Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) just celebrated ten years as an open documentation wiki and an open documentation community. This session looks at MDN as a sociotechnical system, that is, how its technological and social facets affect one another. I talk about things we've done wrong and what we learned from them, as well as things we've done right and how we know.

1. MDN @ 10 Years
Mistakes, Successes & Lessons
Janet Swisher
Mozilla Developer Network

2. Socio-technical systems approach
An approach to designing and evaluating work
systems. It is based on a theory that roles and
tasks, technology and the social system make
up one single interrelated system where a
change in one part needs adjustments in other
parts.
—PsychologyDictionary.org

3. Paramecium analogy
Paramecium
● Permeable membrane
● Specialized subsystems
Open doc community
● Permeable boundary
● Specialized tools,
processes, and roles
Thanks to Aaron Halfaker, Wikimedia Foundation:
https://wikimania2015.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Wikipedi
a's_health:_A_socio-technical_overview

4. Eras of MDN's platform
● 2005-2008: MediaWiki
● 2008-2012: MindTouch DekiWiki
● 2012-present: Kuma

5. MDN editors per month

6. Mistakes were made
● Neglecting community
● Leaving community out of decision-
making process

7. Things we've gotten right
● Engaging community
● Doc sprints & “Hack on MDN” events
● Regular virtual meetings
● Better tools
● Better onboarding docs
● Exposing stuff that needs doing

8. Areas for improvement
● Encouraging repeat contributions
● Reaching silent contributors
● Defining meaningful leadership roles
● Planning for succession

9. What have we learned?
● Changing one part of a socio-technical system
affects the other parts
● Neglecting community is a vicious cycle
● Engaging community is a virtuous cycle
● Being open and transparent is hard but worth it
● The best ideas don't come from you