User:Sharihareswara (WMF)/archivedectmeetings July2013

monthly report
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/June Sunday is the deadline

VE
It's been great to have so many community liaisons, product managers, etc. working on communicating with the community about this. This kind of work used to fall more on ECT's shoulders, and it's nice to have more people to do that so we can focus on nurturing the volunteer technical community and on communicating with the community about the changes that can't get VE/Flow-level attention from the community liaisons.

prep for quarterly review
Sumana working on this today. Quarterly review is July 9th. Looking at past quarterly review, reviewing goals from last quarter, success/failure and lessons learned, https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/2013-14_Goals#Wikimedia_Technical_Community note re yearly goals: https://github.com/Ironholds/MetaAnalysis/tree/master/GadgetUsage helps us with *what gadgets are installed/used on what wikis* including what the most popular gadgets are. Also need: in goals (quarterly and/or yearly) - should perhaps include improvements to website (mediawiki.org) -- tie in budget for improving docs/pages/developer engagement
 * who maintains them?
 * when were they last updated?
 * bot usage -- what bots are making the most edits, or the edits that make the biggest difference? who owns those bots and what wikis are they active on?

Metrics
Just a new URL here: http://korma.wmflabs.org - you'll hear more in the following weeks. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Community_metrics

QA activity from last week
logistics went well some people in the audience were writing code along with presenters, left with running code on their laptops Quim wants to contact attendees one-on-one, learn their names, make sure they repeat, keep them on board. 1/2 attrition is still fine - that leaves us with a group of 20 with different levels of skill. ~40 people showed up at office, including ~5 employees European event - this week? Filipin wants to organize one in a European time zone. July - mid-late July Quim in Europe so easier to organize.

Conferences, etc.
Thursday: day off for US people (Fourth of July/Independence Day) Other conference deadlines:
 * Guillaume possibly a couple days off in August/September; will provide tentative dates as soon as they're known
 * Andre:
 * July Fri05: Public holiday in CZ
 * July Wed31-August Mon05: GNOME GUADEC (Brno/CZ)
 * August Wed07-August Mon12: Wikimania (Hongkong/PRC)
 * October Fri04-Sun06: Mozilla Summit 2013
 * Sumana
 * Monday next week: traveling
 * July 16th: all-day meeting
 * Quim flying to Germany this weekend, will work from there until Wikimania, except
 * Quim on holidays July 24-31. Then flying to Hong Kong on Aug 2.
 * Željko:
 * July: some unavailability
 * August 16-18, eurucamp, Berlin, Germany (maybe, waiting for reply if my workshop is accepted)
 * September 6-7, BalCCon, Novi Sad, Serbia (maybe, waiting for reply if my talk is accepted)
 * Chris:
 * Aug 4-10 Agile2013 - "radically open software testing"
 * LCA : July 6th http://linux.conf.au/media/news/1
 * FOSDEM - with Siebrand, Quim is chasing FOSDEM people :) - as soon as there is a call for devrooms/booths Quim will start discussion

ULS & ml.wiki
SUL release: This bug report is instructive about how SUL will behave. Note the two redirects upon logging in to an SUL wiki. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/72365/6/features/uls_ime.feature https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50334 working with Amir on a browser test for Malayam ULS: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/72365/6/features/uls_ime.feature. The behavior of CTRL-M In this situation is not yet clear.

Today's quarterly review
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Volunteer_coordination_and_outreach/ECT_July_2013_quarterly_review lessons learned - talk about code review backlog - fixed nuance re "lack of awareness" - fixed nuance re pm volunteers - fixed quim to give women OPW/GSoC stats remove [1] - fixed Goals: 10+ volunteers writing automated tests? now 6: fixed add to "next" that Guillaume on VE for 1/3 of this quarter - fixed demote community metrics thing - fixed Open questions if we have time:
 * metrics, specific focus areas to widen bottlenecks, figuring out how to do maintainership right - will address
 * are there changes we need to be making to wikitech.wikimedia.org/mediawiki? What are your pain points?
 * coding and review bottlenecks we want to fix:

are JavaScript and security the top priorities?

Tech talks & helping produce & curate videos/tutorials - ok approach?

What about performance and Puppetization?

