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WordPress Sustainability Team
https://make.wordpress.org/sustainability/
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Refine and extend Five for the Future #16

Closed gusaus closed 4 months ago

gusaus commented 10 months ago

Last year, @harishankerr published a blog post requesting feedback from contributors on how to improve the contributor journey of WordPress. The post was followed up by a session on Five for the Future at the recent WordPress Community Summit.

Around the same time the Sustainability Team become official (see this post about the teams formation, purpose, and goals), added this project to the Sustainability roadmap, and started exploring ways to contribute and collaborate.

Then in early 2024, @naokomc posted this call for mentees, mentors, and project ideas for the next Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort. Sustainability team members answered this call by not only applying to become mentors but collaborating and contributing in related meetings, issues, and discussions.

Finally @harishankerr posted this proposal with actionable recommendations based on Community Summit discussions.

Recommended Action Items

What follows below are recommendations from the aforementioned proposal along with related projects and ideas from Sustainability and other teams.

We'll keep this section updated based on feedback in the proposal, comments in this issue, and related discussions.

Process Improvement

Related Projects

Sponsorship

Related projects

Mentorship

Related projects

Reference/resources

gusaus commented 10 months ago

While the issue description isn't compelling (at this point) the comments and discussions referenced should provide context (until a project manager takes this over). I'll also reference this SustainWP podcast episode where several Sustainability Team (reps and members) delve into solving similar problems and solutions.

Ideally we can join up to refine and extend Five for the Future so it enables a larger, more diverse, inclusive community.

gusaus commented 10 months ago

Following up on the last comment (after listening to most of the referenced episode). First we should loop in @harishankerr and other Five for the Future leads. Also seems like there are other teams (like Meta and Community) that should be involved (and lead?).

Also would like to elaborate on some of the references in the description.

As noted in the community summit discussion, it's already possible to further the goals of 5ftF by:

Integrating funding tools into WordPress.org could be a solution as it would provide a centralized way to discover, fund, and receive credit for sponsoring projects, individuals, or even teams. By providing the same fiscal host options as GitHub Sponsors, funding would flow independently of WordPress Foundation, Automattic, or other official org or entity.

If tied in with an automated crediting system, in-kind and financial sponsors could receive credit (like logos and badges) in a uniform way.

While this is obviously a non-technical overview, all of this is something the Drupal project and community are currently working on. Not only is making the tools and processes available to other open source projects like WordPress a goal, it’s a priority for the working group we’re part of in Open Collective’s Community.

In the year since the original comment (in a post about Open Source and how we sustain ourselves), there seems to be complimentary projects (like the Dashboard Initiative https://github.com/WordPress/sustainability/issues/10) and more interest in cross-project collaboration and resource pooling (between projects like WordPress, Drupal, Open Collective, CHAOSS, and more), it there was stakeholder interest and support to make some much needed improvements, we could make it so!

gusaus commented 8 months ago

Circling back here to note @harishankerr just posted the following P2 Proposal: Updates to Five for the Future from the Community Summit

Haven't had a chance to reconcile with suggestions in this issue, but considering we've been collaborating and submitting project ideas for the upcoming Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort, there could be additional source material for collaboration and mentorship project ideas.

gusaus commented 8 months ago

Skimming through the P2 proposal and realizing there are several roadmap items and/or mentorship project ideas that overlap including the following:

naokomc commented 8 months ago

I will share my thoughts on our collaboration opportunities based on the Five for the Future project point of view. I distilled them into three questions (the line starting with 💡) – I hope this is helpful! 😄

Process Improvement (Onboarding and Mentorship)

Both 5ftF and the Sustainability Team see contributor onboarding and mentorship as priorities.

Sustainability

5ftF

Enhancing the mentorship program with increased structure and consistency can foster mentorship across the board for both companies and individual contributors. This requires establishing well-defined guidelines, providing resources, and creating support systems to facilitate contributions.

💡 Would there be interest in joining forces to enhance our onboarding processes and mentoring programs?

Sponsorship

Sustainability

5ftF

We've learned that the Five for the Future companies are often looking for tangible proof or metrics to demonstrate the impact made by their sponsored contributors.

For instance (although this is not a contributor sponsorship example), numerous companies have sponsored WordCamps worldwide, directing their funds toward the events. This demonstrates that companies recognize the value in financially supporting a project where they can gain visibility as sponsors and directly observe the outcomes of their contributions.

💡 Can we collaborate on figuring out a sponsorship model that can sustainably benefit the project and the companies & contributors in the ecosystem?

