Wikimedia Engineering/WMF Tech Days 2013/Brainstorming

General discussion/workshop topics:

 * [Aa]gile, spreading lessons learned
 * This is being done on day 2 in the appreciative inquiry session.--Eloquence (talk) 23:56, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Akk, Day 2? You're clearly messing with the 1 day a year I get to actually code :-D Tychay (talk) 09:35, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Remote working at the WMF
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Ironholds (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Anomie (talk) 15:50, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tomasz
 * How we are doing against the goals we've set for ourselves and the board
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 07:22, 24 August 2013 (UTC) also would like to see a summary of the product retreat here
 * +1 (in particular, I'd like to learn more about Flow) Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tomasz
 * Architecture discussion - checkin (RfCs)
 * Walking tech leads through the RFC process to ensure broader socialization -- 60 minutes
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Ssastry (talk) 21:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Brion
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 (also, I couldn't find any *documentation* linked from Requests_for_comment, maybe it should be written?) Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Design across device classes - Vector, etc. on tablets, handsets, & desktop
 * +1 Mwalker (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Brion
 * +1 Steven W.
 * +1 Tomasz
 * Design direction and consistency - Agora, "Jared" update (e.g. Flow prototype), building CSS with LESS, revising the font stack
 * I'd like to see this as a tutorial where design explains what the Jared Agora is.  :-). Think also this topic can be merged with the one above and below. Tychay (talk) 09:29, 24 August 2013 (UTC). Also would like to see a roadmap of how the Design team is integrated in the rest of tech.
 * Pretty much what Terry said. Possibly the remoteness, but Design's current plans are basically a Chomskyan black box to me - there is input and output and the internal workings are sheathed in mystery. Ironholds (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Steven W.
 * +1 I also have no idea what this is, so +1 if I should. ;) Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tomasz
 * +1 spage
 * Removing the need for HTML transformations for rendering the mobile site (Mobile web team, Parsoid, Platform ... ?!)
 * +1 Mwalker (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Ssastry (talk) 21:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Gabriel Wicke (GWicke) (talk) 19:45, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tomasz
 * Turning mobile into a registered skin (includes adapting the Parser for mobile's markup needs and deprecating the MobileFormatter and making mobile more core friendly)
 * Is this related to the one above (Removing the need for HTML transformations ...)? Ssastry (talk) 21:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Lessons learned re. mentorship programs
 * Engineering career pathing at WMF [formalizing titles: esp Senior, Lead, Architect??]
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 18:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tfinc (talk) 18:27, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Gabriel Wicke (GWicke) (talk) 19:45, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Product/Data workshop: How do we plan tests and metrics, and how do we incorporate data into product decisions? (PMs and Analysts)
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Ironholds (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Ssastry (talk) 21:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 07:23, 24 August 2013 (UTC) merged from Integration of analytics/research approaches in engineering projects: esp. A-B testing (timeline, requirements, tooling, etc.), applying models/what works from E3 and Mobile, etc.
 * +1. We also need to talk about analytics tooling here too. Steven W.
 * +1 spage
 * merged from Working with data in your product
 * Local FLOSS communities - building your network
 * Narrative chalk talks about how we built important components/systems, how to hack on them
 * Help for interviewing candidates/hiring
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Lightning talks
 * +1 Trevor - especially if they aren't allowed to be simply a run-down of what you normally work on, but rather something different like a radical direction, new technology, or interesting (but relavant) story you'd like to tell
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 09:28, 24 August 2013 (UTC) : lots of talks to lots of things, perhaps in SPUR without anything concurrent to this on both days (we can't fit the entire tech staff, but a lot of it can attend this way).
 * Inter-team communication
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Writing and maintaining translatable user documentation for features
 * +1 guillom 13:00, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Scrummaster meetup!
 * +1, even though I'm going to be half-trolling this one the whole time... Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Maybe best for the appreciative inquiry on Day 2? Tychay (talk) 09:35, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 spage
 * Template CSS (see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Allow_styling_in_templates)
 * +1 Brion
 * +1 Requires properly nested templates, which we want to enforce in Parsoid. Gabriel Wicke (GWicke) (talk) 19:45, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Not necessarily, if you leverage the scoped CSS proposal. (Although properly nested templates are still a good thing.) Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Identifying and empowering security leads on development teams
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC
 * Front-end direction decisions (ResourceLoader, JS componentization, etc.)
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Mwalker (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * merged from Javascript/FrontEnd architecture direction and code review
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 07:27, 24 August 2013 (UTC) : esp what 's role will be here, future of ResourceLoader, LESS RFC, etc.
 * Deployment tool chain work - atomicity of deployments; splitting up language files into JSON blobs; instant state switching ( on a directory?); git-deploy; etc.
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Hacking with TowTruck (Mozilla's real-time collab. tool) demo/discuss and WMF's overall plan for collaboration
 * +1 Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 21:22, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Steven W.
 * +1 (since I suggested it!) Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * An overview / tour of WP community, processes, places to be familiar with ... for developers (especially newcomers)?
 * As someone "new" to WP communities, I have spent a lot of time during the VE launch reading feedback pages, finding places to read, trying to make sense of processes and I have done this mostly by looking around. So something like this might be potentially useful for those new to WP communities. Ssastry (talk) 21:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 06:51, 24 August 2013 (UTC) I'd like to see some way to go "community-informed" from either no-community (currently) or community-driven (past), and not just an overview.
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1. I have this...deep, sinking feeling I might end up talking as part of this. Bah. Ironholds (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1
 * +1 spage
 * Offline VisualEditor - editing Wikipedia on a plane used to be so simple --MarkTraceur (talk) 22:07, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Brion -- this'll be useful to plan for mobile as well! mobiles are notorious for flaky connectivity.
 * +1 I might have a relevant demo. Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki installation requirements for the future: should we start requiring Lua, Node.js etc?
 * +1 Brion
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 06:52, 24 August 2013 (UTC) Also, path to consensus to above for releases (server images? not requiring/workaround?)?, what stuff in extensions should be merged into Core and when? We need to be more Bold here. Not recommending a break on what to merge in or not, but rather a framework where consensus can be achieved for these things instead of so much infrastructure living "out there" in extension land.
 * +1, again from what Terry said. Ironholds (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Focus on packaging: apt-get install mediawiki that pulls in php-tidy, APC, Memcached, Lua, Node / Parsoid, Varnish and sets up a full-featured MediaWiki setup. Gabriel Wicke (GWicke) (talk) 19:45, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Wild ideas: php.js, forking php from node, php-v8js, etc. Can we reduce the amount of configuration for small locally-used wikis and personal development? Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Wild ideas: php.js, forking php from node, php-v8js, etc. Can we reduce the amount of configuration for small locally-used wikis and personal development? Cscott (talk) 17:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Tutorials: [Will be captured on video as a resource]

