Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group/Technical Consultations 2024
Background
editThe Indic MediaWiki Developers UG has been organizing various workshops (online and in-person) and hackathons to support the growth of technical contributors from India and also address various technical challenges related to Indic Wikimedia projects. During the past events, the issues taken up during the hackathon were proposed ad-hoc by attending developers or editors (unconference style). While the model has its own advantages, it can often be confusing and intimidating for newcomers. In addition, we don’t have a good understanding of the range of technical challenges faced by the Indic communities, which can make it hard to start specific initiatives to address them. To address both these challenges, we are planning to try out community technical consultations as a part of the 2024 annual plan.
Purpose
editThe goal of these consultations is to primarily gain a good understanding of the range of technical challenges faced by the four to five pilot communities, surface their challenges and needs, and use those
- as tasks to be taken up during workshops and hackathons
- to plan specific initiatives (such as major tool building) for larger challenges.
By the end of the process we would like to:
- have an understanding of the major technical challenges on Indic language Wikimedia projects and have them documented.
- understand the technical needs of content contributors, such that they can be address through technical outreach and development activities.
Timeline
edit| Step | Due by (estimate) | Status | Outcome/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision on pilot communities | May 15, 2024 |  Done |
The following six communities have been decided for the pilot: ml, or, pa, te, gu & ta. |
| Contact and confirm with liaisons | June 30, 2024 | Done |
confirmed communities: or, te, gu, pa, ml |
| Outline brainstorming process/steps | June 15, 2024 | Done |
|
| Liaisons + stakeholders onboarding call | June 30, 2024 | Done |
|
| Round 1: Finalize survey questionnaire (metawiki & form) | July 31, 2024 | Done
|
|
| Round 1: Translate the survey & launch | August 7, 2024 | ||
| Round 1: Survey closes | September 22, 2024 | ||
| Round 1: Survey report | October 6, 2024 | ||
| Round 2: Consultations call 1 | October 30, 2024 | ||
| Round 2: Consultations call 2 | November 15, 2024 | ||
| Consolidate information and draft report | November 30, 2024 | ||
| Feedback and finalization of the report | December 15, 2024 |
Communities
edit| Community | Community Liaison | User Group Liaison |
|---|---|---|
| Malayalam | User:Gnoeee | KCVelaga |
| Odia | User:Chinmayee Mishra | Nivas10798 |
| Punjabi | User:Kuldeepburjbhalaike | Nivas10798 |
| Telugu | User:Pavan santhosh.s | Nivas10798 |
| Gujarati | User:Dsvyas | KCVelaga |
Round 1
editSurvey questionnaire
edit- Templates
- examples: Infobox person, Class, Maplink
- Do you use/(are you familiar with) templates on your wiki project?
- What kind of templates do you use while contributing to your project?
- Did you face any challenge with the current templates while contributing to your project?
- Please describe the challenge you faced with atleast three templates
- How do you idealise the templates to work?
- Any template that you would like to have on your Wiki Project which is either not imported or not yet created?
- Tools & userscripts
- examples: Video2Commons, PetScan,Wikisource Export, WikiFile transfer, BookReader
- Do you use tools/scripts on your project?
- If yes, where do you use these tools/scripts?
- Please share names of few tools you use in general
- Have you faced any challenges with any of these tools you shared
- If yes, describe your idealised workflow of these tools and the challenge you faced with these tools
- What are some other tools that you usually use outside Wikimedia, that you would like to have for Wikimedia, which you think can be helpful?
Others
- Do you have ideas for any template/tool/bot that would help you contribute better to your wiki project?
- How are you imagining the workflow of it to look like?
- What major challenges (or outcomes) would this new template/tool/bot can help you resolve?
- If we get volunteer developers to work on some idea, would you be interested to brainstorm and help them in understanding?
Phabricator
- Do you know about Phabricator? If yes, do you use to report bugs or request features?