I just posted this at
http://mwstake.org/mwstake/wiki/Blog_Post:18 and I
would like to invite your comments.
= MediaWiki needs a governance model =
Eighteen months ago, at the [
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Architecture_Summit_2014
MediaWiki Architecture Summit], a manager from Wikia said, repeatedly, that he was there
to find out where MediaWiki was going to be in five years.
This year, at the [
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Developer_Summit_2015
MediaWiki Developer's Summit], Damion Sicore, the new VP of Engineering for Wikimedia,
asked about MediaWiki's governance model.
Both these people were relative outsiders to the core of MediaWiki development and both of
them described the same problem: MediaWiki doesn't have direction.
During the [
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015 Wikimedia Hackathon]
this year, I cornered Damon and asked him what he thought needed to be done. After some
back-and-forth, Damon said that if we could come up with a governance model for MediaWiki
that the stakeholders would endorse, that would be a great start.
I only had two questions: What was a governance model? And, could I get the stakeholders
for MediaWiki to buy into one?
== Stakeholders ==
This past year Markus Glaser and I started the
[
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Stakeholders'_Group MediaWiki Stakeholders]
user group. This is a group of people interested in MediaWiki as software because we use
it in our businesses and organisations. We want to have a voice in its development.
We do have issues – some of the most visible users of MediaWiki, such as Wikia
and WikiHow – are not involved – but we've also had some really
good successes that we can point to, like our
[
http://mwstake.org/mwstake/wiki/Category:Events monthly meetings], our
[
http://mwstake.org/ own wiki], and the meeting at the Wikimedia Hackathon this spring.
If you use MediaWiki for your own projects and you're interested in the future of the
software, we ask you to [
http://mwstake.org join us]. We especially need your involvement
if you are a large, visible user of MediaWiki like Wikia or WikiHow.
== Governance ==
That brings me to the first, less intuitive, question: What is a governance model? Why is
it needed?
Research done on
[
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/28/research-newsletter-june-2015/#How_Wi…
Wikipedia's governance model] is instructive. Online social production "is
contrasted with traditional, contract-bound, hierarchical production models that
characterize most organizational settings." Despite this contrast with traditional
production, Wikipedia's governance model is "becoming less open and more
codified…a positive change."
Indeed, Wikipedia and MediaWiki are closely related but they cannot share governance
models since [
https://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Main_Page most MediaWiki installations] are
outside of the Wikimedia Foundation, and, as a result MediaWiki development cannot be
driven only by the needs of the Foundation.
Instead, we need to begin to use the governance model to separate its development from the
Foundation and establish it as an independent open source software product.
As a result, we need to start looking at MediaWiki development in the context of the
larger world of open source software. The [
http://oss-watch.ac.uk/ OSS Watch]
[
http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/StartPage Wiki] has a lot of relevant information about how
open source software projects are run. See, for example, the explanation given on the
[
http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/GovernanceModel GovernanceModel] page:
A clear governance model allows potential contributors to understand how they engage with
the project, what is expected of them and what protections are provided to ensure their
contributions will always be available to them. It also describes the quality control
processes that help assure potential users of the viability of the project.
''[…]''
[Governance] provides a mechanism for allowing the community as a whole to define the
direction they feel the project should take, '''while ensuring that the core
project team does not lose control'''.
== Why does the MediaWiki community need to do anything? What is wrong with the status
quo? ==
Now, some members of the MediaWiki developer community will not see a need for such a
model. Indeed, they'll tell you there is already one in place.
One problem is that this model is only sporadically documented and isn't well
communicated. So each person in the community ''thinks'' they know what
the rules of the game are, but their individual models can differ drastically.
Another problem, especially when it comes to features of MediaWiki that are not used on
Wikipedia, is that it is developer-focused instead of user-focused.
For example, if you've used MediaWiki's built-in hitcounter in the past,
you'll be [
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T74420 surprised and shocked] when that
[
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/150699/ functionality is removed] without any ready
replacement,
As the [
http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/GovernanceModel GovernanceModel] page goes on to
explain:
There are almost as many variations on open source management strategies as there are open
source projects. '''It is therefore critical that you clearly communicate your
policies''' and strategy '''to potential users''' and
developers of your product as it is one of the most important steps towards sustainability
through open development.
== Who needs to agree to this? ==
The easy answer is easy: the stakeholders. Here I don't mean the Stakeholders User
Group, though we will certainly be involved in the discussion. We need the developers,
the project managers, the [
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_sharing knowledge
sharing] specialists inside organisations that use MediaWiki and even the end users of
MediaWiki to be involved. Each of these groups exists inside and outside of the Wikipedia
community. We need to get people who represent Wikia; executives from Hallo Welt!;
independent consultants like myself; and end users of sites like
[
http://wikipathways.org/index.php/WikiPathways WikiPathways].
Over the next few weeks and months we need to develop a governance model and answer
questions like
* How will governance be enforced? How will things change?
* Who proposes new or revised rules/directions?
* Who approves changes to the rules/directions?
* Where does the roadmap fit in to this governance?
* How are conflicts mitigated?
= Where do we start? =
Some other members of the MediaWiki stakeholders and I have already begin discussing the
governance model. During our next
[
https://plus.google.com/events/c0kd2on1qe5kj0di0j9d1pfuba0?authkey=CPeZ0K6F… online
meeting using Google Hangouts], we'll continue the discussion in the wider group.
However, we have a distinct limitation there in that G+ only lets 10 people in at a time.
In a couple of weeks we'll be
[
https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/MediaWiki_Stakeholders…
meeting again at Wikimania] and, hopefully, inviting broader participation.