Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Isarra Yos]

First off, thank you for your excellent response.

On 05/05/17 12:58, Quim Gil wrote:

Sorry for being so late replying. Isarra asks a good question and I have
been thinking of a good answer.

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 8:35 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:


Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for
instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like
doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much for
established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles of
these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be useful
for chapters/groups planning their own events.


Yes, we have started to think seriously how the different developer events
fit together, how can they support better each other, and how can chapters
and other affiliates get better involved organizing local / regional events
or adding a tech component to the events they are already organizing.

Until recently our approach has been quite fragmented, organizing
technically successful events disconnected from each other. We started a
new trend last Summer, at the Wikimania Hackathon in Esino Lario,
discussing with Wikimedia Austria how could we improve the Wikimedia
Hackathon 2017 (in Vienna, in two weeks) after the high bar set by
Wikimedia Israel in Jerusalem. We had this idea of supporting the
organization of smaller hackathons and sponsoring the best participants to
travel to Vienna. The idea is working so far.

Growth paths for volunteers is another idea that has become very important
in our strategy and plans. While we seem to be quite good at organizing
developer events, developer outreach programs, developer community
support... the fact is that we are not doing good at retaining new
volunteer developers. Many come, but most leave. And there are many reasons
for this, but we think that an important one is that we are not offering
clear growth paths that make people stick around. Some volunteers find
these growth paths themselves, and we have many examples in this list, but
many simply don't see them and leave.

Developer events play an important role in these growth paths. Imagine that
a chapter or even a small affiliate organizes a simple local workshop
somewhere. One of the best participants, a total newcomer to Wikimedia
although a fluent JavaScript developer, is invited to travel to the next
hackathon in the nearest regional event (WikiArabia, WikiIndaba, the CEE
conference...) There, the best developers are invited to one of our global
hackathons (invited to South Africa in 2018, how cool is that!?!?).

Actually, the growth paths through events can be connected with related
online activities (self-paced, scheduled), which allows us to work with
more people beyond travel budget and people's possibilities with travel and
calendars. We can also connect them with developer outreach programs (GSoC,
Outreachy...). Who was a newcomer becomes more experienced, maybe a speaker
or a trainer invited to online / offline events, maybe a maintainer, maybe
a mentor, maybe grantee, a professional developer at Wikimedia...

OK, all these are ideas in progress that we are starting to put together at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Technical_Collaboration/Onboarding_New_Developers

Now, back to the Summit. The Wikimedia Developer Summit never was an event
crucial for onboarding new developers, and in fact it was not an event easy
to involve volunteers, because of its location (expensive San Francisco, in
a region where there are not many volunteer developers) and also because
the topics were quite focused on what is work mostly for professional
developers (see our cyclic discussions about how to integrate volunteer
developers and the topics crucial for them).

We have tried in several editions, and it has been very difficult to obtain
a mild success. Instead, now we are trying to bring some of the "Summit
topics" to those hackathons based on who is attending anyway (or vice
versa) and then we can focus the Summit around a specific topic and the
people specializing on it, in the terms explained by Victoria. What topics
will be discussed where will be decided by a program committee that will be
active through the year, helping to provide this connection across events
(see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160996 )

Sorry for the long response. It is the first time I write down all these
ideas in a single place. Feedback is very welcome.


A... suggestion, I suppose, though it comes with a caveat: if you 
haven't, I would highly recommend documenting what you've found/wound up 
with as learning patterns on meta, or similar, as well. This is valuable 
stuff, 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Quim Gil]

Sorry for being so late replying. Isarra asks a good question and I have
been thinking of a good answer.

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 8:35 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:

> Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for
> instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
> staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
> projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like
> doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much for
> established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
> they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles of
> these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
> how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be useful
> for chapters/groups planning their own events.


Yes, we have started to think seriously how the different developer events
fit together, how can they support better each other, and how can chapters
and other affiliates get better involved organizing local / regional events
or adding a tech component to the events they are already organizing.

Until recently our approach has been quite fragmented, organizing
technically successful events disconnected from each other. We started a
new trend last Summer, at the Wikimania Hackathon in Esino Lario,
discussing with Wikimedia Austria how could we improve the Wikimedia
Hackathon 2017 (in Vienna, in two weeks) after the high bar set by
Wikimedia Israel in Jerusalem. We had this idea of supporting the
organization of smaller hackathons and sponsoring the best participants to
travel to Vienna. The idea is working so far.

Growth paths for volunteers is another idea that has become very important
in our strategy and plans. While we seem to be quite good at organizing
developer events, developer outreach programs, developer community
support... the fact is that we are not doing good at retaining new
volunteer developers. Many come, but most leave. And there are many reasons
for this, but we think that an important one is that we are not offering
clear growth paths that make people stick around. Some volunteers find
these growth paths themselves, and we have many examples in this list, but
many simply don't see them and leave.

Developer events play an important role in these growth paths. Imagine that
a chapter or even a small affiliate organizes a simple local workshop
somewhere. One of the best participants, a total newcomer to Wikimedia
although a fluent JavaScript developer, is invited to travel to the next
hackathon in the nearest regional event (WikiArabia, WikiIndaba, the CEE
conference...) There, the best developers are invited to one of our global
hackathons (invited to South Africa in 2018, how cool is that!?!?).

