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

[MZMcBride]

Keegan Peterzell wrote:
>I've been an Volunteer Response Team agent since 2009, and a leader (OTRS
>admin) since 2010. In that time the control of OTRS moved from a
>function that had a designated staff role of "control" to one of community
>management. In the past two and a half years Philippe has been our
>contact for support from the Wikimedia Foundation, and he has done a
>fantastic job supporting myself and the time with advice and Foundation
>resources as they have been gathered.  Over the past year, Maggie Dennis
>has transitioned into this role as the Foundation rep for OTRS.  She has
>done an equally wonderful job in being proactive and helping us with our
>thoughts and needs.

I don't have much interaction with either on a daily basis, but I can
certainly say that it seems to be purely in terms of technical (software)
support where we're seeing an issue right now. The non-technical support
has been great, particularly since Maggie joined, from what I'm told.

But OTRS is ultimately a big piece of software. Maybe the Wikimedia
Foundation can buy a support contract for it if nobody is willing/able to
support/maintain it internally? Or maybe that's something a chapter or
grant could do? Dunno. I think any option is on the table right now.

This also isn't a criticism of the Wikimedia Foundation engineering folks.
They've got plenty on their plate as well, of course. But _somebody_ has
to be supporting the technical portion of OTRS. If the Wikimedia
Foundation can't/won't, someone else has to step in. That's where I
thought the chapters or another movement player might be an option.

Gregory Varnum wrote:
> This could be a good project for one of the developing MediaWiki Groups.
> MediaWiki Group San Francisco is already approved by AffCom and eligible
>for grants.

If they're willing to make a commitment to support it for at least a few
years (you don't really want to be moving infrastructure around all the
time, I don't think), I think this is workable. It's just a matter of
pointing where the e-mail is sent, as I understand it. And then
maintaining whatever solution you pick/build that manages the e-mail.

MZMcBride