Thursday 25 April 2013

Stepping Into the Mediawiki Community

Does this really need an introduction? I don't think so. After all, Wikipedia saved our day in high school and continues to help us out of situations when we forget a few terms. Some of us help in improving the articles available on Wikipedia, while some of us don't care to do so.

       It is actually very beautiful to see a community whose aim is "free knowledge for all" when everyone is busy with copyrights. No, I am not totally against copyrights( a topic for another post ). I tried entering the Mediawiki developer community in November 2012. It feels good to enter a community of developers who are ever-ready to help each other and newbies.

     I would like to thank Mark Holmquist( http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:MHolmquist ) for being the initial contact point with the huge community of developers. It can get confusing for a newbie to understand how things work in the bigger picture. He, definitely is one of the most patient programmers I have met till date. You enter the community and realise "Woah! This is huge!". People do not give much thought to the behind the action scenes. I have come to believe that behind the scenes work is usually more interesting.

     I can continue talking about the awesome people I come across everyday in the Mediawiki community but I am really short of time because of the approaching exams. I still can't help mentioning Sumana Harihareswara( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sharihareswara_(WMF) ) because anytime you need help she is there to clear your queries.

     If someone wants to improve the quality of one's own code, he/she must enter the beautiful and smart world of FLOSS. I must stop now so that I can go back to my academics or I might end up helpless for the approaching exams. Good luck.