Actually, the growth paths through events can be connected with related
online activities (self-paced, scheduled), which allows us to work with
more people beyond travel budget and people's possibilities with travel and
calendars. We can also connect them with developer outreach programs (GSoC,
Outreachy...). Who was a newcomer becomes more experienced, maybe a speaker
or a trainer invited to online / offline events, maybe a maintainer, maybe
a mentor, maybe grantee, a professional developer at Wikimedia...

OK, all these are ideas in progress that we are starting to put together at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Technical_Collaboration/Onboarding_New_Developers

Now, back to the Summit. The Wikimedia Developer Summit never was an event
crucial for onboarding new developers, and in fact it was not an event easy
to involve volunteers, because of its location (expensive San Francisco, in
a region where there are not many volunteer developers) and also because
the topics were quite focused on what is work mostly for professional
developers (see our cyclic discussions about how to integrate volunteer
developers and the topics crucial for them).

We have tried in several editions, and it has been very difficult to obtain
a mild success. Instead, now we are trying to bring some of the "Summit
topics" to those hackathons based on who is attending anyway (or vice
versa) and then we can focus the Summit around a specific topic and the
people specializing on it, in the terms explained by Victoria. What topics
will be discussed where will be decided by a program committee that will be
active through the year, helping to provide this connection across events
(see https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160996 )

Sorry for the long response. It is the first time I write down all these
ideas in a single place. Feedback is very welcome.

-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Victoria Coleman]

Hi Nemo,

one of the ideas we were floating was to rename the event to the “Wikimedia 
Technology Conference” and maybe we’ll get there but the decision was to stick 
with the original name for this coming year. I do understand how the change we 
are making might not be immediately obvious in the annual plan narrative. 

The goal is to turn the dev summit into a much more strategic and influential 
function for the Movement. To do this we will pick a theme for each year - this 
coming year the theme will be “Technology in support of the Movement Strategy”. 
By late fall we should have a pretty good idea for where the Movement will be 
headed in the next 5-10 years and the Dev Summit is the place where we will 
have a broad discussion for what technology needs/choices this direction needs 
to succeed. Imagine for example that we say that as a goal we say that we want 
to make all language wikipedias as large as the English one. What technologies 
we would need to achieve that? Machine translation would an obvious one, AI, 
etc. What would we have to change in our platforms and infrastructure to 
support that goal? There may be another one around mobile broadband and many 
others. We will be asking people to think through these questions and write a 
position paper describing their thoughts and proposed solutions. We will send 
out a set of questions nearer the time helping frame the position papers - 
which I don’t expect to be super extensive - maybe a page or two. I hope this 
makes sense.

All the best,

Victoria


> On Apr 30, 2017, at 6:58 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo)  wrote:
> 
> Thanks Victoria for spelling out this project, which was not clear to me from 
> reading the annual plan page (which mostly gives a feeling of continuity).
> 
> Can you clarify what you mean by "position papers" in this context?
> 
> Thanks,
>   Nemo
> 
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Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Thanks Victoria for spelling out this project, which was not clear to me 
from reading the annual plan page (which mostly gives a feeling of 
continuity).


Can you clarify what you mean by "position papers" in this context?

Thanks,
Nemo

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Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Isarra Yos]

That would be great.

Interesting, thanks.

-I

On 28/04/17 20:57, Victoria Coleman wrote:

Hi there,

Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech community 
events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts. Regarding the 
MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it we a/make planning for 
3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the community about what the 
Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid overlap,  and c/hopefully 
incentivize broader participation by the community in the formulation and 
delivery of the roadmap.

I hope this makes sense.

Victoria


On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:

Thanks.

Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for 
instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving staff 
and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on projects separate 
from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like doing, as opposed to 
what they have to. But these often don't do much for established volunteers, as 
a result, who generally just work on whatever they feel like all the time 
already. Have you looked into how the roles of these different events fit 
together across all the different groups, and how scopes affect them (regional, 
topical, etc)? This would also be useful for chapters/groups planning their own 
events.

How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community 
contributions?

-I

On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:

Hi Isarra,

thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical 
communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons, 
where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We want to 
support them not just by providing a series of events but also with tools and 
WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia Cloud Services 
team. They build and make labs and tools available and participate in the 
hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist volunteers. Another key 
change we are making this year is creating the MediaWiki Platform team who as 
well as  doing much needed work on the codebase will also facilitate 
contributions and planning with the volunteer community by publishing a 
roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing the nature of the Dev Summit 
to have it focus on the strategic technology issues and decisions the Movement 
is faced with. As such it is an event that might appeal more to the seasoned 
members of our community. Attendance for the summit will be decided on the 
basis of position papers for WMF staff and volunteers alike. I am personally 
excited about the lineup of events this coming year. But as always we learn and 
adapt. If we collectively decide to try for a different configuration the 
following year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!

Best regards,

Victoria



On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:

Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to reconcile 
making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of newcomers and 
volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they have at which to 
discuss the high-level technical issues with other stakeholders? Volunteer and 
third-party developers are not privy to most of the usual venues afforded to 
WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and events, and yet they make up an 
important part of the overall stakeholder community that these issues impact. 
They - we - need to be able to participate in these discussions, and the 
Developers Summit is one of very few opportunities even open to us where we can 
make our voices heard.

-I

On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:


Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
FY2017-18

and it welcomes your review.

I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:

The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
(often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
developers
.
 We
want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
developers to our projects, and events play an important role.

Local developer events
We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
with Wikimedia 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[zppix e]

No problem, feel free to contact me further if needed.

