Release Management RFP

'''This document is a work in progress. Comments are appreciated but this is not a final draft.'''

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking an individual or organization to manage the release of MediaWiki for third-party users. This is a complex role that involves skills from a variety of areas including QA and community management.

See the official RFP here (ToBePosted).

Proposal Timeline

 * (1 month? period) - Proposal period open. See below for details.
 * This is also when community feedback happens on the proposals.
 * (1 week period) - Public voting on the proposals.
 * (1 week period) - Final decision.

How to Apply
Submitting a proposal for this RFP involves the following steps:
 * 1) Create a proposal wiki page, explained below
 * 2) Answer the provided questions (below) on that page
 * 3) Announce your proposal on the wikitech-l mailing list
 * 4) Officially submit your proposal to robla's email?
 * 5) Respond to feedback and questions from the community

Creating Proposal Page
To complete an application for the RFP, it is required to post your proposal on this wiki, as a sub-page of this page, with the page name either your name or your organization.

Include on that page:
 * A short bio/description of you/your organization.
 * Links to and summaries of your Free/Open Source Software contributions are especially encouraged.
 * A listing of your qualifications (especially as they related to the stated Required Qualifications on the RFP).
 * Your answers to the questions below.
 * Include at the end an empty section called "Comments" for interested parties to submit follow-up/clarification questions and/or comments. Please respond as you are able.

Questions to Answer in Proposal

 * Please describe you experience doing public software releases.
 * What, in your opinion, are the current bottlenecks/friction points in the MediaWiki release process? How would you address them?
 * Please describe your general plan for how you would manage the release.
 * Relatedly, the two releases per year cycle is expected and normal for our community. At the same time, there may be reasons you have to make it different; please explain.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation anticipates providing support for this work for the foreseeable future. However, we can't guarantee that we will always be able to fund this.  Additionally, the MediaWiki community would benefit from a more diverse set of benefactors for MediaWiki maintenance.  What steps will you take to ensure this is a financially sustainable activity, even in the absence of support from the WMF?