what happened to Wikipedia COinS?

40 views
Skip to first unread message

Godmar Back

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 2:35:00 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com

Hi,

does anyone know what happened to Wikipedia's COinS?

They seem to have been removed (!?)

 - Godmar

Godmar Back

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 3:37:59 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com


They removed it because their implementation was too slow :-(

It doesn't appear that they included any of the microformats, either.

Does anyone have any perspective/insider knowledge on this?

Andy Mabbett

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 3:46:34 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com
Yes; what more would you like to know?

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Microformats#Proposal:_citation_microformat
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "gcs-pcs-list" group.
> To post to this group, send email to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> gcs-pcs-list...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/gcs-pcs-list?hl=en.



--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

Godmar Back

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 4:53:36 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com

Andy,

you seem to be a proponent - it now seems they (who, really?) has thrown out the child with the bathwater. Why didn't they at least AJAX the data in on demand (if page load times were the issue?)

Really unfortunate, especially since they (Wikipedia) didn't even know how widely their COinS were used.  Certainly, they added real value to users of LibX, even with their current (limited) implementation. Many newspaper articles that were inaccessible with the direct link on the Wikipedia page became accessible just via the OpenURL resolver.

The big irony is this: I was just able to recruit a student to refine COinS support in LibX using the now available Summon API/Widget service to direct-link to a resource. We're having our 2nd meeting, and wanted to start with an analysis of the real-world COinS quality provided by Wikipedia to see which techniques to use to provide the user with direct access. Then they're gone.

I'm not sure if we'll invest in 2001-style scraping of metadata without any easily discernible metadata formatting/embedding.

 - Godmar

Godmar Back

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 5:01:29 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pc...@googlegroups.com

PS: I just remembered that even though we haven't officially upgraded to LibX 2.0, we're already collecting statistics via Google analytics. From August 1st to Nov 14, LibX users have clicked on a hyperlinked COinS 5,461 times. The vast majority of which was, it stands to reason, from Wikipedia (though we don't track the page a user is on when they click on a COinS). And that's for only 10 editions who have a significant LibX 2.0 user base - once we flip the "upgrade everyone" switch, it's likely to increase by an order of magnitude.

So, there's real usefulness even while it's preliminary.

 - Godmar

Andy Mabbett

unread,
Nov 15, 2012, 5:12:14 PM11/15/12
to gcs-pcs-list
I'm not a proponent of the sudden removal of COinS, which I opposed (I
had a hand in introducing COinS to many templates on Wikipedia)

I am a proponent of a citation microformat, which could sit alongside
COinS and, perhaps, /eventually/ replace it.

If you could put your concerns online, perhaps in a blog post, I'll
bring it to the attention of those concerned and see if we can't get
the removal reversed; or accelerate the microformat proposal.

A.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages