IT Development/Technology committee meetings/Minutes 23 October 2014

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These minutes were approved at the Tech Com meeting on 3 December 2014.

Attendees

  • Carol Campbell (CC)
  • Emmanuel Englehart (EE)
  • Harry Burt (HB) Chair
  • Charles Matthew (CM)
  • Richard Nevell (RN) Minutes

Appologies

Meeting began at 18:18

Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the of the last meeting were considered by the committee and there were no objections.

Matters arising from the previous minutes, not otherwise covered on this agenda

None raised

Scoping exercise – update from the board meeting

CC reported that the scoping exercise was discussed at the October board meeting but there was no consensus to settle on one of the three main options. Saad Choudri is preparing recommendations to present to the board at the December meeting. CM feels that the amount of staff time available for the committee has diminshed since the start of the year, and feels that project management is still lacking and it is unclear how Bugzilla correlates to the workflow of the developers. CC feels that the scoping exercise has highlighted to the board how important technical development is to the charity.

Ex-toolserver hardware

Was previously discused on the list. All three servers are currently still available - the cost of acquisition would be shipping from Germany to the UK. CM suggested it could be beneficial for Moodle development, and having a development server as well as a production server. Could be a way to get volunteers involved as it would need not contain sensitive data.

DECISION: Recommend to the office to look at acquiring at least one of the servers

ACTION: RN to ask WMDE about cost of shipping

Online voice recording (AM)

Action carried over from the previous meeting.

ACTION: HB to follow up with AM

Bugzilla and Phabricator

RN has started preparing a guide for Bugzilla, viewable here.

ACTION: RN to circulate current draft to the committee for comment and discussion

EE reinforced that it is important to always use Bugzilla and to include as much information as possible and to be specific about the error. Choosing priority or component is less important than clearly laying out the requirements, as the developers can use their judgement in those cases.

Safe Sandbox (CM)

Intention was to get ready for EduWiki, but discussion has stalled since the last meeting. There is a prototype but HB is still awaiting technical support.

VLE report

The key issue remains sorting out the Single Sign On log in. A testing area has been set up to find a way round the problem.

Wikisoba report

CM reported that Magnus Manske has offered to write a front end for Wikisoba. The intention is to develop a prototype platform usable on mobile devices.

Date and chair of next meeting

The consensus was the meet on the first week of December. CC would have a preference for Tuesday 2nd December.

ACTION: RN to circulate a poll to decide the date of the next meeting

CC pointed out that there will be a volunteer strategy day on Saturday 29th November and invited anyone along who is interested in discussing the role of volunteers.

AOB

Meeting closed at 19:08