[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Research Team: Getting started

[Delphine Ménard]

On 5/26/05, Erik Moeller <erik_moeller at 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
-- 
~notafish