Hello All! Daniel and I would like to share some good news: After talking about it for years, and vetting the draft for months, it's finally done: the Architecture Committee has adopted a proper charter defining its purpose, operation, and authority. You can find the charter here: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Committee/Charter < https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Committee/Charter>> The charter among other things defines from where the committee draws its authority over technical development at the WMF: the committee acts as an extension of the CTO. This gives the committee a clear role in the foundation's decision making processes. The charter also clarifies the scope of TechCom: it is to act as an authority on technical decisions regarding any official software that serves Wikimedia users. The committee should be involved in matters regarding such software that are strategic, cross-cutting, or hard to undo. The committee has also given itself a new name, to better fit the scope as defined in the charter: we are now the Wikimedia Technical Committee (TechCom). Looking forward to working with the technical community to fulfill the charter! Victoria & Daniel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Thank you Rogol. The primary way that the volunteer developer community will interact with the TechCom is through the use of the RFC process as was the case with the ArchCom beforehand. The TechCom itself of course is open to the volunteer developer community for participation and since we are expanding membership to cover a broader area of technologies that the ArchCom was able to cover, there will be more opportunity to get involved. We are looking forward to that and as Daniel and I will be present at Wikimania we will discuss the workings and goals of the new charter with anyone who is interested. I would encourage you and anyone else who wants to know more to reach out to Daniel or myself to arrange to get together. For those who cannot attend Wikimania, we will host a webcast in the next few weeks to introduce the new committee and its charter and take questions. Best, Victoria wrote: integrity, and vcoleman(a)wikimedia.org&gt; charter its an Wikimedia as wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood your question Rogol. So let me try and give you my point of view on the essence of your question. The Tech department in the Foundation, the TechCom and the volunteer developer community work to support the movement and its people, from readers to contributors and beyond. What this tech community overall works on is driven by the needs of the movement. Some of these needs are purely technical. For example we want to minimize latency for both readers and contributors so we spend a lot of effort in understanding what causes latency and how to reduce it. Other needs come from the need to build new features. An example of this would be ORES and the scoring tool that many editors use. How do we collect and prioritize these needs? In some cases through our own expertise, in some cases by being part of the community , in others by doing research to understand what works and yet in others by working closely with the Audiences team in the Foundation. The Audiences team has the mandate to deliver user facing features based on research and close interaction with the community. The Community wishlist being a great example of that work. The Community Engagement team through the Community Liaisons is another great way for us to collect input for the community. I would of course also welcome your ideas and suggestions as well as those of other members of the community for how we could better capture the views and needs of our users and our contributors. Best regards, Victoria wrote: about vcoleman(a)wikimedia.org&gt; was open involved. wants together. next questions. regarding < that scope , wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>