Topics from the past

Deployment schedule (train and SWAT) for upcoming (end of year) holiday period:
- https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/engineering/2017-September/000475.html
2017 Community Wishlist Survey is open to proposals. Folks should probably keep an eye on the Search category
- Voting starts on Nov 27
Holiday party for SF-based folks 11/30

Announcements, Information, Questions

Please note any holiday emergency/contingency information at https://office.wikimedia.org/wiki/Technology/2017_holiday_coverage
Discovery-related wishlist items we should probably respond to:
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Search/Preferences_settings_to_modify_crosswiki_search_results
- bhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Search#Search_page:_integrated_.22incategory.22_functionality - we can point to WMDE’s AdvancedSearch project for this one. :)
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Search/Order_search_results_by_date_of_last_edit_or_alphabetically
- Note, much overlap with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Search/Search_by_date

Scrum of Scrums

Are we blocked?

None

Are we blocking?

None

Other dependencies (in either direction) which don’t need to be called out as “blocked” (e.g. are progressing smoothly, have no urgency, etc.)

None

Discovery News

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discovery/Status_updates

Quick Quarterly Goals/KPI Update (if needed)

Discovery Roadmap FY 2017/18: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/presentation/d/1N41eNrz0vFHJamLkhQjSFCOSiDg-bKr5H3ROchqwVJU/edit?usp=sharing

FY 2017-18 Q2 (Oct-Dec) goals: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Discovery#Projects

This status was last updated 2017-11-14. Completed/dropped goals may not be shown.

Tech:Search Platform

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technology/Goals/2017-18_Q2#Program_1:_Make_knowledge_more_easily_discoverable

Search:

1. Implement advanced methodologies such as “learning to rank” machine learning techniques and signals to improve search result relevance across language Wikipedias.

Begin to automate the machine learning pipeline, starting by targeting eight to ten languages, other than English, that match (at a minimum) current performance and then deploy those models. (IN PROGRESS)

2. Improve support for multiple languages by researching and deploying new language analyzers as they make sense to individual language wikis.

Investigate open source language software that is available and see if it can be converted into ElasticSearch plugins. (IN PROGRESS)
Investigate usage of fall-back languages (DONE)
Investigate fuzzy (phonetic) matching.
Continue general language support. (ONGOING)

3. Investigate how to expand and scale Wikidata Query Service to improve its ability to power features on-wiki for readers

Work on sub-category filtering and searching within the Wikidata Query Service. (IN PROGRESS)

4. Address technical debt:

Convert existing Selenium tests to Node.js (IN PROGRESS)
Investigate ownership and maintenance of Logstash (IN PROGRESS)

Structured Data on Commons:

1. Commons search will be extended via CirrusSearch and ElasticSearch and Wikidata Query Service, to support searching based on structured data elements describing media.

Determine advanced search requirements and measures for structured data on commons. (NOT STARTED YET)

2. Advanced search capabilities (e.g., Wikidata Query Service, SPARQL queries) will be updated to support the more specific media search filters and the relationships to the topics they represent

Begin work on prefix- and full-text search in ElasticSearch on Wikidata in preparation for the Structured Data on Commons project. (IN PROGRESS)

WDQS: Wikidata Query Service goal for this quarter will be to work on sub-category filtering and searching within the Wikidata Query Service; it will be maintained by Stas and Guillaume to support the continued growth and use of the service; the Analysis team will help with statistics.

Audiences:Readers:Discovery

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Audiences/2017-18_Q2_Goals#Readers

Portal: Update the Wikipedia.org portal codebase to be completely automated for ease of ongoing maintenance.

Automate portal project updates: statistics and translations (IN PROGRESS)

Maps: Support the move to be more operationally centralized and roll out a new map style that has numerous updates and enhancements.

Finalize and deploy new map style; replicate maps test cluster in Wikimedia Cloud Service; monitor for critical bugs (IN PROGRESS)

Analysis: The team will continue to work closely with the Search Platform team to analyze A/B tests and other assorted data; they will also begin working on determining a baseline set of metrics for Structured Data on Commons. (IN PROGRESS)

FYI

Nov 23-24: US Holiday
Dec 25-29: WMF Holiday week
Jan 22-23: DevSummit
Jan 22-23: Readers:Audiences offsite
Jan 25-26: All Hands
Jan 27-28: Search Platform offsite (after all-hands)
OΟО
- Guillaume on vacation Nov 20-24
- Guillaume 2 weeks in Kenya probably in March… details to come
- David out last week of February 2018 (2/26 - 3/2)