On 22/02/2013 Rob Weir wrote:
For example:
1) Point new volunteers to BZ from the start. ...
3) When a new volunteer wants to join, we can point them to the BZ
issue. The files are there, as well as the names of the other
volunteers. Adding a comment to the BZ issue causes it to be sent to
all volunteers working on that language.
This would be the main advantage. Be it Bugzilla or the wiki, we
definitely need something better than the current system (which is, more
or less: I keep a list of volunteers for each language and try to
connect them, very often without any clue if there is progress or not;
and this stops new volunteers from being immediately active).
Problems we face, and possible solutions:
A) Technical issues: not all volunteers are able to deal with a .tar.bz2
archive of 240 PO files. Solution: send volunteers to Pootle (with PO
files available for download for those who prefer it)
B) Bootstrap issues: volunteers still need to wait that we make PO files
available; in most cases this only takes a few days, but Catalan, for
example, has been pending for weeks. Solution: have all PO files
immediately ready (being done in Jan's new l10n process).
C) Coordinating issues: volunteers need a collaboration space; currently
they rely on private mail, but this makes it impossible to follow
progress and to properly add new volunteers. Solutions: Bugzilla is an
option, Mwiki's "watch this page" is another one, even a forum topic
will do, and at the extreme a dedicated mailing list, but in all cases
we need that volunteers register on a new system; if we can create an
account for them, this would become even more user-friendly. Bugzilla
has a file size limitation that currently prevents it from being really
useful, since PO files are too big to be attached there. It is true that
our internal workflow uses Bugzilla for PO files, but the reality is
that in most cases, as you can see, PO files were sent by e-mail to
either me or Juergen and we added them to Bugzilla (as links). Anyway,
it is OK for me to start directing volunteers from March 1st to a new
tool, the one we agree upon. No clear preference between Bugzilla and
Mwiki for me.
D) Licensing issues: if we rely more on Pootle, we must find a way to
have all contributions clearly licensed (no ICLA). Solution: my
preference would be: make Apache License 2 a mandatory registration
requirement; anonymous users cannot do anything (not even suggestions);
registered users can do both suggestions and approvals (let's try and be
open); a committer takes care of review (when applicable) and committing
to sources. If I understand correctly, Jan can make something like this
possible, and Jan if you need any changes to the existing
policy/configuration just ask.
In the short term, it's enough to get C done.
Regards,
Andrea.
