On 8/2/07, Jeremy Frumkin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  So, the one point that I don't understand Dan is what you see as the
> advantage of having c4l hosted at ibiblio is as opposed to OSU? I don't
> believe there are any technical advantages (we already support most of the
> current c4l software, such as Drupal and trac, here at OSU, and whatever
> accounts / access is requested by the c4l community will be available).
>
>  Let me ask directly – is there a continued concern about having a
> university donate hosting services?

Yes, I have a concern about a university hosting arrangement like what
you've described, though it doesn't have anything to do with OSU or
you. :)  ibiblio is in the business of being a neutral hosting space
for sites like this (and, yes, they're at a university, but, their
long-lived project there is long-dedicated to this).  Special
arrangements to host code4lib.org at any particular university through
the good graces of one or two people like you are just that - special
arrangements, predicated on a generally favorable situation and the
kindness of a couple of supportive individuals both in our "community"
- presumably you and rordway - and at OSU (your boss and
network/server support staff).

We've all seen many job postings floating by this list, and many of us
have changed jobs in recent months/years, and even when people don't
change jobs, the circumstances behind special arrangements change for
other reasons.  A new network guy comes in who doesn't like you,
somebody else changes a server without caring how it affects your
thing, a boss wants you to focus more on internal tasks, you lose
interest yourself - I'm just talking from my own experience here, this
is just what happens over time.  And over time, what you want is a
host that gets that you're hosting something on a voluntary basis that
just needs a stable place to live, and is going to honor that your
collection of stuff, whatever it is, is somehow important enough that
they're going to go out of their way not to clobber it, or suddenly
decide that they don't want it anymore.

My experience with ibiblio is that they do that.  My experience with
OSU only indicates that it'd a good place to host stuff too, and I'd
bet that everybody here would trust you and Ryan to do it right -
again, that's not my concern.  And, obviously, the linux kernel people
seem to think OSU is a good place to host stuff, among others, so
that's not a problem either. :)  I just think we should take the
opportunity to move to an organization directly focused on exactly
what we need from a host.

The other issue that worries me is that at a site like ibiblio, direct
communications with the hosting provider could be managed through any
of a number of site admins - unlike with a particular university,
where if there's a serious issue, it would have to go through the one
or two code4libbers at that university to get to the server people to
actually pay attention.

Fwiw, I don't worry at all about the "inappropriate content" issue.
Everything the www.code4lib.org site is about is utterly appropriate.
But then again, I don't think that any personal sites, or even trac,
should be co-located with it, but that's a separate issue I won't
argue at length about.

(Actually, I'd rather see something like:  www.code4lib.org goes to
ibiblio, trac.code4lib.org goes to OSU, personal blogs stay on anvil
for those who pay into anvil, or wherever else you want to put them.)

  -Dan