One of the areas that I would like to see the foundation putting in money is for the running and maintenance of wanted orphan bots. Wanted in the sense that editors are using them or would if they were still running, and orphan in the sense that the original developer isn't around or available to run them/migrate them to the latest platform.
If we work on the premise that community funds should go for things that volunteers want to have happen but aren't volunteering to do, then this is a classic and uncontentious niche. Programmers like to write new code and solve new problems, but the person with the idea or who writes new code doesn't always have the time and motivation to keep maintaining and running that code, let alone creating slightly bespoke version for scores of our thousand wikis. Now it may be that we are in an unusual situation that the migration from toolserver to labs has cost us a number of bots that would otherwise have continued for years. But there will always be demand to localise existing bots for wikis where they don't currently run, and in the long run all of our volunteer bot writers are likely to move on. Employing a python programmer or two somewhere cheap like India or South America would not be a huge investment for the foundation, but it would be a valuable service to the community, and unlike mediawiki development this could be completely volunteer driven with wikimedians deciding which bots are worth maintaining and their relative priority. Disclosure: whilst I'm not pitching for the money for this, I would be front of the queue to ask such a maintainer to take on bots that I used to use the results of and in at least one case which I designed. Regards Jonathan/WereSpielChequers > On 22 Feb 2015, at 11:42, wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org wrote: > > Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to > wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 17:39:31 -0800 > From: Erik Moeller <e...@wikimedia.org> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Types of allowed projects for > grant funding (renamed) > Message-ID: > <CAEg6ZHmFQ-K8tksj==b-cx1ankcc+wy1gcfk+0+pkis38uk...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > >> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 4:19 PM, MZMcBride <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote: >> >> Erik seems to be pushing toward a model that favors using OAuth and the >> MediaWiki API over "deep integration" that comes with a MediaWiki >> extension. He recently mentioned this here: >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/glamtools/2015-February/000343.html >> >> He may be right that development for deployment to the Wikimedia >> Foundation cluster may not be the best approach for every project, but I >> think this view overlooks all the very real benefits that extension >> deployment includes. > > I don't think one size fits all -- every case needs to be judged on > its merits, though in the case of GLAMWikiToolset I am definitely > arguing for considering separation from the MediaWiki codebase because > it is so highly specialized. I also think we sometimes still have a > tendency to underestimate the value of non-MediaWiki tools and apps, > even though they've contributed millions of edits to Wikimedia wikis > already (though to be fair, without Magnus Manske the tally would not > be nearly as awesome). > > Regarding the criteria for grantmaking, I think this initial blanket > prohibition against all MediaWiki extension development is indeed > something we ought to revisit. These grants can cover tens of > thousands of dollars of paid work, so we shouldn't treat the review > and integration burden lightly, and avoiding stalled projects that are > going nowhere was a reason I advocated for this restriction to begin > with. But as long as there is a good plan in place -- either not > significantly dependent on WMF or with clear commitments negotiated > upfront -- I do agree that the risks can be significantly mitigated. > > Damon, Luis and members of their teams will need to weigh in on this, > and will want to think through the implications for their respective > areas, but it's a good conversation to have -- keeping in mind that > Luis is just starting in his new role, so please give him at least a > few days to get up to speed. ;-) > > Erik > -- > Erik Möller > VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 18:12:02 -0800 > From: Luis Villa <lvi...@wikimedia.org> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Types of allowed projects for > grant funding (renamed) > Message-ID: > <cam2wsz6x5dqdljnwjs3va_su57nup0uhxlq6zktaheey2t4...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > >> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 5:39 PM, Erik Moeller <e...@wikimedia.org> wrote: >> >> Damon, Luis and members of their teams will need to weigh in on this, >> and will want to think through the implications for their respective >> areas, but it's a good conversation to have -- keeping in mind that >> Luis is just starting in his new role, so please give him at least a >> few days to get up to speed. ;-) > > Thanks for at least a few hours of cushion, Erik ;) > > I'm a big believer in the power of/need for software tools, and at least > philosophically I'm very open to funding software development outside the > Foundation (though obviously there are lots of pragmatic difficulties - > code review, etc.) So, yes, as part of our broader review of how we support > communities and contributor growth, CE will look at funding code very > seriously. > > Luis > > -- > Luis Villa > Sr. Director of Community Engagement > Wikimedia Foundation > > > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
