On 5/26/05, Erik Moeller erik_moeller@gmx.de wrote: [snip]
I'm sure that some of you will be skeptical about the usefulness of a systematic research effort: In the open source world, code is everything and words are often considered meaningless. However, I believe strongly that analysis should precede implementation, and that volunteer development can be combined in useful ways with targeted, task-oriented coding. The Research Team also has other roles, but see the page on Meta for details.
This kind of prioritization is an excellent thing to try and help the projects develop in the way editors want them to develop. The hard part will be gathering feedback in an ordonned way for all languages and all different projects. I suggest the Research team work closely with the developpers team in the first place to gather as much feedback as possible.
I find it indeed important that in the case of paid developpers (which, imho there should be more of) the development needs addressed be that of as many "communities" as possible, so that no project feels left out in the end.
However, in the light of what has been said on the other threads about official positions, I find the use of a logo quite strange. Somehow, the fact that this "research team" should have a "logo" makes it too independant from what I understood the official positions were supposed to be, ie. a part of Wikimedia, and even somehow a part of the board.
If any "recognition" is going to be used, it should be the wikimedia logo, with just a mention of the research team.
Cheers,
Delphine