Tech/Ambassadors

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Tech Ambassadors

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MediaWiki

If you've ever reported a bug, commented on a new feature or explained how the software works to another Wikimedian, you're already a tech ambassador.

Tech ambassadors are technically-minded volunteers who help other Wikimedians with technical issues, and act as a bridge between developers and local Wikimedia wikis.

One goal of the ambassadors network is to make sure that users are notified of technical discussions and possible changes that impact them. The other goal is for users to get involved as peers in the development process, so that they can inform and guide software development, not just provide feedback after it's done.

• What do Tech ambassadors do?
• Resources for Tech ambassadors

What do Tech ambassadors do?

	Help other users	Watch technical discussions on your home wiki, and help your fellow Wikimedians by answering their questions about the software, templates, etc. If you're able, help them diagnose their issues, and solve the technical problems they encounter.
	Relay tech news	Get a summary of Tech News delivered on your talk page (or a community discussion page) each week, and inform the rest of your community about what is going to impact them. Invite other people to subscribe, and if you can, help write the newsletter.
	Report bugs	If it's too difficult or impossible to solve the problem on your wiki, report issues and feature requests on our bug tracker ("bugzilla"). Follow the discussion on bugzilla and, if necessary, help the developers. When the problem is solved, inform your fellow Wikimedians on your home wiki.
	Communicate with developers	If you can't use bugzilla, there are other tools at your disposal: Post a message on the Tech forum or the ambassadors mailing list. Post a message on the wikitech-l mailing list to start a discussion directly with developers. Use IRC and come to the #wikimedia-techconnect channel. There might not be anyone there to help you in real time.
	Get more involved	If you want to go beyond ambassador-type activities, there are many ways in which you can help. You can help guide the work of our developers, or start designing, coding, translating or testing software yourself.

Resources for Tech ambassadors

	Tech news	Tech News are summaries of tech changes going to impact users. You can get them delivered on your talk page (or a community discussion page) each week, and inform the rest of your community.
	Glossary	If you are unfamiliar with some technical terms or projects, the Glossary is a good starting point. Many technical terms are listed there, and they often point to more information.
	Engineering reports	If what you're looking for is related to work done by Wikimedia engineers, it's probably mentioned in the report.
	MediaWiki documentation	A lot of documentation about MediaWiki and its extensions is available on mediawiki.org.
	Tech blog	Major changes and new features are announced on the tech blog. You can also use the search box.
	Technical search	This tool powered by Google searches across many of these resources at the same time.

If you can't find the information you're looking for in those places, you can try to leave a message on the Tech forum or send an e-mail to the ambassadors list. Once you've found what you were looking for, don't forget to add it to the Glossary (if it wasn't already there) to help your fellow Wikimedians.

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