Misc

 * No need to chat, but for http://korma.wmflabs.org/ Quim needs your input on KEY metrics, things that help measuring our performance or making decisions e.g. "time to resolve bugs", "time to resolve gerrit changesets", etc.
 * +1 to time to resolve gerrit changesets
 * also, # of open changesets (not opened)
 * break down by branch? eg 1.21 vs 1.22 dev cycles comparison
 * Also Quim wants to say Thank You for the Tech News. It's been several weeks now and the quality / interest stands. Well done!
 * Please share this with user:odder, who's been doing an awesome job on tech news, sometimes doing all the work
 * I will. Quim.

Upcoming changes/dates
Other conference deadlines:
 * Guillaume possibly a couple days off in August/September; will provide tentative dates as soon as they're known
 * Andre:
 * July Wed31-August Mon05: GNOME GUADEC (Brno/CZ)
 * August Wed07-August Mon12: Wikimania (Hongkong/PRC)
 * October Fri04-Sun06: Mozilla Summit 2013
 * Sumana
 * July 16th: all-day meeting
 * Quim flying to Germany this weekend, will work from there until Wikimania, except
 * Quim on holidays July 24-31. Then flying to Hong Kong on Aug 2.
 * Željko:
 * July: some unavailability
 * August 16-18, eurucamp, Berlin, Germany (maybe, waiting for reply if my workshop is accepted, not likely)
 * September 6-7, BalCCon, Novi Sad, Serbia (talk accepted!)
 * November 7, SQA Days-14, Lviv, Ukraine
 * Chris:
 * Aug 4-10 Agile2013 - "radically open software testing"
 * LCA : July 20th http://linux.conf.au/media/news/1
 * FOSDEM - with Siebrand, Quim is chasing FOSDEM people :) - as soon as there is a call for devrooms/booths Quim will start discussion

Followup from quarterly review
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Volunteer_coordination_and_outreach/ECT_July_2013_quarterly_review http://etherpad.wmflabs.org/pad/p/ECT_July_2013_quarterly_review Communications of feature teams out to community - ones that don't have liaisons may not do as much Action item: Ken and Andre to continue conversation, have a meeting/chat in August -- Andre to push on this re BZ/rt Action item: Sumana to think about ECT communications for activities that don't have dedicated liaisons & talk with eng directors about, e.g., Analytics Action item: Sumana to consolidate & prioritize upstreams lists
 * felt a little rushed - think about 75 or 90 minutes in future
 * Greg maybe should be in more quarterly reviews generally
 * Try to get Alolita
 * less so Antoine

Wikimania prep
https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Transparency_and_collaboration_in_Wikimedia_engineering Andre, Quim, & Sumana

"internal" (Wikimedia) "external" (other organizations) (Sumana)
 * Day-to-day: Andre/Quim
 * Coordination of Wikitech-ambassadors, Weekly tech news, Signpost and other initiatives encouraging information and collaboration beteen Wikimedia tech contributors and editors. - Quim
 * Bug reporting - Andre
 * Long-term:
 * Helping you shape developers' priorities, with bug triage and product development opportunities. - Sumana
 * Monthly engineering report - Sumana
 * Work on news and activities with an impact in mainstream tech media, thus  raising the awareness among potential contributors at large.
 * Collaboration with established organizations & upstreams: many active groups out   there have an interest in making technical contributions to Wikipedia.

Andre, Quim, & Sumana to basically cover these points, divide them up, and one of us do an intro. will fill 15 minutes + 10 min Q&A

Upcoming changes/dates
Other conference deadlines:
 * Guillaume off on Thursday. possibly a couple days off in August/September; will provide tentative dates as soon as they're known
 * Andre:
 * July Wed31-August Mon05: GNOME GUADEC (Brno/CZ)
 * August Wed07-August Mon12: Wikimania (Hongkong/PRC)
 * October Fri04-Sun06: Mozilla Summit 2013
 * Sumana
 * July 16th: all-day meeting
 * Quim flying to Germany this weekend, will work from there until Wikimania, except
 * Quim on holidays July 24-31. Then flying to Hong Kong on Aug 2.
 * Željko:
 * July: some unavailability
 * September 6-7, BalCCon, Novi Sad, Serbia
 * September 27-28, CITCON, Turin, Italy
 * November 7, SQA Days, Lviv, Ukraine
 * Chris:
 * Aug 4-10 Agile2013 - "radically open software testing"
 * possible longish vacation in Octobe
 * LCA : July 20th http://linux.conf.au/media/news/1
 * FOSDEM - with Siebrand, Quim is chasing FOSDEM people :) - as soon as there is a call for devrooms/booths Quim will start discussion

VisualEditor
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-July/000316.html - updated schedule
 * Guillaume working on VE through most of August.

