On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Quim, it seems to me that the methods used by Features have repeatedly produced troubled results over the years, so it's time for a different approach.
Note that the approach of empowering Tech Ambassadors to explicitly represent the voice of the content communities hasn't been tried yet. To me, this is also "a different approach".
Grantmaking has a community-intensive approach to making major decisions and I think the same approach should be taken in Features. I am optimistic that embedding the community deeply in leading Features would be a long-term change for the better. I believe that the Tech Ambassadors aren't empowered to make high-level community recommendations about Features as the Technical Committee is intended to do, although Tech Ambassadors may want to volunteer to serve on the Technical Committee and/or be integrated into its work. I would like to invite you and the Tech Ambassadors to participate in the discussion about the Technical Committee on the Board Noticeboard [1].
The Wikimedia Engineering Community Team can work here and now on the specific goal of "let's empower people to serve on the Wikimedia Engineering Community Team". We can work with the 'people' interested to bring them closer to the development process and tell them how to participate in it effectively.
This line of work doesn't get in the way of a potential Technical Committee. I just think that if a committee like that should exist, their potential members should be active at e.g. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/2014-15_Goals and related planning pages already today, because the possibility to ask and influence already exists.
Anyway, I should have a shower and some breakfast before running to Wikimania. If you happen to be in London and you find this topic exciting, I will be very happy to share a chat with or without coldBeverage().