Hello all,

I’m pleased to announce that the Technical Decision Making Process[0]
proposed as an evolution of the Wikimedia Technical Committee[1]
(TechCom) process has been approved by the Wikimedia Foundation, and
will begin operation on 22nd of January. Back in October[2] and
November[3] I sought input into a proposed process and in December I
incorporated that feedback into the approved process.

This process is designed to be more inclusive by shifting the
representations. It has clear timelines for when decisions will be
made and to develop a clear lifecycle of a decision. The process is
designed to be clear about how and which stakeholders will be engaged.
It also introduces a Technical Decision Forum and Templates for the
process.

Currently a group from the Wikimedia Technology and Product
Departments are in the process of forming the initial Decision Forum.
The initial forum will include representatives from Wikimedia
Foundation teams, Wikimedia Deutschland, and independent +2
contributors. Please see the proposal for community representation on
the Decision Forum[4] and provide input by 2021-02-15. We know we will
need to adjust the representation in the forum over time. If you
believe you are from a group that is not represented and should be,
please contact us (tech-decision-forum-support@wikimedia.org).

If you currently have an RFC in process with TechCom that is not on
Last Call, it may need to be moved into this process. If you have
filed an RFC that is no longer relevant please close it. The group
setting up the process will be inquiring about the RFC status on the
individual Phabricator tickets.

To get started with this new process you just need to open a
Phabricator Ticket on the Technical Decision Making Process board[5].

If you need help getting started or have further questions please
reach out at tech-decision-forum-support@wikimedia.org or reply on
this thread.

[0] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Decision_Making_Process
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Committee
[2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2020-October/093968.html
[3] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2020-November/094037.html
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_Decision_Making_Process/Draft_Proposal_Community_Representation
[5] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/5179/

Thanks,

Kate
--
Kate Chapman (she/her/hers)
Director of Architecture, Architecture Team
Wikimedia Foundation
kchapman@wikimedia.org

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