Can we use Wave to edit MediaWiki on a mobile ?

I spend quite a lot of time helping the Mobile Wikipedia become more prominent. I learned a lot from doing this so I consider it time well spend. The number of languages with sufficient localisation has gone up from 20 to 52 or 34 depending on how you count. We created some concept mobile main pages and we requested the implementation of two main pages for two Wikipedias.

The software used is build in Ruby on Rails and it is developed separate from MediaWiki. It is currently useful to read Wikipedia articles, you cannot edit and you can not sign on or set personal preferences.

The MediaWikiWave project proved the concept that it is possible to create a WYSIWYG interface for MediaWiki. We have a functional editor for MediaWiki, the question is will it also work on a mobile phone, the question is will it also work with other languages and scripts.

I expect that for Wave to succeed, it will support both mobile phones and other languages and scripts. We have been told that internationalisation is part of the core MediaWiki functionality, and as I argued earlier, internationalisation and localisation need proper support for bots and gadgets as well. The one thing I am not sure about is mobile telephone support. What I do expect is, if not great then rapidly improving, support in Chrome and on Android and Chrome OS devices.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Internationalisation is an architecture

The #wave internationalisation and localisation is said to be planned for the future. I believe that this will be true for the core product. However, this does not give me the confidence I need for the robots and gadgets that are build by all the people outside Google.

When you look at the Etherpad software, you will find that it has not been internationalised and consequently it is estimated to be some 3 to 6 weeks of work to introduce internationalisation to the code. I expect that a similar situation exists for the robots and gadgets but the problem is more complicated because of the many developers involved.

Internationalisation is an architecture and consequently it should be part of the design not only for the core code but also for everything else. A good example of how this should be done can be found at translatewiki.net where software like MediaWiki and StatusNet are localised. Both these applications have extensions and for MediaWiki almost all extensions are localised as a matter of cause. The first extensions for StatusNet are appearing at translatewiki.net and, it will prove a lot of work to get them internationalised and ready for localisation.

It would be great if a road plan for the total internationalisation for both Wave and its gadgets and robots would be published.. It may be even an idea to consider translatewiki.net, it boasts a community that aims to support over 250 languages...
Thanks,
     GerardM

Why people do not get Wave ...

With the release of Google buzz, many publications write that people do not get Wave. They write that it is not widely adopted and consequently a "failure".

My answer to this is: "Wave is not ready yet!!". The idea of Wave is that it is a federated system defined by an open protocol, using open standards and published as open source.

Wave is alpha software, the protocol is not complete and the source is neither complete nor published. Wave is functional because it can be used. To some extend you can develop add-on functionality but realistically only for the published parts.

When Wave is functionally complete, when both the complete protocol and the source code are published it will be the time when developers and companies can start using Wave for real and make it their own.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wave does not work with a bare IE

I am at my sister's home today without my laptop. I wanted to finish a blogpost .. I tried to start Wave and I got the following screen. As I never use Internet Explorer, I do not really know it to be new. In a time where the problems with IE have had the German government advise on its use, I think it is significant..
Thanks,
     GerardM

Thinking about ChromeOS

I have read what many pundits have to say about the Chrome OS. I have read what they had to say before and after the press conference and, there is a bewildering array of opinions.


The computers that comply with the hardware specifications, will have to deal with Wave and as netbooks are often considered as computers with insufficient specifications, I expect that there will be a range of hardware ready for "must have" applications and I expect that they will all do nicely. Wave has improved a lot in stability and performance in the last months anyway..

There is much ado about "market share". I do not really care except that I expect it to become important for the adoption of open standards. Important as well is that Chrome OS is a Linux distribution, it is open source. As developers of Canonical are involved in the development of Chrome OS, it is obvious that Linux development in general will benefit.

With Chrome OS user data will be very much stored on the web, local storage will be very much a cache that can and will be deleted when need be. My "wet dream" for Wave is still a possibility, I however want it not just as part of a Chrome OS, but also as part of the browser and not just the Chrome browser.
Thanks,
GerardM

MediaWiki conference uses Wave to work on minutes

Last weekend there was a get together of people involved in the media repository of the Wikimedia Foundation, "Commons". This was the kind of meeting where people work/discuss and when a session is done, someone is to report on the proceedings.

Given that MediaWiki is what the Wikimedia Foundation develops, it was interesting to learn that most people had a Wave account and, preferred to use Wave for its collaborative editing ability.

It sure did make us a group more productive.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Federation is tested at WaveSandbox.com

Federation is about how do you get multiple Wave servers to share and synchronise content. Conceptually, it is one of the aspects that makes Wave relevant. With federation and it being Open Source, it means that we will be able to have our own Wave servers and just like with e-mail we decide what we share.

In his post to the wave-protocol group, Dan Petersen announced that experimenting with federation can now start. At this stage it is only for developers and as I understand from Tom, it is still pretty rocky; the code does not want to compile on our box.

For the MediaWikiWave project it is important that we will have our own server because in this use case Wave is connected to a MediaWiki publishing back end. Changes may originate on another Wave server, but ultimately the robot will only run on the local server.

The one question I have about the federation protocol is how Wave will recover for the other servers when the server who originated a wave crashes beyond repair.
Thanks,
       GerardM