Systems Administrator Tender

Created by Jon Davies

Amended by others for approval

Statement of Purpose

Wikimedia UK is looking for general systems administrator.

The contractor(s) will help ensure that Wikimedia UK's activities operate smoothly by developing improvements to current systems, being available to deal with emergencies and working with colleagues and volunteers in the Wikimedia community to build robust open source solutions to our IT challenges.

Background Information

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. Scope of Work This contract does not involve day-to-day management of the international ‘Wiki’ sites, such as Wikipedia, which are under the control of the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco. 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).

Wikis running on MediaWiki software:

uk.wikimedia.org, a public wiki, hosted and run by the WMF in San Franscisco

Three private wikis, used by the office, the board of trustees, and trusted volunteers

Several smaller project wikis, such as britainloveswikipedia.org.

Wordpress for our blog at blog.wikimedia.org.uk

CiviCRM (with Joomla) for our donations database

DirectDebit form (custom software)

glamwiki.org, a placeholder which redirects to another project

Email

Personal addresses - POP/IMAP/SMTP, webmail. Also many forwarders.

Mailing lists (mailman)

Forwarders to an open-source OTRS system, managed by the Wikimedia Foundation

Service providers for domain names and SSL certificates.

Infrastructure

Servers

The current solution of a VPS works well for our current purposes, but our needs will go beyond this. We are considering a trio (or quadruple) of setups:

'Confidential' server - hosting our donation website, internal wikis, email.

'Community' server - for hosting projects (Such as QRPedia). Would need logins for individuals, an SVN, etc.

'Mirror' server - for hosting a complete dump of all Wikimedia projects - anywhere from 6-30

'Backup' server - to back up our confidential and community servers.

We may also be open to other solutions.

SSL certificates

We are currently using an interim system that provides adequate security for our fundraising subdomains (including 256-bit encryption), but there is scope for improvement. The best solution would be to have a "wildcard" certificate for wikimedia.org.uk that comprehensively covers all of the sections of the website, includes a warranty in the case of problems, and is signed by the industry-standard GlobalSign organisation.

Domain portfolio

Wikimedia UK currently owns 8 domain names:

wikimedia.org.uk wikimedia.co.uk britainloveswikipedia.org glamwiki.org monmouthpedia.org scotwiki.org wikilovesmonuments.co.uk wikilovesmonuments.org.uk

We may want to register alternative forms of the URLs to avoid squatters. We will also need to consider other ways to protect the Wikimedia names in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation.

Upcoming needs and opportunities

Establishing a more robust backup plan

A security review, and improvements based on the outcome of that review

Outcome and Performance Standards

Term of Contract

Your initial contract is likely to be for a duration of 6 months, extending to a year if successful and will commence as soon as possible.

Payments, Incentives, and Penalties:

Rate will be determined by level of experience and expertise. Please submit bid proposal.\

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.

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