Talk:Groups

Communications channels: can we do better?
The MediaWiki community has traditionally resolved this with a combination mailing lists, IRC channels and blog posts, lately with some social media spice. This falls in the old good tradition of open source projects.

However, can we do better in 2013?

Is there anything experimental in the MediaWiki / Wikimedia communities or established elsewhere that we could benefit from?--Qgil (talk) 00:02, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Too generic term?

 * "MediaWiki group" is perhaps too generic a term? I first thought of permissions users groups. "MediaWiki developers [group] in Germany" is quite clear, others like LUG use "user group".--Nemo 06:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Simplicity is fine. "MediaWiki Groups" defines a scope and gives all the flexibility. Isn't "MediaWiki developers" too narrowed? What about all the other technical profiles, not developers? "MediaWiki users" is even more confusing since the first meaning it brings is admins or even pure users of MediaWiki based websites.--Qgil (talk) 07:07, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Certainly not narrower that the group for lua; I thought you wanted many different sets. I said "MediaWiki user group", not just "users"; it seems to be used by all others. However, this is the smallest point. --Nemo 07:12, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * "MediaWiki Groups" is the generic name proposed for this whole exercise. "MediaWiki Lua Group" is an example of a potential group using the name schema proposed.--Qgil (talk) 18:15, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

How does all this interact with the AffCom?

 * How does all this interact with the AffCom? --Nemo 06:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * No idea - yet. I want to reach a certain consensus within the MediaWiki community before bothering them. Hopefully we can get a light process Wikimedia compliant. Note that, as opposed to chapters or the proposed thematic organizations, MediaWiki groups don't need to be legal entities. Just a bunch of people in a mailing list could be enough. As starters, I have asked for review and advice to some colleagues at the WMF Legal and Community Advocacy team.--Qgil (talk) 19:09, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * After a short dialog with the AffCom we have decided to integrate as much as possible with Wikimedia User Groups and the processes they have there. We could say that a MediaWiki Group = WUG + MW extension. :)  Such extension is described at User:Qgil/MediaWiki_groups.--Qgil (talk) 23:04, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

"WikiMedia Germany" a fictional example??!

 * "WikiMedia Germany" a fictional example??! --Nemo 06:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I meant MediaWiki Germany Group. Fixed. Thanks!--Qgil (talk) 07:03, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Ah! Still, m:Talk:Wikimedia_Thematic_Organizations.
 * The main advice in that page is to "consider adopting uniquely descriptive names and avoid incorporating the “Wikimedia” name as a universal appellation to describe their organization". "MediaWiki Lua Group" would fit perfectly within this requirement. Do you have other specific concerns mentioned in that (long) page?--Qgil (talk) 19:01, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't have concerns, only doubts. That's a talk page, so nothing definite there; I just don't understand if MediaWiki will follow the same guidelines/process/whatever as all Wikimedia projects or not. Names like "Editors on Wikisource for Natural Sciences" are suggested there, rather than "Wikisource Italy"; and "MediaWiki Germany" would be a very "exclusive" name for instance. --Nemo 19:16, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Why would MediaWiki Germany Group as a name be exclusive? If there is something exclusive is this requirement proposed for creating new groups: "No overlapping with existing groups. Small overlapping agreed with the affected group(s) is ok too."--Qgil (talk) 21:18, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

How different is this from the other existing models?
How different is this from the other existing models? For instance, "Ubuntu user groups" and similar work well in Germany with some peculiarities but don't exist at all in Italy. --Nemo 06:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I guess an essay could be written about this, but why? What is your specific concern? :) The proposal is explicitly open and flexible. As you suggest, no formula works equally well worldwide. At the end we just want to establish a network connected to the Wikimedia Foundation and the MediaWiki maintainers, leaving to each node freedom to expand in the ways they prefer. fwiw Ubuntu has LoCo teams, and there is one in Italy. No idea about how well are they doing. Then again Ubuntu LoCo teams can be formed by pure users, while in our case software development is the basis. Not exactly the same.--Qgil (talk) 19:20, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Why groups and not only individual "reps"?
Why groups and not only individual "reps"? How many cases of a big concentration of suitable people willing to associate do we have? --Nemo 06:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Aren't groups a natural consequence wherever you have more than one individual? It is expected to have more than one MediaWiki contributor interested in a certain topic or a certain region, yes. If you want to grow the interest around an area or a topic, having a group identity will help you reaching to others and introducing yourselves to other communities.--Qgil (talk) 19:28, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Relationship with Chapters?
How do the country groups relate to the foundation chapters? Don't chapters currently do things like organize events in their country? Would there be folks in the MediaWiki Germany Group that wouldn't be in Wikimedia Deutschland or vice versa? --Cneubauer (talk) 15:06, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Hopefully they can relate in many productive ways :)  I don't see the need in predefining a rule written in wikiStone? We should rather pay attention whenever requests for new MediaWiki groups arise whenever Wikimedia chapters already exist. Encourage existing chapters to create their MediaWiki groups. Encourage new MW group proposals to sync with their closest chapters. Some chapters are technical savvy, some not so much. In any case it will be useful for the people with a technical interest to have a place to discuss, with, under, aside or without a chapter. Note also that the motivations of MediaWiki groups members might and might not be related to Wikimedia per se. If a MW group somewhere happens to be filled basically with MW admins running their own, non-Wikimedia related sites this is also fine.--Qgil (talk) 19:36, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * After discussing with the Affiliations Committee we have agreed that MediaWiki Groups will be essentially Wikimedia User Groups with a MW flavor. See the changes in the page. This way the relationship with the chapters will be exactly the same as with the rest of WUGs. We are just starting with these groups (the WUGs are also new, so we will see how they relate to chapters in practical cases. The cookbook is still to be written.--Qgil (talk) 23:07, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I like the last "really local" change a lot. Except very special and active cases which I don't see in the real world yet, state-level MediaWiki activities fit very well/better with chapters. Any subset of chapter members can join for common activities on any topic, MediaWiki included, without big hassles, and then the chapter typically formalises them as committees or whatever and/or authorises public-facing activities in the name of the chapter if/as needed. --Nemo 12:00, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

MediaWiki reps
MediaWiki groups require MediaWiki reps.

It's inevitable:
 * There needs to be a human link between the WikiMedia group and the rest of the community, including the Wikimedia Foundation and, eventually, a Wikimedia chapter.
 * Whoever is interacting on behalf of a WikiMedia group with other communities will be seen as a MediaWiki representative anyway.

Let's start simple. The only requirements are:


 * A section in your Talk page explaining your reasons to become a MediaWiki rep.
 * Announcement of your candidacy to mediawiki-l and wikitech-l.
 * Endorsements by at least two Wikimedia Foundation members or MediaWiki maintainers in that section of your Talk page.
 * Discussion period of at least 2 weeks.

The approval will be confirmed by Sharihareswara (WMF) and Qgil (bootstrapping reps governance) by listing you at /Groups/Reps.

Once we have a bunch of reps we can evolve based on need. See how e.g. Mozilla is organizing reps.