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Technical decision making/Forum

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The Wikimedia Technical Decision Forum is a rotating group of representatives from Wikimedia Foundation teams, affiliates, and volunteer groups. The purpose of the Forum is to provide feedback to teams making decisions.

Forum chairs

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The Forum is led by two co-chairs: one from the Wikimedia Foundation Technology Department and one from the Product Department. Forum chairs are responsible for leading, facilitating, and administering the technical decision making process.

Forum chairs
Department Chair
Product Desiree Abad
Technology Moriel Schottlender

Responsibilities

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  • Time commitment: 2-4 hours per week
  • Turnaround times: 24 hours for questions, 1 week for document review and feedback
  • Lead Technical Forum meetings
  • Provide advice and council on following the process, including templates and good decision making practices
  • Respond to questions from decision teams within 24 hours
  • Escalate decisions to the Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) as appropriate
  • Run retrospectives and update processes, templates, and documentation
  • Schedule meetings and office hours

Selection and rotation

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Chairs are appointed by the Wikimedia Foundation's CPTO and rotated on a quarterly basis.

Forum members

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The Forum is composed of representatives from Wikimedia Foundation teams, affiliates, and volunteer groups. Members can be engineers, project managers, engineering managers, technical writers, product managers, etc. Forum members are responsible for reviewing decision documents and acting as a point of contact for the Forum to interface with their team.

What the forum does What the forum does not do
Empowers teams to make decisions that are informed by experts from around the organization Makes decisions on behalf of teams or blocks teams from making
Provides feedback to teams on their opportunity statements and solutions Develops technical designs or solutions
Creates a touch point for stakeholders, subject matter experts, and development teams to discuss larger technical decisions Creates an alternate process to approve technical decisions outside of existing development processes
We actively encourage groups to select people with a variety of experience levels in order to make space for new voices and gaining experience.
Wikimedia Foundation teams
Team Member

(Responsibility for representative selection)

Department Forum representative
Abstract Wikipedia Adam Baso Product James Forrester
Anti-Harassment Aida Ramirez Product Thalia Chan
Community Tech James McLeod Product Dayllan Maza
Campaigns - Pilot Lauren de Lench Product Claudio Melo
Editing James McLeod Product Bartosz Dziewoński
Design Systems Team Lauren de Lench Product Roan Kattouw
Growth Dennis Mburugu Product Gergo Tisza
Android Joseph Seddon Product Cooltey Feng
iOS Joseph Seddon Product TBD
Structured Data Carly Bogen Product Matthias Mullie
Web Lani Goto Product Jan Drewniak
Content Transformers Sérgio Lopes Product Yiannis Giannelos
Language Niklas Laxström Product Abijeet Patro
Inuka Runa Bhattacharjee Product Stephane Bisson
Product Analytics Kate Zimmerman / Mikhail Popov Product Jennifer Wang
Moderator Tools Astuthi Odit Product Jason Sherman
Data Engineering Olja Dimitrijevic Technology Andrew Otto
Platform Engineering Mat Nadrofsky Technology Dr. Cindy Cicalese
Architecture Kate Chapman Technology Dana Bredemeyer
Performance Larissa Gaulia Technology Larissa Gaulia
Release Engineering Kate Chapman Technology Tyler Cipriani
Quality and Test Engineering Mat Nadrofsky Technology Jean-Rene Branaa
Fundraising Tech Greg Grossmeier Technology Dylan Kozlowski
Machine Learning Chris Albon Technology Chris Albon
Search Platform Carly Bogen Technology David Causse
Security Jennifer Cross Technology Scott Bassett
Research Leila Zia Technology Fabian Kaelin
Data Center Operations Faidon Liambotis Technology Chris Danis
Data Persistence Mark Bergsma Technology Manuel Arostegui
Infrastructure Foundations Faidon Liambotis Technology Chris Danis
Observability Faidon Liambotis Technology Cole White
Service Operations Mark Bergsma Technology Giuseppe Lavagetto
Traffic Mark Bergsma Technology Brandon Black
Trust and Safety Tools Aida Ramirez Product Jay Cano (filling in for Joaquin Oltra Hernandez)
Developer Advocacy Birgit Mueller Technology Bryan Davis
Wikimedia Cloud Services Birgit Mueller Technology Bryan Davis
Technical Documentation Alexandra Paskulin Technology Alexandra Paskulin
Affiliates
Affiliate Member

(Responsibility for representative selection)

Forum representative
WMDE Technical Wishes Tobi Gritschacher Thiemo Kreuz
WMDE Wikibase Conny Kawohl Conny Kawohl
WMDE Wikidata Kara Payne Kara Payne
Volunteer groups
Volunteer group Member

(Responsibility for representative selection)

Forum representative
MediaWiki Stakeholders Mark A. Hershberger Mark A. Hershberger
Fandom Daniel Grunwell Daniel Grunwell
Communities
Community Member

(Responsibility for representative selection)

Forum representative
Indonesian Wikipedia

Tech Ambassador

Adi Purnama Adi Purnama
Dessalegn Yehuala Dessalegn Yehuala


Responsibilities

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  • Time commitment: 0-2 hours per week
  • Turnaround times: 48 hours for questions, 1 week for document review and feedback
  • Asynchronously review problem statements from teams and provide feedback
  • Connect decision teams to subject matter experts (SMEs) on their teams/groups
  • Distribute decision records within their team for review
  • Respond to questions from decision teams via Slack or email

Forum members can provide feedback in several ways:

  • Give feedback themselves
  • Circulate documents within their team and aggregate feedback
  • Delegate to other team members to provide feedback

Teams can decide amongst themselves how to best provide feedback.

Selection and rotation

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Wikimedia Foundation teams

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  • Each team appoints a representative for the Forum. Teams can change their representative at any time. 
  • Teams can choose to share representatives with related teams. For example: SRE may decide to have fewer people represent their teams than the number of the individual teams. As teams change or grow, updates will be made accordingly.
  • Teams are expected to plan for coverage during vacations and other types of leave.

Affiliates

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  • Each affiliate appoints a representative in the Forum. Affiliates can change their representative at any time. 
  • Affiliates can choose to share representatives with related groups. For example: SRE may decide to have fewer people represent their teams than the number of the individual teams. As groups change or grow, updates will be made accordingly.
  • Affiliates are expected to plan for coverage during vacations and other types of leave.

Community representation

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  • The Forum is looking for representatives from the Wikimedia community who will review the proposals brought to the forum. Visit the community representation page for more information.