Grants:IEG/Listing editor for Wikivoyage

status: idea

Individual Engagement Grants	review grant submissions	visit IdeaLab submissions
eligibility and selection criteria

project:

Listing editor for Wikivoyage

idea creator:

JamesA

project contact:

User talk:JamesA

participants:

JamesA, Peterfitzgerald

summary:

A listings editor for Wikivoyage that will enable new editors to easily add and edit listings on articles.

2013 round 1

A proposed mockup.

Project idea

Please see the original discussion on Wikivoyage: voy:Wikivoyage:Roadmap/Improved editing interface

Before Wikivoyage migrated to the WMF, a listing editor existed on WT that allowed inexperienced users to easily add and remove eateries, hotels, attractions, activities, internet cafes and the like. That functionality no longer exists on Wikivoyage. It has the potential to greatly increase the number of editors to the site, while further engaging users who may be scared off by the wiki software.

What would be required is experienced users or coders to develop a new extension that allowed listings to be edited. Pictured to the left is a mockup of what it could look like. The amount of money required is simply what would be needed in manpower and experience.

Project goals

• Further engage inexperienced users who may not know how to edit using the editing window
• Allow businesses and tourism bureaus to also engage respectfully with Wikivoyage
• Ensure that new listings are containing within the listing template, therefore allowing site-wide layout consistency, organisation and possible integration into Open Street Maps
• Increase engagement and editing on this burgeoning project
• Bring Wikivoyage up to standard with certain other free travel wikis which already have this feature

Open questions

• The grant criteria appear to exclude the creation of MediaWiki extensions as server-side code which would require WMF staff engineering evaluation, but expressly do not preclude "on-wiki tech work (templates, user scripts, gadgets) and completely standalone applications without a hosting dependency". That raises a key question: can this listing editor be built as a .js gadget (like Twinkle or similar existing wiki-editing scripts) by non-WMF programmers using no server-side code? It may be worth having authors of TW take a look at this proposal to offer an opinion as to feasibility or likely development time to build an entirely client-side script/gadget.
• question

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Project plan

Scope:

Scope and activities

I and other Wikivoyage users will be able to provide design and usability feedback, as we are most experienced when it comes to listing editors on a travel wiki. We will also provide support in implementing a trial/beta and engaging users to test it.

By the end of the project, we hope to have a intuitive, fully deployed listing editor for Wikivoyage.

Tools, technologies, and techniques

We will need experienced coders to create a MediaWiki extension for the listing editor, preferably hired by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Budget:

Total amount requested

Whatever amount is required to pay (new) WMF staff to create the extension.

Budget breakdown

• Hired coding manpower by the WMF

Intended impact:

Target audience

All viewers, editors and users of Wikivoyage will be greatly benefited by the implementation of a listing editor, allowing easier and more frequent editing. It is working towards the Wikivoyage mission of providing an up-to-date travel guide.

Fit with strategy

• Increasing Reach - more viewers will be able to edit at Wikivoyage
• Improving Quality - more editors will mean the content is more complete and up-to-date for travellers
• Increasing Participation - will allow more viewers to become engaged in the community through discussions of destinations and listings, while also increasing positive participation of businesses and tourism bureaus

Sustainability

After implementation of the listing editor, the project should see a boost in new users who are easily able to add and append to listings. It will also allow editors to mark listings are closed, which will mean the Wikivoyage content is more up-to-date and reliable.

It could be continued by further expanding the editor with new fields and advanced settings. There is a possibility in the long term that a review/star rating function could be added as part of a new Wikivoyage Reviews branch. See voy:Wikivoyage:Roadmap/Enable listings reviews

Measures of success

We will monitor usage of the new listing editor through analysis of the default summaries it appends to edits. We will also monitor overall site usage and see if there is an increase in editing as a result of the new listing editor.

Participant(s)

The grantees would have to be decided by the WMF, as the WMF would need to either utilise its current staff to build the extension or hire new staff for a particular period to develop the extension. Myself and most other Wikivoyage users will be involved in a volunteer role, providing feedback and specific goals.

Discussion

Community Notification:

• Original community discussion is located here: voy:Wikivoyage:Roadmap/Improved editing interface
• Minor discussion about the possibility of an IdeaLab proposal: voy:Wikivoyage:Travellers'_pub#Help_turn_ideas_into_grants_in_the_new_IdeaLab
• A further community notification of this proposal is located here: voy:Wikivoyage:Travellers'_pub#Notification_of_IdeaLab_proposal_for_a_new_Listing_Editor

Endorsements:

Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

• JamesA (talk): As I've stated within this proposal.
• Nicholasjf21 (talk): Increased participation is key to Wikivoyage's future and a means of easy editing is, to my mind, the best way of achieving that, as well as improving the site's content and bringing it into line with other free, user-generated travel guides.
• · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 08:24, 16 February 2013 (UTC) An advantage that may not have been mentioned yet, is that this type of edit tool encourages the user to enter more of the desirable information and less of the undesirable information, which cuts down on the copyediting burden on other editors, so they can spend the saved time on other tasks.
• K7L (talk): At some point, all of these listings are likely to end up as Wikidata records instead of plain wikitext and we will need some sort of user-friendly editor to allow them to be updated. Even now, it would be preferable not to expect users learn wiki markup just to add one or two listings to the guide.