Wikimedia Technical Committee/Architecture Forum

The Wikimedia Technical Forum (Tech Forum, or WMTF) [last chance to change the name] is a venue for discussing high level technical topics, across teams, departments, disciplines, and roles. It is aimed primarily at senior engineers, but is open to anyone.

The Tech Forum was created as an extension of TechCom to provide a space for the discussions of technical topics that is broader than TechCom itself, but more focused than Wikitech-l. Its scope and purpose are derived from the TechCom Charter.

Purpose
The purpose of the Tech Forum is to facilitate high-level technical discussions, create alignment, and inform decision making. [We should detail what we mean by alignment and decisions here, to root the purpose in organizational goals and operation.] Specifically, members are expected to:


 * Proactively raise high-level technical needs and pending decisions to the attention of other group members;
 * Carry information and discussions from the Tech Forum into their teams;
 * Take part in high-level technical discussions and consensus building, for example during the RFC process;
 * Participate in the preparation and discussion of RFCs, and provide feedback on Last Calls;
 * Meet with other Tech Forum members and members of TechCom in smaller groups for ad-hoc focused discussions.

Operation
The forum operates primarily through the "Technical Forum" category [to be created] in the Wikimedia Discuss Space.

TechCom will post minutes of all meetings to the forum.

TechCom will announce new RFCs and any Last Calls to the forum.

[....]

Membership
Membership is self-selected, and anyone is free to join. Membership is not restricted to Wikimedia Foundation staff, volunteers are welcome as well.

To ensure active participation across teams, disciplines, and interest areas TechCom may ask members every now and then whether they still consider themselves active representatives of their interest area(s). This way, gaps can be identified for which additional members can be sought out, thus ensuring a broad array of perspectives.

Individuals violating the CoC or repeatedly engaging in counter-productive behavior can be excluded from the group at the discretion of TechCom, in consultation with the CoC Com as needed. The ultimate decision over membership lies with the CTO.