On 7/1/15, Mark A. Hershberger <m...@nichework.com> wrote: > > I just posted this at http://mwstake.org/mwstake/wiki/Blog_Post:18 and I > would like to invite your comments. > > = MediaWiki needs a governance model = > Eighteen months ago, at the > [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Architecture_Summit_2014 MediaWiki > Architecture Summit], a manager from Wikia said, repeatedly, that he was > there to find out where MediaWiki was going to be in five years. > > This year, at the > [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Developer_Summit_2015 MediaWiki > Developer's Summit], Damion Sicore, the new VP of Engineering for Wikimedia, > asked about MediaWiki's governance model. > > Both these people were relative outsiders to the core of MediaWiki > development and both of them described the same problem: MediaWiki doesn't > have direction.
I'm not sure we should conflate lack of direction with lack of a formal governance model, but I'll give you they are both issues that a lot of people feel we have, and they are both related. > > During the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2015 > Wikimedia Hackathon] this year, I cornered Damon and asked him what he > thought needed to be done. After some back-and-forth, Damon said that if we > could come up with a governance model for MediaWiki that the stakeholders > would endorse, that would be a great start. > > I only had two questions: What was a governance model? And, could I get the > stakeholders for MediaWiki to buy into one? > > == Stakeholders == > This past year Markus Glaser and I started the > [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Stakeholders'_Group MediaWiki > Stakeholders] user group. This is a group of people interested in MediaWiki > as software because we use it in our businesses and organisations. We want > to have a voice in its development. > > We do have issues – some of the most visible users of MediaWiki, such > as Wikia and WikiHow – are not involved – but we've also had > some really good successes that we can point to, like our > [http://mwstake.org/mwstake/wiki/Category:Events monthly meetings], our > [http://mwstake.org/ own wiki], and the meeting at the Wikimedia Hackathon > this spring. > > If you use MediaWiki for your own projects and you're interested in the > future of the software, we ask you to [http://mwstake.org join us]. We > especially need your involvement if you are a large, visible user of > MediaWiki like Wikia or WikiHow. I'd like to emphasize that there is a difference between the Stakeholder group with a capital S, and people with a stake in MediaWiki development (Although to be fair, you do talk about this later on in the email). There are a lot of stakeholders (with a lowercase s), many of them with conflicting priorities and the Stakeholder group only represents some of them (and this will always be the case. No group will ever represent all interests). I think that there is a distinction between the MWStakeholder group and the set of everyone in the world with an interest in mediawiki should be kept clear when having these types of discussions. > == Governance == > That brings me to the first, less intuitive, question: What is a governance > model? Why is it needed? > > Research done on > [https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/28/research-newsletter-june-2015/#How_Wikipedia_built_governance_capability.2C_2001.E2.80.932009 > Wikipedia's governance model] is instructive. Online social production "is > contrasted with traditional, contract-bound, hierarchical production models > that characterize most organizational settings." Despite this contrast with > traditional production, Wikipedia's governance model is "becoming less open > and more codified…a positive change." > > Indeed, Wikipedia and MediaWiki are closely related but they cannot share > governance models since [https://wikiapiary.com/wiki/Main_Page most > MediaWiki installations] are outside of the Wikimedia Foundation, and, as a > result MediaWiki development cannot be driven only by the needs of the > Foundation. This does not follow. Even ignoring that Wikipedia community tends to be operated mostly independently of the WMF, a governance model is not the same as the results of a governance model. Both the United States are Sweeden are democracies. Roughly speaking they have the same governance model. That doesn't imply that they always do the same thing, or that one controls the other. > Instead, we need to begin to use the governance model to separate its > development from the Foundation and establish it as an independent open > source software product. I'm not sure I'd phrase that like that. I would like all potential developers to be able to develop MediaWiki and influence its development to the same extent, regardless of their affiliation. (Not to say that it should be a free for all, but the ability to contribute to MediaWiki should be based on e.g. the quality of the person's ideas, or their experience with the project, or some other instrinsic quality of the person, not their affiliation). > > As a