Thanks,
Zppix
Volunteer Developer for WMF
www.enwp.org/User:Zppix


On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:57 PM, Victoria Coleman 
wrote:

> Thank you Zppix.  I think that’s an awesome idea! Let me work with Quim to
> see what is possible and when and I will get back to you.
>
> Best,
>
> Victoria
>
> > On Apr 28, 2017, at 3:52 PM, zppix e  wrote:
> >
> > Victoria, re-quoting from my original reply: "A suggestion would be to
> host
> > a annual cloud (remote) hackathon type event where participants can join
> > via hangouts. I'd be willing to help organize this if need be. I think it
> > would help users that may not be comfortable traveling or don't feel like
> > applying for travel funds from WMF or don't have the funds in general. I
> > also think this would help users that aren't per say developers get their
> > issues heard and worked on without waiting months for a task to be
> > seen/replied/worked on. It could also be used by developers to talk with
> > WMF staff "face to face".   "
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Zppix
> > Volunteer Developer for WMF
> > www.enwp.org/User:Zppix
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:28 PM, Victoria Coleman <
> vcole...@wikimedia.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Hi there,
> >>
> >> I think I am having a(nother) senior moment! I don’t recall what event
> you
> >> have in mind. Sorry! Can you please remind me?
> >>
> >> Victoria
> >>
> >>> On Apr 28, 2017, at 2:25 PM, zppix e 
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Victoria,
> >>> Thanks for replying quickly, however what about the event I suggested,
> >> any
> >>> thoughts on that?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM, Victoria Coleman <
> >> vcole...@wikimedia.org>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
>  Hi there,
> 
>  Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech
>  community events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts.
>  Regarding the MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it
> >> we
>  a/make planning for 3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the
>  community about what the Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid
>  overlap,  and c/hopefully incentivize broader participation by the
>  community in the formulation and delivery of the roadmap.
> 
>  I hope this makes sense.
> 
>  Victoria
> 
> > On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos 
> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons,
> >> for
>  instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and
> giving
>  staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
>  projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel
> >> like
>  doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much
> >> for
>  established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on
> whatever
>  they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the
> roles
> >> of
>  these different events fit together across all the different groups,
> and
>  how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be
> >> useful
>  for chapters/groups planning their own events.
> >
> > How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate
> community
>  contributions?
> >
> > -I
> >
> > On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
> >> Hi Isarra,
> >>
> >> thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
>  communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the
> >> hackathons,
>  where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers.
> We
>  want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also
> >> with
>  tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
>  Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
>  participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general
> assist
>  volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
>  MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
>  codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the
> >> volunteer
>  community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are
> >> changing
>  the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic
> >> technology
>  issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an
> event
>  that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community.
> >> Attendance
>  for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
>  staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup
> of
>  events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
>  collectively decide to try for a different 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Victoria Coleman]

Thank you Zppix.  I think that’s an awesome idea! Let me work with Quim to see 
what is possible and when and I will get back to you.

Best,

Victoria

> On Apr 28, 2017, at 3:52 PM, zppix e  wrote:
> 
> Victoria, re-quoting from my original reply: "A suggestion would be to host
> a annual cloud (remote) hackathon type event where participants can join
> via hangouts. I'd be willing to help organize this if need be. I think it
> would help users that may not be comfortable traveling or don't feel like
> applying for travel funds from WMF or don't have the funds in general. I
> also think this would help users that aren't per say developers get their
> issues heard and worked on without waiting months for a task to be
> seen/replied/worked on. It could also be used by developers to talk with
> WMF staff "face to face".   "
> 
> Thanks,
> Zppix
> Volunteer Developer for WMF
> www.enwp.org/User:Zppix
> 
> 
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:28 PM, Victoria Coleman 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hi there,
>> 
>> I think I am having a(nother) senior moment! I don’t recall what event you
>> have in mind. Sorry! Can you please remind me?
>> 
>> Victoria
>> 
>>> On Apr 28, 2017, at 2:25 PM, zppix e  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Victoria,
>>> Thanks for replying quickly, however what about the event I suggested,
>> any
>>> thoughts on that?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM, Victoria Coleman <
>> vcole...@wikimedia.org>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
 Hi there,
 
 Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech
 community events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts.
 Regarding the MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it
>> we
 a/make planning for 3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the
 community about what the Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid
 overlap,  and c/hopefully incentivize broader participation by the
 community in the formulation and delivery of the roadmap.
 
 I hope this makes sense.
 
 Victoria
 
> On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons,
>> for
 instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
 staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
 projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel
>> like
 doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much
>> for
 established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
 they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles
>> of
 these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
 how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be
>> useful
 for chapters/groups planning their own events.
> 
> How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community
 contributions?
> 
> -I
> 
> On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
>> Hi Isarra,
>> 
>> thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
 communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the
>> hackathons,
 where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
 want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also
>> with
 tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
 Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
 participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
 volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
 MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
 codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the
>> volunteer
 community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are
>> changing
 the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic
>> technology
 issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
 that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community.
>> Attendance
 for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
 staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
 events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
 collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
 year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> Victoria
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos 
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
 reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
 newcomers and volunteers 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[zppix e]

Victoria, re-quoting from my original reply: "A suggestion would be to host
a annual cloud (remote) hackathon type event where participants can join
via hangouts. I'd be willing to help organize this if need be. I think it
would help users that may not be comfortable traveling or don't feel like
applying for travel funds from WMF or don't have the funds in general. I
also think this would help users that aren't per say developers get their
issues heard and worked on without waiting months for a task to be
seen/replied/worked on. It could also be used by developers to talk with
WMF staff "face to face".   "

