[SAC] Request for comments: Infrastructure migration assessment

[Markus Neteler]

Dear all,

[repost from board list]
thanks for the nice proposal! Here some suggestions/comments:

- Mapbender loss of archives: this is absolutely dangerous and
   should be avoided at least for other projects (copyright infringement
   issues, authorships etc are often commented therein)
- telascience.org: you may add "geodata processing" to the list of
   usages
- Drupal:
  - do we know anything about its scalability (many users)?
  - how to mirror it to other web sites (GRASS has 25+ mirrors worldwide)
- Hosting questions:  do we have cost scenarios for the hired staff
   (maybe I should know)
- automated smoke tests on telascience.org: do we have different
   operating systems there?

Infrastructure: please add
- telephone conference server (Asterix or YATE,..) to render communication
   free and improve sound quality
- a translation portal for software user messages (web based, e.g.
   rosetta/launchpad (still non-free, let's free it), KDE kartouche, ...)
- IRC CGI interface for all foundation projects to enable people behind
   firewalls to enter IRC (limit access to OSGeo related channels)

Best,
Markus

On 9/12/06, Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org> wrote:
> dear Incubators,
>
> Attached is an document that I helped Tyler produce, assessing OSGeo
> projects' infrastructure needs and what components will need to move
> in order to effect migration off the CollabNet platform into an
> environment which OSGeo can self-manage.
>
> What is at question here:
> * What components projects need - are there pieces missing?
> * Are projects interested in buying into a "complete picture" or
>   simply want some OSGeo-managed components (LDAP, DNS, or CMS but not
>   code repository management?)
>
> The biggest constraint is the MapGuide project infrastructure; when
> the CN contract ends on Jan 1st, MapGuide needs to have something in
> place that will provide at least the same services (SVN, mailing
> lists, web presence) with an SLA.
>
> What needs to be figured out by the end of the month:
> * Setup costs (this is probably too important to leave to volunteer
>   energy)
> * Maintenance costs (at least for critical services there needs to be
>   a support SLA)
> * Timescale - what the critical path is.
>
> I know that a lot of people are insanely busy with F0SS4G this week.
> It's important to get clarity on what projects' concerns and
> requirements are ASAP, though. Even work on putting this plan together
> and working up a prototype web UI has been stalling because neither
> Tyler or I have had the time to commit; it's getting to the point
> where this can't stall for much longer.
>
> I pasted the commentary Markus offered on the board list into
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Talk:Project_Infrastructure_Migration
> and would suggest this is a good place to offer more feedback.
>
> The alternative to pursuing this plan is
> * projects continue to run and maintain their own infrastructure
> * the foundation still needs to support CMS, mail, wiki for
>   collaboration and education/publishing needs and this needs an SLA
> * MapGuide takes out its own contract to rebuild its infrastructure
>
> And i wonder how PSCs and committee chairs would feel about that.
>
> There's been so much talk about this; reserve over whether it's the
> foundation's place to start reimplementing CollabNet. I don't really
> see the instantiation of trac+svn, mailing lists and a simple drupal
> or plone portal as being that big a deal, and that's already more than
> the CN platform provides.
>
> cheers,
>
>
> jo
>