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GSoC 2020 Proposal: Create or improve a tool for monitoring or automating tasks for Wikimedia databases
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Description

Profile Information

Name: Isaac Valdivia
IRC nickname on Freenode: IValdivia
GitHub: [To Be Updated]
Resume: https://pdfhost.io/v/joDBhL3oD_Resume_Isaac_Valdivia.pdf
Location: Spain
Typical working hours: 16:00 - 22:00 UTC+1

Synopsis

Wikimedia is an ambitious free knowledge source comprised by very well-known projects such as Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons. In its mission, Wikimedia must perpetually have under control the status of over 200 MariaDB instances. Currently, a tool named Tendril is used for the task, but it has fallen behind ever since the end of its development in 2015; new technologies have surfaced and additional functionalities have been suggested.
Throughout this project, “Create or improve a tool for monitoring or automating tasks for Wikimedia databases”, I will endeavor to pre-analyse, design, implement and evaluate a working alternative, in the form of a web dashboard. One of the foremost guiding principles will be that, after its release, the tool must be easily maintainable and extended via thorough documentation.

  • Possible Mentor(s)

@jcrespo

  • Have you contacted your mentors already?

Yes

Deliverables

WIP
Describe the timeline of your work with deadlines and milestones, broken down week by week. Make sure to include time you are planning to allocate for investigation, coding, deploying, testing and documentation

Participation

WIP
Describe how you plan to communicate progress and ask for help, where you plan to publish your source code, etc

About Me

  • Your education (completed or in progress)

Senior Computer Science student at University of Zaragoza, Spain; graduating on June 2020.

  • How did you hear about this program?

Thanks to an email of a professor, encouraging us to participate and collaborate alongside WikiMedia.

  • Will you have any other time commitments, such as school work, another job, planned vacation, etc, during the duration of the program?

I will be simultaneously working on my Final Degree Thesis until the end of June, approximately dedicating 5h to each of the activities. After that, I will be able to solely focus on my GSoC project.

  • We advise all candidates eligible for Google Summer of Code and Outreachy to apply for both programs. Are you planning to apply to both programs and, if so, with what organization(s)?

I haven't delved much into Outreachy, so for the moment, no.

  • What does making this project happen mean to you?

It mainly means testing myself. I am extremely eager to finally spot the payoffs of these past years of arduous work and continuous challenge, and I am ready to give it my best. It's also doubly exciting for me, as getting to collaborate with such a professional and veteran organisation like WikiMedia is an opportunity that I don't want to let pass, not only for the knowledge I'm sure I will acquire, but also for the sense of self-fulfilment that this will inspire to me.

Past Experience

WIP
Describe any relevant projects that you've worked on previously and what knowledge you gained from working on them. Describe any open source projects you have contributed to as a user and contributor (include links). If you have already written a feature or bugfix for a Wikimedia technology such as MediaWiki, link to it here; we will give strong preference to candidates who have done so

Any Other Info

Add any other relevant information such as UI mockups, references to related projects, a link to your proof of concept code, etc

Event Timeline

I see some parts are still WIP, let me know if you have additional questions so I can guide you.

One suggestion, @jcrespo as mentor should be complemented by @Marostegui as a backup mentor (in these days, better be safe and have a plan B for everything).

Hi,

Isaac, I wanted to encourage you to finish the proposal so I can give you better feedback! (description and timeline).

One other thing I recommend is to update the title of your proposal, "Create or improve a tool for monitoring or automating tasks for Wikimedia databases" was the generic title for the ideas ticket, but in your case (web dashboard), the "automating tasks" won't be true, the title should focus on monitoring & inventory. That should probably changed on the name of the task and on the body.

Pavithraes subscribed.

@IValdivia We are sorry to say that we could not allocate a slot for you this time. All participants were required to follow Wikimedia’s application process. We noticed that you missed a few steps, which was likely the reason for our decision. Please know that you are still a valued member of our community and we by no means want to exclude you. Many students who we did not accept in 2019 have become Wikimedia maintainers, contractors and even GSoC students and mentors this year!

The recommended place for you to get started as a newcomer is https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Developers. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or need help. The best place to contact us would be Wikimedia’s Zulip: https://wikimedia.zulipchat.com/ :)

If you would still be eligible for GSoC next year, we look forward to your participation!