Re: [Wikitech-l] Org changes in WMF's Platform Engineering group

We'll keep supporting the extensions that multimedia used to cover, in terms of addressing emergencies. This will probably be done by *the people formerly known as multimedia*, because for now there isn't any better pick than people who've worked with those extensions as first responders on breaking issues. That might change when a reactor team is formed and staffed later down the line. As far as active development goes, some things are still in the pipeline, like addressing technical issues that affect UploadWizard's funnel. This is assigned to the API team but isn't the top priority for the coming quarter (I think it's 3rd in the list, but someone might know better). More ambitious projects like structured data on commons will need a dedicated team. Resourcing for such projects will depend on organization-wide priorities. My humble opinion is that it's a good thing to have less catch-all teams like "core" and "multimedia" and rather have teams focused on narrower, well-understood scopes. Multimedia was a vague term and it made us spread ourselves thin across many unrelated extensions and projects. It also gave the illusion that we were going to take care of everything, but we were really too small to undertake ambitious things like bringing video support into the modern era or making commons data structured. As much as it must feel disappointing that these projects are on the backburner, they already were, because of how small the multimedia team was. Maintaining the illusion wasn't a good thing, I think. On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 12:26 PM, Brian Wolff &lt;bawolff(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > On Mar 24, 2015 10:45 PM, "Rob Lanphier" &lt;robla(a)wikimedia.org&gt; wrote: > > > > Hi folks, > > > > First things first: I'm not burying the lede in this email, so if you > > aren't interested in the inner workings of WMF's Platform Engineering > team, > > feel free to ignore the rest of this. :-) > > > > We're making a few changes effective in April for Platform Engineering, > > which you all care deeply about because you're still reading. > > > > We're looking to give the teams a little more clarity of scope. > > Previously, among other teams in Platform Engineering, we had a large > > MediaWiki Core team, and a smaller Multimedia team. We played a big game > > of musical chairs, and everyone from those teams is part of a new team. > > Additionally, the Parsoid team got into the fun, getting a new member as > a > > result. > > > > > > - > > > > Performance - This team is shooting for all page views in under 1000ms > > < > > https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MtDBNTH1g7CZzhwlJ1raEJagA8qM3uoV7ta… > >. > > The team plans to establish key frontend and backend performance > metrics > > and assume responsibility for their curation and upkeep, and get a > handle > > on web page rendering performance. Right now, it's all about > VisualEditor, > > but over time, this is going to be a more generalized function. > > - > > > > Members: Ori Livneh, Gilles Dubuc (soon!), now hiring! > > - > > > > Availability - Make MediaWiki backend failures diminishingly > infrequent, > > and prevent end users from noticing the ones that do by making > recovery as > > easy and automated as possible. This team does ops facing work that > > contributes to the overall stability and maintainability of the > system. > > Things like multi-datacenter support, and migrating off of outdated > > technology to newer, more reliable tech. > > - > > > > Members: Aaron Schulz and Gilles Dubuc (for now, until he wraps up > > work on multi datacenter) > > - > > > > MediaWiki API - This team's goal wil be make user interface > > innovation+evolution easier and make life easier for our sites' robot > > overlords by making all business logic for MediaWiki available via > well > > specified API. Some APIs will be in PHP and some external over HTTP > > depending on the needs of other teams. > > - > > > > Members: Brad Jorsch, Kunal Mehta, Gergo Tisza, Mark Holmquist. > Stas > > Malyshev plans to join this team when his work on Wikidata Query > > wraps up. Bryan > > Davis plans to join as soon as his role as interim Product Manager > for > > Platform wraps up. > > - > > > > Search - Provide unique and highly relevant search results on > Wikimedia > > sites, increasing the value of our content to readers and providing > tools > > that help editors make our content better. The team will continue > working > > on existing backlog of the CirrusSearch/Elasticsearch bugs and > > improvements, plus Wikidata Query > > - > > > > Members: Nik Everett, Stas Malyshev (for now...), James Douglas, > also > > now hiring! > > - > > > > Security - making life hard for the people that want to do harm to our > > sites or the people that use them. > > - > > > > Members: Chris Steipp, also now hiring! > > - > > > > Programs support - support our non-tech programs with tools that > delight > > our users and maintain the privacy and security of our community, > providing > > infrastructure for things like Wikimania scholarships, grant program > > applications, and ContactForm. > > - > > > > Members: Niharika Kohli, Bryan Davis(20%) > > - > > > > Parsing (renamed from "Parsoid") - There are a number of changes to > our > > PHP parser that would make things easier for VisualEditor and Parsoid, > > while at the same time offering a more powerful and easy-to-use > authoring > > environment for our editors (even those using wikitext). Having Tim > on a > > rebranded “Parsing” team gives that team agency to start evolving > wikitext > > again, in a way that is supported by Parsoid HTML from day one. > > - > > > > Members: Existing Parsoid team (Subbu Sastry, Marc Ordinas i > Llopis, > > Arlo Brenault, and C. Scott Ananian), plus (new) Tim Starling > > > > > > You'll notice that some of these teams are pretty small, especially given > > their scope. This is likely to be at least a little fluid for a while as > > we make sure we have the balance of work right and as we figure out the > FY > > 2015-16 budget. > > > > Let us know if you have any questions about this. I say "us" because > I'll > > actually be traveling shortly. Feel free to ask the individual members > of > > the teams what's up, or if you don't know who to go to, Bryan Davis will > be > > filling in for my duties while I'm out. > > > > Thanks > > Rob > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > Thanks for sending this, its always good to be able to figure out who is > working on what. > --bawolff > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l >