Indic Community Task Force 2025
The Community Task Force (CTF) is an initiative by the Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group (IMDUG) aimed at actively engaging with various Indic-language Wikimedia communities to provide dedicated technical support.
The primary goal is to bridge the gap between editors and developers by understanding community-specific technical needs and implementing sustainable solutions. This involves regular interactions with language communities to:
- Identify recurring issues or requests
- Surface needs and ideas that can enhance the editing experience
- Document them accordingly
What Problem This Solves
[edit]Many Indic communities encounter persistent technical challenges—such as malfunctioning gadgets, template bugs, and missing localized features—that often remain unaddressed due to limited visibility or technical resources. Contributors may be uncertain about where to direct their requests or how to follow up. The CTF addresses these issues by:
- Establishing a direct communication channel between editors and developers
- Proactively gathering feedback within local contexts and languages
- Ensuring all requests are documented, prioritized, and tracked
- Providing sustained support through quarterly engagements
Objective
[edit]- Conduct focused and structured outreach to Indic Wikimedia language communities
- Identify technical pain points, feature needs, and bugs
- Document all requests in an internal dashboard
- Resolve or escalate issues via Phabricator or on-wiki tracking
- Foster long-term collaboration between local editors and IMDUG developers
How It Works
[edit]- Outreach: Post personalized messages on Village Pump or central discussion pages
- Collect Feedback: Invite issues via the IMDUG talk page, email, or the Indic-TechCom Telegram group
- Analyze & Document: Log requests and categorize them as Phabricator-worthy or suitable for on-wiki tracking
- Create Tasks: Open tickets or update on-wiki tables with status updates
- Track Progress: Provide transparent updates and follow up monthly
- Monthly Touch-Base: Check in with communities for new feedback
- Close the Loop: Summarize outcomes on-wiki and through community channels
Comparison with Other Community Engagement and Technical Support Initiatives
[edit]- Community Wishlist Survey (CWS): An annual survey by the WMF's Community Tech team. Editors propose and vote on feature requests; top wishes are prioritized each year.
- Wikimedia Technical Engagement: Supports developers with computing resources and platforms like Toolforge, Quarry, and the Developer Portal.
- Developer Advocacy: Mentors new technical contributors; provides documentation, sample code, and reference apps to support Wikimedia development.
- Google Summer of Code (GSoC): Offers 12-week coding internships for students contributing to Wikimedia tech projects.
- Outreachy: Three-month internships for underrepresented groups in open source; Wikimedia sponsors two rounds yearly.
- Wikimedia Commons Ideas Wishlist: Focused on Commons-specific feature requests, maintained via an on-wiki page.
- Developer Wishlist: Annual survey on mediawiki.org for feature/API requests from the technical community.
- Tech Swag Program: Rewards contributors (mentors, committers, organizers) with Wikimedia-branded merchandise.
Timeline (Q2 Focus: April–June 2025)
[edit]Communities being focused on this quarter:
- Primary: Telugu, Tamil
- Backup: Kannada
Communication Strategy
[edit]Initial Contact
[edit]- Post a personalized message on the Village Pump or central discussion page using a friendly and supportive tone
- If no reply in 7 days, follow up again
- If no reply in 15 days, reach out to 3–5 active users on their talk pages or via direct message
Gathering Feedback
[edit]- Ask communities if they are facing any technical issues, bugs, or need enhancements
- Encourage responses via the IMDUG talk page, email, or the Indic-TechCom Telegram group
Documentation & Follow-up
[edit]- Record all requests in an internal sheet or dashboard
- Categorize tasks:
- Phabricator-worthy tasks: Create tickets and share links with the community
- Smaller requests: Add to an on-wiki subpage table with status updates
Sustained Communication
[edit]- Check in once a month with the communities to ensure progress and gather any new feedback
- If tasks are suitable for events like hackathons, they will be taken up there and closed with a summary update to the community
Workflow
[edit]Outreach → Collect feedback → Analyze and document → Create tasks (Phab/On-wiki) → Track progress → Monthly touch-base → Close the loop with updates
What Communities Can Expect
[edit]When we reach out as part of the Community Task Force, here’s what you can expect:
- A supportive, human-first conversation — not a formal consultation, but a collaborative effort to listen, understand, and assist
- Prompt and transparent communication on how we’re handling your requests
- Documentation and follow-up for all requests, whether handled via Phabricator or tracked on a dedicated on-wiki request list
- Technical support on bugs, gadgets, templates, Lua modules, or other localized tooling issues
- Updates on progress, and clear links to tasks so you can track them
- When relevant, we may take your requests to upcoming hackathons or technical events for faster resolution
- Continued engagement across quarters, building toward longer-term collaboration and support
Value to the Community and Contributors
[edit]This initiative is designed to deepen collaboration between local Indic communities and the broader Wikimedia technical ecosystem. Through sustained engagement, it helps:
- Foster a culture of technical empowerment by giving editors a space to voice technical needs and ideas
- Enhance editing and contribution workflows by identifying and addressing technical pain points specific to Indic-language wikis
- Improve visibility of community needs by ensuring that requests are tracked, escalated, and addressed in the right technical spaces (like Phabricator)
- Open up pathways for technically inclined contributors to get involved in development, mentorship, and hackathons
- Build long-term connections between editors, volunteers, and developers to encourage cross-community knowledge sharing and support
This work is community-driven and evolves based on ongoing feedback from contributors.
Progress (Q2: April–June 2025)
[edit]| Community | Status | Village Pump Post | Follow-up | Contacts Reached | Tasks Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telugu | Ongoing | Village Pump | in 7 days | Pending | Phab ticket | — |
| Tamil | Ongoing | Village Pump | in 7 days | Pending | Phab ticket | — |
Get Involved
[edit]If you're a community member, technical contributor, or developer interested in participating, please reach out to us via the talk page or via Telegram group. .