Hi Mark!
I propose to split the topic and discuss the creation of ACL for MW in
this thread.
I see three sub-tasks here:
0) Writing a good proposal of how ACL should work. Will it be based on
namespaces? or maybe categories (although it's hard to imagine)? or
maybe per-page access? I can help to describe this vision document.
1) coordination with WMF and including ACL into Roadmap. First we need
to be sure that the possible patches to the core:
- will not be rejected just because of philosofy of openness
- will not be removed after several versions
I've got no ideas how that can be done. Probably via RFC with
signatures of interested companies.
2) Searching for the developers and tester. There are many possible
developers that may be interested in this task: HalloWelt, Custis,
DIQA-PM, maybe even Wikia. Besides there are a lot of independent
developers here
3) Fundraising. For independent developer it's possible to ask for
individual engagement grant [1] but mostly it should be a crowdfunding
from MediaWiki-related companies.
For that task we need a person who has personal contact with many
MediaWiki-related companies and is ready to contact each of them
asking to take part in funding. I'm not sure who that can be (maybe
me, maybe someone from organizing comittee of Wikimania or Wikisym,
maybe someone from WMF) but it's going to be a god damn lot of dirty
work that needs funding.
[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Individual_Engagement_Grants
Cheers,
-----
Yury Katkov, WikiVote
On Sat, Aug 24, 2013 at 4:38 AM, Mark A. Hershberger <mah(a)nichework.com> wrote:
On 08/23/2013 06:31 PM, Yury Katkov wrote:
Of course, after some time the extension will
stop working because of
ugly hacks that will definetely appear in the code.
Another and more proper solution is not so fast, that is: to lobby the
proper ACL support in MediaWiki core before starting development.
+1
Markus Glaser and I have discussed precisely this as one of the biggest
hurdles for Corporate adoption of MediaWiki. There are a lot of things
to do in the MediaWiki space but, as you point out, this is one that we
need developers outside the WMF for.
MediaWiki is used as an enterprise wiki and the
impossibility of good
ACL should not be considered as not some kind of philosophy of the
software (as some people claims) but as a bug that needs fixing.
+1 (again. That makes 2 points for Yury, so far.)
So if -- as many of us on the -enterprise mailing list agree, I think --
this is a bug that needs fixing, how are we going to fix it?
That is, where is the money to pay for developer time going to come from?
The release manager contractor[1] that the WMF is funding this year is
meant to be finding funds outside of the Foundation to sustain release
management long term. One way to do that is to begin extending
MediaWiki in ways that enterprises would be willing to fund -- say, for
example. through developing ACLs.
If we can find some MW developers interested in working on adding this
to core, and the money to fund those developer's work, the problem then
becomes coordinating their work and making sure it has real momentum.
Thoughts?
--
Mark A. Hershberger
NicheWork LLC
717-271-1084