Hello All!
Victoria an I would like to share some good news:
After we have been 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
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 us 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).
Daniel Kinzler TechCom Chair