Hello,
Yes, the rumors are true! Today I am pleased to announce that after more than a year away, Brion Vibber will be returning as a full-time employee of Wikimedia Foundation on March 31, 2011. The public posting is available http://blog.wikimedia.org/blog/2011/03/06/brion-vibber-rejoins-wikimedia-fou.... I'm really excited to be announcing this hire, especially at this time. I've been looking for a Lead Architect for the next generation MediaWiki platform, and Brion is of course the ultimate expert in MediaWiki internals. He's also deeply committed to the work we are doing to keep MediaWiki relevant for the next 10 years.
I completely enjoy working with Brion, and I'm totally looking forward to having him back on the team full time (he has always helped out on a volunteer basis).
Anyway, I wanted to give you all a heads up before the public announcement. Please join me in welcoming him back!
Danese Cooper CTO, Wikimedia Foundation