2009/3/10 Michael Bimmler mbimmler@gmail.com:
I think it would be a nice example of transparency to publish (ie. upload on meta or somewhere) this and similar documents, as long as this does not threaten the obtaining of future grants.
I've been thinking about this as well. There is a strong tradition of confidentiality in these processes but I really would like to get some approved grant applications out there for discussion and review. I plan to raise the issue with some of our funders, especially where we have long-standing relationships, to feel it out a bit.
I am comfortable sharing some guiding principles which we include in every tech grant application (begin quote):
* “Release early, release often.” This key concept, which is common to both open source development and agile software development methodologies, simply means that changes are made iteratively, openly, and transparently, encouraging continuing review by peers, volunteer developers and user groups. Designs and tests are revisited and revised as iterative milestones are accomplished. * Openness to outside collaboration. All development will happen in the Wikimedia Foundation's public code repository. Progress reports will be published in blogs, and outside contributions will be explicitly encouraged. * Building on the work of others. An environmental scan will identify existing open source solutions which can be refined and built upon to meet defined requirements. As above, external contributors will be invited to collaborate. * Building on the knowledge of others. When possible, we will try to hire developers with existing MediaWiki development experience. But, to the extent that this is not possible, we will facilitate face-to-face workshops with paid and volunteer developers to share and document knowledge about the MediaWiki architecture. * Readiness for internationalization. Code contributions, whether from volunteer developers or paid developers, will be made in line with Wikimedia's internationalization architecture to allow user interface messages to be localized into all languages. * Consultation of stakeholders. While our goal is to encourage and broaden participation in Wikipedia, we will strive to do so in consultation with the existing community of contributors, in order to help foster their understanding and acceptance of changes to the user interface.
(end quote)
As you can see, internationalization is one of our core principles which we consider to be non-negotiable. (And Gerard will rightly point out that we can do a better job supporting i18n initiatives like BetaWiki.) That said, in this particular case, the funder's interest is specifically to increase the number of contributors to the English Wikipedia, and that places some limitations on what we can use the grant funds for. We are committed to sharing recommendations, usability videos, methodologies, etc. - Naoko will post more on this as the process plays out.
While there are definitely strong cultural components to usability, many of the core issues we're going to try to resolve are shared across all languages. For example, complex pages accumulate syntax creep everywhere, not just in the English Wikipedia. Roughly speaking, I think 80% of the work we're going to do is going to be generally useful, and 20% is going to be specific to the English Wikipedia. Hopefully we can contribute to processes both in communities and chapters to think more systematically about addressing usability issues that are specific to a certain language or culture.