I am not exactly sure which list to reply to, so I'll reply here. Yes!: congratulations to Robla, Alolita, Tomasz, Mark and Tim :-)
This is good news. It's been in the works for quite a while, and I'm glad to see it happen. It's a good structure for the team, and it'll pave the way to getting good work done as we move into 2011-12 -- including lots of new hiring. Thanks to Danese and Erik for making it happen, and congratulations to the folks with new roles :-) Thanks, Sue On Jun 20, 2011 5:59 PM, "Erik Moeller" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I’m pleased to announce the following promotions and role changes in > engineering, effective immediately. > > * Rob Lanphier is the Director of Platform Engineering. > * Tomasz Finc is the Director of Mobile and Special Projects. > * Alolita Sharma is the acting Director of Features Engineering. > Alolita has gracefully agreed to take on this role, for which we’re > kicking off a full search process. > * Mark Bergsma is now the Lead Operations Architect, reporting to CT. > * Tim Starling is now the Lead Platform Architect, reporting to Rob. > > I’ll explain a bit more what these roles mean below, but first, please > join me in congratulating Rob, Tomasz, Alolita, Mark and Tim! :-) > > Let me also take this opportunity to thank Danese Cooper for helping > to build and professionalize the Wikimedia Foundation engineering > organization as Wikimedia’s CTO. She also set these changes in > motion, and our overall strategy is one that we’ve begun developing > and socializing together in the last few months. > > Here’s how these roles fit together. The engineering department is > principally structured into four sub-departments, each headed by a > director who is the functional manager of all people within that > sub-department: > > * Technical Operations - CT Woo: Keep Wikimedia Foundation sites and > services running, increase uptime and performance, support code > deployments, and ensure recoverability of data and services. > * Platform Engineering - Rob Lanphier: Maintain and support the > MediaWiki platform; ensure reliability, maintainability, and > performance of our software; lead the release management process; grow > and nurture the developer community and ecosystem. > * Features Engineering - Alolita Sharma (Acting): Advance Wikimedia’s > strategic priorities by focusing resources on specific feature > projects such as the visual editor, or interventions designed to > increase editor retention. > * Mobile and Special Projects - Tomasz Finc: Advance Wikimedia’s > mobile platform and ensure that mobile devices are fully considered > across the engineering development process; execute projects with > strong overlapping requirements (e.g. offline delivery of Wikimedia > content). > > We’re also recognizing the importance of architectural engineering > leadership in the development of a mature engineering organization > (which also represents an additional career path for our distinguished > engineers beyond “become a manager”). The three architects - Tim, Mark > and Brion - will work together as follows: > > * Brion Vibber, as Lead Software Architect, has key architectural > responsibility for getting MediaWiki ready to be the world’s leading > tool for mass collaboration, by enabling the development of new > technologies like the visual editor (his current priority), real-time > collaboration, improved discussion systems, etc. This also includes > architectural leadership to support bottom-up feature development. > Brion reports directly to me. > * Mark Bergsma, as Lead Operations Architect, is responsible for > creating and communicating the vision and roadmap for the > infrastructure needed to run all Wikimedia projects, for ensuring the > design/implementation of our operating environment is reliable, > scalable, supportable, secure and cost-effective, and for driving > cross-functional alignment, especially with other engineering > functions. > * Tim Starling, as Lead Platform Architect, is responsible for the > performance, stability, security and architectural cleanliness of the > MediaWiki platform. Tim is leading potentially transformative > engineering projects like the HipHop support in MediaWiki. He’s also a > key mentor to all MediaWiki developers and is keeping us honest while > we’re pursuing our feature dreams. > > In addition, we’re considering the shape of product and project > management outside the Director-level leadership in the department. > Currently, Howie Fung (Senior Product Manager) and Dario Taraborelli > (Senior Research Analyst) are continuing to support our feature > development projects to ensure that 1) development is aligned with > strategic priorities, 2) we’re focusing the development on the needs > of the user, 3) we’re making data-driven decisions and working > effectively with the global wiki research community, 4) we’re engaging > with the Wikimedia editor and reader community on complex feature > development projects. > > I’m taking on the role of VP of Engineering and Product Development, > on an interim basis for now. We’re not going to immediately hire > either for that role or a CTO role. Thanks to Mark, Tim and Brion, we > have very strong architectural leadership in the department. Moreover, > we’ve got more than enough disruptive change as an engineering > organization to absorb for now, so we’ve decided that it doesn’t make > sense to immediately bring in a new person to lead the department. > > We may decide that it’ll make sense for me to continue in this role, > or that it’ll make sense to bring in a new person 6-12 months from > now, possibly in conjunction with further structural change. > > What this means, simply put, is that I’ll be organizing and supporting > the work of the engineering department as a whole, with the directors, > the product managers, Brion and Dario reporting to me, and that’ll be > how we’ll be set up for the near future. My interest is to grow a > strong, visible leadership team that’ll be on the lists and wikis and > highly responsive to the community. I’ll be suspending most of my > non-engineering-related work for the time being. > > I’ll be posting more about process improvements, further discussions > about intra-departmental structure, and so forth, in coming weeks. > I’ll also be sharing an updated org chart soon for those who care > about those kinds of things. ;-) > > All the best, > Erik > -- > Erik Möller > Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation > > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
