IT Development/Technology committee meetings/Minutes 12 March 2015
Attendees
- Harry Burt (HB) Chair
- Emanuel Engelhart (EE)
- Charles Matthews (CM)
- Richard Nevell (RN) Minutes
Apologies
Meeting began at 17:08
Michael Maggs and Carol Campbell sent their apologies.
Minutes of the previous meeting
There were no objections to the minutes.
Matters arising from the previous minutes, not otherwise covered on this agenda
Actions from previous minutes were reviewed under each agenda item.
Launchpad
Following on from the Jarnuary meeting, HB developed the idea of a a 'Launchpad'. The suggestion was that it would consist of a microwebsite showcasing past and present technology projects overseen by Wikimedia UK, and would be used to run a competition to develop tools for Mediawiki. The competition would offer visibliity for Wikimedia UK amongst developers, and would be similar to the Wiki Loves Monuments framework, with submissions open for a month. There would be no overt funding committments. HB feel this is particularly likely to appeal to developers already familiar with Mediawiki and that it should be kept broad to encourage participation.
ACTION: HB to circulate details of Launchpad to technology
wikimedia.org.uk and seek trustee input
Bugzilla
Since the last meeting EE has updated the user guidance. RN tanked him for the improvement.
Strategy
The February volunteer strategy day in Birmingham was cancelled, along with the tech session due to be covered at the event, and the technology workshop day has been postponed in the interim. CM noted a clearer budgetary process would be helpful. The charity is currently in a stage of transition with the ongoing recruitment of a Chief Executive, meaning strategy discussions will be deferred until a new CEO is in post. CM noted that Launchpad could provide a useful discussion point for strategy as it could produce viable projects, and considered that further discussion of strategy was not a pre-requisite to running Launchpad.
Proposed hack day for offline MediaWiki
As per the action from the previous meeting CM has talked to Bjoern Hassler about a possible hackday for offline MediaWiki. His opinion was that it was a nice idea but it is unclear whether the hackday will go ahead. EE agreed, noting that it depends on the availability of a developer specialising in parsoid.
Proposed Technology Workshop Talk:Technology workshop 2014#Restarting discussion
This was discussed under the item for strategy. It could be discussed further at the Annual General Meeting in London on Saturday 25th July.
Agenda and future meetings
It was noted that the committee has a budget of £50 per quarter. This covers travel expenses when attending meetings. RN asked people to let the office know in advance if they intend joining meetings in person.
Date of next meeting
CM suggested rather than a six week interval as has become standard to wait two month for the next meeting. As a mid-point, it was agreed to hold the meeting in the week beginning 27th April.
ACTION: RN to circulate poll to settle time and date
AOB
HB has been talking to Andy Mabbett about the voice recording tool and matters are in hand. Eric Moeller enquired about the project.
HB noted that the course extension continues to recevie minor updates, but that the Campaigns module is not under active development. Fabian Tompsett has been trialling the course extension with WMUK events to see if it will be useful for reporting around editathons. Current feedback is that the extension is well suited to university courses, and may need to alterations to maximise its potential for more general editathons.
EE asked whether the Wiki Loves Monuments jury tool was still being used. It was trialled ahead of the 2013 competition, but ultimately judging was carried out with different methods. As the tool has not been used since, the WMUK installation will be decommissioned.
EE also asked people to check Bugzilla to see if there are any bugs which are awaiting volunteer input or can be closed, especially any bugs relating to the Virtual Learning Environment.
EE shared his current volunteer project with the committee, details available on Phabricator: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T91853
Given previous discussions about acquiring toolserver hardware to facilitate volunteer development work, CM ask if alternatives could be revisited. HB had mentioned in a previous meeting that cloud-based servers could fulfil a similar role.
Meeting closed at 18.18