 * Mobile dev tutorial - make yr work work w mobile
 * +1
 * +1 Mwalker (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Khorn (WMF) (talk) 22:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Deployment boot camp/tutorial
 * Big and small data - tutorial (e.g. EventLogging, other parts of infrastructure)
 * I think we should break this out into two sessions
 * Varnish-related topics - tutorial
 * +1 Mwalker (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 Cscott (talk) 18:05, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Packaging guidelines - debianization
 * Puppetization (repeat of 2012)
 * git-deploy / sartoris
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Automated browser tests
 * performance/profiling tutorial - repeat of 2012
 * Get your team set up with a custom MediaWiki-Vagrant role
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 06:55, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Javascript documentation with JSDuck or alternative
 * Frontend Javascript bootcamp (unit testing, continuous integrations, etc.)
 * +1 Tychay (talk) 07:27, 24 August 2013 (UTC)  input? ( merge with the jsduck above? Tychay (talk) 07:17, 24 August 2013 (UTC))
 * i18n -- intro to RTL, input methods, shaping, and the mysteries of Language Converter.
 * plus, what does this have to do with Pig Latin? And how this can settle the color/colour debate! Cananian (talk) 15:34, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
 * How to effectively use the labs infrastructure
 * +1 --BDavis (WMF) (talk) 07:02, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * RT usage tutorial, along with information on high-level topics (hardware requisition, access requests, etc.)