Systems Administrator Tender

This page is currently an early draft.

Wikimedia UK is the Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. We exist to help collect, develop and distribute freely licensed knowledge (and other educational, cultural and historic material). We do this by bringing the Wikimedia community in the UK together, and by building links with UK-based cultural institutions, universities, charities and other bodies. We also represent UK-based Wikimedians to the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikimedia movement.

Wikimedia UK is seeking a systems administrator. This role will include setting up and running several dedicated servers, maintaining the software that they run, evaluating and setting up new software packages as needed. The role will also include responding to urgent requirements as they arise. Depending on the individual or organisation, additional duties (such as supporting office IT requirements, developing bespoke online systems, or contributing to open source projects such as MediaWiki and CiviCRM) may also be included in this contract.

We expect that this position will be paid either on an hourly or monthly basis, with a duration of 6 months, extending to a year if successful and will commence as soon as possible. It may continue for a longer period or, in the case of individuals, it may transfer to a full time employee. We anticipate that around 5 hours of work per week will be required at the outset, increasing to 10 hours per week from October 2012, and would prefer an individual or organisation with flexible working hours and available time. The hourly or monthly rate will depend on the expertise/experience and tender of the individual or organisation.

The role will be flexible, such that it can support needs as they arise. As a central role, it will include:

• Setting up and maintaining servers, including (but not restricted to):
  • Maintaining basic server requirements, including security, email, mailing lists
  • Ensuring that the servers are responsive, and are reliably and comprehensively backed up. A service level of 99.99% uptime is expected.
  • Facilitating and reacting to an external security review
  • Over the next 6 months, we anticipate setting up and operating up to four servers, focused on confidential data; community tools; providing a mirror of Wikimedia project content; and a backup server. Some of these may be Cloud servers.
• Maintenance and upgrading of existing MediaWiki, Wordpress and Joomla/CiviCRM installations
• Installation and maintenance of an email ticketing service (such as OTRS)
• Setting up and maintaining SSL for our main domain names.
• Supporting custom software that has been developed by volunteers. An example of this is the custom software developed for processing Direct Debits.
• Optional: Supporting the IT requirements of the Office, including open source desktop software and Google Apps
• Optional: Development of CiviCRM
• Optional: Development of MediaWiki

The role will also require liaising with office staff who are managing related aspects of these requirements. A security audit will also take place in the near future,

Note that this role does not involve management of the international Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, which are under the control of the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco.

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Background Information

Wikimedia UK is a registered charity with a current staff of four, an office in London, In 2011 Wikimedia UK became a registered charity, began to employ a staff of four, and established offices in London. We support and represent the Wikimedia/Wikipedia community in the United Kingdom.

Our aim is to use open source software as far as possible, but we also run some proprietary products where necessary. Staff use a variety of hardware to suit their needs, but are in general IT literate. Access to the internet is provided by our premises management. Wikimedia UK also has seven trustees and several key volunteers who need to be able to access central systems, e.g. databases, remotely. In November and December we run an annual fundraiser which creates high demand and a need for absolute reliability.

The technical demands are such that we are seeking support from a developer(s) who can ensure continuity and problem solving to a high-level. For our own needs, we utilize a Virtual Private Server donated and currently managed by a volunteer, as well as some hosting provided by the Wikimedia Foundation. These needs are currently as follows (they are hosted by WMUK unless otherwise stated).

Required qualifications

Skills needed

Prior experience administrating webservers running Linux operating systems, including monitoring, maintenance and upgrading.

Experience with Ubuntu and Plesk Parallels server administration (either dedicated server or VPS)

Experience with PHP (programming) and MySQL (database)

Experience with Mediawiki, CiviCRM, Wordpress, Joomla and OTRS, including the installation, maintenance and upgrades of those platforms and their extensions (desirable)

Experience with developing extensions for MediaWiki would be advantageous

Tasks will include

Maintenance of the existing server, including the above mentioned applications, as well as email, SSL, security, backup, and maintenance of domain names

Specification, preparation, installation and maintenance of new servers as needed

Support of third party websites, including QRPedia

Set up and manage WMUK-operated servers, including migrating projects between servers as needed

Maintain existing software, carrying out upgrades, reconfigurations and ensuring security

Ensure regular backups, both online and offline

Establish and manage a CRM system for dealing with incoming emails

Manage domain names, including renewal and subdomains

Manage SSL certificates, and ensure the security of donation websites

Would report to the Chief Exec for management purposes, would liaise with a key volunteer on the technical side.

External security review

Two components:

General security review/audit, identifying areas where we need to improve our security (implementation via the sysadmin contract)

Penetration testing

QRPedia development

Things like:

Multilingual user interface for the webpage? Stats tools Special features for partnership organisations?

Ethos

Must have a strong affinity for the Wikimedia mission.

Process Schedule

You may wish to offer a global annual cost, a part-time contract or a per hour contract. The bids will be evaluated by a group of staff and trustees.

Further questions for clarification may be asked.

The contract may in the first instance be awarded on a monthly basis to test its efficacy.

Bids must be received by .......

Evaluation

The submitted documents will be evaluated against the following criteria (in no specific order):

Understanding of the mission and values of the Wikimedia Foundation; Ability to work with Wikipedia's existing community of volunteers and staff; Overall willingness and eagerness to undertake a highly complex challenge.

Points of contact for future correspondence

Please submit your documents electronically as PDF to Jon Davies jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk