So ... when did someone last test putting up a copy of the sites from the backups?
(just a complete copy with history, not even at publicly-accessible scale) On Tue, 8 Jan 2019 at 19:31, Steven Walling <steven.wall...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Great question to think about for our long term sustainability. I think we > already have a universal "plan B" however? It's providing all content under > free licenses and regularly distributing complete dumps of our content. > > Many larger and more well-funded technology organizations (Google, > Facebook, etc.) regularly do disaster recovery scenarios that account for > not just governmental disruption or civil unrest but events such as a major > earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. The movement doesn't really have > the resources to do this effectively in the same manner. > > It seems like decentralizing our ability to recover from a disruption is > the most effective defense we have, *especially *in the scenario involving > government intervention because the Foundation's infrastructural and legal > presence in the United States is actually one of the more brittle pieces > within our movement. > > On Tue, Jan 8, 2019 at 9:18 AM Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Dear fellow Wikimedians, please sit back for a moment and ponder the > > following, > > > > For those of us not resident in the US, it has been genuinely alarming > > to see highly respected US government archives vanish overnight, > > reference websites go down, and US legislation appear to drift to > > whatever commercial interests have the loudest current political > > voices. Sadly "populism" is happening now, and dominates American > > politics, driving changes of all sorts in response to politically > > inflated and vague rhetoric about "security" and "fakenews". It is not > > inconceivable that a popularist current or future US Government could > > decide to introduce emergency controls over websites like Wikipedia, > > virtually overnight.[1][2][3][4] > > > > The question of whether the Wikimedia Foundation should have a hot > > switch option, so that if a "disaster" strikes in America, we could > > continue running Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons from other countries > > has been raised on this list several times over many years. The WMF > > and its employees are heavily invested in staying in Silicon Valley, > > and that will stay true unless external risks become extreme. > > > > However, there has never been a rationale to avoid investing in a Plan > > B. A robust plan, where the WMF can switch operations over to a > > hosting country with a sufficiently welcoming with stable national > > government and legislation, that our projects could continue to meet > > our open knowledge goals virtually uninterrupted and without risk of > > political control. A Plan B would ensure that if the US Government > > started to discuss controlling Wikipedia, then at least that published > > plan would be a realistic response. If they tried doing it, we could > > simply power off our servers in the USA, rather than compromise our > > content. > > > > If anyone knows of committed investment in a practical WMF Plan B, it > > would be reassuring to share it more widely at this time. If not, more > > of us should be asking about it, politely, persistently but perhaps > > less patiently than indefinitely. :-) > > > > Links: > > 1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46739180 > > 2. http://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/research/updates/populism > > 3. > > https://www.cnet.com/news/obama-signs-order-outlining-emergency-internet-control > > "... this order was designed to empower certain governmental agencies > > with control over telecommunications and the Web during natural > > disasters and security emergencies." > > 4. > > https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418 > > "The president could seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding > > access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return > > pro-Trump content as the top results." > > 5. Bizarro, as used in the title of this email: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World > > > > Thanks, > > Fae > > -- > > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
