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

[Thomas Morton]

I offered to look into this some time last year, and apply for a grant to
write an up to date piece of software. However it didn't get a good
response, with the foundation promising an OTRS update early this year...
apparent progress was made at that point, but it petered out very quickly.

Tom


On 21 February 2013 05:18, DeltaQuad Wikipedia <deltaquadwiki at gmail.com>wrote:

> +1, the interface still confuses me at somepoints today.
>
> But I have to ask, are we getting everything we need with an OTRS update to
> the new version, or are we settling for a medioker (excuse my spelling, it
> is late). Is it a better idea to have wikimedians (maybe through grants,
> idk) build something open source and cc-whatever? That way fixes can be
> made and we can get many devs (broad sense of the term) fixing bugs of a
> new system.
>
> DeltaQuad - Mobile phone
> English Wikipedia Administrator and Checkuser
> On Feb 20, 2013 11:35 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 running outdated software, the Wikimedia Foundation apparently being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.
> >
> > Last year, we handled roughly 40,000 general inquiries in over 35
> > languages.[1]  This alone should be a convincing reason as to why we
> should
> > have at least somewhat up-to-date software, clean of security issues and
> > other problems.[2]
> >
> > While I realize that there have been other priorities, I would have
> thought
> > that with 3 years of waiting, eventually OTRS would be important enough
> for
> > somebody to give some much needed attention to.
> >
> > [1] -
> >
> >
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/24/the-incredible-work-of-the-wikimedia-volunteer-response-team/
> > [2] -
> >
> >
> https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&component=OTRS&product=Wikimedia
> >
> > --
> >
> > Ryan
> > User:Rjd0060
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