Thanks,
Zppix
Volunteer Developer for WMF
www.enwp.org/User:Zppix


On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:28 PM, Victoria Coleman 
wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I think I am having a(nother) senior moment! I don’t recall what event you
> have in mind. Sorry! Can you please remind me?
>
> Victoria
>
> > On Apr 28, 2017, at 2:25 PM, zppix e  wrote:
> >
> > Victoria,
> > Thanks for replying quickly, however what about the event I suggested,
> any
> > thoughts on that?
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM, Victoria Coleman <
> vcole...@wikimedia.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Hi there,
> >>
> >> Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech
> >> community events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts.
> >> Regarding the MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it
> we
> >> a/make planning for 3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the
> >> community about what the Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid
> >> overlap,  and c/hopefully incentivize broader participation by the
> >> community in the formulation and delivery of the roadmap.
> >>
> >> I hope this makes sense.
> >>
> >> Victoria
> >>
> >>> On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Thanks.
> >>>
> >>> Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons,
> for
> >> instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
> >> staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
> >> projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel
> like
> >> doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much
> for
> >> established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
> >> they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles
> of
> >> these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
> >> how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be
> useful
> >> for chapters/groups planning their own events.
> >>>
> >>> How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community
> >> contributions?
> >>>
> >>> -I
> >>>
> >>> On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
>  Hi Isarra,
> 
>  thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
> >> communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the
> hackathons,
> >> where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
> >> want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also
> with
> >> tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
> >> Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
> >> participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
> >> volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
> >> MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
> >> codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the
> volunteer
> >> community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are
> changing
> >> the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic
> technology
> >> issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
> >> that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community.
> Attendance
> >> for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
> >> staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
> >> events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
> >> collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
> >> year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
> 
>  Best regards,
> 
>  Victoria
> 
> 
> > On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos 
> wrote:
> >
> > Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
> >> reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
> >> newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue
> they
> >> have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other
> >> stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to
> most of
> >> the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and
> >> events, and yet they 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Victoria Coleman]

Hi there,

I think I am having a(nother) senior moment! I don’t recall what event you have 
in mind. Sorry! Can you please remind me?

Victoria

> On Apr 28, 2017, at 2:25 PM, zppix e  wrote:
> 
> Victoria,
> Thanks for replying quickly, however what about the event I suggested, any
> thoughts on that?
> 
> 
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM, Victoria Coleman 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hi there,
>> 
>> Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech
>> community events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts.
>> Regarding the MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it we
>> a/make planning for 3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the
>> community about what the Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid
>> overlap,  and c/hopefully incentivize broader participation by the
>> community in the formulation and delivery of the roadmap.
>> 
>> I hope this makes sense.
>> 
>> Victoria
>> 
>>> On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
>>> 
>>> Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for
>> instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
>> staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
>> projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like
>> doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much for
>> established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
>> they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles of
>> these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
>> how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be useful
>> for chapters/groups planning their own events.
>>> 
>>> How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community
>> contributions?
>>> 
>>> -I
>>> 
>>> On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
 Hi Isarra,
 
 thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
>> communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons,
>> where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
>> want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also with
>> tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
>> Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
>> participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
>> volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
>> MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
>> codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the volunteer
>> community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing
>> the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic technology
>> issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
>> that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community. Attendance
>> for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
>> staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
>> events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
>> collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
>> year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
 
 Best regards,
 
 Victoria
 
 
> On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> 
> Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
>> reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
>> newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they
>> have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other
>> stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most of
>> the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and
>> events, and yet they make up an important part of the overall stakeholder
>> community that these issues impact. They - we - need to be able to
>> participate in these discussions, and the Developers Summit is one of very
>> few opportunities even open to us where we can make our voices heard.
> 
> -I
> 
> On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
>>> FY2017-18
>>> > Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft>
>>> and it welcomes your review.
>>> 
>>> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to
>> the
>>> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
>>> 
>>> The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple
>> activities
>>> (often disconnected) in a single program 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[zppix e]

Victoria,
Thanks for replying quickly, however what about the event I suggested, any
thoughts on that?


On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM, Victoria Coleman 
wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech
> community events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts.
> Regarding the MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it we
> a/make planning for 3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the
> community about what the Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid
> overlap,  and c/hopefully incentivize broader participation by the
> community in the formulation and delivery of the roadmap.
>
> I hope this makes sense.
>
> Victoria
>
> > On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for
> instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving
> staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on
> projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like
> doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much for
> established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever
> they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles of
> these different events fit together across all the different groups, and
> how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be useful
> for chapters/groups planning their own events.
> >
> > How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community
> contributions?
> >
> > -I
> >
> > On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
> >> Hi Isarra,
> >>
> >> thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
> communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons,
> where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
> want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also with
> tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
> Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
> participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
> volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
> MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
> codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the volunteer
> community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing
> the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic technology
> issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
> that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community. Attendance
> for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
> staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
> events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
> collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
> year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >>
> >> Victoria
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
> reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
> newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they
> have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other
> stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most of
> the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and
> events, and yet they make up an important part of the overall stakeholder
> community that these issues impact. They - we - need to be able to
> participate in these discussions, and the Developers Summit is one of very
> few opportunities even open to us where we can make our voices heard.
> >>>
> >>> -I
> >>>
> >>> On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
>  On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
> 
> > Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
> > FY2017-18
> >  Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft>
> > and it welcomes your review.
> >
> > I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to
> the
> > developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
> >
> > The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple
> activities
> > (often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
> > developers
> >  Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft/Programs/Community_Engagement#
> Program_12:_Onboarding_new_developers>. We
> > want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new
> wave of
> > 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Victoria Coleman]

Hi there,

Quim and his team have indeed thought through the totality of tech community 
events and I am sure he can respond here with his thoughts. Regarding the 
MediaWiki roadmap, the thinking is that by publishing it we a/make planning for 
3rd party users much more feasible, b/inform the community about what the 
Foundation will be doing so that we can avoid overlap,  and c/hopefully 
incentivize broader participation by the community in the formulation and 
delivery of the roadmap. 

