Wikimedia Technical Committee/Architecture Forum

The Wikimedia Architecture Forum (Arch Forum, or WAF) is a venue for discussing high-level technical topics across teams, departments, disciplines, and roles. It is aimed primarily at interest stakeholders around the RFC Process, but is open to anyone.

The Architecture Forum is intended to be more a lightweight venue than the RFC process (and more limited in scope than Wikitech-l). Its scope and purpose are derived from the TechCom Charter.

Purpose
The Arch Forum is an extension of TechCom to provide a space for the discussion of technical topics. its purpose is to facilitate high-level technical discussions about the software that supports the Wikimedia projects (as defined by the TechCom Charter).

Examples of threads that might take place in the Arch Forum:


 * Raise awareness of higher-level technical problems.
 * Take part in high-level technical discussions and consensus building, for example before or during an RFC process. These free-flowing conversations in structured threads might, if successful, replace conversations currently taking place during IRC office hours, wiki talk pages, ad-hoc Google Hangouts meetings, etc. This does not change Phabricator as the central place to track the current state of the open RFCs, and major conclusions will continue to be posted there. Participants are also welcome to continue to ask questions and raise concerns via Phabricator. The Arch Forum however is intended to be provide an easier and less daunting way to enter the conversation.
 * Announce and provide feedback on RFCs during their Last Calls (dedicated thread).
 * Discuss development policies and guidelines, coordinate and spread awareness of practices between teams.
 * Ad-hoc discussions to get input from TechCom and/or other stakeholders about technical issues. If successful, this might be preferred over creating (non-RFC) tasks tagged as #TechCom in Phabricator.

Operation
The forum operates primarily through the arch-forum mailing group, which can also be browsed and participated in via the Google Group interface. (


 * TechCom will ensure a dedicated thread exists for new RFCs when they are triaged (by creating or notifying such thread).


 * TechCom will post detailed minutes of their meetings.
 * TechCom will ensure a dedicated thread exists for the Last Call phase of an RFC.
 * TechCom will announce approved RFCs and other decisions.

Membership
Membership is self-selected, and anyone is free to sign up. (Membership is not restricted to Wikimedia Foundation staff, everyone is welcome.)

It is customary for new members to be introduced in a welcome e-mail where others can learn of their affiliation, and/or which project(s) they work on, and what area(s) of Wikimedia software or architecture they are most interested in. For this reason, sign up is moderated. If you subscribe directly, a TechCom member will reach out and ask for your one-or-two sentence introduction. You can also e-mail arch-forum+owners@wikimedia.org and provide the introductory sentence upfront after which a moderator can subscribe and introduce you.

To ensure active participation across teams, disciplines, and interest areas TechCom may ask members every now and then whether they still consider themselves active in 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 otherwise engaging in counter-productive behavior can be excluded from the group at the discretion of TechCom, in consultation with the CTO and/or CoC Com as needed. The ultimate decision over membership lies with the CTO.