Personal website of

Jon Robson

(jdlrobson)

I'm a Welsh/English/European/adopted-Singaporean open source web developer and writer living in San Francisco.

I am married to Linz. Together we self-published the book A Little Daily Dose.

I work for the Wikimedia Foundation. There, I built the mobile Wikipedia experience and those little previews you see when you hover over links.

I like to build things that remove barriers for non-technical people to empower them to fulfil their dreams. I contribute to the web in the hope that I will leave it a better place for the children I'll never have.

I am curious about anything that helps us retain and celebrate the beauty of different cultures and I write to share my ideas.

Technical writing

Diving into Wikipedia's ocean of errors how we went from an error counter to fixing our code
Wikipedia: The strange case of the wandering semicolon the strangest bug I've ever encountered
Why all software engineers should wear a ring on their little right finger engineering rings, December 2019
No people no software a hackathon story, May 2019
How we tackled technical debt at Wikipedia Talking a bit helped us write off several years of tech debt, March 2019
We’re going on a bug hunt (we’re not scared!) How we tracked down a JavaScript bug with limited resourcing, February 2019
Why all developers should do their chores How technical debt can become a shared responsibility, January 2019
Why does Wikipedia in 2018 have a mobile site and a desktop site? On why Wikipedia has a mobile site, November 2018
Why it took a long time to build that tiny link preview on Wikipedia #1 article on Hacker News 20th April 2018
The neglected and meandering history of printing websites On window.print, November 2018
Letting the browser speak Web speech APIs for learning Chinese
Failing at pushing a Wikipedia trending API On failing, March 2018
How Wikimedia helped mobile web readers save on data Wikimedia blog, Sept 2016 reddit
The Wikipedia editors behind the curtain Wikimedia blog, May 2014
Go on a Wikipedia scavenger hunt with Wikipedia Nearby Wikimedia blog, May 2013
Wikipedia Mobile gets a face lift Wikimedia blog, March 2012

fiction / non-fiction

Travelling without small seedlings Using Facetime to keep in touch with plants (August 2018)
Tinderella Mash stories competition shortlist, 12th October 2016
Why I Didn't Change my Relationship Status to Married. elephant JOURNAL, March 2016.
The Temple Burning Man, September 2013.
The Man Burning Man, September 2013.
The Letter ‘E’ Burning Man, September 2013.

projects

A little daily dose website A book and mobile app for learning Chinese [2019]
Open Library contributing to Open Library to make it mobile friendly [2018]
qieqie A flashcard game for learning Chinese characters. [2018]
someday an offline travel guide allowing you to edit open knowledge from the comfort of your offline phone. [2017]
weekipedia an offline ready React.js progressive web app clone of the Wikipedia mobile site with webpush. [2016]
m.wikipedia You know Wikipedia, right? I made the mobile version of the site. [2012-present]

Other clients include ilga.org, tunbridge wells winter shelter, BT Group (internal), notesmusiccoffee.