Technical communications/status

Last update on: 2013-02-08

2011-03-31
Guillaume Paumier revived this project and focused on summary pages and versions & phases for Wikimedia-funded engineering projects. The goal is to make it easier to find this information and keep it up-to-date, for the benefit of staff, volunteer developers and users.

2011-04-30
Guillaume Paumier set up a set of pages, templates and tools to facilitate the maintenance of project pages. The new system allows to pull project information from one central place per project, using the Labeled Section Transclusion extension, which was installed on mediawiki.org for this purpose. The Berlin meetup will be an opportunity to update the documentation of Wikimedia engineering projects using these tools.

2011-06-02
The Berlin Hackathon and Wikimedia tech days were an opportunity to start catching up on missing project pages. Stubs were created using the new, lighter format, and some existing pages were transitioned to the new format. As new projects start, we'll continue to try and be diligent in publishing project documentation publicly.

2011-07-01
Guillaume Paumier finalized the infrastructure for project pages, using templates and transclusion. Because of the tools' limits, full automation wasn't possible. He also continued to update project pages and statuses.

2011-07-25
Guillaume Paumier continued to create, update, clean up and organize the project documentation pages for most engineering activities. This report was built in part using content transcluded from the project status pages. An activity index was also drafted.

2011-08-31
Guillaume Paumier continued to update project documentation pages and to write engineering reports.

2011-09-30
Guillaume Paumier continued to update project documentation pages and to write engineering reports.

2011-10-31
Guillaume Paumier performed continuous maintenance of engineering project pages, and assembled this report.

2011-11-30
<section begin=2011-11-30 />Guillaume Paumier expanded the Platform engineering hub to include the list of current projects. He also created a similar hub for Features engineering and a portal for all Wikimedia Engineering. Last, he performed continuous maintenance of engineering project pages, and assembled this report.<section end=2011-11-30 />

2011-12-31
<section begin=2011-12-31/>Guillaume Paumier performed perennial maintenance on project pages and the Roadmap (updating, cleaning up and organizing the content as needed), and wrote this report.<section end=2011-12-31/>

2012-01-31
<section begin=2012-01-31/>Besides the usual ongoing maintenance of project pages, and putting together this report, Guillaume Paumier also wrote a how-to guide about how to create, use and update project and status pages.<section end=2012-01-31/>

2012-02-29
<section begin=2012-02-29/>Guillaume Paumier performed perennial maintenance on project pages and the Roadmap, and put together this report.<section end=2012-02-29/>

2012-03-31
<section begin=2012-03-31/>Besides ongoing maintenance of project pages and the Roadmap, a new team hub was created for Wikimedia Mobile and Special Projects engineering and activity pages were created for all Mobile engineering projects.<section end=2012-03-31/>

2012-04-monthly
<section begin=2012-04-monthly/>Guillaume Paumier modified the templates used for the Activity pages system to display more relevant information on team hubs like the Mobile team hub. He also wrote specifications for a tool to fix bugs and limitations of the current system. <section end=2012-04-monthly/>

2012-05-monthly
<section begin="2012-05-monthly" />Rob Moen implemented the first version of a JavaScript Status helper tool that makes it easier to add new status udpates to activity pages. Rob Lanphier added support for existing statuses. Guillaume Paumier initiated a project to clean up the Wikitech wiki, possibly facilitated by a JavaScript tool derived from one used by WikiProjects to assess articles.<section end="2012-05-monthly" />

2012-06-monthly
<section begin="2012-06-monthly"/>At the Berlin Hackathon, Guillaume Paumier, Rob Lanphier and Timo Tijhof discussed how to summon the Status Helper tool from custom edit links. Guillaume modified the templates to provide hidden metadata, and Rob implemented the functionality in the JavaScript. Timo also converted the user script into a full-fledged opt-in gadget. Rob Moen created a JavaScript tool to easily assess and tag pages, as part of an effort to clean up the wikitech wiki, before merging it with labsconsole.<section end="2012-06-monthly"/>

2012-07-monthly
<section begin="2012-07-monthly"/>Sumana Harihareswara, Guillaume Paumier and Rob Lanphier interacted with the rest of the technical and non-technical community at Wikimania to discuss how to improve transparency and collaboration around Wikimedia engineering activities. They notably discussed the concept of "Wikitech ambassadors", to be developed in the coming weeks.<section end="2012-07-monthly"/>

