Technical decision making/Listening Sessions

The Technical Decision-Making Forum Retrospective team invites you to join one of our “listening sessions” about the Wikimedia's technical decision-making processes.

We are running the listening sessions to provide a venue for people to tell us about their experience, thoughts, and needs regarding the process of making technical decisions across the Wikimedia technical spaces. This complements the survey, which closed on August 7.

Who should participate in the listening sessions?

People who do technical work that relies on software maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) or affiliates. If you contribute code to MediaWiki or extensions used by Wikimedia, or you maintain gadgets or tools that rely on WMF infrastructure, and you want to tell us more than could be expressed through the survey, the listening sessions are for you.

How can I take part in a listening session?

There will be four sessions on two days, to accommodate all time zones. The two first sessions are scheduled:


 * Tuesday, September 12, 14:00 – 14:50 UTC
 * Wednesday, September 13, 20:00 – 20:50 UTC

What will the Retrospective Team do with the information?

The retrospective team will collect the input provided through the survey, the listening sessions and other means, and will publish an anonymized summary that will help leadership make decisions about the future of the process.

In the listening sessions, we particularly hope to gather information on the general needs and perceptions about decision-making in our technical spaces. This will help us understand what kind of decisions happen in the spaces, who is involved, who is impacted, and how to adjust our processes accordingly.

Are the listening sessions the best way to participate?

The primary way for us to gather information about people’s needs and wants with respect to technical decision making was the survey. The listening sessions are an important addition that provides a venue for free form conversations, so we can learn about aspects that do not fit well with the structure of the survey.

In addition to the listening sessions and the survey, there are two more ways to share your thoughts about technical decision making: You can post on the talk page, or you can send an email to <[mailto:tdf-retro-2023@lists.wikimedia.org tdf-retro-2023@lists.wikimedia.org]>.