SMWCon Fall 2014/MediaWiki Cooperation. A user group for 3rd party users

Spreading open knowledge is not just about content, but also about tools. That's the reason we love MediaWiki as an open source product. We, the third party users of MediaWiki, do have very specific needs that are naturally of minor interest to running Wikimedia sites. These include the installer, support for different platforms and databases, integration with other software, extension dependencies, and packaging, just to name a few.

For quite some time now, the idea has been around to build a separate entity that cares about the third party use of MediaWiki (e.g. on mediawiki.org). At Wikimania, a first step has been taken to form a user group that tackles these issues. In my presentation, I will introduce the user group and it's mission.

As focussing on one of the most prominent extensions to MediaWiki, the SMW community is a major stakeholder in this group. So we need to talk. What can the user group do for you? What are your expectations? What are the pain points with the current MediaWiki and it's development? How can you all be a part of the MediaWiki Cooperation?