OTRS workshop

An OTRS workshop will take place at the WMUK office in London on the weekend of 7-8 January 2012. Please sign up below! If you are interested in giving a presentation, or leading a discussion, at the workshop then suggest it below.

OTRS Workshop - In a nutshell When: Saturday 7th-Sunday 8th January 2012 Where: Development House, Old Street, London - see Office for location details. Cost: Free to attend; travel sponsorship available. Hashtag: #wmuk Calendar: Download as an ics file to add to your calendar. Wikimedia Commons category: Category:UK OTRS workshop 2012

Background

OTRS is a ticket request system which is used to handle most incoming e-mails regarding Wikimedia projects. Besides Foundation staff and chapter affiliated people there is a group of volunteers who take the responsibiliy of answering complaints, questions, permissions and lots of other subjects.

They work for different Wikimedia projects in different languages and most of them don't know each other. Exchange between agents across project borders is very rare. German volunteers have set up some workshops over the past years and continue to meet regularly. They organize their work and improve the quality of the answers in discussions and in sharing experiences and best practices. Lawyers and communication trainers support them to extend their knowledge and skills.

Participants

Please sign up to attend below, including a quick description of your experience of OTRS. Note that we have a maximum of 24 attendees at the event. If you need travel sponsorship, and/or accommodation, please say so below, and provide an estimate of your travel costs. Note that if you do not provide an estimate in advance then we will assume that you do not need sponsorship or accommodation.

Confirmed

1. Mike Peel. I respond primarily to emails sent to Wikimedia UK. Off-peak transport from Manchester to London will cost £70 + £4.40 local costs in Manchester. Will need accommodation on Saturday eve.
2. lyzzy - general support, talks, bring along experiences from the german team. Confirmed both days.
3. Philippe Beaudette - happy to represent the Foundation, and to provide any assistance necessary organizationally or with trainings. Confirmed both days.
4. Shimgray - would be happy to give help/advice. Confirmed both days.
5. James F. - mostly oversight requests, but also permissions etc. Confirmed both days.
6. Wikipedia:User:Filceolaire I am interested in becoming an OTRS volunteer (though last time I asked I was turned down for not being wiki enough). Confirmed both days.
7. Harry Mitchell - info-en and permissions; I'd be happy to come along and share my experiences and learn from others'. Confirmed both days.

Possible

1. Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry - oversight, quality, legal, copyvio etc... I'm not so hot on other languages, or on permissions though. I'm happy to help newbies, but I'm not too good at public speaking.
2. Martin Poulter - have logged in and deleted spam - would welcome an opportunity to upskill
3. Deryck Chan, interested in becoming an OTRS volunteer. Currently en.wp sysop, zh-yue.wp sysop, campus ambassador.
4. Mentifisto - been active for the last few months, mostly on info-en (with a preference for courtesy-type issues). Could help newbies etc. but this, of course, depends on what the arrangements are, which currently seem to still be in the process of discussion.
5. Tom Morris
6. ErrantX (Tom) - info-en(f) sorta-newbie :) would be good to chat about OTRS in-person. Due to "mounting costs" in attending other Wiki-events (meetups, hackathon etc.) I'd probably only make it with financial support - around £60-100 travel costs (I can likely kip at friends).
7. Panyd
8. Ironholds
9. Skomorokh, erstwhile OTRS volunteer
10. Rodhullandemu, recently becoming expert on Commons re copyrights and permissions, with a solid background in customer service, having consulted on such for a major mobile telecomms provider. But can only make it if I'm not in the middle of moving to somewhere more conducive to being able to work properly. Rodhullandemu 04:46, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
11. Andrew Davidson - I have no experience of OTRS and so would be attending to learn more. I have worked for the Intellectual Property Office and so have experience of copyright and other IP issues in the UK.

Agenda

• Saturday 8 January
  • 10:00-10.15: Welcome and orientation (Jon Davies, Mike Peel)
  • 10:15-13:00: Presentations and discussions (schedule TBC)
  • 13:00-14:00: Lunch (provided)
  • 14:00-17:00: Breakout sessions, responding to tickets
  • 17:00-19:00: Informal discussion in a nearby pub
  • 19:00-21:00: Evening meal in a nearby restaurant (TBC whether this will be covered by WMUK or not)
• Sunday 9 January
  • 10:00-12:00: Presentations and discussions (schedule TBC)
  • 12:00-13:00: Open discussion
  • 13:00-14:00: Lunch (provided)
  • 14:00-16:45: Breakout sessions, responding to tickets
  • 16:45-17:00: Wrap-up and close

Presentations and discussions

Please add suggestions for presentations and discussion sessions below, and an estimate of how long they will last. They should be of interest to all attendees, and should last longer than 5 minutes (shorter talks should be listed under "lightning talks" below).

• Mike Peel - Chapters and OTRS - what problems do chapters face when using OTRS to respond to enquiries (to include problems with using the word "we", legal/libel issues that may result from the phrasing or format of OTRS responses that are sent on behalf of the various Wikimedia organisations, and issues with confidentiality) - 15 mins for presentation, 15 mins for discussion
• Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry - Difficult Customers - How to deal with customers who are complaining or demanding, whether their complaints are legitimate or not.
• Panyd - Good afternoon - how to enjoy telephone tickets.
• Lyzzy - Inter Project Tickets - examples and best practices for working with tickets in foreign languages or related to foreign projects
• Philippe (WMF) - Presenting on the Foundation's research into OTRS agent satisfaction from early this year.

Requests:

• A presentation and/or discussion about the induction process would be very useful.
• A (documented) discussion session on ways to improve OTRS would be good.

Breakout sessions

If there are discussion topics that a subset of the attendees will be interested in, please add them below. Note that these sessions will take place in the same room as the main meeting,

• Introduction and induction to OTRS for new people (can someone volunteer to lead this please?)

Lightning talks

If you know that you'll want to give a very short talk, lasting 5 minutes or less, then please list it below. You can add talks to the schedule at the event.

• (Add talks here)

Metadata

(Emits hCalendar microformat)

• OTRS Workshop
• Wikimedia UK, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT - 51.45149, -2.59802
• 20120108T1000+00:00-20120109T1700+01:00