IT Development/Progress meetings/Minutes 20 June 2013

Updates on Actions from previous meetings

Item No	Action	Assigned to	Update
February 2013
Item 5.1. - QRpedia	KB to: log the transfer of the QRpedia blog as an RT ticket forward testing email to RB, TE and Andy Mabbett (AM) to look for bugs work on assumption that the DNS can switch to a debugged WMUK installation on 4th March 2013 work with RB to identity key existing users contact known existing users, and forward emails to wikimediauk-l and cultural partners mailing lists, to inform of change when date known, and before transfer	KB	Doing... NB legal delays as discussed in March progress meeting.
Item 5.1.1 - QRpedia	KB to create list on WMUK Wiki AND DT would mirror WMUK Wiki page onto Meta AND KC would modify page for translation.	KB/DT/KTC	Not done see above and roll over actions
Item 5.1.2 - QRpedia	KB to undertake following after DNS changeover: chat to Stevie Benton (SB) about ideas for promoting engagement. set up a page inviting discussion about new applications or contexts for us	KB	Not done see above and roll over actions
Item 5.1.2 - QRpedia	ACTION: RB to liaise with Saad Choudry/WMUK Board as appropriate and confirm any terms that need to be taken into consideration before KB to proceed with promoting wider engagement/generation of ideas.	RB	Doing...
Item 5.3 - Wikimedia UK planet	KB to post the suggestion and a Yes/No Doodle Poll to the Community mailing list and report feedback to the next Technology Committee meeting.	KB	Not done KB needs to do (Deadline - end of April?)
5.4 Mediawiki extension development (e.g. calendar)	KB to contact Asaf to explain (MP to forward email thread) and ask what required to assist	KB	Not done KB missed chance to discuss in SF. Needs to be picked up.
April 2013
2. Chair and Minutes	KB to complete calendar section of previous meeting's minutes, CM to apply some cleanup.	KB/CM	Done
4. QRpedia	To expedite technical development, it was decided to: Give MP and DT the role of briefing the Board; Implement Piwik on a mirror of QRpedia, as demo for the Board (EE); Create a tech development version of QRpedia for WMUK, as recommended by RB; Create a GIT repository of QRpedia source code with the WMF, to enable feature requests (EE); Create a page on the WMUK wiki to collate and update what is known about current QRpedia users (KB)	KB/EE/MP	Doing...
5. Virtual Learning Environment	TM to add to his list an audit of internal communications in Moodle. CM to keep KB briefed on EduComm discussion.	TM/CM	Done
7. Hosting UK Wiki on Server	MP is to look into the Wikivoyage case; KC to talk to Erik Moeller while he visits London; KB to confer with James Forrester while in San Francisco.	KB/KC/MP	Done
9. Review of SSL Certificate proposals	KB to take a decision, for one year, after any further consultation she feels to be required.	KB	Done
10. Any Other Business	KB to consult Jonathan further, and add this to the agenda for the next meeting	KB	Done

Attendance and Apologies

Present:

• Katherine Bavage (KB)
• Harry Burt (HB)
• Emmanuel Engelhart (EE)
• Mike Peel (MP)
• Doug Taylor (DT)
• Katie Chan (KC)
• Tom Morton (TM)
• Charles Matthews (CM)
• Jonathan Cardy (JC)

Apologies:

• Gordon Joly (GJ)

Update on Actions from previous meeting

KB noted that there were several actions that related to substantive items on the agenda. DT suggested this item in future be 'Updates on actions not treated on the agenda'.

ACTION: This item to be renamed for future agendas (KB)

Item 5.3 - Wikimedia UK planet

KB had still yet to go to the community about the desire for this.

ACTION: KB to refer to Wikimedia-l mailing list before end of June.

Item 5.4 Mediawiki extension development (e.g. calendar)

KB was unable to speak to Asaf about this directly during her visit to WMF offices.

ACTION: KB to pick up via email before end of June

Item 9. Review of SSL Certificate proposals

KB had recommended the preferred SSL package to TM.

ACTION: TM to liaise with KB about purchase of 12 month service package by end of June.

Maintanence

Mediawiki & Other (System, Wordpress, ...)

Including mediawiki updatEE noted that he had migrated many wikis onto the WMUK server but there wasn't currently a formal plan for maintanence - need to divide respondibilies for updates and security issues - be proactive.

ACTION: TM/EE to draw up on-wiki a proposed division of responsibilities and schedule for checking updates and security maintenance before next Tech Comm meeting.

Service requests (EE)

How to track them?

Requests for fixes or new features were being made the Tech@ mailing list. There was an ongoing concern that some requests would be missed, or there that there would be a flood of unorganised requests.

