Matrix.org (both the protocol and the home server) are used quite a bit by Wikimedia communities: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Matrix.org
Currently a number of channels have their primary home on matrix.org and we advertise app.element.io as primary client too. This means we're currently relying on the resources of a central entity for what is supposed to be a decentralised protocol.
Now we know that trouble is brewing: «This is completely unsustainable, and Element is now literally unable to fund the entirety of the Matrix Foundation on behalf of everyone else - and has had to lay off some of the folks working on the core team as a result». https://matrix.org/blog/2022/12/25/the-matrix-holiday-update-2022 https://matrix.org/blog/2022/12/01/funding-matrix-via-the-matrix-org-foundat...
For context, Matrix currently has about the same number of users WhatsApp had in 2012; in 2013, WhatsApp had expenses of 150 M$. You know what happened next. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WhatsApp&oldid=1129148959#cit...
So the Matrix Foundation is extremely cheap for what it's doing, but still it's not gratis. As Wikimedia movement we should at very least financially support the parts of Matrix that we use the most, like the IRC bridges.* Alternatively, "we" should switch to some collectively funded hoster for "our" Matrix presence, like e.g. feneas.org used to be, and contribute to that. But that seems more complicated and expensive to arrange.
The same argument applies to many of the upstream projects and assorted software we rely on https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FLOSS-Exchange , especially where it's not realistic to contribute with software development and where a managed hosting is preferable, but the Matrix case seems to present some urgency.
Best, Federico
(*) And Libera Chat itself, if a need ever arises. At the moment they have practically zero expenses and they mostly ask for borrowed hardware, which WMF can't really provide and Wikimedia affiliates usually don't have.
https://libera.chat/contributing/sponsor/ https://libera.chat/annual-reports/2021/a1-financial-report/