American Toolserver

Wikimedia DC should set up an American Toolserver.

Just brainstorming. More on the talk page.

Almost /all/ of the problems the TS have had with replication were caused by that redundancy and trying to keep it synced. -- Coren

Background

A Toolserver is a shared hosting environment available to Wikimedians for hosting scripts, bots, and other tools related to Wikimedia wikis. The first Toolserver was the German Toolserver established in 200X. The Polish Toolserver came next in 20XX. Some Toolservers additionally support live database replication.

Proposal

Wikimedia DC should establish an American Toolserver. This would be a shared hosting environment available to Wikimedians for hosting bots, scripts, and other tools that relate to Wikimedia wikis.

While the Wikimedia Foundation is working on Wikimedia Labs, we need to be mindful of the risks associated with "putting all of your eggs in one basket." Security through segregation is important. The right to fork is important.

Initially, the American Toolserver would only be able to provide shared hosting, but database replication could be supported in the future, perhaps.

Scope

In order to prevent misuse or abuse, the American Toolserver would be limited to established Wikimedians who are willing to privately provide identification to Wikimedia DC.

Tools, scripts, and bots operating on the American Toolserver would be required to be distributable (i.e., available under an open source license) and would be strongly encouraged to be published, absent a compelling reason to not publish the source.

Support

Unlike the German Toolserver, individual users would pay as a small membership fee for an account on the American Toolserver. This would be a distributed cost and any additional proceeds that are collected would be donated to a fund in Wikimedia DC's budget to (a) support the operation of the American Toolserver; and (b) to provide funds to offset the cost of any established Wikimedian who would like an account on the American Toolserver but cannot pay the membership fee.

In many ways, the American Toolserver would be donationware.