OTRS workshop

An OTRS workshop will take place at the WMUK office in London on 7-8 January 2012. If you are interested in participating in the workshop, which will be along the lines of the workshop at Wikimania 2011, then please add your signature below, along with what you would be able to bring / do at the workshop. New volunteers to help with OTRS would be most welcome!

Volunteers and participants

Please add your Wikimedia username, a summary of your experience responding to queries sent to Wikimedia's OTRS, and what you could offer in terms of presenting at the workshop, e.g. organising sessions, giving talks, helping newbies, or by sharing issues that could, or have been, either perceived or encountered by new contributors. If you would require financial sponsorship in order to attend such a workshop in the UK, which will most likely take place in London, then please provide a rough estimate (in the appropriate currency) as to how much sponsorship your attendance would need. Note that this estimate should focus on the applicable travel costs, since local costs of a multi-day workshop will be automatically taken into account via our draft expense policy.

1. Mike Peel. I respond primarily to emails sent to Wikimedia UK. I can offer general support to an OTRS workshop; can represent the chapter POV towards OTRS responses (particularly in terms of the 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 can provide administrative and logistical support for such an event. As a WMUK board member, I can also represent the workshop to (and ask for funding from) the Wikimedia UK board.
2. James F. - mostly oversight requests, but also permissions etc.
3. lyzzy - general support, talks, bring along experiences from the german team
4. 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.
5. Harry Mitchell - info-en and permissions; I'd be happy to come along and share my experiences and learn from others'.
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).
7. Fæ - I can be periodically found answering copyright, complaints, upload requests and chapter matters on OTRS.
8. Martin Poulter - have logged in and deleted spam - would welcome an opportunity to upskill
9. Philippe Beaudette - happy to represent the Foundation, and to provide any assistance necessary organizationally or with trainings.
10. Deryck Chan, interested in becoming an OTRS volunteer. Currently en.wp sysop, zh-yue.wp sysop, campus ambassador.
11. 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.
12. Tom Morris
13. 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).
14. Panyd
15. Shimgray - would be happy to give help/advice.
16. Ironholds
17. Skomorokh, erstwhile OTRS volunteer
18. 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)

Potential talks and sessions

(Please add a title and brief summary of what you could talk about/lead a session on)

• 'Us vs. Them' - the importance of differentiating between speaking on behalf of the community, and speaking on behalf of a particular Wikimedia organisation, when responding to an enquiry sent to Wikimedia. Mike Peel 23:35, 28 October 2011 (UTC)
• Difficult Customers - How to deal with customers who are complaining or demanding, whether their complaints are legitimate or not. Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry 16:58, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
• Good afternoon - how to enjoy telephone tickets. Panyd 23:30, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
• Inter Project Tickets - examples and best practices for working with tickets in foreign languages or related to foreign projects --Lyzzy 19:45, 6 November 2011 (UTC)
• Perhaps we could schedule in lightning talks like we had in GLAMsterdam (but a little more relaxed), so that people can develop ideas from other talks and present when we have a spare few minutes? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 15:09, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Comments

Live virtual link up

I don't belong to any chapters because of my location, but I'm a Brit and I've already demonstrated my enthusiasm by meeting members of the UK chapter while I was in the UK in August. I would be happy to take part in any discussions over a Skype video linkup. All you need at the meeting is a laptop with a camera on the table, and a broad WiFi connection. Kudpung 03:46, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

I believe the rooms have plug-in broadband available and I have seen a nice projector screen in action, so we should be able to set something up. It might be a good time to try out something like Webex (which the WMF have experience using) as our experience of using Skype for meetings is not that good. --Fæ 10:21, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

If you'd like to use the WMF's webex for this, get me times ASAP and I'll reserve the time.  :) Philippe (WMF) 19:38, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Meeting aims

Could include:

• Improving OTRS responses, by sharing experiences and horror stories, and documenting best practices and improving standard ticket responses
• Inducting new OTRS agents, and figuring out ways to encourage more to assist
• Optimising workflows to minimize work and ensure speedy response to tickets (including those sent to chapters and foundation?)

