Hey all,
Nice to meet many of you for the first time! Thanks for your feedback
and for raising larger concerns around resource allocation at the
Foundation. These concerns are extremely valid-- especially the ones
around allocating resources for less supported platforms such as
Commons and broken infrastructure. The wishlist process will begin
next week with the proposal phase starting Jan 10.
In the email thread, I identified some open questions about the
Wishlist process so I am answering them here.
*
Can we vote/focus on the maintenance of tools rather than new tools?
o
Yes. The wishes that we work on do not have to be associated
with a new tool. In the past we’ve taken on projects that were
maintenance related. For example, in the last year, we took on
improvement projects for Wikisource Export and Wikisource OCR
tools, among other initiatives. We also maintain and fix all the
tools we’ve built in the past.Check out the fresh documentation
about what qualifies as a proposal here.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/FAQ#How_to_create_a_good_proposal?>
o
Gnangarra, your points about the issues with bulk uploads in
Commons would make a sound proposal-- a proposal does not have
to be a new tool in the least. The part about uploading large
files is out of scope for our team though (see link above about
our areas of focus, the issue is infrastructural
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T86436>and too large for what
we can take on). I still believe there is value in suggesting
it, though.
o
We have Talk to Us
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/Updates/Talk_to_Us>hours
on January 19-- where the entire team will be available for a
video call to help folks who want to write proposals and polish
them so that they may get selected.
*
What if what we want fixed is larger than what the Community Tech
team can accomplish?
o
This year, we will be talking directly with leadership about
larger wishes that we can't fulfill ourselves. To make this
possible, we will no longer be formally 'Archiving' ideas. One
improvement we are implementing from conversations with all of
you at past Talk to Us Hours and other places, is that we will
place projects that are too large for us into a new category
called “Larger Suggestions'' because we still want people to be
able to voice those needs. We plan to share this with the
Foundation's leadership during the WMF's annual planning, which
takes place in the spring.
o
This being said, if you have an idea that may be too large for
us to take on, I would also encourage you to come to Talk to Us
Hours (link above) and see if we can help you workshop the
proposal into something we can help with. If we can’t then I
would still highly encourage you to propose, by all means!
Chances are if you think it’s an important problem, many other
members do as well.
o
Finally, the wishlist isn't just for Community Tech. Volunteer
developers and other Wikimedia Foundation teams have taken on
wishes from the wishlist. For this reason, there is a chance
that a wish may not be appropriate for our team, but it can be
addressed by someone else.
*
Why isn’t the WMF fixing what we feel are be the most urgently
needed fixes in functionality?
o
This is a larger question that gets answered at the board and
C-leadership levels. There are also some relatively new teams at
the Foundation, such as Architecture and Platform Engineering,
that aim to improve the technical infrastructure overall in the
years to come. However, every team can help with the answer and
Community Tech can help with communication of technical needs.
This “Larger Suggestions” collection of wishes I mentioned in
the previous answer will not be a silver bullet that fixes all
of the problems, but I believe in the power of incremental steps
to steer us in that direction.
*
How can we communicate the urgency of the fixes that we need?
o
I don’t believe there is any lack of documentation of concerns
about functionality that is broken. Folks are right to point out
that it’s about synthesizing what is most urgently broken, the
maintenance that is really necessary, and surfacing it to
leadership. We, the Community Tech team, had a lot of hard
conversations about how to handle this because we never want to
mislead anyone into thinking we are going to work on ideas that
are too large for our team. However, we all collectively came to
the conclusion that we should still be the team that gives
people the space to voice what they need from a technical
perspective.
o
The wishlist itself can communicate urgency. If you submit a
detailed wish (the more details, the better!), and if the wish
receives a high number of votes, we definitively know as a team
that it's urgent and high-priority. From there, we have the
information we need to take next steps. This may involve taking
on the wish ourselves or communicating the wish to leadership.
*
Does the Community Tech team work in isolation?
o
No, we constantly collaborate with other teams at the Foundation
and most importantly, with all of you. This year our goal is to
share the top wishes with other product managers who are
responsible for products related to the categories in the
wishlist. This way, they may incorporate relevant wishes into
their team's roadmap, or they will at least consider community
requests as they plan upcoming work. We always check to see if
other teams are already working on solutions related to what is
asked inside of the Wishlist. We plan to do more and are
energized that the conversation is already beginning to happen
in this thread.
*
Why is the Community Tech team so small? Why can't more people be
hired, or why can't a second Community Tech team be formed?
o
As a team, we deeply believe in our work, and we hope to keep
growing. We know how important it is to work directly with
community members and fulfill community requests. If you want
our team to grow, one of the best ways you can champion us is to
participate in the wishlist. As participation rates grow (and
they have!), the more effectively we can advocate for our team
and its resources.
P.S. We are still welcoming help to promote the survey and to
translate the updated documentation. Thanks for reading.
Best,
Natalia Rodriguez
Senior Product Manager, Community Tech
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