KB gave brief history of tech@ list to the committee - it had been used as an internal-focused list to co-ordinatethe charity's sysadmin tasks.

Who?

The intention was now 'open up' the mailing list for Tech Committee discussions, and use the implementation of BugZilla to log/track organisational fix and feature requests from everyone, including the community. KB noted CM had an account created - CM noted that he had used once and changed the nature of the status of an item - protocols to use need to go alongside it.

ACTION:

• KB/TM to work on install and complementary write-up pre-next Tech Committee meeting
• KB to open up the list to all Tech Comm members (KB to skim remaining archives and circulate too all here)

QRpedia (KB/RB)

KB noted that RB had been unable to attend. However, as far as she was aware the board and the owners of the domain were still working on a mutually acceptable legal agreement to cover the transfer of intellectual property and the domain. From a Technical perspective it continued to be a case of waiting for confirmation of transfer and being ready to support the hosting, development, and expanded implementation of the site.

DNS migration

ACTION:

• KB to clarify the degree of separation of IP required with Saad Choudry - i.e is a separate registrar sufficient or would separate server hosting be necessary? JC clarified that in his experience shared server space was not an issue.

Twitter migration and Blog

ACTION:

• EE to log transfer or shared access of QRpedia twitter account as a task following transfer.
• EE to log transfer or shared access of QRpedia blog account as a task following transfer.

Meta tools (bugtracker/code repository/meta page) @WMF

ACTION:

• EE to ensure code shared in WMF code repository
• EE to expand stub of project page on Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/QRpedia

CiviCRM (EE/KB)

Status

KB reported that EE had installed a running instance which is still buggy - some bug tests had been run and now EE/KB needed to focus on addressing these. Some improvements to add - as logged in bugtracker.

Timeline

EE/KB would aim to tackle outstanding bug issues in first week of July. Rollout in July. Aiming to sort staff training for the end of July also.

American cloud usage (#PRISM) (EE)

Problem

There was some concern about to what extent recent revelations about National Security Agency surveillance practices affected Wikimedia UK's services or users. It was accepted that this issue does affect the chapter, but was not something that could realistically be avoided. JC noted UK libel law and liability issues made offering hosting of content problematic, and there was a reasonable inference that UK intelligence services may be doing something similar. DT noted the issue was not about editing per se but about the use of certain services by staff and volunteers such as google apps and google drive. EE noted that it presents a problem in terms of our dependancies and our data. Good approach would be to consider damage limitation - we can't avoid using these services BUT could use alternatives appropriately if possible. E.g. WMCH have relied more on other services for the communication of internal information e.g. membership details.

There was some discussion about how best to consider and develop solutions around this issue, especially when the extent to which systems the chapter used could be affected was unclear. It was agreed discussions could be ongoing on the opened-up Tech@ list.

ACTION: TM/EE to produce a position paper for the next Tech Comm.

WMUK migration (EE/TM)

Status

A test instance has been set up and the data migrated for this - EE/TM have responded to bug testing. EE is in communication with WMF and are discussing the optimum way to migrate user accounts.

Increase of community memory during migration

TM reported that the Chapter would increase the capacity of the server for a temporary period, and this would be reduced when migration complete.

Timeline

ACTION: EE/TM to communicate agenda of migration with KB so this can be shared across different channels. KTC will at least include a general notice in the June members newsletter.

JC queried what the change would be that required notification? TM noted the domain will actually change and there would be some downtime and would be overnight to minimise disruption. Users will have to use a new password to log in and then set their password and user preferences. Watchlists will be deleted.

ACTION: KC/KB - write up a nice version that's not too offputting to those not familiar with watchlists/wiki's of a 'how to export'.

OTRS (EE)

Status

The requested queues and redirects had been specified and EE was working on setting up the installation and setting up KB with an admin and agent account.

Timeline

Delivery by mid-July; use by staff by end of July. Use by volunteers in August.

Virtual Learning Environment (CM/TM)

CM noted that beta version had been available from November 2012 Now the softwear for the authentication process has been configured, leaving the remaining tasks around configuring the moodle plugin to update with live trasnclusions from modulewiki. TM reported that he had negotiated with current provider to get the data dump but there had been a delay on their end. Now imported on our domain. There had also been an issue with the SSO plugin on mediawiki which took time to work out what was wrong in the debugging process. Is soft-launched live now.

CM reported the need to be able to switch to our own hosted version before the end of July. TM noted that the current host has put the exisiting site into maintenance mode which was non-optional. CM observed there may be users who were accessing it. CM noted that content needs to be updated - hence the importance of the moodle plugins readiness.

ACTION:

• CM/TM to catch up about current status - which will be documented on Bugzilla.
• TM to work on detailed spec for CM/KB by end of June with a view to develop throughout July