Last modified: 2014-10-30 23:11:30 UTC
Multiple different processes in the WMF involve people submitting proposals which are then reviewed by a team of people who score those proposals, then decide which proposals are the best. Two immediate examples are the Individual Engagement Grants programme and applications for the Wikimedia Hackathon. Others may exist, such as the FDC reviewing applications for funding from chapters. Our process for handling these right now is an ad-hoc system from case to case. People use spreadsheets, Google Docs, and things are a bit of a mess. Lots of people at the WMF are crying out for something like this to optimise their workflows. The workflows for these things, despite the different kinds of proposals that are put in, are largely similar. A single application is likely specific enough that it would be relatively simple to develop, with just enough abstraction to support the different use cases from the different parties.
Is there anything already available (that should be evaluated) before we go down the road of writing our own?
(In reply to Sam Reed (reedy) from comment #1) > Is there anything already available (that should be evaluated) before we go > down the road of writing our own? (In reply to Dan Garry from comment #0) > Two immediate examples are the Individual Engagement Grants programme and > applications for the Wikimedia Hackathon. I believe Bryan D. just worked on an application mini-site(?) for Wikimania. Copying him. > The workflows for these things, despite the different kinds of proposals > that are put in, are largely similar. A single application is likely > specific enough that it would be relatively simple to develop, with just > enough abstraction to support the different use cases from the different > parties. You're going to need an RFC (or whatever you'd like to call the design document) to properly document hard and soft requirements of this tool.
There's two possibilities for *who* will do this. The first is that we get a student to do this from FOSS Outreach Program for Women, Google Summer of Code, or some other similar mentorship programme. I've got a description written for the mentorship programmes, so we just need to wait and see if someone bites and wants to take it. The description is here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#A_system_for_reviewing_funding_requests The second is, if we don't get a bite on the first option, platform could hire a contractor to create this from someone's budget. Maintenance of the tool remains an open question.
(In reply to MZMcBride from comment #2) > (In reply to Sam Reed (reedy) from comment #1) > > Is there anything already available (that should be evaluated) before we go > > down the road of writing our own? > > (In reply to Dan Garry from comment #0) > > Two immediate examples are the Individual Engagement Grants programme and > > applications for the Wikimedia Hackathon. > > I believe Bryan D. just worked on an application mini-site(?) for Wikimania. > Copying him. Indeed. The Wikimania Scholarships application would likely serve as a starting point that could be repurposed. However, the description I linked to includes a research phase where the student would search to see if there are any free and open source alternatives available so that we don't reinvent the wheel. > You're going to need an RFC (or whatever you'd like to call the design > document) to properly document hard and soft requirements of this tool. Again, indeed! If we get a bite from one of the mentorship programmes, this would likely be best served as a joint exercise with me and the student, for the student's training.
I'm going to be working on this for the next couple of weeks with a goal of getting a working application into production in time for the 2014-10-21 start date for the next round of IEG reviews. Hopefully folks will start to see some blocker bugs added (and closed) in the near future. For the benefit of those playing along at home, here's the high level plan: * Extract useful libraries from the Wikimania scholarships application * Create a new project that realizes a stand alone php application for creating "review campaigns" that utilizes those libraries and other Composer managed packages. * Get the app through a security review * Get the app deployed on the WMF production cluster * Profit! Further details are being hashed out and should be available on a wiki page for the project "real soon now".
Live in production for a couple of weeks.
You Unsung Hero.
(In reply to Quim Gil from comment #7) > You Unsung Hero. Don't tell anybody I did another one of these "could you just make something that ..." apps please. :)
