Submissions/Ask the developers

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2014.

Submission no. 5006

Title of the submission: Ask the Developers

Type of submission: Panel/hot seat

Author of the submission: Siebrand Mazeland and other present developers for software used by Wikimedia.

E-mail address: siebrandkitano.nl

Username: siebrand

Country of origin: The Netherlands

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Wikimedia Foundation, translatewiki.net.

Personal homepage or blog: mw:User:Siebrand, translatewiki:User:Siebrand

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

This session provides a forum for the community to have an in person dialogue with developers, make suggestions, and discuss long standing issues. The hackings days allow developers to meet and work together, but they lack an opportunity to exchange information with the community. This session is supposed to provide this opportunity.

At past Wikimanias and other events, Wikipedians would try to find a developer in some break between sessions, to ask some question that had been on their mind for a while. But that only works if there is time, and people actually know who to ask, and when. Having a session for this purpose in the program will help to make it easier for people to ask their question, and to get an answer from the person who knows most about the issue. Also, having a scheduled session for this allows questions and answers to be documented, so more people can benefit.

This session will help to elevate the perceived lack of communication between developers and the community, and ease the frustration caused by long standing requests not being implemented. Shedding some light on the development priorities and operational difficulties should provide people with a better understanding of what developers and system administrators are doing, and why.

The topic of the panel is very broad - basically, it can cover anything that someone might want to ask the developers or system administrators. It may be anticipated that the following topics may come up:

Flow
Visual design and user workflows
Visual editor
Product roadmap
Future of media support
Software used for development
Community request workflow
Many more possible subjects...

This forum mainly aims to create mutual understanding and clarity between users and developers by explanations and discussion, so that they can optimize their future on-line collaborations.

Track

Technology, Interface & Infrastructure

Length of session: 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests: If possible, have a room where everyone is equal, and not an auditorium. Fish bowl would be ideal.

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

Qgil (talk) 20:59, 24 March 2014 (UTC), happy to cover Engineering Community Team related questions.[reply]
Dan Garry, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) Would be happy to cover questions about how product and product management relates to software development.
Steven (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 26 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Rillke (talk) 16:29, 29 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Ocaasi (talk) 22:50, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
--Elitre (talk) 12:36, 20 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Nkansahrexford (talk) 18:47, 10 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Masssly (talk) 12:57, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
...