Product and Technology Advisory Council/Proposal

Background & Proposal

As part of the movement strategy recommendation for "Coordinating Across Stakeholders" the Product & Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform. The PTAC will meet over a one year pilot; upon its completion, members of the Council will make a joint decision to continue the program, its member base, and purpose.

PTAC Strategy (Council activities)

Advise on high-level strategy, planning, and progress in the Contributor Communities

• Review and comment on the 0 month (tactical, specific) to 18 month (strategic, directional) product roadmap of Wikimedia Foundation and MediaWiki, Annual Plan objectives, and key results
• Review and advise on strategic problems and questions faced by Wikimedia Foundation Product and Technology leadership, and WMF Board, for feedback and advice.
• Set goals and experiment with ways to organize technical contributor communities

Align the interests and processes of Technical volunteers, affiliates, and WMF

• Experiment with frameworks to improve collaboration between Wikimedia Foundation developers and technical contributors, as well as between Wikimedia Foundation product managers and users.
• Solicit and represent the voice of contributors and technical communities: Provide feedback from recent releases, review outcomes, and prioritize, and discuss areas of technical opportunity with the Foundation.
• Engage with contributor and developer communities regarding Wikimedia Foundation prioritization and strategic decisions.

2024-25: PTAC Pilot Objectives

1. Make the PTAC Pilot a success
   1. Recruit council members to kick off by Sept 15, 2024
   2. Publish meeting notes for all activities
   3. Publish recommendations for the future structure and function of a longterm council
   4. Examine how to identify and organize technical contributors
2. Identify and make recommendations for at least 1 strategic technical opportunity
   1. Determine and select a potential opportunity
   2. Put forth actionable recommendations for WMF P+T teams

Pilot success metrics

• PTAC continues past 2024-5
• PTAC has defined a strategy to organize technical contributors
• Recommendations for a strategic technical opportunity have been successfully prepared and accepted into WMF P+T's planning process.

Strategic technical opportunities examples

• What is our strategy regarding Wikitext and Visual Editor?
• What should our policy be for on-project AI / ML interventions?
• How do we create a welcoming environment to support new technical contributors to the movement?

PTAC Members and Recruiting

The PTAC requires a diverse set of stakeholders from the Technical Volunteer community, the Wikimedia Foundation, and its Affiliates to productively discuss technical strategy and tradeoffs.

Members

• 1 Wikimedia Foundation Facilitator and Note Taker
• 3 Wikimedia Foundation stakeholders
  • CPTO Selena Deckelmann
  • To be announced
  • To be announced
• 2 WMF Affiliate technical stakeholders
• 2 WMF Board technical stakeholders
• 8 technical volunteers:
  • 3 Wikipedia volunteers (at least 1 enwiki representative)
  • 5 At-large technical volunteers: various projects, including MediaWiki, Wikidata, Commons, etc.

PTAC Membership benefits

• Collaborate and influence Wikimedia Foundation Product and Tech leadership and lead volunteers on technical strategy and product direction.
• Craft standards alongside Wikimedia Foundation for ways of working with volunteers, designing and experimenting with frameworks.
• Advise and shape the direction of Wikimedia Foundation development work.
• Support from the Foundation to develop leadership and communication skills

Joining the PTAC as a technical volunteer

We invite anyone in the movement to apply to the PTAC, even if you've recently joined as a technical contributor. We anticipate this Council will discuss real challenges and opportunities regarding how software is built and deployed, and the challenges we face on wikis.

• Applications for the PTAC will open July 1, 2024, and close at the end of Wikimania on Aug 10.
• Candidates will be selected for an interview on a rolling basis. They may be interviewed by JWheeler-WMF, CPTO, Selena Deckelmann, and/or a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Product and Technology Committee
• Selected members will be informed by August 25, and we will kick off the Council on September 15
• Selected members should expect to spend roughly 5 hours per month for the Council.

Given the nature of the Council, we will give priority to candidates who have made technical or design contributions to the Wikiverse. For example, created or maintained a popular tool for use on Wikis, contributed via code patches, engages with code review, etc. To ensure transparency, we will publish statistics on the number of applicants, share background data, and how many candidates are selected for an interview.

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