I hope this makes sense.

Victoria

> On Apr 27, 2017, at 11:35 AM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for 
> instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving staff 
> and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on projects 
> separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel like doing, as 
> opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do much for established 
> volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on whatever they feel like 
> all the time already. Have you looked into how the roles of these different 
> events fit together across all the different groups, and how scopes affect 
> them (regional, topical, etc)? This would also be useful for chapters/groups 
> planning their own events.
> 
> How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community 
> contributions?
> 
> -I
> 
> On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:
>> Hi Isarra,
>> 
>> thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical 
>> communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons, 
>> where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We want 
>> to support them not just by providing a series of events but also with tools 
>> and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia Cloud 
>> Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and participate 
>> in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist volunteers. 
>> Another key change we are making this year is creating the MediaWiki 
>> Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the codebase will 
>> also facilitate contributions and planning with the volunteer community by 
>> publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing the nature of 
>> the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic technology issues and 
>> decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event that might 
>> appeal more to the seasoned members of our community. Attendance for the 
>> summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF staff and 
>> volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of events this 
>> coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we collectively decide to 
>> try for a different configuration the following year, we can totally do 
>> that. Please keep the feedback coming!
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> Victoria
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to reconcile 
>>> making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of newcomers 
>>> and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they have at 
>>> which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other stakeholders? 
>>> Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most of the usual 
>>> venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and events, and 
>>> yet they make up an important part of the overall stakeholder community 
>>> that these issues impact. They - we - need to be able to participate in 
>>> these discussions, and the Developers Summit is one of very few 
>>> opportunities even open to us where we can make our voices heard.
>>> 
>>> -I
>>> 
>>> On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
 On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
 
> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
> FY2017-18
> 
> and it welcomes your review.
> 
> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
> 
> The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
> (often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
> developers
> .
>  We
> want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
> developers to our projects, and events play an important role.
> 
> Local developer events
> We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
> specific groups and 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[zppix e]

A suggestion would be to host a annual cloud (remote) hackathon type event
where participants can join via hangouts. I'd be willing to help organize
this if need be. I think it would help users that may not be comfortable
traveling or don't feel like applying for travel funds from WMF or don't
have the funds in general. I also think this would help users that aren't
per say developers get their issues heard and worked on without waiting
months for a task to be seen/replied/worked on. It could also be used by
developers to talk with WMF staff "face to face". However, I do think as
well that WMF team meetings should be documented and transcribed (for
public viewing at least) keeping in mind obvious security concerns and such
redacted of course.
Any questions? Feel free to reply to me here, ask on freenode, or on my
User page on enwiki.


Thank you,
Zppix
Volunteer Developer for WMF
enwp.org/User:Zppix

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 7:22 PM, NISHITH SHETTY <
shettynishith@mmcoe.edu.in> wrote:

> We are really excited to let you know about the Angelhack hackathon which
> is due to be hosted in Pune on MAY 20-21, 2017. The event access page is
> http://angelhack.com/angelhack-global-hackathon-series-pune/
>
> We would like you to be a part of the whole event as a non-profit and let
> the participants help you as part of the Code for a cause challenge.
>
> Code For A Cause is welcoming nonprofits worldwide to join us at our 10th
> Global Hackathon Series, to inspire our global community to leverage their
> skills for good and give back to their local communities.
>
> We’ll be rolling out the AngelHack-red carpet for nonprofits at each and
> every event, all we ask in return is that the nonprofits create a challenge
> to inspire our hackers! To nominate your nonprofit, please fill out this
> form
>  YY_m_n9pI50wLc/>.
> Selections will be accepted on a rolling basis.
>
> Thanks and regards
>
> Nishith Shetty
>
> 9527444568 <(952)%20744-4568>
>
> On Apr 27, 2017 08:42, "Victoria Coleman"  wrote:
>
> > Hi Isarra,
> >
> > thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
> > communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the
> hackathons,
> > where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
> > want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also
> with
> > tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
> > Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
> > participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
> > volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
> > MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
> > codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the
> volunteer
> > community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are
> changing
> > the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic technology
> > issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
> > that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community.
> Attendance
> > for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
> > staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
> > events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
> > collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
> > year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Victoria
> >
> >
> > > On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> > >
> > > Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
> > reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
> > newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they
> > have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other
> > stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most
> of
> > the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and
> > events, and yet they make up an important part of the overall stakeholder
> > community that these issues impact. They - we - need to be able to
> > participate in these discussions, and the Developers Summit is one of
> very
> > few opportunities even open to us where we can make our voices heard.
> > >
> > > -I
> > >
> > > On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
> > >> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
> > >>> FY2017-18
> > >>>  > Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft>
> > >>> and it welcomes your review.
> > >>>
> > >>> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to
> the
> > >>> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[NISHITH SHETTY]

We are really excited to let you know about the Angelhack hackathon which
is due to be hosted in Pune on MAY 20-21, 2017. The event access page is
http://angelhack.com/angelhack-global-hackathon-series-pune/

We would like you to be a part of the whole event as a non-profit and let
the participants help you as part of the Code for a cause challenge.

