[Foundation-l] Wikimedia mirrors

[Erik Moeller]

I entirely agree that full, distributed backups of all content in
Wikimedia projects are a top priority.

This shouldn't only include the publicly available dumps, but also a
regular secure off-site backup of "Wikimedia in a box" (essentially
everything needed to restore a fully operating network of sites -- all
data, software, documentation).  This is already part of our
operations planning, but it doesn't exist yet.

For privacy reasons, we can't back up all data everywhere (e.g. user
account information) -- it might be worth thinking about longer term
strategies for portability of that data (e.g. a group of unaffiliated
entrusted individuals who hold encryption keys). But, for the publicly
available dumps, I don't see a list of mirrors prominently linked from
http://dumps.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html -- I think starting a
page at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_dumps/Mirrors with
mirroring instructions (if such a page doesn't already exist
somewhere), prominently highlighting it at dumps.wikimedia.org, and
spreading the word would be a good start. We are already generating
MD5s, so it shouldn't be hard for engaged community members to help
with standard/policy setting, verification of mirror status, etc.

-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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