result, we need to start looking at MediaWiki development in the > context of the larger world of open source software. The > [http://oss-watch.ac.uk/ OSS Watch] [http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/StartPage > Wiki] has a lot of relevant information about how open source software > projects are run. See, for example, the explanation given on the > [http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/GovernanceModel GovernanceModel] page: > > A clear governance model allows potential contributors to understand how > they engage with the project, what is expected of them and what protections > are provided to ensure their contributions will always be available to them. > It also describes the quality control processes that help assure potential > users of the viability of the project. > ''[…]'' > [Governance] provides a mechanism for allowing the community as a whole to > define the direction they feel the project should take, '''while ensuring > that the core project team does not lose control'''. > > == Why does the MediaWiki community need to do anything? What is wrong with > the status quo? == > Now, some members of the MediaWiki developer community will not see a need > for such a model. Indeed, they'll tell you there is already one in place. Well, there is one in place :P, you just don't like it (And I agree, its suboptimal) > > One problem is that this model is only sporadically documented and isn't > well communicated. So each person in the community ''thinks'' they know > what the rules of the game are, but their individual models can differ > drastically. > > Another problem, especially when it comes to features of MediaWiki that are > not used on Wikipedia, is that it is developer-focused instead of > user-focused. Welcome to open source software ;) > > For example, if you've used MediaWiki's built-in hitcounter in the past, > you'll be [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T74420 surprised and shocked] > when that [https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/150699/ functionality is > removed] without any ready replacement, > > As the [http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/GovernanceModel GovernanceModel] page > goes on to explain: > > There are almost as many variations on open source management strategies as > there are open source projects. '''It is therefore critical that you clearly > communicate your policies''' and strategy '''to potential users''' and > developers of your product as it is one of the most important steps towards > sustainability through open development. > > == Who needs to agree to this? == This email? There's not much proposed here to agree to yet. Other then agreeing there is the existence of a problem. On the broader issue of a change in governance - Who needs to agree and who should agree are different questions. Who should agree is the various (lower-case s) stakeholders. Who needs to agree is the same as who needs to agree to almost any change (Short of a revolution of the masses) in the power structure of anything: The current elites in the current power structure. > The easy answer is easy: the stakeholders. Here I don't mean the > Stakeholders User Group, though we will certainly be involved in the > discussion. We need the developers, the project managers, the > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_sharing knowledge sharing] > specialists inside organisations that use MediaWiki and even the end users > of MediaWiki to be involved. Each of these groups exists inside and outside > of the Wikipedia community. We need to get people who represent Wikia; > executives from Hallo Welt!; independent consultants like myself; and end > users of sites like [http://wikipathways.org/index.php/WikiPathways > WikiPathways]. > > Over the next few weeks and months we need to develop a governance model and > answer questions like > > * How will governance be enforced? How will things change? Which presupposes that the governance model will enforce things. Will the governance model be enforcing things, and which "things" will be in its remit are probably questions that should be asked first. > * Who proposes new or revised rules/directions? > > * Who approves changes to the rules/directions? > > * Where does the roadmap fit in to this governance? > > * How are conflicts mitigated? > > = Where do we start? = > Some other members of the MediaWiki stakeholders and I have already begin > discussing the governance model. During our next > [https://plus.google.com/events/c0kd2on1qe5kj0di0j9d1pfuba0?authkey=CPeZ0K6Fk-iFmQE > online meeting using Google Hangouts], we'll continue the discussion in the > wider group. However, we have a distinct limitation there in that G+ only > lets 10 people in at a time. > > In a couple of weeks we'll be > [https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/MediaWiki_Stakeholders'_Meetup > meeting again at Wikimania] and, hopefully, inviting broader participation. > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l --bawolff _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
