Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org writes:
We need a healthy MediaWiki open source software project in the first place. Without this, no committee, dictator or CTO will save the project in the long run.
Agreed.
While the Wikimedia Foundation plays a key role in the development of MediaWiki, the structure of the open source project must be driven by community merit. The MediaWiki platform roadmap should be discussed and agreed at a community level.
Thank you for saying this.
You also re-iterated Tim's point about ArchCom's powerlessness and pointed to some ways to address that.
I would also suggest that an effort be made to find community members who are not WMF employees to participate in the ArchCom and then to have their voices heard during in quarterly planning.
You also suggested that we "[identify] key MediaWiki platform areas and their architects / maintainers".
If we look at the whole MW ecosystem, I sure we'll find that some key platform areas have maintainers who are not WMF employees.
Mark.