Wikimedia Technical Committee

The Wikimedia Technical Committee (TechCom, formerly ArchCom for Wikimedia Architecture Committee) is the guardian of the integrity, consistency, stability and performance of the software supporting the Wikimedia projects. It acts as the senior advisor and the convergence point of all decisions related to technical work that is strategic, cross-cutting, and/or hard to undo.

As per the TechCom Charter adopted in July 2017, TechCom acts as an extension of Wikimedia Foundation's CTO. The committee helps guide the vision and direction of the Wikimedia technical projects.

The scope of the committee includes all the official software that serves Wikimedia users. It has standing on questions around architecture, performance, security, database schemas, automated tests, and other technical matters. TechCom will work closely with teams within the foundation to ensure alignment between the architectural vision and product development. Any technical decision in these areas should be brought to the committee if it is strategic, cross-cutting, or hard to undo.

Members

 * Brion Vibber
 * Daniel Kinzler (Chair)
 * Gabriel Wicke
 * Giuseppe Lavagetto
 * Roan Kattouw
 * Tim Starling
 * Timo Tijhof
 * Victoria Coleman (WMF CTO)

Permanent guest, note taker, and helping hand: Kevin Smith

Activity
The group strives to keep Wikimedia Technical Committee/Minutes up-to-date with meeting minutes, providing information about the committee's activities.

Essential duties

 * Coordinate handling of RfCs
 * Document the RFC process and shepherd RfCs as they move through the process
 * Approve (or deny) RfCs
 * Decide whether or not an RfC has achieved consensus from the technical community
 * Discussions about strategic/high-priority projects
 * In rare cases where these types of projects do not fit the RfC model, discuss them and help them get resolved

Processes

 * Review and approve requests for comment (see the RFC process): maintain the ArchCom-RfCs Phabricator workboard, host public RFC meetings to assess and achieve consensus.
 * We strive to have multiple people looking at an RFC before approval, but an individual committee member may approve an RFC if they believe it will be uncontroversial.
 * Discuss strategy / develop recommendations.
 * Help to identify high-priority technical projects and make recommendations to the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland, et al. (e.g., revising the very rough roadmap at T96903).
 * Help connect RFC requestors with additional developers (we can't assign resources but we can help connect folks).

Meetings
TechCom has two major meetings weekly
 * An invite-only video discussion, where decisions are often finalized, generally Wednesday 1pm PT as of this writing (minutes)


 * Public architecture meetings: mostly discussions of RFCs on IRC. These are generally Wednesday 2pm PT.