I'd like to see if we can punch out some community collaboration systems to replace some rather ugly and complicated templates on Meta. For example, internationalization efforts could really use a system that allows people to register what translations they can do and automatically contact volunteers to help translation projects. If translations also happened in the system, it could export translation files in .pot and various MediaWiki-friendly formats for immediate use. Translation language priorities would be far simpler to establish. Even the workflow of creating, editing, and verifying translations could be encoded into the system. Maybe i18n.wikimedia.org?
I'd also like to create a citation- and source-tracking system where people can debate sources and interpretations in a central system. Right now, these debates are sprinkled over article and policy talk pages. Worse still, once the debates get archived, newcomers just repeat them. Maybe references.wikimedia.org?
These projects could be implemented as MediaWiki special pages or Drupal modules. (Other systems could work, too, but I'd have to learn them.) Hopefully SUL migration will be finished by WikiMania 2007 so users won't need new accounts for new systems.
Samuel Klein wrote:
Brion -- Perhaps a couple of core MediaWiki techs can be actively involved in hacking days plans. I'm sure b6s would appreciate their input and energy; and it might be a good rule of thumb for future hacking days.
Also, if people who like hacking MediaWiki (or MediaWiki interfaces and skins) but aren't core developers or techs, want to get together and hack, that sounds like a good idea to me. This would be separate from an event designed for the core developers to hang out and have fun, but this doesn't mean they can't both happen.
--SJ
On Mon, 5 Feb 2007, Jakob Voss wrote:
Thanks for asking about the hacking days. You wrote:
We'd like to have the techs a little more involved in Hacking Days planning than last year; Ivan did a fantastic job at arranging a tech-themed mini-conference, but it wasn't really what we expected and I think it ended up less productive and more stressful and hectic than it should have been because of that.
Who should we be talking to on the program committee or whatever to make sure everybody's on the same page? I want everybody to both have a blast and get some stuff done at the same time. :)
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