What else? Mike Peel 21:27, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

• • Provide for feature requests, which I can carry to OTRS or the Foundation's developers. Philippe (WMF) 23:48, 28 October 2011 (UTC)
    • Thanks Philippe - that sounds really useful. Note that WMUK may also be able to provide development support for adding/improving features for OTRS if it is clearly indicated that such development is needed. Thanks. Mike Peel 00:02, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Other possible topics:

• How best to interact with other language Wiki's (i.e. be aware of differing policies to your home wiki..)
• Discuss templates vs. real messages

--ErrantX 13:40, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Duration

I would suggest that a two-day event would be most optimal here, since that would provide enough time to discuss all of the relevant issues, and that it should occupy a weekend (Saturday and Sunday) since this event would only involve volunteer Wikimedians rather than anyone providing such support on a paid basis by an external organisation (unless there are speakers from external organisations that we should invite to this event?) Mike Peel 00:10, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

I tend to agree, especially if some of the attendees are new to OTRS (or don't have access at all)—we could spend one day familiarising everyone with OTRS, swapping anecdotes, and discussing OTRS in general, and the other on actually responding to tickets (plus it gives us time to go out for drinks without worrying about getting home on Saturday night; always a plus when beer can be worked into these things!). HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?

For dates we might try a doodle vote closer to the time see above. Some might prefer a Saturday followed by another Saturday, plus not everyone may want to come along to both days as there might be a split between those interested in an intro & case study day versus an experienced user knowledge sharing and system improvement day. --Fæ 10:17, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

We've got the room booked for 2 days, but I don't think that we need to expect everyone to be around on both of those days. A day of discussions followed by a day of doing sounds good - and we can always expand the 'doing' bit to multiple days if we run out of things to discuss (as a challenge - could we completely clear the OTRS backlog?) Mike Peel 00:56, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Expenses

< Our approach on expenses for this event is under discussion by the board, it will be added here shortly. --Fæ 14:46, 1 November 2011 (UTC) >

Archived discussions

Preferred dates poll, vote now!

To help decide on dates, I have set up a poll at Doodle: OTRS workshop (London), please tick dates you prefer. Click on the concertina bit of the table to open up all dates if hidden. I have avoided the dates for GLAMcamp and weekends getting too close to Christmas. --Fæ 09:52, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

As of 3-Nov the most popular weekend was 7th January 2012. Add your vote to influence the outcome either way. --Fæ 13:43, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

7/8 January is also the only weekend for which nobody (so far, touch wood) has said they're unavailable. I'd suggest that's a nice date as it gives plenty of time to book things in advance and thus get a better deal (especially if we're block-booking a hotel), and solicit more ideas for talks. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 02:00, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Location

Would a meeting room somewhere in London be optimal, or would somewhere else be best? Beyond space, caffeine (or other refreshments) and wireless internet access, what else would the workshop need? How long should the meeting last? Mike Peel 19:09, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

I'd imagine that London would the least-bad location. In terms of venue, not sure - perhaps somewhere like ULU? Or the place the WMUK Board rented for a day next to King's Cross?

Jdforrester 21:27, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

• The new Old Street meeting rooms will be ideal and free. There is room for up to 12 (could host a max of 24), it has a casual sitting area next to the rooms, wifi access and is rarely booked at weekends. Should be available by late November. Would need a bit of coordination to let people in/out. --Fæ 11:42, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

This sounds ideal - although I expect that 12 would be too few for this event, I doubt that we would exceed 24. If we could pin down a date for an event on this topic in late November-December-January sooner rather than later, then that would be fantastic. Caveat that this event will depend on robust wifi access to OTRS. I would be happy to provide access coordination throughout the event. Mike Peel 23:38, 28 October 2011 (UTC)