[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation's support of OTRS

[MZMcBride]

Hi.

OTRS (<https://ticket.wikimedia.org/>) is a critical piece of Wikimedia's
infrastructure. It currently handles nearly all customer service inquiries
directed at Wikimedia. Trusted volunteers triage and respond to this
e-mail.

Wikimedia is currently running OTRS version 2.4. The most recently
released OTRS version is 3.2. There's been an outstanding request to update
Wikimedia's OTRS installation for just shy of three years now:
<https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/22622>. OTRS' inventor kindly offered to
donate his time to help with an upgrade, but due to a number of factors,
this has become an untenable solution.

Given the bug's fast-approaching birthday, the security concerns of
running outdated software, the Wikimedia Foundation apparently being
overburdened and uninterested in maintaining this piece of software, and
mounting volunteer frustration, I'm wondering whether this is an area
where the Wikimedia chapters or some other group might be able to lend a
hand in supporting the maintenance of this piece of important
infrastructure. Broadly, the Wikimedia Foundation isn't acting on this
issue and it seems to have little interest in maintaining or supporting
this software any longer.

Given recent discussion about various Wikimedia movement roles, I'm
wondering whether a Wikimedia chapter or a grant or some other movement
player could either take on supporting the existing OTRS installation (by
hiring a contractor), evaluating and implementing better/different
response software, and/or moving the response system elsewhere.

MZMcBride