Hello all, I have put the question in the general talk page at nl-wiki: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:De_kroeg#Feedback_van_lokale_gemeenschap_gevraagd
Several reactions came on that: * users experience Bugzilla as unfriendly, and rather use w wiki page for bugs. * other users do not know where to put their questions and problems. * users want technicians be more visible and better reachable. * one user had been searching for a technician to help for a year long and couldn't find one. I try to fullfill my role as ambassador between tech and local users of Dutch projects. I do have a bit more feeling with Bugzilla, and what I try is to translate bugs to Bugzilla. On the Dutch Wikipedia we have a technical discussion room ( https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SHEIC ), we will transform that page to one where people can add their bugs and problems. In this way we hope to help users better to solve problems/bugs directly (often personal preferences, already known bugs, error in template or just the outlook of a page messed up by inserted code, etc). I think a lot of the communication can and should be picked up by local users with enough technical knowledge and experience to help in that local language. Greetings - Romaine > Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 17:03:52 +0100 > From: Guillaume Paumier <[email protected]> > To: "Coordination of technology deployments across > languages/projects" > <[email protected]> > Subject: [Wikitech-ambassadors] Local discussions about how > to improve > communication between users and > developers > Message-ID: > <CAHLKNV2TjuwnryCqODj2oYRE6nX2H+4R+=1su2dxmxzydhd...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Greetings, > > Summary: I'm trying to get comments and ideas on how to > improve > communication between developers and Wikimedia editors, and > I'd like > to ask the help of people on this list to ask your local > communities > what they think, and post the results of those discussions > here. > > Longer version: > > Communication between Wikimedia contributors and "tech > people" > (primarily MediaWiki developers, but also designers and > other > engineers) hasn't always been ideal. In recent years, > Wikimedia > employees have made efforts to become more transparent, but > what I'd > like to discuss today is how we can better engage in true > collaboration and 2-way discussion, not just reports and > announcements. It's easy to post a link to a new feature > that's > already been implemented, and tell users "Please provide > feedback!". > It's much more difficult to truly collaborate every step of > the way, > from the early planning to deployment. > > Some "big" tech projects sponsored by the Wikimedia > Foundation are > lucky enough to have a Community Liaison who can spend a lot > of time > discussing with editors, basically incarnating this 2-way > communication channel between users and engineering staff. > But one > person can only do so much: they have to focus on a handful > of > features, and primarily discusses with the English > Wikipedia > community. We want to be able to do this for dozens of > engineering > projects with hundreds of wikis, in many languages, and > truly > collaborate to build new features together. Hiring hundreds > of > Community Liaisons isn't really a viable option. > > There are probably things in the way we do tech stuff (e.g. > new > software features and deployments) that drive editors > insane. You > probably have lots of ideas about what the ideal situation > should be, > and how to get there: What can the developer community > (staff and > volunteers) do to get there? (in the short term, medium > term, long > term?) What can users do to get there? > > Instead of just postulating that "The problem is X" and "The > solution > is obviously Y", I've started an extensive consultation > process to > learn from users, to hear you, to listen to your complaints > and your > ideas on how to fix the issues. I'm hoping that this open > and > collaborative thinking process will yield better results > than a > one-sided analysis. > > An preliminary consultation took place last month with > projects in > English and French. I've summarized the initial findings > and > proposals: > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_communications/Fall_2012_consultation#Phase_2:_Summary_and_wider_outreach > > I'm hoping that we can now expand this consultation to more > projects > and more languages, with your help. It isn't feasible for me > to launch > a discussion on each wiki in each language, but I'm hoping > that you > can help me spread this message and start those discussions > with your > local communities. > > I realize this will take some of your time, but I think it's > worth > spending a little time to discuss this now in order to make > big > improvements later on how we communicate with each other. > > I'm available to answer comments, concerns and questions. > > Many thanks for your help! > > -- > Guillaume Paumier > Technical Communications Manager ? Wikimedia Foundation > https://donate.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikitech-ambassadors mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-ambassadors
