Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Chat

[Rajeeb Dutta]

Thanks Amir, for your kind update, will definitely like to join such noble 
initiative.

Best Regards,
Rajeeb.
(U: Marajozkee)
(Sent from my iPhone pardon the brevity) 

> On 30-Aug-2020, at 5:30 AM, Amir Sarabadani  wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> Due to the current situation, there are more and more collaborations
> happening online instead. and now you can see Wikimedia-related discussion
> groups in Slack, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, and many more. Besides being
> scattered and inaccessible to people who don't have accounts in those
> platforms (for privacy reasons for example), these platforms use
> proprietary and closed-source software, are outside Wikimedia
> infrastructure and some harvest our personal data for profit.
> 
> IRC on freenode is a good alternative but it lacks basic functionalities of
> a modern chat platform. So we created Wikimedia Chat, a mattermost instance
> in Wikimedia Cloud. Compared to IRC, you have:
>* Ability to scrollback and read messages when you were offline
>* Push notification and email notification
>* You don't need to get a cloak to hide your IP from others
>* Proper support for sharing media
>* Two factor authentication
>* A proper mobile app support
>* Ability to add custom emojis (yes, it's extremely important)
>* Profile pictures
>* Ability to ping everyone with @here
>* much much more.
> 
> You can use Wikimedia Chat by going to https://chat.wmcloud.org, anyone can
> make an account. This is part of Wikimedia Social suite [1], the oher
> similar project is "Wikimedia Meet". [2]
> 
> Some notes:
> * This is done in my volunteer capacity and has been maintained by a group
> of volunteers. If you're willing to join the team (either technical or
> enforcing CoC, kicking out spammers, other daily work), drop me a message.
> * Privacy policy of Wikimedia Cloud applies: https://w.wiki/aQW
> * As a result, all messages older than 90 days get automatically deleted.
> * As a Wikimedia Cloud project, all of discussions, private and public are
> covered by Code of conduct in technical spaces:  https://w.wiki/AK$
> 
> Hope that would be useful for you, if you encounter any technical issues,
> file a bug in the phabricator.
> 
> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Social_Suite
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Meet
> 
> Best
> -- 
> Amir (he/him)
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[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Chat

[Amir Sarabadani]

Hello,
Due to the current situation, there are more and more collaborations
happening online instead. and now you can see Wikimedia-related discussion
groups in Slack, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, and many more. Besides being
scattered and inaccessible to people who don't have accounts in those
platforms (for privacy reasons for example), these platforms use
proprietary and closed-source software, are outside Wikimedia
infrastructure and some harvest our personal data for profit.

IRC on freenode is a good alternative but it lacks basic functionalities of
a modern chat platform. So we created Wikimedia Chat, a mattermost instance
in Wikimedia Cloud. Compared to IRC, you have:
* Ability to scrollback and read messages when you were offline
* Push notification and email notification
* You don't need to get a cloak to hide your IP from others
* Proper support for sharing media
* Two factor authentication
* A proper mobile app support
* Ability to add custom emojis (yes, it's extremely important)
* Profile pictures
* Ability to ping everyone with @here
* much much more.

You can use Wikimedia Chat by going to https://chat.wmcloud.org, anyone can
make an account. This is part of Wikimedia Social suite [1], the oher
similar project is "Wikimedia Meet". [2]

Some notes:
* This is done in my volunteer capacity and has been maintained by a group
of volunteers. If you're willing to join the team (either technical or
enforcing CoC, kicking out spammers, other daily work), drop me a message.
* Privacy policy of Wikimedia Cloud applies: https://w.wiki/aQW
* As a result, all messages older than 90 days get automatically deleted.
* As a Wikimedia Cloud project, all of discussions, private and public are
covered by Code of conduct in technical spaces:  https://w.wiki/AK$

Hope that would be useful for you, if you encounter any technical issues,
file a bug in the phabricator.

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Social_Suite
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Meet

Best
-- 
Amir (he/him)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Institutional memory @ WMF

[Strainu]

A few responses in random order:

> > OK, but how is this done precisely? Are there written docs? Mentors?
> > Is cross-team help common? Or is this kept at the anecdotal level ("oh
> > yeah, you should also keep in mind..." )?
> >
>
> In my experience, all of the above

That doesn't sound so good. For me, it means 2 things:
1. There is no uniform approach to onboarding re community collaboration.
2. Some teams choose to keep it anecdotal


> Perhaps we shouldn't expect this of an organization not ultimately
> accountable to the editors?  No amount of onboarding can change the
> Foundation's corporate Bylaws or the fact that it owns the trademarks
> whose value is based on editor labor.  Perhaps if we had a membership
> organization instead, which would have to report to the editors and
> justify its progress on initiatives directly voted on by its members...

I'm afraid that changing the "ownership model" wouldn't help much.
It's highly unlikely that the WMF, regardless of who they respond to,
will find employees with adequate experience and a willingness to work
for them only within the community. That means that they will still
need to address the onboarding part and implicitly the documentation
task.

> Our movement is complex, and there are no amount of explanations that will
> portray its richness. I will be working to make sure that new hires at the
> Foundation know to ask the right questions at the right time and to the
> right people to minimize errors. Of course, I want to set realistic
> expectations, this will not happen in a day, nor will it happen in a year
> only. My goal is to start a process that will change and evolve with time,
> as does our movement.

Delphine, it's great to hear that someone with a lot of community
experience is taking on this task. Obviously mistakes will never go
away completely, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your
work. I just hope you have some measure of success in mind, it would
be a pity to evaluate the program based on wikimedia-l feedback. :)

>
> If any of you have any questions about how we are working on this, or want
> to contribute ideas, please talk to me offlist!

I think documenting the process should be part of the process :) That
way it can be replicated or adapted by other organizations with
similar growth pains.

Strainu

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