Hi all
To keep you posted and to clear up some previous confusion, here are a few points about what is going to happen about the servers Wikimedia Germany (WMDE) is going to Provide for OSM.
* WMDE will buy the servers. We already have a quote for them (as specified by Jens), which is currently being looked over by the WMDE board. If they agree, we can order soon (next week, perhaps).
* There will be two servers (one for the database, one for tiles and renderer) in the main Wikimedia infrastructure - that is, they are run by the Wikimedia Foundation. These are the "production" servers for integrating maps in Wikipedia.
* Mark Bergsma will sort out the details for the production servers. At the very least, Jens will have access to them, and perhaps Avar too.
* There will be an additional server for people to play with, the "Map-Toolserver". This will be integrated into the existing Wikimedia Toolserver cluster. That is, it's run by Wikimedia Germany.
* The Map Toolserver will be supervised by the Toolserver admins; Avar will get admin access there and focus on providing any OSM-specific tools and services on that box.
* Access to the Map Toolserver will be available to anyone with a project related to OSM. No connection to Wikimedia is required (this point was clarified to me by Sebasitan today). Besides that, the rules will be the same as for the rest of the toolserver (see https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Rules).
* For you to decide is who should be in charge of reviewing applications for accounts - Avar told me he wasn't interested in that. Another question is if "regular" toolserver users should get access per default, restricted only be the policy that whatever they do on the Map Toolserver must be relevant to OSM. I would favour this, as it makes things a lot easier for admins, and it invites people to play with OSM data.
* The Map Toolserver will be running a local MySQL instance (and perhaps als PostGres) for OSM databases. It will also have OSM-specific software installed (talk to Avar). It will not have capacity to process the whole globe for everyone, so try your project on smaller datasets.
* Root access to the Map Toolserver will only be avialable for "full" Toolserver admins. To get that kind of access, approval of the Wikimedia Foundation is needed. Since this level of access also grants access to private data if all users of wikimedia projects, it is handled restrictively. "Local" root access is not technically feasible.
* I suggest the domain maps.toolserver.org for the Map Toolserver - using the toolserver.org domain makes things easier internally. Having an alias like tools.openstreetmap.org or something would be possible.
I hope this clears up any questions. I hope we have these babies up and running soon :)
Daniel Kinzler Software Developer Wikimedia Deutschland
Phone +49 30 219 158 260
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us achieve that! http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.