Requests for comment/Collaboration working group

This is a proposal to create a "Collaboration" working group as a sub-team of the Architecture committee. Central question: how do we scale editing our code up to populations similar to editing our projects, proportionally increasing our positive impact and productivity? The first goal of this group would be to write official Collaboration guidelines that would be part of the Architecture guidelines for Wikimedia software.

Request for comment (RFC)
Collaboration working group
Component Collaboration
Creation date
Author(s) RobLa-WMF
Document status declined
See Phabricator.


Activities in scope for this group edit

WikiDev16 edit

This is work from WikiDev '16 to continue in this working group:

T114419 - Make code review not suck edit

This session was held at the WikiDev '16 on January 5, 2016. This session was combined with the following:

  • T101686 Goal: Define potential actions to reduce code review queues and waiting times
  • T78768: Agree on and how to implement actions to prioritize code review of patches.

Goals for the session (copied from T114419)

  • We have a number of ideas on how to fix the problem
  • While we may not have decided which idea to implement, people come away from the meeting feeling that at least one of the ideas would fix things, and that there is hope for a brighter tomorrow.
  • A summary of the ideas is presented to wikitech-l for further evaluation, in the hopes that the wikitech-l discussion will narrow down the choices to the best ones.

Plenary wrapup session: Tuesday, 3:40pm edit

  • Results from the 2015 Community Wishlist Survey
  • Summit retrospective

Other items that probably were discussed edit

  • T114320: Code-review migration to Differential status/discussion: this is ongoing work, there is an RfC developing, and will have a big impact in our community.
  • T90908: Goal: Binding code of conduct for all Wikimedia technical spaces with consequences for breaches: even if it is a general topic, the unconference context might be more appropriate for a focused dicussion at this stage.
  • T113490: 10 tips for communicating with communities when developing software: there hasn't been much discussion before the Summit, and people expressing their interest seem to want to "listen" more that be part of the effort for defining these tips. People motivated by this session could participate in the Unconference context, and then a Tech Talk could be produced with the final presentation.
  • T114400: WikiBadge
  • T89907: Discuss and approve a MediaWiki developer community governance model: very important topic, but the discussion hasn't moved much.
  • T115762: Shadow namespaces at the 2016 Wikimedia Developer Summit: for the reasons exposed at T119030#1851922