Wikimedia Discovery/Meetings/Maps retrospective 2016-03-22

Discovery Maps (and Graphs) ("Interactive Team") Retrospective

2016-03-22

What has happened
Covering whatever has happened related to the team since the last retro (2016-02-22)
 * Lila left; Katherine interim ED


 * Julien joined the team


 * Quarterly/annual planning


 * Huge support for Maps from other teams


 * Hardware is still on hold


 * Wikivoyage
 * Significant feedback from Wikivoyage


 * Dynamic graphs
 * Some minor Graphs feedback

Review previous action items

 * Chris: Follow up to Yuri’s idea on status updates for Discovery (ala Wikidata - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Status_updates
 * DONE! - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discovery/Status_updates


 * Yuri: Request for Yuri to create a phab ticket about maps UI needs
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T127844
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/kartographer/ - VE column


 * Dan will schedule a conversation about long-term maps plans


 * Tomasz will take this off his plate


 * Chris: could be another blog post here (graphing pageviews)


 * Not done; see action items below

What went well?

 * Kartogarpher on Wikivoyage
 * Tons of feedback; positive and requests [NEED LINK HERE]
 * Mostly non-English
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Maps#Discussion_from_WikiVoyage_NL - as an example of the feedback


 * Getting stuff done, a lot of it
 * Lean structure; few distractions
 * Bazaar rather than cathedral; moved quickly; incremental and test-based


 * Lots of support from other teams
 * Reading and Editing have been giving huge support; expressing great interest
 * Reading has been more of an expression of support so far
 * Volker said he would coordinate his work with Julien; Yuri's not aware of current status


 * Max has been able to focus on maps (almost no portal work for last few months)

What could we improve?

 * Hardware
 * Still waiting for decisions
 * Lack of visibility
 * Currently blocked on finance for resolution of strategic budget
 * Possibly would help to explain (again) that other teams are interested (it's already in the plan)


 * UI dev on a more permanent assignment to our team
 * Full time person would be ideal
 * Tons of work in graphs (e.g. internationalization, click-to-navigate)
 * Tons of work in maps (e.g. zooming/scrolling, multiple layers, push-pins)

What else should be noted?

 * UI help was requested for a long time; now filled by Julien (on a potentially temporary basis)


 * Guillaume hasn't really been involved with maps yet


 * Should goals for Maps for Q4 be added here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/2015-16_Q4_Goals#Maps_.26_Geo
 * Hardware will determine goals
 * Should probably write 2 scenarios, one w/hardware and one without

Action Items

 * Tomasz will schedule a long-term maps meeting


 * Chris will follow up with Yuri about a blog post regarding graphing pageviews (Victor Grigas wants to do a video)


 * Yuri will check with Volker/Julien; will report back (esp. to Tomasz)


 * Yuri will write up 2 goal scenarios