Reading/Multimedia/Media Viewer/Timeline

Media Viewer is a new multimedia browser aimed at Wikimedia readers and casual editors. This tool was developed by Wikimedia Foundation's.multimedia team from July 2013 to December 2014.

This timeline lists key milestones and events throughout the development and release of this tool. It is intended as a reference to support the Media Viewer 2014 Research report.

2013

July 1: Multimedia team is formed, with product manager Fabrice Florin and software engineer Mark Holmquist
July 9: First Media Viewer product slides posted as Google presentation
July 9: Mark starts developing sample code for a first version of MultimediaViewer extension
July 10: Roundtable discussion about Media Viewer and other projects, on Google Hangouts
July 18: IRC Office Hours Chat about Media Viewer and other multimedia projects
July 19: First Media Viewer feature requirements and specifications posted on Mingle
July 22: First user interface designs, based on community feedback and requirements
August 8: Multimedia roundtable discussion at Wikimania in Hong Kong
August 22: IRC office hours about Multimedia plans
August 22: Updated design mockups by May Tee-Galloway posted on Wikimedia Commons
September 4?: Brian Wolff develops first working version of CommonsMetadata extension
September 18: Development starts on Beta Features, to support Media Viewer beta launch
September 24: Pau Giner joins the multimedia team as part-time interaction designer
October 1: Full set of feature requirements for Media Viewer minimum viable product
October 10: Start online discussion on Wikimedia Commons about Media Viewer
October 14: Gergo Tisza joins the multimedia team as full-time software engineer
October 21: Keegan Peterzell starts work as part-time community liaison for multimedia
Oct. 31: Release Media Viewer as a Beta Feature on MediaWiki.org
October 31: Start Media Viewer talk page on MediaWiki.org
Nov. 7: Release Media Viewer as a Beta Feature on all Wikipedias
Nov. 11: Updated development tasks for Media Viewer, based on community feedback
Nov. 19: Aaron Arcos joins the multimedia team as full-time volunteer engineer for 5 months
Nov. 22: IRC Office Hours Chat about Media Viewer and Beta Features
Nov. 27: Roundtable discussion about Media Viewer on Google Hangouts
Dec. 4: Roundtable discussion about Media Viewer on Google Hangouts

2014

Jan. 6: Gilles Dubuc joins the multimedia team as full-time senior software engineer
Jan. 13: First weekly sprint planning meeting, using Mingle and agile development tools.
Jan. 28: New designs for share, download, re-use and other features
Feb. 2: First quarterly planning meeting with a full multimedia team
Feb. 10: Expand community engagement for Media Viewer beta testing
Feb. 21: IRC Office Hours Chat about Media Viewer beta.
Feb. 24: Usability testing starts for Media Viewer beta on usertesting.com
Feb. 27: Blog post invites community members to help test Media Viewer.
Mar. 3: Reach out to community champions for gradual release of Media Viewer worldwide
April 10 - First pilot release on MediaWiki.org
April 17: Release on Catalan, Hungarian, and Korean Wikipedias, English Wikivoyage
April 24: Release on Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hebrew, Polish, Romanian, Thai Wikipedias
May 1: Release on first large pilot sites: Dutch and French Wikipedias
May 8: Release on Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish Wikipedias
May 13: Release on Telugu and Kannada Wikipedia
May 15: Release on Wikimedia Commons
May 22: Release on Italian and Russian Wikipedias
May 29: Release on on all Wikisources
Jun. 3: Release on English and German Wikipedias
Jun. 7: English RfC starts.
Jun. 12: Release ‘View original file’, scroll down for info, show file page link to all users.
Jun. 19: Final release on all wikis
Jun. 23: Release ‘Disable’ for anonymous users (T77606), tooltips. Start tracking disable rates.
Jun. 27: Commons RfC starts.
Jul. 1: Release ‘Show attributions in Download’. Remove all surveys.
Jul. 8: German RfC starts.
Jul. 10: English Rfc closes, with request that Media Viewer be disabled by default
Jul. 10: Respond to English RfC that we will not disable by default, but keep improving.
Jul. 30: Media Viewer Review with Lila, agree to not disable, keep improving
Aug. 1: Start work on new improvements and user research.
Aug. 7: Respond to Commons RfC, agree to disable for logged-in users by default
Aug. 8: German RfC closes, requests disabling by default.
Aug. 9: Respond to German RfC that we will not disable by default, but keep improving.
Aug. 10: German users hack their site to remove Media Viewer extension
Aug. 10: WMF implements ‘Superprotection’ feature to prevent hacking .js pages.
Aug. 20: Community petition to remove ‘superprotection’ and Media Viewer
Aug. 26: Disable Media Viewer as the default for logged-in users on Commons
Aug. 27: WMF removes ‘superprotection’, offers to improve Media Viewer further
Aug. 28: Host community consultation, collecting 130 suggestions for improvements
Sep. 2: Test prototype of new improvements with about 10 users, who find them useful
Sep. 9: Remove 'File Usage' and 'Categories' from the metadata panel
Sep. 11: Evaluate community suggestions for improvements, select a dozen 'must-haves'
Sep. 18: Release first improvement: Enlarge feature (go to original file in full resolution)
Oct. 2: Release next improvements: More Details (go to file page), Download, Share/Embed
Oct. 4: Meet productively with German community members at WikiCon in Cologne
Oct. 6: Second English RfC starts, requesting first RfC request for removal be re-opened
Oct. 23: Release more improvements: disable/enable settings, monobook support
Nov. 6: Release final improvements: captions above the fold, final layout
Nov. 6: Second English RfC on removing Media Viewer is closed
Nov. 21: Second English RfC on removing Media Viewer is re-opened
Dec. 8: Fourth research study shows users can complete all key tasks with Media Viewer
Dec. 9: Second English RfC is closed with 'no consensus' on removing Media Viewer
Dec. 11: Multimedia team holds retrospective of lessons learned from Media Viewer
Dec. 17: Metrics improvements, start tracking scrolling to open metadata panel

2015

Jan. 19: Publish retrospective and 2014 research report with findings from metrics and user studies