Biowikifarm Metawiki:Service Sponsorship Charter

(This document is in DRAFT stage; further development is anticipated. Missing elements are details on conflict resolution, and procedures to enter and leave the Service Sponsorship.)

The current and future service of the biowiki platform (on which several content management systems may exist), will be sponsored by one or several Service Sponsors. Service sponsors express their interest and willingness to dedicate specific resources to keep the operation running for several years.

Responsibilities

At any given time, some of the sponsors will run the actual operation (currently one sponsor is sufficient for this). These sponsors will be designated "Lead sponsors" and attributed using larger sized logos. Further sponsors may support the service by giving assurances of their willingness to help in future maintenance, should the current lead sponsors be unable to maintain service quality themselves. This may include the support for backup operations, without any further commitments. These will be designated "Further sponsors" and represented by smaller logos.

Presently, the BiowikiFarm requires a single virtual Linux machine. Details on the current configuration and potential cost for future Service Providers can be found under "Service configuration".

Sponsor organisations may limit their support (for example as in "up to one virtual server with 4 processors and 4 GB RAM, administration time not exceeding 5 days per year").

Changes of services or setup of new sites must be discussed in advance and agreed, if necessary by majority rule, among all Service Sponsors. The technical means of service provision and distribution of tasks (e. g., backup, fall-over service, or some form of shared and replicated service) will be decided, if necessary by majority rule, by the Lead Sponsors.

New Service Sponsors

All Service Sponsors can suggest new members and vote on their admittance into the sponsorship. However, if only a single sponsor is left, a willing additional sponsor must be admitted by the single remaining sponsor.

Questions: Voting procedures: equal vote, or lead sponsors with a double vote?

Notice of leaving

A sponsor organisation may withdraw its commitment of service sponsorship after giving notice one year ahead of the actual withdrawal.

Service Sponsors and Content

Normally, decisions which content is appropriate or correct are a matter of the community of each content managmenent system (e. g., a wiki). They may be decided by governance rules that the community gives itself (initially, governance rules based on consensus from Wikipedia will be applied). A service sponsor has no special rights in these decisions. However, since a service sponsor may be held legally responsible for content on a side, service sponsors do have special rights with respect to illegal material, including for example copyright violations or defamations.