On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com>wrote:
> A quick visit to stats.grok.se indicates that the "Search" feature of > English Wikipedia was used 63 million times last month [...] > Long time ago I played around with the idea that our endeavor for free knowledge would result in spin-off movements, some of which have already happened. Like easing the access to current primary sources (Open Access), guaranteeing the distribution of knowledge (Wikipedia Zero, movement for net neutrality), and making sure that it can be found with global open search tools (?). This last part is mostly uncharted territory, and as the diversity of our open knowledge repository expands, it seems that we can offer much more than "just wikipedia text search". Commercial search engines are moving in the direction of search result mash-ups, mixing text , images, videos, maps, data... so the user has an idea of which facets of the subject he or she can explore further. Even mash-ups generated from Wikimedia sites will never be able to compete with web search engines, but it can become the primary choice when looking for free knowledge, specially if synergies with other free knowledge organizations were sought. Perhaps there will be gaps, but I am convinced that with the time they will become less. Maps were missing and OSM has covered that void, there were no free scores, and then IMSLP appeared. Even for products there is Open Product Data in the making. And regarding local business seems that Wikivoyage and OSM have something to offer too, and who knows what will come next. I wonder what are your thoughts about the exciting topic of joining forces with other organizations in the search front to become more than the sum of the parts. Micru _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
