[IndiChix] Summary of hosting offers + Voting (open till 2009feb07)

[VidAyer]

Hi All,

At the outset, apologies for the delay.  As per the earlier
discussions, on moving to a different hosting provider[0] and a status
update[1], LCIN has received 5 hosting offers thanks to the generosity
of list members and NP organizations. This email lists details of the
different offers received, including Hassaths suggestion of having
backup hosts and members are requested to vote  after perusal and
after reading the voting instructions :).  Once the voting is
completed, we would have finished all steps of the update[1], and TIA
to all the members for bearing with us this far. We are almost done.

[0] http://mailman.linuxchix.org/pipermail/indichix/2009-January/001448.html
[1] http://mailman.linuxchix.org/pipermail/indichix/2009-February/001506.html


======================
To summarize, Offers received are :
======================

1. Sudarsan :  http://mailman.linuxchix.org/pipermail/indichix/2009-January/001449.html
Hosts with GoDaddy.com, 100Gb of webspace, can allow multiple
web-administrators to hover around the domain/webspace management,
also willing to share the primary admin access credentials with a
couple of "honest/responsible" members of the group, if needed.

2. Neville Fernandes :
http://mailman.linuxchix.org/pipermail/indichix/2009-January/001454.html
Hosts his websites with http://outpowerhosting.com, can contribute
space and an ftp account, No CPanel access.

3. CIS-India.org : Interested in hosting the India chapter, can only
provide Plone CMS.

4. web4all.in : Wanted info on the software we would like to run (I
provided the same) and space (which was a common question actually)

5. Ketan, From :
http://mailman.linuxchix.org/pipermail/indichix/2009-February/001519.html
Mediawiki, a LAMP stack, SSH access and  1 TB Bandwidth per month.


=======
Notre Bene:
=======
Please remember who hosts LCIN (individual or NP) is not a moot point
but the important consideration is we should not fall apart if the
plug is pulled. Ideally we must be able to roll ourselves away in an
emergency situation (hardware failure, etc..) and survive.  While
voting some things to consider are :

Our architecture : Wiki, Planet aggregation, and probably the ability
to provide other software(s) if needed in future.

- Gives us remote access (ssh?) to maintain our setup,
- Bandwidth and space can overwhelm any virtual host. That is a
disadvantage and they can ask us to move (a bridge we shall cross when
it arises).
- Host keeps backups only for the purpose of restoring from them and
not forever.
- Timespan : None have suggested any. Hence reasonable to assume
hosting is only available until they continue the current projects.
- Proper backup system in place so that we have a complete copy of the
website, and ideally all config required to reconstruct it elsewhere
instantly with a day's latency. Hassath suggested : Keep the wiki
going with an individual hosting but also request a non-profit to give
us space where we can have a backup setup. Or if the organisation
hosts the live website, we request an individual to give us space for
the backup. This backup will be more than a dump, rather a working
wiki instance which can go live at any time.


============
Voting instructions
============

- Voting is open till midnight (IST) of Saturday 2009feb07.  Holler if
you want to extend this.
- heh, no Condorcet system here .... Lets stick to the old and simpler
method : stick a  "+1 for main hosting" under one of the 5 hosts
- If you want to implement Hassaths idea of a backup system then place
a "+1 for backup" under the remaining 4 hosts.
- please snip parts of the mail that are not relevant before replying/voting.

Hopefully this covers all offers received but if you find
discrepancies do say so.

Thoughts, questions and comments are welcome.

Vid
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