Just wanted to say your comment about needing a community liaison was spot on.
It's something I've been thinking about for a while, but I don't want to plug
it too hard because I'd give serious thought to applying if it ever came up!
Best,
Harry
________________________________
From: Thomas Morton <morton.tho...@googlemail.com>
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, 18 June 2012, 14:49
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Recruiting for the Developer
Looking at the job description I have some concerns that it has been written
without the input of someone experienced in hiring individuals for technical or
pseudo-technical roles - especially in the current economic climate.
You seem to be looking for someone extremely versatile, experienced
and independent... on a very entry level salary packet.
I was under the impression, from previous discussions, that the developer
position was to be contractor-style - or at least remote working in the region
~10 hours a week.
As a developer, from the description page, I see the following roles:
* Developer
* Sysadmin
* Project manager
* Advocate
Four very distinct roles.
To pick on one specific issue; expecting this person to work on Mediwiki core,
or an extension, is going to be problematic. That's a whole position on its own
and you are going to find that ongoing "other work" will make project work of
that sort untenable.
(speaking as someone who is in much this position at the moment; my project
work is on hold pretty much all the time whilst clearing up management issues).
I worry that there is not a lot of work described in this job; or at least
the responsibilities are bitty and ill-defined. You're risking having someone
who will sit for long portions of the day drumming their fingers on the
desk. (speaking as someone who was hired to do this once, and quit after 3
months due to boredom). It would be good to define (internally, on the WMUK
wiki) the roles this developer will have to fulfill and, from a
technical perspective, what we'd like to achieve in, say, the next year.
The salary is most concerning though; you're looking for experience and
versatility - two major technical skills (sysadmin and developer) plus
management experience/skill - at a basic entry level rate. I think you will
struggle to find competent applicants.
I'd fit, fairly well, this job description (and I think am pretty good at it) -
and any London based job under £35K would struggle to tempt me. Under £30K is
not even worth considering. (n.b. I'm not saying this because I'd plan to apply
if you raised the salary :)). You;fe
What I recommend is hiring a more general community liaison (we need this
anyway IMO), with experience in technical projects. They can do most of the PM
style work. Then contract out specific projects (yes, including MW extension
writing) as and when needed. Keep a contractor on retainer for sysadmin and
internal dev work (~10 hours a week etc.).
Particularly as you have numerous skilled dev/sysadmin contractors within the
community who will likely offer discounted rates. Building on the WMF model;
with a competent project manager most of the dev/sysadmin work could be
community driven. I've already offered to pitch in, but there is no public
project to achieve this that I know of.
If we have a budget of £30K to go into development this is not enough to hire a
full time developer/sysadmin/manager. It's enough to contract the work and to
begin to build a volunteer centric development department.
Mike wrote an excellent starter to this
here: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Developer_budget The current job
description seems to be the opposite of many of those (good) proposals
(although I know Mike also wrote the job description). If we take the list of
upcoming requirements from that page there are even bigger images; it talks
about a robust backup strategy - which is quite a specific set of experience.
Even worse is the security review stuff - no dev/sysadmin you hire for £25K
will be capable of a robust security review.
As always; just my 2p :)
Tom
(sorry to be over-critical, but I am in a rush today so this is first draft
sent :))
On 18 June 2012 13:41, Jon Davies <jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
We will shortly be advertising for our developer post. We will be spreading the
word far and wide, especially within the community, but all suggestions
gratefully received.
>So far (outside leads:
>Mozilla
>Tech hub
>Civi-CRM
>Google academy
>
>Thanks
>
>Jon
>
>
>--
>Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
>tweet @jonatreesdavies
>
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>
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