I'm willing to be a volunteer official team member if need be -- Zppix WMF Volunteer Developer enwp.org/User:Zppix
Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 2, 2017, at 11:23 AM, Victoria Coleman <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > I am pleased to share with you the news about the formation of the latest > team in the Technology department, the MediaWiki Platform team![1] > > The MediaWiki Platform team will be tasked with leading maintenance and > improvements related to the core MediaWiki platform codebase. That includes > encouraging future development of the MediaWiki platform and addressing the > technical debt that has accumulated during the 15-year history of MediaWiki. > > MediaWiki is an amazing, powerful, and complex open-source software platform. > The number and variety of extensions, and the wide variety of communities who > have adopted MediaWiki as their method for knowledge collection and > dissemination, are a testament to its strength as a software platform. > > Like any significant codebase with a long development history, there are > remnants of design choices and experiments that are no longer in use, and > some areas of code are in need of modernization. However, at its core is a > large amount of highly functional, secure, performant code, capable of > supporting a robust platform through the use of extensions and hooks. There > is also a great amount of flexibility to adapt to new requirements. > > This team will have a more focused purpose than the previous MediaWiki Core > team.[2]. While the previous team was at times spread too thin, many areas > are now covered by dedicated teams like Security and Performance. The new > MediaWiki Platform team will center their efforts on the core codebase. The > team will also have a dedicated Product Manager who will be creating the > platform roadmap in collaboration with the team, the Architecture Committee > and the MediaWiki user community. > > Specific goals for this team are to: > > * Assist and encourage development of features for MediaWiki by providing > developers with a strong core. > > * Undertake feature development work which is primarily architectural in > nature. > > * Facilitate the development and publication of MediaWiki's roadmap to assist > coordination between internal and external users. > > * Maintain and promote guidelines and standards for the MediaWiki core. > > I am thrilled that Tim Starling has agreed to lead the team, reporting > directly to me. He will be joined by Brion Vibber, Kunal Mehta and Brad > Jorsch. The team officially launches on Monday April 3, and will complete > the hiring and onboarding of additional team members in the coming months. > Their initial workplan will include core support for multi content revisions > for the Structured Data on Commons project and will be discussed in more > detail during the upcoming consultation for the Wikimedia Foundation > 2017-2018 annual plan. > > I am excited by this latest evolution in the structure of the Foundation's > Engineering group. We will continue to learn from our collective knowledge > and expertise, and make adjustments to our composition and plans. I > appreciate the input provided by many in the community that helped inform > this decision. I also want to thank the members of the Wikimedia Foundation's > Product, Technology, and Community Engagement departments who were involved > in this process. In particular, I would like to thank Toby Negrin, Adam Baso, > and Trevor Parscal - whose support was critical in bringing this plan > together. > > Join me in welcoming and celebrating our new team! > > Victoria > > [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Platform_team > <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Platform_team> > [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_MediaWiki_Core_Team > <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_MediaWiki_Core_Team> > _______________________________________________ > 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