Code For A Cause is welcoming nonprofits worldwide to join us at our 10th
Global Hackathon Series, to inspire our global community to leverage their
skills for good and give back to their local communities.

We’ll be rolling out the AngelHack-red carpet for nonprofits at each and
every event, all we ask in return is that the nonprofits create a challenge
to inspire our hackers! To nominate your nonprofit, please fill out this
form
.
Selections will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Thanks and regards

Nishith Shetty

9527444568 <(952)%20744-4568>

On Apr 27, 2017 08:42, "Victoria Coleman"  wrote:

> Hi Isarra,
>
> thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical
> communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons,
> where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We
> want to support them not just by providing a series of events but also with
> tools and WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia
> Cloud Services team. They build and make labs and tools available and
> participate in the hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist
> volunteers. Another key change we are making this year is creating the
> MediaWiki Platform team who as well as  doing much needed work on the
> codebase will also facilitate contributions and planning with the volunteer
> community by publishing a roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing
> the nature of the Dev Summit to have it focus on the strategic technology
> issues and decisions the Movement is faced with. As such it is an event
> that might appeal more to the seasoned members of our community. Attendance
> for the summit will be decided on the basis of position papers for WMF
> staff and volunteers alike. I am personally excited about the lineup of
> events this coming year. But as always we learn and adapt. If we
> collectively decide to try for a different configuration the following
> year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Victoria
>
>
> > On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> >
> > Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to
> reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of
> newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they
> have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other
> stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most of
> the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and
> events, and yet they make up an important part of the overall stakeholder
> community that these issues impact. They - we - need to be able to
> participate in these discussions, and the Developers Summit is one of very
> few opportunities even open to us where we can make our voices heard.
> >
> > -I
> >
> > On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
> >> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
> >>> FY2017-18
> >>>  Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft>
> >>> and it welcomes your review.
> >>>
> >>> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
> >>> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
> >>>
> >>> The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple
> activities
> >>> (often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
> >>> developers
> >>>  Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft/Programs/Community_Engagement#
> Program_12:_Onboarding_new_developers>. We
> >>> want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new
> wave of
> >>> developers to our projects, and events play an important role.
> >>>
> >>> Local developer events
> >>> We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
> >>> specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local
> developer
> >>> meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting
> small
> >>> and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
> >>> with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
> >>> experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events,
> maybe
> >>> travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
> >>> events.
> >>>
> >>> Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
> >>> Last 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Isarra Yos]

Thanks.

Different events serve very different purposes, though - hackathons, for 
instance, seem to be largely useful for onboarding newcomers and giving 
staff and other occupational contributors an opportunity to work on 
projects separate from their usual work, basically whatever they feel 
like doing, as opposed to what they have to. But these often don't do 
much for established volunteers, as a result, who generally just work on 
whatever they feel like all the time already. Have you looked into how 
the roles of these different events fit together across all the 
different groups, and how scopes affect them (regional, topical, etc)? 
This would also be useful for chapters/groups planning their own events.


How exactly is publishing a roadmap going to help facilitate community 
contributions?


-I

On 27/04/17 03:11, Victoria Coleman wrote:

Hi Isarra,

thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical 
communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons, 
where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We want to 
support them not just by providing a series of events but also with tools and 
WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia Cloud Services 
team. They build and make labs and tools available and participate in the 
hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist volunteers. Another key 
change we are making this year is creating the MediaWiki Platform team who as 
well as  doing much needed work on the codebase will also facilitate 
contributions and planning with the volunteer community by publishing a 
roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing the nature of the Dev Summit 
to have it focus on the strategic technology issues and decisions the Movement 
is faced with. As such it is an event that might appeal more to the seasoned 
members of our community. Attendance for the summit will be decided on the 
basis of position papers for WMF staff and volunteers alike. I am personally 
excited about the lineup of events this coming year. But as always we learn and 
adapt. If we collectively decide to try for a different configuration the 
following year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!

Best regards,

Victoria



On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:

Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to reconcile 
making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of newcomers and 
volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they have at which to 
discuss the high-level technical issues with other stakeholders? Volunteer and 
third-party developers are not privy to most of the usual venues afforded to 
WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and events, and yet they make up an 
important part of the overall stakeholder community that these issues impact. 
They - we - need to be able to participate in these discussions, and the 
Developers Summit is one of very few opportunities even open to us where we can 
make our voices heard.

-I

On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:


Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
FY2017-18

and it welcomes your review.

I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:

The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
(often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
developers
.
 We
want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
developers to our projects, and events play an important role.

Local developer events
We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events, maybe
travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
events.

Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
Last year we experimented organizing technical workshops in WikiArabia,
and others have done similar efforts in other regional events (for
instance, a small hackathon next to WikiConference India). We want to work
with the organizers of these regional events in order to attract
experienced Wikimedia developers and newcomers, organize developer
activities, and also improve the collaboration between the technical and
non-technical contributors in these 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Victoria Coleman]

Hi Isarra,

thank you for the question. We want to support our diverse technical 
communities in a variety of ways. One of our key tools are the hackathons, 
where we hope to welcome both seasoned and new volunteer developers. We want to 
support them not just by providing a series of events but also with tools and 
WMF staff time. These are the key goals of our new Wikimedia Cloud Services 
team. They build and make labs and tools available and participate in the 
hackathons to onboard newcomers and in general assist volunteers. Another key 
change we are making this year is creating the MediaWiki Platform team who as 
well as  doing much needed work on the codebase will also facilitate 
contributions and planning with the volunteer community by publishing a 
roadmap. And as Quim notes below we are changing the nature of the Dev Summit 
to have it focus on the strategic technology issues and decisions the Movement 
is faced with. As such it is an event that might appeal more to the seasoned 
members of our community. Attendance for the summit will be decided on the 
basis of position papers for WMF staff and volunteers alike. I am personally 
excited about the lineup of events this coming year. But as always we learn and 
adapt. If we collectively decide to try for a different configuration the 
following year, we can totally do that. Please keep the feedback coming!

Best regards,

Victoria


> On Apr 26, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Isarra Yos  wrote:
> 
> Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to reconcile 
> making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of newcomers and 
> volunteers in general when that's often the only venue they have at which to 
> discuss the high-level technical issues with other stakeholders? Volunteer 
> and third-party developers are not privy to most of the usual venues afforded 
> to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings and events, and yet they make up an 
> important part of the overall stakeholder community that these issues impact. 
> They - we - need to be able to participate in these discussions, and the 
> Developers Summit is one of very few opportunities even open to us where we 
> can make our voices heard.
> 
> -I
> 
> On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
>>> FY2017-18
>>> 
>>> and it welcomes your review.
>>> 
>>> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
>>> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
>>> 
>>> The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
>>> (often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
>>> developers
>>> .
>>>  We
>>> want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
>>> developers to our projects, and events play an important role.
>>> 
>>> Local developer events
>>> We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
>>> specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
>>> meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
>>> and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
>>> with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
>>> experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events, maybe
>>> travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
>>> events.
>>> 
>>> Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
>>> Last year we experimented organizing technical workshops in WikiArabia,
>>> and others have done similar efforts in other regional events (for
>>> instance, a small hackathon next to WikiConference India). We want to work
>>> with the organizers of these regional events in order to attract
>>> experienced Wikimedia developers and newcomers, organize developer
>>> activities, and also improve the collaboration between the technical and
>>> non-technical contributors in these regions.
>>> 
>>> Better retention of newcomers at the Wikimedia and Wikimania hackathons
>>> Although we don't expect major changes in the organization of the
>>> Wikimedia Hackathon and the hackathon at Wikimania, we want to focus better
>>> on new developers onboarding and retention. In every Hackathon we meet many
>>> new developers, but the retention rates are very low. We want to review
>>> what we can do before, during, and after these apparently successful events
>>> in order to retain newcomers better. One hypothesis is that we should focus
>>> call for participation, scholarships, and Wikimedia Foundation
>>> participation in providing a great experience to new volunteers 

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Isarra Yos]

Regarding the Developers Summit in particular, how do you plan to 
reconcile making the event smaller with your goal of better retention of 
newcomers and volunteers in general when that's often the only venue 
they have at which to discuss the high-level technical issues with other 
stakeholders? Volunteer and third-party developers are not privy to most 
of the usual venues afforded to WMF staff such as inter-team meetings 
and events, and yet they make up an important part of the overall 
stakeholder community that these issues impact. They - we - need to be 
able to participate in these discussions, and the Developers Summit is 
one of very few opportunities even open to us where we can make our 
voices heard.


-I

On 20/04/17 07:28, Quim Gil wrote:

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:


Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
FY2017-18

and it welcomes your review.

I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:

The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
(often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
developers
.
 We
want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
developers to our projects, and events play an important role.

Local developer events
We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events, maybe
travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
events.

Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
Last year we experimented organizing technical workshops in WikiArabia,
and others have done similar efforts in other regional events (for
instance, a small hackathon next to WikiConference India). We want to work
with the organizers of these regional events in order to attract
experienced Wikimedia developers and newcomers, organize developer
activities, and also improve the collaboration between the technical and
non-technical contributors in these regions.

Better retention of newcomers at the Wikimedia and Wikimania hackathons
Although we don't expect major changes in the organization of the
Wikimedia Hackathon and the hackathon at Wikimania, we want to focus better
on new developers onboarding and retention. In every Hackathon we meet many
new developers, but the retention rates are very low. We want to review
what we can do before, during, and after these apparently successful events
in order to retain newcomers better. One hypothesis is that we should focus
call for participation, scholarships, and Wikimedia Foundation
participation in providing a great experience to new volunteers who have
gone through local and regional events, and also "junior" developers coming
from wiki projects through the development of bots, gadgets, tools,
templates.

A smaller and more focused Wikimedia Developer Summit
After some discussions between Community Engagement, Technology, and
Product, we have decided to propose a different approach for the Wikimedia
Developer Summit. Organized by the Technology department as part of their 
technical
community building

efforts, we want the Summit to finally become the venue where the toughest
technical problems are discussed between the stakeholders directly related.
We want to reduce the size/budget of the event, separate it from the WMF
AllHands,


Due to travel budget considerations, the Summit still might be connected to
the WMF AllHands.



and define its main themes well in advance.

