Dear all,
I always thought that the role of the Rcom would be not only managing the
incoming requests for research (in a broad sense), but also identifying
what research results we would like to have in order to facilitate the
future development of the WMF projects.
Recently, AFT has been deployed on every article in en.wp, which caused
some controversy. Users are unsure on what the rankings actually mean (for
instance, if the readers actually answer the questions they are asked, or
instead give rankings based on their perception of the subject; whether it
would be a good idea to invite the readers also to provide text input, and
a number of other issues).
To me it looks like a good test case. It would be good for us to have some
research results on the issue, and so far (from what I know) nobody
volunteered to perform such research. Should WMF then indicate that they
want these results? Probably at this stage we are not prepared to order it
(I mean to pay for it), but it could be broadly advertised in certain
places.
Just to make sure, what I asked is not one but two separate questions:
1) Do we (badly) want the research on AFT?
Even if the answer is no (not needed, too early, unrealistic etc), it
makes sense in my opinion to discuss another question:
2) Is is appropriate and/or meaningful for us as Rcom to compile a
priority list of needed research topics and try to advertise the necessity
and urgency of research carried out on these topics?
Note that even if the answer to 1 is yes the answer to 2 can still be no
(as a matter of principle).
Cheers
Yaroslav