I think you'll struggle to find anyone who really thinks Wikipedia's main page is good, as it currently stands. Yet it receives around 500m hits a month, making it one of the most viewed media portals in the world - what a waste! I'm working on a proposal for an alternative, which focuses much more on Wikipedia's articles on current events - most people don't realise that Wikipedia can be a truly excellent source of current event insight.
I'm currently investigating the process around WP:ITN, and it seems quite haphazard, with not very many contributors. I'm thinking about how we could instead make it more algorithmically driven, using open data from wikipedia and wikidata to select stories that should feature there.
Main page as it stands edit
- Current main page breakdown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HJ_Mitchell/Main_Page#TFA
Examples of Wikipedia articles on current events edit
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Ferguson_unrest
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Russian_military_intervention_in_Ukraine
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Napa_earthquake
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_outbreak
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Attenborough
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2014_celebrity_photo_leaks
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:In_the_news#Upcoming_Scottish_Independence_Referendum
- http://hblog.org/2014/08/11/wikipedia-and-breaking-news-the-promise-of-a-global-media-platform-and-the-threat-of-the-filter-bubble/#more-1054
Attitudes towards Wikipedia as a news source edit
- http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/08/09/more-british-people-trust-wikipedia-trust-news/
- http://www.pensivepuffin.com/dwmcphd/syllabi/insc547_wi13/papers/wikipedia/lam-decisionmakingRfA-GROUP10.pdf
- https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/bbc-news-stop-this-media-blackout-of-the-green-party
Other algorithmic news projects edit
Redesign edit
Past Main Page Redesign Attempts edit
Visual inspiration edit
Experiments/Research edit
- http://wikipedia-irc.herokuapp.com/
- https://twitter.com/WikiLiveMon
- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GzGO7u-RFQKtHH2AGHTZ0BAu7nC-LGUHLl1p8-nzQ3Q/edit#slide=id.i0
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ranking_functions
News Diffs edit
- MJ's Death: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Jackson&diff=298642898&oldid=298641708
- Flight 370: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370&oldid=598625742&diff=prev
Academics that work on recognising news edit
People I've discussed this with edit
- User:Lydia_Pintscher_(WMDE)
- User:Ocaasi
- User:TheHelpfulOne
- User:Sj
- Bill Thompson
- Jan-Bart De Vreede
- Katherine Bavage
- Denny Vrandečić
People I need to discuss this with edit
- Martin Poulter
- Richard Hodkinson