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

[Rjd0060]

On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:34 PM, Rjd0060 <rjd0060.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:25 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>
>> 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 running outdated software, the Wikimedia Foundation apparently being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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> I've been working on OTRS since 2008 and have been an OTRS administrator
> for much of that time.  As somebody who devotes a lot of his time to
> OTRS-related work, I'm extremely disappointed in the lack of support the
> OTRS team has been dealing with.  As MZMcBride points out, there are a
> number of reasons why the software needs to be updated.
>
>
>

To clarify, the Foundation support that would be appreciated here is from
the tech/ops group.  We've had good response from other staff on related
issues, and that is much appreciated.

-- 

Ryan
User:Rjd0060