2023:Program/Poster sessions/H9EWSD-“Diversity, Collaboration, Future” in technology: A network of community-centered software development teams

From Wikimania

Title: “Diversity, Collaboration, Future” in technology: A network of community-centered software development teams

Speakers:

Lena Meintrup

Product manager of the Technical Wishes project. The project, created in 2013, is a joint project of Wikimedia Germany and the German-speaking Wikipedia community. Its core objective is to develop technical improvements for Wikipedia based on community needs, placing the long-standing successful collaboration with the German-speaking Wikipedia community at the center of its way of working.

Johanna Strodt (WMDE)

Community communications manager of WMDE’s Technical Wishes project. Finding new ways to engage users of all backgrounds is one of the things I focus on.

Pretalx link

Etherpad link

Room: Expo Space

Start time: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 17:16:00 +0800

End time: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 17:18:00 +0800

Type: Poster session

Track: No (pretalx) track id specified

Submission state: confirmed

Duration: 2 minutes

Do not record: true

Presentation language: en


Abstract & description[edit source]

Abstract[edit source]

Poster Category: Technology Session Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM in Singapore

Can we build a global network of community-centered software development teams inside the Wikimedia Movement? Let’s talk about this idea and discuss how we can turn it into reality.

Description[edit source]

There’s a lot of need for technical improvement throughout the wikis. But: There aren’t enough development resources to make these improvements happen, especially, it seems, those that are most wanted by volunteer contributors with specific or local needs. What if we created and empowered more teams to work on technical improvements within the Wikimedia Movement all over the world? The Technical Wishes[1] team at Wikimedia Deutschland has successfully established and refined a community-centered approach to MediaWiki software development since it began its work in 2015. Can we scale this idea to build a network of affiliates or user groups with similar skills and projects? That would mean more community-centered software projects throughout the movement, which would lead to more technical improvements overall. In this workshop, we will present our ideas to build this network, and we want to hear from you: What would need to be considered for this to become a viable reality? What is important to you when it comes to building this kind of global collaboration? Let’s strategize together how we can turn this idea into reality.

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes

Further details[edit source]

Qn. How does your session relate to the event themes: Diversity, Collaboration Future?

Diversity: The Technical Wishes team is thinking about ways to make the groups working on technical improvements more diverse. Based on our experience, technical improvements based on prioritized local needs have the potential to enrich the entire Wikimedia technical infrastructure.

Collaboration: At Wikimania, we want to co-develop ideas to empower others to make improvements to MediaWiki and be able to work together on a global level to bring about improvements that benefit the whole Movement.

Future: We see great potential for this idea to shape the way software development takes place within the Movement, and to implement some key Movement Strategy recommendations.

Qn. What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

The session is for an experienced audience

Qn. What is the most appropriate format for this session?

  • Empty Onsite in Singapore
  • Empty Remote online participation, livestreamed
  • Empty Remote from a satellite event
  • Tick Hybrid with some participants in Singapore and others dialing in remotely
  • Empty Pre-recorded and available on demand