2012-10-monthly
<section begin="2012-10-monthly"/>This activity was revived as its scope was expanded to include not only on-wiki engineering project documentation, but more generally the improvement of communications between Wikimedia contributors and the technical community (MediaWiki developers, Operations engineers, etc.). Guillaume Paumier prepared and started a wide and open discussion with editors on some local wikis to identify issues and discussion possible solutions. Management is currently reviewing options to determine the direction this activity will follow in future months.<section end="2012-10-monthly"/>

2012-11-06
<section begin="2012-11-06"/>Management continues to review options to determine the direction this activity will follow in future months. In the meantime, Guillaume Paumier is going to consolidate a technical glossary and technical FAQs to facilitate communication between editors and the technical community.<section end="2012-11-06"/>

2012-11-20
<section begin="2012-11-20"/>Guillaume Paumier started to clean up and expand the Wikimedia glossary on meta-wiki by adding many terms related to Wikimedia technology and engineering. He's now in the process of adding definitions (himself and with the help of others) and further expanding the terms that may need explaining. Sumana Harihareswara is looking to recruit volunteers to lead or advise on select engineering activities. Together with Guillaume, they're also looking at longer term experiments and strategies to improve dialogue between technical communities and user communities.<section end="2012-11-20"/>

2012-11-27
<section begin="2012-11-27"/>Guillaume Paumier continued to work on the Wikimedia glossary and reached out to a few mailing lists to make it a collaborative effort. He's now following up on the consultation process initiated last month to identify how to improve dialogue between technical communities and user communities, and widening it to more wikis. Sumana Harihareswara and Guillaume published a call for volunteers to lead or advise on select engineering activities, and they're now following up on the offers that ensued. <section end="2012-11-27"/>

2012-11-monthly
<section begin="2012-11-monthly"/>Management reviewed options to determine the direction this activity would follow in future months. In the meantime, Guillaume Paumier cleaned up and expanded the Wikimedia glossary with terms related to Wikimedia technology and engineering, and volunteers & engineers came to expand it further. He also followed up on the consultation process initiated in October to identify how to improve dialogue between technical communities and user communities. He's now in the process of widening this discussion to more communities. Sumana Harihareswara sent a call for volunteers to lead or advise Wikimedia engineering staff on select activities, and followed up on the offers.<section end="2012-11-monthly"/>

2012-12-04
<section begin="2012-12-04"/>Guillaume Paumier consolidated and summarized the discussions started in October about how to improve 2-way communication; he also published a project plan and timeline for this consultation process. Sumana Harihareswara followed up on the call for volunteers to lead or advise on select engineering activities.<section end="2012-12-04"/>

2012-12-11
<section begin="2012-12-11"/>After summarizing the first phase of the consultation about how to improve 2-way communication, Guillaume Paumier reached out to the wikitech-ambassadors list to widen the consultation process by proxy. He also reached out individually to a few individuals who were recommended as possibly having a particularly interesting perspective to offer on this process. Unrelatedly, he made a list of 2012 tech blog posts to map tech blog activity by month & subdepartment (with priority activities listed separately). We published the community metrics November report and a blog post introducing this new activity.<section end="2012-12-11"/>

2012-12-18
<section begin="2012-12-18"/>On week #50, technical communications work focused on communications support for engineering staff, with several technical blog posts published, including the VisualEditor alpha announcement. Work on the Fall 2012 consultation resumed on week #51.<section end="2012-12-18"/>

2012-12-27
<section begin="2012-12-27"/>Quim Gil worked on sorting out Social media handles: we have now @MediaWiki handles at identi.ca, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Wikimedia Social Media team acknowledges. Guillaume Paumier finished to summarize content from the Fall 2012 consultation (and other sources) and prioritized the possible solutions based on a set of criteria. The most feasible solution currently is to grow a network of volunteer technical ambassadors. As a result, he has rewritten the ambassadors page, and is now setting up the ambassadors tools and environment.<section end="2012-12-27"/>

2012-12-monthly
<section begin="2012-12-monthly"/>Guillaume Paumier published a project plan and timeline for the consultation process started in October about how to improve 2-way communication between the technical and editing communities. He summarized the results of the first phase and reached out to the wikitech-ambassadors list to widen the consultation process by proxy. After consolidation and prioritization of the results, the most feasible solution appeared to be to grow a network of ambassadors, which he started to organize on meta.