A Program Committee  would
decide these main themes to be discussed at the Summit. We also want to
explore the possibility of tackling some of these themes at the Wikimedia
Hackathon and Wikimania, where we could get most stakeholders involved with
just a little extra effort (since many of them would be attending anyway).

We believe that this approach will serve better the Wikimedia technical
community that we have, and also the the community that we want to have,
with a new wave of developers joining our various projects.

--
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil

Re: [Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Quim Gil]

On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:14 AM, Quim Gil  wrote:

> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
> FY2017-18
> 
> and it welcomes your review.
>
> I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
> developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:
>
> The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
> (often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
> developers
> .
>  We
> want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
> developers to our projects, and events play an important role.
>
> Local developer events
> We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
> specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
> meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
> and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
> with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
> experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events, maybe
> travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
> events.
>
> Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
> Last year we experimented organizing technical workshops in WikiArabia,
> and others have done similar efforts in other regional events (for
> instance, a small hackathon next to WikiConference India). We want to work
> with the organizers of these regional events in order to attract
> experienced Wikimedia developers and newcomers, organize developer
> activities, and also improve the collaboration between the technical and
> non-technical contributors in these regions.
>
> Better retention of newcomers at the Wikimedia and Wikimania hackathons
> Although we don't expect major changes in the organization of the
> Wikimedia Hackathon and the hackathon at Wikimania, we want to focus better
> on new developers onboarding and retention. In every Hackathon we meet many
> new developers, but the retention rates are very low. We want to review
> what we can do before, during, and after these apparently successful events
> in order to retain newcomers better. One hypothesis is that we should focus
> call for participation, scholarships, and Wikimedia Foundation
> participation in providing a great experience to new volunteers who have
> gone through local and regional events, and also "junior" developers coming
> from wiki projects through the development of bots, gadgets, tools,
> templates.
>
> A smaller and more focused Wikimedia Developer Summit
> After some discussions between Community Engagement, Technology, and
> Product, we have decided to propose a different approach for the Wikimedia
> Developer Summit. Organized by the Technology department as part of their 
> technical
> community building
> 
> efforts, we want the Summit to finally become the venue where the toughest
> technical problems are discussed between the stakeholders directly related.
> We want to reduce the size/budget of the event, separate it from the WMF
> AllHands,
>

Due to travel budget considerations, the Summit still might be connected to
the WMF AllHands.


> and define its main themes well in advance.
>
> A Program Committee  would
> decide these main themes to be discussed at the Summit. We also want to
> explore the possibility of tackling some of these themes at the Wikimedia
> Hackathon and Wikimania, where we could get most stakeholders involved with
> just a little extra effort (since many of them would be attending anyway).
>
> We believe that this approach will serve better the Wikimedia technical
> community that we have, and also the the community that we want to have,
> with a new wave of developers joining our various projects.
>
> --
> Quim Gil
> Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
>



-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
___
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[Wikitech-l] Improvements to developer events in the WMF Annual Plan draft

[Quim Gil]

Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual Plan
FY2017-18

and it welcomes your review.

I want to highlight here the improvements that we are proposing to the
developer events (co)organized by the WMF. From local to global:

The Technical Collaboration team proposes to combine multiple activities
(often disconnected) in a single program focusing on onboarding new
developers
.
We
want to work with the Wikimedia technical community to bring a new wave of
developers to our projects, and events play an important role.

Local developer events
We want to support developers and organizations willing to reach out to
specific groups and geographies. We are hoping to see many local developer
meetups and small hackathons or workshops around the World, starting small
and simple. We should be able to offer introductory materials, contacts
with Wikimedia developers in the region, maybe travel budget to send
experienced volunteers to help mentoring the in the bigger events, maybe
travel budget to invite the best newcomers to our regional and global
events.

Adding tech to regional Wikimedia events
Last year we experimented organizing technical workshops in WikiArabia, and
others have done similar efforts in other regional events (for instance, a
small hackathon next to WikiConference India). We want to work with the
organizers of these regional events in order to attract experienced
Wikimedia developers and newcomers, organize developer activities, and also
improve the collaboration between the technical and non-technical
contributors in these regions.

Better retention of newcomers at the Wikimedia and Wikimania hackathons
Although we don't expect major changes in the organization of the Wikimedia
Hackathon and the hackathon at Wikimania, we want to focus better on new
developers onboarding and retention. In every Hackathon we meet many new
developers, but the retention rates are very low. We want to review what we
can do before, during, and after these apparently successful events in
order to retain newcomers better. One hypothesis is that we should focus
call for participation, scholarships, and Wikimedia Foundation
participation in providing a great experience to new volunteers who have
gone through local and regional events, and also "junior" developers coming
from wiki projects through the development of bots, gadgets, tools,
templates.

A smaller and more focused Wikimedia Developer Summit
After some discussions between Community Engagement, Technology, and
Product, we have decided to propose a different approach for the Wikimedia
Developer Summit. Organized by the Technology department as part of
their technical
community building

efforts, we want the Summit to finally become the venue where the toughest
technical problems are discussed between the stakeholders directly related.
We want to reduce the size/budget of the event, separate it from the WMF
AllHands, and define its main themes well in advance.

A Program Committee  would
decide these main themes to be discussed at the Summit. We also want to
explore the possibility of tackling some of these themes at the Wikimedia
Hackathon and Wikimania, where we could get most stakeholders involved with
just a little extra effort (since many of them would be attending anyway).

We believe that this approach will serve better the Wikimedia technical
community that we have, and also the the community that we want to have,
with a new wave of developers joining our various projects.

-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
___
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l