On 01/22/2013 06:52 AM, Mariya Nedelcheva Miteva wrote:
Mark, could you share more about the relevant discussion you mentioned and , if you had a chance to look at them, your thoughts on the notes from the hackaton?
Mostly, we discussed ways that we could begin working with non-WMF MediaWiki users -- especially the larger ones like Wikia.
Some of that has happened -- Wikia is involved in the development of the VisualEditor, for example. Unfortunately, that feels like an isolated incident.
The "new" installer is a great example of this. The Foundation has no vested interest in the installer -- they have their own methods for setting up and maintaining wikis. In fact, while I was at the WMF, I used the Installer as an example of how the primary MediaWiki developers aren't focused *only* on the Foundation's needs.
Chad did some really great work on it and he had some good ideas for a configuration front end. But now that he is working on Git/Gerrit for the Foundation, he doesn't have time to maintain the installer or implement the configuration front end. But he is still the only person (according to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developers/Maintainers) who can +2 changes to the installer despite the fact that his focus is elsewhere.
That said, I think the summary at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/NOLA_Hackathon/Saturday#Third-party_committer... still applies. But more work is needed to diversify the working interests of MediaWiki committers so that there are more non-WMF developers involved.
Mark.