Misc updates
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/23/pywikipediabot-moving-to-git-on-july-26/ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Volunteer_coordination_and_outreach/ECT_July_2013_quarterly_review#Next_quarter_goals Rachel? Who is backup? QA documentation improvement: Action item: Rachel to file bug asking to make it impossible to change email address wrong way with dev account Misc: Chris's HotCat test https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/74075/4/features/hotcat.feature
 * Andre has discussed stuff with them on 1 talk page - move to Git first, then move bug trackers into BZ
 * Action item: Sumana to consolidate & prioritize lists of upstreams
 * figuring out how to change your email address in Gerrit
 * changed it the wrong way in Gerrit, then a week later, couldn't log back in
 * LDAP problem
 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/System_administrators
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developers/Maintainers
 * on a larger page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub
 * global search http://hexm.de/mw-search
 * or use the dropdown in https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?search=&button=&title=Special%3ASearch to choose "Wikimedia Technical CSE"
 * open question on the QA list from Rachel - how to proceed? Thanks for her bug reports! :)
 * Chris will update obsolete docs especially on browser test automation - consolidating - by August 2nd

Andre updates
Ken Jared & Howie BZ upstream GUADEC absence
 * Andre sent Ken a note summarizing positions re Ops bug workflow
 * Andre is making the workflow work for them
 * Andre, a UX example from Mobile: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51204
 * will have a delegate

Wikimania
Rachel- vacation Aug 5-9 Other conference deadlines:
 * Guillaume: possibly a couple days off in August/September; will provide tentative dates as soon as they're known
 * Andre:
 * July Wed31-August Mon05: GNOME GUADEC (Brno/CZ)
 * August Wed07-August Mon12: Wikimania (Hongkong/PRC)
 * October Fri04-Sun06: Mozilla Summit 2013
 * Sumana
 * Quim in Germany until Wikimania, except
 * Quim on holidays July 24-31. Then flying to Hong Kong on Aug 2.
 * Željko:
 * vacation late July - early August
 * August 16, eurucamp/JRubyConf EU Workshop, Berlin, Germany
 * September 6-7, BalCCon, Novi Sad, Serbia
 * September 27-28, CITCON, Turin, Italy
 * November 7, SQA Days, Lviv, Ukraine
 * Chris:
 * Aug 4-10 Agile2013 - "radically open software testing"
 * possible days off in October
 * FOSDEM - with Siebrand, Quim is chasing FOSDEM people :) - as soon as there is a call for devrooms/booths Quim will start discussion

July 30th
Today's the monthly retrospective to show off our work to RobLa :-)

Andre

 * puppetizing/debianizing BZ - see July 2nd comment from Faidon on https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/62404/ -- Andre to follow up with Mark Hershberger and with Ops team in August
 * talking about RT & BZ - Andre has sent note to Ken, will follow up in August
 * Ken & RobLa see this as rather a longer-term project, may not be by end of calendar year, because Ops team will have lots of work with ULSFO and other data center work
 * may need earnest reeval of ticket tracking systems; last one was 2010

TODO: Figure out when Andre would do prep work of initial eval of ticket tracking systems Second TODO: Andre to get historical background from Guillaume

