Talk:MediaWiki Developer Summit 2015

Name

Now that I think about it, why the pompous name? Do I guess correctly that "summit" stands for "invitation only", for historical reasons i.e. the four past Pune language summits in the category?

The "charter" of the event is quite unclear and undefined so far, probably it will get better in the next few weeks; but for now we read it's about «evolution of the MediaWiki architecture and the Wikimedia Engineering goals for 2015 [...] three themes that welcome activities to improve awareness, collaboration, and results». That makes two pillars:

• a conference half on MediaWiki and half on WMF;
• a hackathon on three Wikimedia-specific matters.

This would make it 75 % Wikimedia-specific, but there are only two non-Wikimedia attendees, Kim and Cindy, of which one mentioned topics relevant to an existing RfC, so the RfC part will also be Wikimedia-specific. So the meeting is 95+ % Wikimedia and 90+ % WMF (consistent with attendees numbers). I'd call it just WMF developer meeting 2015, where the "WMF" part makes pompous replacements of "invitation-only" redundant while at the same time clearly conveying the main topic.

Names are substance. I suggest that you're still on time to rename the meeting, or otherwise clarify its scope: if done in advance, this will help making the meeting more productive. --Nemo 07:56, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

We really want to consolidate an annual MediaWiki Developer Summit. If the problem is that WMF participants are a clear majority and that non-Wikimedia participants are almost nonexistent, then this is the problem we need to focus on, not the name of the event. This year we accepted all the sensible invitation requests (the only ones declined were people not involved in development activities requesting sponsorship travel). MediaWiki development is quite Wikimedia centric in any case, with the notable exception of the SemanticMediaWiki community. The main themes of this first edition are Mobile, Editing, and Service Oriented Architecture, topics that are equally relevant to Wikimedia and non-Wikimedia MediaWiki stakeholders. Is there someone that we can still invite for this edition? And how can we do better in the next one?--Qgil-WMF (talk) 10:53, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Quim's reply here. --MZMcBride (talk) 05:21, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Removing the "summit" part would do no harm and would certainly improve the name, IMHO. --Nemo 23:32, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

My 2c are just that the "invitation-only event" part is misleading when people are actually supposed to apply for invites and scholarships. This said MW people are certainly smart enough to keep reading after that bit, but still. Names aside, specific "deliverables" for the event would be great for the future. --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 19:34, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

+1 for making the name less ridiculous, how about simply "forum" or "conference"? A summit is for self-styled inner party members, it invokes a hierarchy. I think it's a historical accident that we use this name and IMO there's nothing reccomending "summit" other than year-over-year consistency, which is hardly an end it itself. Also agree with the above comments that it's silly to have people apply to be invited, I don't think it expresses our intent very well. How about "limited participation event", if the idea is that we can't afford snacks for everyone who would otherwise show up. It honestly sounds like we're trying to keep specific people out, hopefully that's also just historical baggage? Thanks for organizing this event, sorry if my comment is more snarky than it is constructive! Adamw (talk) 19:56, 11 September 2015 (UTC)