Season of Docs/2024/Proposal

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To submit a technical writer statement of interest, see Season of Docs/2024.

Consolidate MediaWiki Help Documentation - The Wikimedia Foundation[edit]

Thank you for considering our proposal for Season of Docs 2024!

About The Wikimedia Foundation and MediaWiki[edit]

The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation provides the essential infrastructure for free knowledge. We host Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, as well as many other free knowledge projects that are created, edited, and verified by volunteers around the world.[1]

The Wikimedia Foundation coordinates the development of MediaWiki: the free and open-source wiki software used by Wikipedia and many other organizations and communities. Originally developed in 2002, MediaWiki is designed for collaboration and scalability, with an interface available in more than 400 languages.[2] MediaWiki is developed by a global community of developers, both volunteers and Wikimedia Foundation and affiliate staff, including more than 1,000 contributors since 2012.[3]

About the project[edit]

Problem[edit]

MediaWiki.org is the documentation wiki for MediaWiki. Before MediaWiki.org existed, MediaWiki documentation was stored on a different wiki: Meta-Wiki (also called Meta). Since MediaWiki.org was established as the official wiki for MediaWiki documentation, most MediaWiki documentation pages on Meta have been moved to MediaWiki.org.

However, there are still some pages on Meta that contain MediaWiki documentation. In most cases, these pages cannot be imported directly to MediaWiki.org because of licensing restrictions or because a corresponding page already exists on MediaWiki.org.

For example, the top result in a web search for "MediaWiki edit summary" is a page on MediaWiki.org that redirects to a page on Meta where the page is disconnected from all other MediaWiki documentation. This duplication makes it harder for users of MediaWiki to find the information they need. It also makes it harder for documentation writers to maintain the docs, so, as a result, the Meta pages are often outdated.

There is also some documentation on Meta that relates to MediaWiki but is specific to how MediaWiki is used on Wikimedia projects. This content should stay on Meta, while duplication between the two wikis should be reduced as much as possible.

Here is an example of pages that show the correct separation of content between the two wikis:

Other examples include:

If we can consolidate and organize this documentation, users of MediaWiki will be able to find the information they need and more effectively contribute to the wikis they care about.

Scope[edit]

The scope of this project includes:

Note that moving content from Meta to MediaWiki.org will usually involve re-writing the content instead of simply copying it due to licensing restrictions.

The scope of this project does not include:

We have five strong technical writing candidates who have applied for this project, including writers with prior experience with our docs or with the Season of Docs program. We estimate that this project will take five months to complete. The Wikimedia Foundation's Technical Documentation team lead has committed to supporting the project with help from User:Chinweotitookereke, a volunteer and former intern with experience working with Wikimedia documentation.

Measuring success[edit]

  • Reduce the number of pages on Meta that need to be reviewed and consolidated into MediaWiki.org from 82 to 0.[4]
  • Organize the help pages on Meta with Wikimedia-specific content to make them easier to use and maintain, measured by an increase in the percentage of help pages with relevant content linked from meta:Help from 8% to 100%.[5]

Timeline[edit]

The project will take approximately six months to complete. Once the tech writer is hired, we'll start with a project kickoff phase before completing the work in three phases corresponding to the project's main scope areas. Phase 1 will help familiarize the tech writer with the content and tools before working on more complex content in phase 2 and, finally, information architecture in phase 3.

Phase Description
Project kickoff and onboarding:

2 weeks (May 20 - June 1)

  • Set up accounts, and orient to tools
  • Review project plan
  • Decide on communication channels and frequency
Phase 1: De-duplication (20 pages):

4 weeks (June 2 - June 29)

  • Audit each Meta page, and identify:
    • its MediaWiki.org equivalent
    • any information that needs to be added to the MediaWiki.org page
    • any information that is specific to Wikimedia and needs to stay on Meta
  • Write content needed for MediaWiki.org, and get feedback
  • Publish
Phase 2: New content (62 pages):

9 weeks (June 30 - August 31)

  • Review pages and group into subject areas
  • Audit pages in each subject area, and identify:
    • any information that needs to be added to MediaWiki.org
    • where the information should be added in context of the related MediaWiki.org documentation
    • any information that is specific to Wikimedia and needs to stay on Meta
  • Write content, and get feedback
  • Publish
Phase 3: Organize:

5 weeks (September 1 - October 5)

  • Review Wikimedia-specific content on Meta, including content in this category identified during phases 1 and 2
  • Design an information architecture for this content
  • Get feedback
  • Implement changes to meta:Help
Project wrap-up:

3 weeks (October 6 - October 26)

  • Identify and complete cleanup tasks
  • Identify follow-up work
  • Write a project report describing outcomes, learnings, best practices, and recommendations for future projects

Budget[edit]

Budget item Amount Running total
Technical writer audit, write, organize, and publish content to consolidate MediaWiki help documentation 12000.00 12000.00
Volunteer stipend for project support 500.00 12500.00
Swag for technical writer from the Wikipedia store 150.00 12650.00
Total 12650.00

Experience[edit]

As the Wikimedia Foundation Technical Documentation team lead[6], I am very experienced working with technical writers. In addition to leading our small team of writers, I help support volunteer technical writers from across our global communities. Because of the longevity and scope of the Wikimedia projects, we always need more help creating and maintaining the documentation, so we look forward to working with a Season of Docs writer on this project.

The Wikimedia Foundation participated in Google Season of Docs during 2019 and 2020.[7] I acted as a project mentor for the 2020 project.[8] The Wikimedia Foundation has also participated in Google Summer of Code from 2006 to 2024.[9]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ meta:Complete list of Wikimedia projects
  2. ↑ mw:
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ↑ See the "Has MediaWiki.org equivalent" and "No MediaWiki.org equivalent" lists on Project:MediaWiki_documentation_on_Meta-Wiki/List#General_wiki_help_that_should_be_moved_to_MediaWiki_(but_can't_due_to_licensing).
  5. ↑ See the list on Project:MediaWiki_documentation_on_Meta-Wiki/List#Actually_WMF-specific.
  6. ↑ User:APaskulin_(WMF)
  7. ↑ Season of Docs
  8. ↑ Season_of_Docs/2020#Mentors
  9. ↑ Google Summer of Code
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