Greetings,
I wanted to share with folks two new WikiProjects we're trying out on
MW.org. I
recognize that this is not a preferred method of organizing for some developers - but the
hope is to reach the group of volunteers who are visiting the website and looking for ways
to help. WikiProjects follows a model used successfully on Wikipedia that Wikimedians new
to
MW.org may recognize and feel more comfortable with than say mailing lists or IRC rooms
- which I've heard multiple times from folks seem "intimidating". Not an
opinion I share, but I recognize ignoring it or dismissing it doesn't help us grow
volunteer efforts. :)
Constructive feedback is always welcome and any folks interested in updates or supporting
these efforts is welcome to sign the participants list. The hope is to develop the base
work and infrastructure over the coming weeks and begin recruiting participants and
putting the model to use in 2012. Specifically helping organize folks with particular
interests in MW documentation, perhaps helping organize GIT transfers/training for
extension developers, prepare folks for MW1.19 and future releases, etc.
Specifically, these two WikiProjects hope to organize folks working on third-party
extensions and third-party sysadmins. Folks with ideas on how to help those groups, but
not necessarily the time to tackle the idea alone (or maybe at all) are encouraged to
share their "utopian" ideas. :) There has also been discussions about one or
two more wikiprojects to help the Enterprise Wiki community and possibly the academic
field.
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:WikiProject_SysAdmins
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:WikiProject_Extensions
Also looking for developers and staff types interested in helping with a "town
hall" to assist third-party developers prepare for any changes coming in MW1.19.
-greg aka varnent
PS. If these are put to use, I plan on updating the design to be more mobile device
friendly. The WikiProjects can also evolve to suit the needs of
MW.org - so feedback on
ways to make these more
MW.org specific and less enWP-like are welcome as well. ;)
PPS. Thank you to Sumana for morale support on this experiment.
-------
Gregory Varnum
Lead, Aequalitas Project
Lead Administrator, WikiQueer
Founding Principal, VarnEnt
@GregVarnum
fb.com/GregVarnum