Visualization (Dashboard)

Sponsorship

Sustainability

5ftF

💡 How about we collaborate on researching/defining the Dashboard elements that can indicate the project's sustainability?

gusaus commented 8 months ago

@naokomc really appreciate you taking the time to associate 5ftF goals with overlapping roadmap projects!

From my perspective (as a team/community member interested in all the areas being outlined) we're already collaborating/contributing as individuals, but we don't yet have the structure or capacity to contribute as a team.

However if all the overlapping projects we're identifying here were owned and/or managed by members of the Contributor Working Group (that consists of mentors, reps, and facilitators from multiple teams) we'd be able to solve both problems as goals/outcomes would benefit this (and every team).

Does that make sense?

naokomc commented 8 months ago

Very true, we're already collaborating as individuals but that's separate from team collaboration. If structure or capacity are blockers, it might be most effective to keep the current way where we all stay involved in projects and initiatives as we can.

The Contributor Working Group is currently focusing on the mentorship program only. I'm sure many are also interested in the areas I mentioned in the above comment, but the management of the Five for the Future program is mainly done through this GitHub repository.

One thing we can start doing is incorporating what's happening with the Five for the Future project and Sustainability Team (in the area of contributor sustainability) to the regular Contributor Working Group meetings.

gusaus commented 8 months ago

The Contributor Working Group is currently focusing on the mentorship program only.

Apologies for misunderstanding. My assumptions were based on the following clarifications in the Recap of the Contributor Working Group’s Mentorship Chat on December 21, 2023 (and related discussions) was that both programs are owned/managed by the Contributor Working Group.

Five for the Future Starting in the new year, our group will start looking at the Five for the Future program as well. Group members are encouraged to share their feedback on the program in the Five for the Future GitHub Repository. Folks can create documentation for the 5ftF contributors, please add it to the GH repository. You can also review existing issues and share any feedback as required too.

If yes, I think all the projects referenced (and probably some other roadmap ideas overlap with goals and needs of either/both programs.

Does that make sense?

naokomc commented 8 months ago

I also hope the Five for the Future program will receive more focus and resources from the Contributor Working Group members. But realistically speaking, I expect the groups' meetings & activities will mostly be about the mentorship program until the 2nd cohort concludes (some group members are also applying as mentors and/or have dedicated tasks for the 6.5 release). I will try to bring more 5ftF topics & updates to the Working Group meetings, though! Through GitHub, anyone can contribute at any time too.

gusaus commented 8 months ago

I expect the groups' meetings & activities will mostly be about the mentorship program until the 2nd cohort concludes (some group members are also applying as mentors and/or have dedicated tasks for the 6.5 release).

Thanks for clarifying the priorities, timing, and providing more info on ownership/management in this related thread (I'll paste the comment below to centralize)

There are 10 admin users on the Five for the Future website, including Hari, myself, and some others from the Meta + Core Teams and the leadership.

Currently Hari and I contributing to administrating the site, and we are tying to get feedback from 5ftF company reps and Contributor Working Groups.

It can be extended, of course, as more active contributors start taking on admin tasks/responsibilities, or working on the site functionality.

Taking this all into consideration it seems like most (if not all) of the overlapping projects/goals identified in https://github.com/WordPress/sustainability/issues/16#issuecomment-1911677470 could move forward as Mentorship projects if they were broken out into smaller components https://github.com/WordPress/wp-contributor-working-group-tracker/discussions/7#discussioncomment-8313547 and resourced (mentors, admins, and other contributors from multiple teams).

gusaus commented 8 months ago

Circling back to this goal/priority:

Create team health dashboards for all Make/Teams, which help contributors identify impactful projects and areas that need help (Already underway).

It's hard to tell what the status is (or where/how to contribute). Either way, if you skim through some of the comments, you'll see what inspired some of the related goals in the issue description (along with some paths for collaboration and resource pooling with Drupal and other open source projects and contributors in the Open Collective ecosystem.

https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/09/25/request-for-feedback-make-team-dashboards/#comment-398 https://make.wordpress.org/project/2023/09/25/request-for-feedback-make-team-dashboards/#comment-399

gusaus commented 8 months ago

Still a work in progress but I think the description provides a high level view of the program, recommendations for fixing/improving, and an overview of overlapping goals and projects.

gusaus commented 4 months ago

Coming out of another successful mentorship cohort, it looks like the Contributor Working Group is focusing back on Five for the Future (see this discussion in the Contributor Working Group repo).

As @naokomc mentioned above https://github.com/WordPress/sustainability/issues/16#issuecomment-1913966275, it looks like collaboration is centered in https://github.com/WordPress/five-for-the-future/

That being the case, I'm wondering if we could/should:

Would be great if @naokomc and/or @harishankerr could weigh in so all interested contributors could join forces to improve and extend the future!