >>> >> > > > -- > Gabriel Wicke > Principal Engineer, Wikimedia Foundation > > _______________________________________________ > Engineering mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/engineering > > -- Dan Garry Product Manager, Discovery Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
