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 <megadev44s.m...@gmail.com> 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 <zhoris...@gmail.com> 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 <zhoris...@gmail.com> > 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<q...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > >>>>>> > >>>>>>> Hi, the Wikimedia Foundation has published a draft of its Annual > Plan > >>>>>>> FY2017-18 > >>>>>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ > >> 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 > >>>>>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ > >> 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 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 > >>>>>>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_ > >> Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Draft/Programs/Technology#Program_4: > >> _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<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T160996> > >> 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 > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> Wikitech-l mailing list > >>>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Wikitech-l mailing list > >>> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikitech-l mailing list > >> Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
