Had a discussion with some people about "what the future will bring for Wikipedia" at Wikimania on Friday. Was reminded of my presentation last year "Wikipedia in 2022". That was me in 2013 (and to avoid misunderstandings that's neither a plan nor my goal, just a prediction):
"Not anymore. Today your phone, car, house, social network, newspaper and doormat give you information you desire. The freezer still does not order the milk by itself, but it is able to sing the best quotes about milk, taken from Wikiquote. Or theses appliances give you some information you maybe desire. ... But why should one visit this large, confusing website to get some information that is badly targeted as well. The Wikimedia Foundation and some of the bigger chapters tried between 2014 and 2018 to develop these apps and software themselves. But still they were way too slow. Can you imagine? They actually tried to include the community in the process. It was a process that was as undemocratic as it was slow and ineffective. The Wikimedia efforts were much too concerned with preserving Wikipedia the way it was. No real change is possible when involving a community. Their attempts never took off. It couldn’t be really successful. So the race was made by more ruthless and more effective competition."
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