On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 2:57 AM, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote: ...
in March 2011 and June 2011, Brion Vibber, Mark Bergsma and Tim Starling were announced as Lead Software Architect, Lead Operations Architect and Lead Platform Architect of the Wikimedia Foundation, respectively.
At WMF, this has increasingly raised the question how the architecture of Wikimedia’s technical infrastructure can be evolved at this new, larger scale, and how we can bring more voices into that conversation. I've shared this note with the architects ahead of time and taken some initial feedback into account.
So how should this role evolve going forward? Some possible paths (you know I like to present options ;-):
...
Option D: We come up with some kind of open process for designating/confirming folks as architects, according to some well-defined criteria (including minimum participation in the RFC process, well-defined domain expertise in certain areas, a track record of constructive engagement, etc.).
besides beeing technically very capable, mark, brion, and tim are really nice persons on a personal level. they stay out of political discussions, are not arrogant, always concentrate on helping to evolve technically, and do not shy away from dirt work. as imo people tend to attract theirlikes, i would see also an option that each of them is allowed to choose the person who helps in their respective domain.
but, if you think its better to take option D, and mark, brion and tim think this helps i am all for it.
rupert.