Architecture committee/2014-10-08

People present: Tim, Mark, Brion, Roan, Daniel, Quim.

Last week: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Architecture_committee/2014-10-01

Pending action items

 * Tim to send email to wikitech-l requesting suggestions of RFCs that people are interested in working on. Also mention in public IRC meeting.
 * Done
 * Tim to note, as part of another email, that we are expanding the committee, details to follow.
 * Done
 * Mark to email all committee (+Quim) about expansion, plans for meetings, meeting attendance, etc.
 * Half done
 * Tim to create Architecture committee. Others to please edit.
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T489
 * Quim kindly started it
 * EVERYONE: think about architecture committee roles page
 * Quim to publish committee minutes for now
 * Done

RFCs to triage

 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/image_and_oldimage_tables
 * For discussion next week
 * Daniel notes that multimedia team are discussing integration between file history and desc page history
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T589
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Graph
 * Daniel interested in this
 * Brion interested also
 * need to flesh out the implementation details -- I think we're basically fine with the premise but need to kick it back for more info
 * Schedule later
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T590
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Removing_bad_database_abstractions
 * probably would drop mssql, oracle, might drop postgres <- narrow scope would be just do this
 * if people reaaaaally want better abstraction we need better systems -> make a separate RFC later to figure that out
 * for discussion next week
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T591
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/ChangesList_formatting
 * approved by consensus -> kick back to aude for implementation
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T592
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Allow_styling_in_templates
 * Brion interested in this
 * will update the RfC w/ implementation plans and schedule it for next weekish
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T483

Scheduling

 * recommend rotating between current time (Wed 1pm PT / 10pm Europe) and mark's alt time (Tue 11pm PT / Wed 8am Europe)
 * also rotate the RFC meeting adjacent to it
 * let RFC maintainers request one or the other
 * start the rotation week after next

RFC process

 * Daniel suggests each member having a veto power, rather than looking for unanimity
 * i like this (brion)
 * what _is_ an rfc? better define their use, scope, aim
 * some need an approval ("go/no go")
 * some need resources. this is something we need to discuss. (push things towards directors' agendas after our approval -- this is potentially hard :D )
 * influence over resources, not management/assignment

Roles notes

 * when we identify things that need doing, help push them.... possibly through the RfC process (but need to make things happen! need resources...)
 * have a better plan for making recommendations to WMF, WMDE etc engineering prioritization
 * (follow up on that spreadsheet from a couple weeks ago?) (in private draft still) -> be more formally in that process next quarter
 * put together our own shortlist of priorities

Library infrastructure

 * check in w/ bryan davis on status of this with logging lib etc?
 * probably wait for that to happen before we start pushing on new stuff

New action items

 * brion: prep announcements
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T340
 * Tim: ask RFC authors to specify their timezone or preferred meeting slot
 * prep ideas for Dev Summit for discussion next week
 * (note: not all committee members will be at the dev summit)
 * finish formalizing the roles!
 * plan for formal expansion/maintenance policy -- approval, target size, need for membership levels/associates/delegates?
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T593
 * All, please join https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/architecture/
 * for next quarter make sure we've got good plans on prioritization
 * someone put this into phab!
 * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T594
 * brion: flesh out Graph rfc w/ Yuri