What did we do in July & what's next?
Also: Next: Rob: (discussion of hiring pipeline stuff, internships) TODO: schedule next quarterly review for October. Just get them as recurring meetings. 75 minutes. For consideration:
 * OPW/GSoC: all 21 students are on track, thanks to followup from Quim. Reached out to OPW about possible program expansion; will hear back in next few days.
 * QA volunteers: a successful online workshop on Selenium/Cucumber with 13 participants, Vagrant progress, and ongoing pairing. Also Sumana sent http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/qa/2013-July/000263.html to recommend Comments in Local Time & other gadgets people could write tests for.  (Following up on Chris's July 16th post on writing a test for HotCat http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/qa/2013-July/000198.html )
 * Bugzilla: see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bug_management/status#2013-07-monthly
 * Docs sprint for Tool Labs and clarification of roles and responsibilities, especially around OpenStreetMap
 * VE communications support + blog review and monthly report
 * ECT quarterly review
 * contacts with Mailman & Bugzilla upstream, arranged coworking days in NYC with OpenITP & Kaltura
 * managed social issues with contributors (mailing lists, onwiki, IRC, BZ)
 * recruiting/diversity consultation
 * we spoke at various conferences
 * planning for August & January architecture meetings
 * ESL tutoring
 * Wikimania prep & followup
 * more QA training
 * QA + Release Engineering review
 * OPW/GSoC metamentorship; collecting ideas for January-March round
 * Bugzilla: Puppetize/Debianize it
 * Guillaume mostly off in August with VE communications support; continuing blog entry review
 * Sumana investigating partnerships with more organizations (upstreams, diversity-oriented internship programs) and allying with Ada Initiative in Code of Conduct investigation
 * This all looks good
 * TODO: Next time: Structure it by tying it to quarterly review & roadmap to reduce "wall of stuff" effect :)
 * Goal to get volunteers writing automated tests - lots of activity towards that. Goal of awareness - also activity towards that. Good.
 * Community metrics - see activity statuses. Next step - chat at Wikimania.
 * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-July/127243.html Phoebe:
 * "one thing that was brought up in the Board elections questions & answers was the (ongoing) need to triage feature requests by the community, including especially requests for features from experienced & admin users, and feature requests from the sister projects.
 * One of the ideas in the candidate answers was to focus more on building a central place where feature requests (and cool existing tools) can be shared between language editions and projects, and where feature ideas could get refined outside of bugzilla & the lists; another idea was to build a kind of technical committee to help collect and refine these ideas. Then of course there is the actual technical work of addressing these requests."


 * Well, this is a little like volunteer product management :)
 * There's a pitfall in adding voting
 * TODO: Let's make sure this comes up at least in the quarterly review, or at end of August. Want to coordinate with LCA

Activity statuses to update for this month
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2013/July TODO: send a specific request with Fabrice, ask for them by end of tomorrow.
 * 1) 1.22: we'll have an odd cycle to work around Wikimania for wmf13. Put deployments on hiatus.  May want to change name of that section to release engineering/mgmt (more general).  Also needs to cover awarding of contract for # MediaWiki release management of tarball.
 * 2) Git conversion - also to rename.  We're now done for now. :)  Probably more work to do over next year, with general budget for contractor for dev tools, but pretty much done.  Pywikipedia moved to Git so SVN is read-only.
 * 3) Multimedia: Fabrice to provide update, Platform to update
 * 4) Admin tools - hiatus
 * 5) Auth systems - should be an OAuth deployment to beta this week, testwikis after Hong Kong
 * 6) HipHop deployment - mainly on hold, some minor work on VMs.
 * 7) Security -- no security releases in July
 * 8) Beta cluster: has some ownership... Antoine will be doing this status.

Conferences, dates
Wikimania coming up Aug 7-11 Rachel- vacation Aug 5-9 Other conference deadlines:
 * Guillaume: possibly a couple days off in August/September; will provide tentative dates as soon as they're known
 * Andre:
 * July Wed31-August Mon05: GNOME GUADEC (Brno/CZ)
 * August Wed07-August Mon12: Wikimania (Hongkong/PRC)
 * October Fri04-Sun06: Mozilla Summit 2013
 * Sumana
 * Quim in Germany until Wikimania, except
 * Quim finishing holidays tomorrow July 31. Then flying to Hong Kong on Aug 2.
 * Željko:
 * vacation late July - early August
 * August 16, eurucamp/JRubyConf EU Workshop, Berlin, Germany
 * September 6-7, BalCCon, Novi Sad, Serbia
 * September 27-28, CITCON, Turin, Italy
 * November 7, SQA Days, Lviv, Ukraine
 * Chris:
 * Aug 4-10 Agile2013 - "radically open software testing"
 * Aug 23 PTO
 * possible days off in October
 * FOSDEM - with Siebrand, Quim is chasing FOSDEM people :) - as soon as there is a call for devrooms/booths Quim will start discussion