Groups


 * Drafting in progress! Feedback welcome in the Discussion page

MediaWiki groups organize open source community activities within the scope of specific topics and geographical areas. They are Wikimedia User Groups that agree on a level of coordination in the MediaWiki context. As such, they extend the capacity of the Wikimedia Foundation in events, training, promotion and other technical activities benefiting Wikipedia, the Wikimedia movement and the MediaWiki software.

MediaWiki Groups are open to members of different specialties and levels of expertise. The richer and more diverse the better. Non-technical users willing to contribute and learn are welcome too!

Topical groups
Topical MediaWiki groups collaborate with their logical counterparts in the wide FLOSS community. They are global groups, collaborating online.


 * They are in touch with communities within the same focus.
 * They participate in events of the same topic.
 * They promote related training and outreach activities.
 * They help improving the related documentation in wikimedia.org.
 * They collaborate with the related development teams.
 * Eventually some of them meet in WikiMania.

Fictional examples:
 * MediaWiki Lua Group
 * Mediawiki Puppet Group
 * MediaWiki UX Group
 * MediaWiki QA Group

Regional groups
Regional MediaWiki groups collaborate with Wikimedia chapters and local communities related with Wikimedia, free software, free culture... Their focus consists in face to face activities.


 * Organization of local events: meetups, training, hackfests... These events adhere to the WNF Friendly space policy.
 * Participation in events held in their area.
 * Distribution of merchandising.
 * Promotion of local contributors to global MediaWiki and Wikimedia activities.

Also for non-English speaking groups:
 * Localization of documentation and software in collaboration with [translatewiki.net/ TranslateWiki] groups.

Fictional examples:
 * MediaWiki Germany Group
 * MediaWiki Australia Group
 * MediaWiki Bangalore Group
 * MediaWiki San Francisco Group

Precedents:
 * Wikipedia Engineering Meetup in San Francisco.

See also w:Wikipedia:Meetup.

Creating a group
Let's start simple. The only requirements are:


 * A WikiMedia rep.
 * A wiki page under /Groups/Proposals with all the details.
 * No overlapping with existing groups. Small overlapping agreed with the affected group(s) is ok too.
 * Announcement of your proposal to mediawiki-l and wikitech-l.
 * Discussion period of at least 2 weeks.

The approval will be confirmed by Sharihareswara (WMF) and Qgil (bootstrapping groups governance) by moving the page right under /Groups and linking it from there.

Now what? It would be nice to have a good starter kit. In the meantime, see also: Your Go-to Resource for Running a MongoDB User Group.

Communication

 * ''Creative thought is especially welcome to this section. Join the discussion.

MediaWiki groups need to
 * 1) Discuss inside the group.
 * 2) Send notifications to followers.
 * 3) Broadcast important messages.

The MediaWiki community has traditionally resolved this with a combination of wiki (including discussion pages), mailing lists, IRC channels and blog posts, lately with some social media spice.

The starting point of any MediaWiki group is a landing page under /Groups. From there more communication tools can be obtained based on need.

Support from the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters
MediaWiki groups can request support from the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters in various forms:


 * Advice on the use of Wikimedia / Wikipedia / MediaWiki logos and trademarks in your activities.
 * Connections with the Wikimedia movement.
 * Participation and promotion of your group in Wikimedia regional and global activities.
 * Merchandising.
 * Economic support for participation in external events and organization of own events.

Budget requests
MediaWiki Groups are encouraged to be creative developing their activities without requiring the circulation of cash: using rooms offered for free, having booths in non-profit areas of events, receiving existing merchandising for distribution, obtaining travel sponsorship for events...

However, sometimes money IS needed.

In this case, the first option is to look for local funding.

If no other options are left, for small budgets MediaWiki reps can try requesting funding to the Wikimedia Foundation. See how others have done this, successfully.