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Write and publish a Wikimedia research best practice whitepaper
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Description

Context
In May 2023 we prioritized work towards writing a white paper to create shared understanding of Wikimedia specific best research practices. This works was requested by English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee to convey "[...] to researchers the principles of our movement and give specific recommendation for researchers on how to study and write about Wikipedians and their personal information in a way that respects our principles." (original request).

Scope
After multiple rounds of conversations with ArbCom, we have set a reasonable scope for this task to be: a whitepaper that creates shared understanding about how researchers should conduct their research on or about the Wikimedia projects in light of how Wikimedia communities value Privacy.

Flexibility
ArbCom has been extremely flexible with us with regards to this ask. They are fine if the scoping gets reduced or expanded based on how we assess the needs and feasibility.

Constraints
The one hard constraint we have received from ArbCom is timelines. They have been very clear that they prefer to have the scope smaller and have something around March 2024 (a timeline that in all fairness we proposed first;) than an expanded scope with a later delivery time.

Audiences

  • The request comes from en:wiki ArbCom. The panel of editors is not a Wikimedia affiliate or user group, however, they are an organized group as part of enwiki. If we respond to this request, this audience is the primary audience that we will serve.
  • Developing best practice material is at the service of the Wikimedia volunteer researchers as well. In that sense, we can think about the output of the task as something that serves the research community more effectively and joyfully contribute to the Wikimedia projects. (vision)
  • From the ArbCom perspective, the audience of such report can further be expanded to: Wikipedia volunteer editors, journalists, institutional review boards, ...

Details

Due Date
Jul 27 2024, 6:00 AM
Other Assignee
Easikingarmager

Event Timeline

leila triaged this task as High priority.May 31 2023, 6:33 PM
leila created this task.
leila updated the task description. (Show Details)
leila moved this task from Backlog to In Progress on the Research board.

Updates from ArbCom/T&S Meeting (1 June):

  • ArbCom would prefer an external-facing White Paper, rather than a learn.wiki course. Future researchers would then be able to drop a citation to the Foundation White Paper on best practices for doing Wikipedia research.
  • March 2024 seems to be a reasonable timeframe for delivery.
  • It would be useful to put timeline milestones into this Phab ticket.

Updates from ArbCom Meeting (6 July):

  • Set-up: Nathan and I attended. 6 ArbCom members were present at the portion of the meeting related to this task.
  • We started Exercise Zero during the call. The attendees answered 2 questions to help with better understanding the motivations for the requested work as well as how failure can look like for this project.

Next steps on my end:

  • Reach out to all members of ArbCom (independent of whether they participated in Exercise Zero or not) and give them a chance to share their responses (1 week turnaround time)
  • Process the input and prepare a draft of motivations and failure scenarios, share with everyone for our shared understanding and alignment.
  • Plan the next step(s): Defining/clarifying roles and responsibilities is a good one. Developing the high level process and project plan for the work ahead is another. There may be others. (help me here if you're reading this update and you have input.)

Open questions for me as of now:

  • what is the right cadence of engagement with ArbCom and expectation of the time they have for this project? We can answer this after we agree on roles and responsibilities. (context: At the start, I feel I need more frequent touch-points with ArbCom, the latest once a month, and assuming we can do some work asynchronously together.)

@NForrester please check the first bullet point under Next steps above. Can you let me know the instructions for doing that or help me with it? (I'll put the draft body of the email together.)

@leila The first bullet point is good with me, and in general the ArbCom mailing list will be the place to do this. I can lead liaising with En.WP ArbCom and any others we choose to engage in the White Paper process.

Next steps on my end:

  • Support definitions of roles and responsibilities;
  • Build a policy brief on doxxing/revelation of PII policies to support scoping of project and potential for broader community engagement.
leila renamed this task from Scope Research best practices whitepaper request to Write and publish a Wikimedia research best practice whitepaper .Oct 20 2023, 10:19 PM
leila updated Other Assignee, added: Eli.
leila added a project: Epic.
leila updated the task description. (Show Details)
leila changed Due Date from Sep 29 2023, 6:00 AM to Mar 31 2024, 6:00 AM.
leila moved this task from Staged to Epics on the Research board.
leila removed a subscriber: Easikingarmager.

While

They have been very clear that they prefer to have the scope smaller and have something around March 2024 (a timeline that in all fairness we proposed first;) than an expanded scope with a later delivery time.

is undeniably true, speaking for myself there would be a point where the scope was so reduced that I would rather wait.

@Barkeep49 noted and appreciated. (fwiw: a too reduced scope project is also harder to create motivation/excitement about.)

Hi folks. A few updates on this epic tasks:

  • as many of you know, we already have a reasonable draft out for feedback. We're going to iterate on the current text based on the feedback and some other todos we already know we have.
  • I'd like to update the delivery time for the whitepaper for the following reason. We are currently past March which was our self-imposed deadline for the whitepaper and there is still some work to do on the paper (given the previous point). We also have a member of the writing committee going on a 2-month leave. We agreed within the writing committee that we want everyone whose name is on the paper to have a chance to read the final version of the paper before it goes out (logic: if your name is on something, you should know what it is.:). With all of this in mind, I'm going to update the deadline for delivering the final paper to July 27th. Based on earlier conversations with en:ArbCom I don't expect major issues raised by ArbCom as the group wanted to see progress and we're making progress. If I have read the signals wrong or misunderstood, please speak up and I'm happy to go to the drawing board. Otherwise, July 27th it is.
  • By July 27th, what we aim to deliver is: the paper itself plus the communication plan and perhaps some parts of the communication ready to be executed.
leila changed Due Date from Mar 31 2024, 6:00 AM to Jul 27 2024, 6:00 AM.Apr 17 2024, 10:44 PM