I made seven suggestions. Only one was about actually
dissolving the
office, and I acknowledged that it might be extreme. What about the
others? Why does the private IRC chat need to exist, for example?
Why can't we have clear official statements that everything should be
as public as possible and that volunteer developers should be treated
as peers? Why can't teleconferences be replaced by public-logged IRC
chats? Are these also too extreme?
Aryeh, I think many volunteer and more casual developers share your
concern. I in principle agree with your proposals, although of course
no-one can be forced to abandon private communication, and private means
of communication are always going to exist. I have raised similar
concerns about volunteers not knowing what is going on by not being on
secret channels of communication, in person, to a couple of members of
staff during last two wikimanias and developer meetings, and I had the
feeling they agreed with me.
The community needs to be nurtured, and I think all new employees of the
WMF need to be aware of it, and at first interview informed that they
will *need* to interact with the community and with volunteer
developers. I think many programmers who have worked in programming
companies are too used to just talking and listening to their team
leaders and no-one else. It should be made clear that this is not how
things (should) work in WMF, and this should be an official position
from however is hiring. Or maybe it is utopia and we do need to have a
more stereotypical corporate setup, but I really hope not because
wikipedia is fueled by enthusiasm.
Finally, speaking as a volunteer who is not on any secret IRC channels,
mailing lists or payrolls I want to share my experience in WMF software
development. Back in 2006 I wanted to make search better, and if then it
wasn't for Tim Starling to give me shell access and a couple of test
servers to play with, I think we would not have the new search, or at
least not developed by me. An act of kindness, but also a sign that a
core developer cares about what a relatively unknown volunteer is trying
to do and achieve.
As for code review, I know the foundation knows how important this task
is, and that it is no 9-5 job, but one that requires an extremely
dedicated person with a great knowledge of the mediawiki codebase and
ability to comment on virtually every programming issue. The foundation
better pay this person well and not just hope for someone to fill in
this place in their spare time.
Cheers, Robert