Grants:PEG/WM AU/Membership Software Development

Not funded

This grant submission from an group, organization, or individual in 2013-14 was not funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Prior to 2011, reasons for not funding this submission were communicated in private and may not be available on the discussion page. For more information about a particular request, please contact the grantee directly or send your questions to grants at wikimedia dot org.
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Legal name of chapter: Wikimedia Australia
Grant contact name: Brianna Laugher
Grant contact user-name or e-mail: blaugher at wikimedia.org.au
Grant contact title (position): President
Project lead name: as above
Project lead user-name or e-mail
Project lead title (position), if any

Full project name: Software development for managing membership and elections
Amount requested (in USD): 5,000
Provisional target start date: ASAP
Provisional completion date: Within 4-6 months of start date

Budget breakdown

Tentative milestones:

Start-up/familiarisation hours allowance: 10

(05) - EASY - Let users update their own details (bugfix)
(05) - EASY - Add ability to update one pending application's status without all pending users being emailed (bugfix)
(05) - EASY - Make 'Positions' [e.g. Pres, VP] work (bugfix)
(05) - EASY - Correct display of non-ASCII characters in web, email
(05) - EASY - Delete pending applications via web interface
(05) - EASY - Distinct email templates for different application statuses
(10) - EASY/MOD - Multiple "admin" logins
(10) - EASY/MOD - Integrated login with MediaWiki
(20) - MOD - Incorporate new unpaid/paid status into workflow (Approved + Paid = Member)
(20) - MOD - Add ability to mark pending applications as "not approved" as well as "approved"
(20) - MOD - Set up testing framework
(40) - MOD/HARD - Membership expiry/reminders

(Item in brackets is hours estimate)

12x2=24 hours documentation allowance

10 + 150 + 24 = 184 hours estimate

Hourly rate $30 (student/graduate)

Development total: 184*30 = 5520

Assessment of work: 16 hours * $50/h = 800

Total: 5520 + 800 = 6320

(AU$1 = US$0.72)

AU$6320 = US$4550

Project scope

Wikimedia Australia will formalise a contract/software spec for improvements to "memberdb", with milestone-based payments, in consultation with experienced developers and businesspeople from the Australian open source industry. Then again in consultation we will advertise a contract position to hire a software developer to complete this work. As detailed in the budget breakdown, we will also hire a separate person to assess the work done. The work would be required to be released under the license of memberdb, the GPL.

Memberdb is open source software written to suit the default model of approving membership according to Victorian law that governs incorporated associations. It was originally written for use by Linux Australia but WMAU has the same model of memberships (except with fees), so it works the same. It also has sophisticated election handling capabilities -- optional preferential voting, as well as respecting the "ordering" of positions (if a person is elected president, their nomination in all subsequent positions should be disregarded).

Project goal

The aim of this project is to improve Wikimedia Australia's membership management software to a more functional and featureful level. If successful, administration of membership will be greatly simplified, a little bit for users but mainly for the Secretary who administers membership applications. It would save a lot of double-handling of information that is currently done, because that information cannot be stored in the current system, as well as remove the need for dangerous practices such as deleting entries directly from the database. Overall the administration process will be streamlined to save time and avoid mistakes.

Non-financial requirements

This project primarily helps our organisational maturity and effectiveness.

Other benefits

If executed well, this project may increase Wikimedia Australia's standing, goodwill and relationships in the local open source community/industry. As the codebase is open source the improvements made will also benefit other users of the software.

Measures of success

We will consider this project a success if the milestones as suggested above are met and the committee is able to use memberdb without show-stopping bugs and application statuses that more accurately reflect our situation (eg payment, expiration). A major part of developing the contract/software spec will be setting our clear, objective criteria for success or failure, especially that that assessor can use in evaluating the work done.