Unrelatedly, Guillaume made a list of 2012 tech blog posts to map tech blog activity by month & subdepartment (with priority activities listed separately). Work on setting up a Volunteer product manager program is also underway.

Quim Gil sorted out Social media channels, and we now have @MediaWiki handles for identi.ca, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. He published the community metrics November report and a blog post introducing this new activity.<section end="2012-12-monthly"/>

2013-01-03
<section begin="2013-01-03"/>Guillaume Paumier finished to rewrite Tech/Ambassadors and sought some initial comments and feedback, which seem positive so far. He started to create or overhaul some tools like the list of technical embassies and other related pages.<section end="2013-01-03"/>

2013-01-08
<section begin="2013-01-08"/>Nothing newsworthy happened on this project in the 3 work days that passed since the last update, apart from regular activities (communications support for engineering staff, monthly engineering report, etc.).<section end="2013-01-08"/>

2013-01-15
<section begin="2013-01-15"/>Apart from usual communications support for engineering staff, Guillaume Paumier assembled and published the December engineering report and its summary. He also started to organize and clean up the MediaWiki version pages (like MediaWiki 1.21/wmf7 and MediaWiki 1.21/wmf8), which are linked to from every Special:Version page on Wikimedia wikis. A major goal was to make them more useful for tech ambassadors, by highlighting the most important changes, improving translatability and adding navigation.<section end="2013-01-15"/>

2013-01-18
<section begin="2013-01-18"/>Guillaume Paumier focused on communications support for the data center migration, by preparing and coordinating public communications, configuring and updating the Maintenance notice banner and its landing page, and reaching out for help to translators. He coordinated the feedback/bugreporting part with Andre Klapper and improved the How to report a bug how-to; he also prepared and organized translations for that page, to empower more users to report bugs even if they're not fluent in English; the page is currently available in 3 languages besides English.<section end="2013-01-18"/>

2013-01-25
<section begin="2013-01-25"/>Guillaume Paumier supported the Operations team in announcing and communicating about the data center migration. He added and updated tasks related to the Tech ambassadors and Volunteer product management programs to the Roadmap, and concluded the team discussion on the direction and implementation of the latter. He repaired the How to contribute page for translation, while keeping the wikitext of the translatable sections simple, and also added language-specific links per discussion. Last, he started a centralized Project calendar to consolidate announcements for events, meetings, IRC office hours, etc. using content from QA/Weekly goals and Events. He set up the template-based system to make this all work, wrote the associated documentation and also set up transcludability of specific types of events. Feedback on wikitech-l has been positive so far.<section end="2013-01-25"/>

2013-01-monthly
<section begin="2013-01-monthly"/>Guillaume Paumier provided communications support to the engineering team, notably around the data center migration and associated banners, notices & translations. He started to organize and clean up the MediaWiki version pages (like MediaWiki 1.21/wmf7) to make them more useful for tech ambassadors, by highlighting the most important changes, improving translatability and adding navigation. He also prepared and organized translations for the How to report a bug and How to contribute pages, to facilitate the involvement of volunteers who don't necessarily communicate in English. Last, he created a Project:Calendar to consolidate and centralize announcements for all events, to make opportunities for participation more visible. Events around a particular topic (like QA, testing and bugs) can still be selectively transcluded, using Labeled Section Transclusion.<section end="2013-01-monthly"/>

2013-02-01
<section begin="2013-02-01"/>Guillaume Paumier supported the engineering team in communicating about VisualEditor testing (and landing page), GeoData and Operations. He finished to set up the Project:Calendar, replaced content on QA/Weekly goals and Meetings using selective transclusion, created an edit notice to make it easier to add and edit events, added links to icons credits, and added edit and purge links to (if the user isn't on the Calendar page) to make it easier to understand where to edit/add events.<section end="2013-02-01"/>

2013-02-08
<section begin="2013-02-08"/>Guillaume Paumier assembled, published and advertised the Wikimedia engineering report for January 2013 and its summary. He also supported the engineering team in communicating about the Operations team and Echo.<section end="2013-02-08"/>