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