Tech:Organization
This page documents a Technology policy. This policy follows consensus and/or guidelines set by members of the Technology team. All Technology team members, or, where applicable in technical matters, users, should follow this policy. Suggestions should be made on the talk page. |
The Technology team comprises of the volunteers helping to resolve support tasks, manage Miraheze's services and infrastructure, develop MediaWiki extensions, and advise the Board on information security and privacy matters. Volunteers can have different roles on this team. This page documents the roles and responsibilities of the team.
Leadership
Director
The Director of Technology is the lead member of the Technology team, appointed by the WikiTide Foundation's Board of Directors, to perform day-to-day management of Miraheze's technical operations.
They carry out the following duties:
- Provide the treasurer with timely updates on upcoming budgetary needs in support of technical project infrastructure.
- Approve emergency spend requests as necessary from earmarked funds, up to an amount specified by the treasurer.
- Approve additions or modifications to Technology policy.
- Act as final arbiter over internal Technology disputes, with the option to defer complex issues to a broader board vote.
- Grants final approval over addition of Technology team members, or access expansion requests, following adequate discussion among existing Technology team members regarding new candidates.
- Grants final approval over infrastructure resource requests.
- Ensuring a stable relationship between the Technology team and the community and seeking community Requests for Feedback for large technical changes that will affect the community.
Deputy Director
The Director of Technology may appoint a member of the Technology team to serve as a deputy. Should the Director of Technology be unavailable or unable to perform their duties, their day-to-day duties shall be handled by the deputy. However, fiscal authority shall not be delegated to this deputy, and this deputy is not considered an officer of the WikiTide Foundation.
Entry-level and general
Community Liaison
Community Liaisons bridge the gap between the Technology team and the global community of volunteers we support in our work. They bring the perspective of users into the development cycle, seeking their feedback and communicating it to the rest of the team. Community Liaisons are also responsible for improving community-facing technical documentation.
Community Liaisons should not also have software development responsibilities. Their role is purely to advocate for users.
Software Engineer
Software Engineers write code to improve the user experience of Miraheze users, build tools that allow communities to grow, and tools that support our valuable volunteers in managing a dynamic and active global community. Software Engineer responsibilities include:
- maintaining existing software we deploy and supporting upstream development where possible;
- building quality assurance and continuous integration pipelines;
- writing performant code which utilizes modern caching techniques.
Advanced and high-trust
Project Manager
Project Managers triage incoming support requests from the community, within the team, and from third party stakeholders. They help to organize work for the rest of the team and identify the most straightforward path to solving technical problems. They support the Technology team in developing processes that put the community first.
MediaWiki Specialist
- See also: Tech:Organization/MediaWiki Specialists
MediaWiki Specialists are responsible for maintaining the MediaWiki core platform and extensions, including in-house extensions. They operate the latest stable version of MediaWiki, manage configuration and feature requests from the community, and work with upstream and third-party MediaWiki developers.
Infrastructure Specialist
Infrastructure Specialists ensure Miraheze's services and servers are fast, reliable and secure. Infrastructure Specialists are responsible for providing the critical services that support our deployment of MediaWiki, including virtual and physical servers, relational databases, media storage, automation tooling, configuration management systems, networking, continuous integration and continuous delivery, cache stores, and observability platforms.
Infrastructure Specialists are expected to monitor and maintain a wide range of software and services, ensuring the uptime of the wider cluster. They take control during incidents and working as a team to mitigate, resolve, and prevent future outages.
Security Specialist
Security Specialists develop and implement effective security practices to be engrained within the team's work. A Security Specialist is responsible for:
- building, designing, implementing and monitoring highly effective security processes and protocols that will affect how the team works;
- analyzing and prioritizing incoming security alerts including CVEs and user reports;
- working with Trust and Safety and the team to ensure a collaborative and unique approach on security and privacy;
- assisting with Security Reviews for MediaWiki extensions and Content Security Policy requests;
- leading on security incidents, including post mortem follow-up and liaising with Trust and Safety to establish impact and cause.