Sure: point me to something I mentioned that's a closed product and isn't a
prerequisite for an open one? :p

On Wednesday, 3 September 2014, Edward Saperia <[email protected]>
wrote:

> In a movement like this with a lot of very active, very leveraged
> community activity, it seems to me that we should *always* be trying to
> make things that are infrastructure instead of closed products.
>
> cc Halfak - one of the few talks I managed to attend at Wikimania was his
> talk on "Research as Infrastructure", which I thought made the case very
> well.
>
> *Edward Saperia*
> Conference Director Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org>
> email <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> • facebook
> <http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
> <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>
>
> On 3 September 2014 00:17, Jonathan Morgan <[email protected]
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>
>> I agree with you, Ed. Although I don't think that it's realistic to
>> expect a product teamlike EE/Growth to create these open research tools.
>> Their primary output is always going to be the shiny products, not the
>> slightly-less-shiny infrastructure. Now *Analytics, *on the other hand..
>> (*coughs* and looks pointedly at Ironholds...).
>>
>> Also, the next round of IEGs opened yesterday
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG>. There's probably a
>> fundable project in what you describe, given a team with the right skill
>> sets. I'd be happy to provide feedback on a proposal.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jonathan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 8:16 AM, Edward Saperia <[email protected]
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>>
>>> Sure, I understand how research is done.
>>>
>>> However, you could feasibly create components that allow for a certain
>>> types of experiments and open up the analysis side to the community. I
>>> think this could be a lot more successful than you'd expect - the community
>>> has many smart people, and together we could decide and promote best
>>> practice across projects/experiments. They'd also be able to drive
>>> suggestions for what new components to implement to expand the experiment
>>> space, and more generally grow interest in the work of the EE team.
>>>
>>> I understand that what you're doing now is quick and dirty and just
>>> trying to get something up and working, but I hope that longer term you
>>> have in mind the capability of the community to help you in this kind of
>>> endeavour. We're all keen to grow participation, and giving us tools to
>>> experiment ourselves will ultimately be more effective than anything you
>>> can do centrally.
>>>
>>> *Edward Saperia*
>>> Conference Director Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org>
>>> email <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> •
>>> facebook <http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
>>> <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
>>> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>>>
>>>
>>> On 26 August 2014 20:03, Oliver Keyes <[email protected]
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Neither; the tools we have for running experiments are largely
>>>> hand-build on an ad hoc basis. For data collection we have tools like
>>>> eventlogging, although they require developer energy to integrate with
>>>> [potential area of experimentation]. But for actually analysing the results
>>>> it looks very different.
>>>>
>>>> Let's use a couple of concrete examples: suppose we wanted to look at
>>>> whether there was a statistically significant variation in whether or not
>>>> people edited if we included a contributor tagline, versus didn't. We'd
>>>> need to take the same set of pages, ideally, and run a controlled study
>>>> around an A/B test.
>>>>
>>>> So first we'd display one version of the site for 50% of the population
>>>> and another for the other 50% (realistically we'd probably use smaller sets
>>>> and give the vast majority of editors the default experience, but it's a
>>>> hypothetical, so let's run with it). That would require developer energy.
>>>> Then we'd set up some kind of logging to pipe back edit attempts and view
>>>> attempts by [control sample/not control sample]. Also developer energy,
>>>> although much less. *Then*, crucially, we'd have to actually do the
>>>> analysis, which is not something that can be robustly generalised.
>>>>
>>>> In this example we'd be looking for significance, so we'd be looking at
>>>> using some kind of statistical hypothesis test. Those vary depending on
>>>> what probability distributions the underlying population follows. So we
>>>> need to work out what probability distribution is most appropriate, and
>>>> then apply the test most appropriate to that distribution. And that's not
>>>> something that can be automated through software. As a result, we get the
>>>> data and then work out how to test for significance.
>>>>
>>>> The alternate hypothesis would be something observational; you make the
>>>> change and then compare the behaviour of people while the change is live to
>>>> their behaviour before and after. This cuts out most of the developer cost
>>>> but doesn't do anything for the research support or the ad-hoc code and
>>>> tools that need to come with it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 26 August 2014 10:52, Edward Saperia <[email protected]
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You mean, you don't have them yourselves, or you can't expose them?
>>>>>
>>>>> *Edward Saperia*
>>>>> Conference Director Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org>
>>>>> email <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> •
>>>>> facebook <http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
>>>>> <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
>>>>> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 26 August 2014 15:46, Oliver Keyes <[email protected]
>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Except we don't have those tools. There are a lot of domains in the
>>>>>> ecosystem where this kind of experimentation and targeting on a per-wiki 
>>>>>> or
>>>>>> per-project basis, but we have a big gap around functionality and 
>>>>>> expertise
>>>>>> to let us scientifically test the efficacy of their various 
>>>>>> implementations.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 26 August 2014 10:34, Edward Saperia <[email protected]
>>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> There's no point in polling existing community members about
>>>>>>>> functionality they will not see.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> While I am a great supporter of your team's work, I'd just like to
>>>>>>> comment on the above;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Wiser community members are aware that they are part of a powerful
>>>>>>> ecosystem, and that taming this ecosystem is a far more leveraged 
>>>>>>> pursuit
>>>>>>> than doing the work yourself. Creating additional endpoints for 
>>>>>>> onboarding
>>>>>>> processes that you're exposing to new users should be something that all
>>>>>>> projects are excited to take part in, so hopefully you'd want to poll 
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> community for the valuable "Yes, and..." responses you'll get.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you find you don't get responses like this, perhaps you might
>>>>>>> want to consider re-framing your new functionality as open 
>>>>>>> infrastructure
>>>>>>> that the rest of the community is invited to build on, for example maybe
>>>>>>> wikiprojects themselves could specify the suggestions that are shown to 
>>>>>>> new
>>>>>>> editors who edit in their subject areas?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Given appropriate tools to track effectiveness, this could create a
>>>>>>> huge, open environment for experimentation that could find interesting
>>>>>>> solutions faster than any engineering department ever could on their 
>>>>>>> own.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *Edward Saperia*
>>>>>>> Conference Director Wikimania London
>>>>>>> <http://www.wikimanialondon.org/>
>>>>>>> email <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> •
>>>>>>> facebook <http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
>>>>>>> <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
>>>>>>> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Oliver Keyes
>>>>>> Research Analyst
>>>>>> Wikimedia Foundation
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Oliver Keyes
>>>> Research Analyst
>>>> Wikimedia Foundation
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan T. Morgan
>> Learning Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> User:Jmorgan (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmorgan_(WMF)>
>> [email protected]
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>
>>
>>
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>

-- 
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