On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Brian Wolff bawolff@gmail.com wrote:
I know this is not your question - but officially supported by whom? I would consider this massively out of scope for the wmf unless it was using revenue from this service to subsidize wikipedia. Even then it seems somewhat questionable, politically.
Excellent question: I'd say the key "official"ness markers of a hosting/support organization would be:
* the org has permission to use the MediaWiki name/logo/domains (need agreement with WMF?) * MediaWiki documentation endorses the organization doing the hosting/support (need general consensus with the developers, many but not all of whom are WMF employees)
I'd expect conditions of such would tend to include:
* the org invests its time, money, and people back into MediaWiki development
The actual organization could (maybe should?) be distinct from WMF; whether it could be a wholly-owned subsidiary like Mozilla's "Mozilla Corporation", or a separate mini-company like our MediaWiki release management team, or something else is something I feel needs a lot more input.
-- brion