This document investigates possibilities for self hosting all online
services needed for the development and management of the Sigsum
project.

The goal is to host all the services we're using ourselves. The
primary driving force for this is to avoid forcing contributors to
sign up for and expose their online habits to centralised services
like GitHub, Google, Slack and similar.

An overarching goal for the development process is openness both with
regards to transparency of project governance and opportunity to
influence decisoins.


## tl;dr

TODO summary of recommendations


## Considerations

### Stable references -- URL's that survive

Stable references, i.e. URL's, are valuable for long lived data like
code repositories, presentations, project guidelines and such with an
archiving function. Less persistent data, like online chat, have less
need for stable references.

### Functionality

* git repos
* ticketing system
* text publishing
* direct communication
  between users, developers, administrators, sponsors

### Availability -- uptime guarantees

### Cost -- agony, time, money


## Possible steps forward

Moving from something to something else.

### Sigsum current situation, June 2021

Here's where we are at.

- Meeting minutes in Google docs
- Code and issues on GitHub
- Code review available on GitHub, not currently used
- Web site: missing
- Mailing list: missing
- Video meetings: Jitsi @ friends
- Chat on OFTC (IRC) and matrix.org (Matrix), bridged
- Pads: wherever, mostly on riseup
- Pastebin: wherever

### Potentially useful software packages and services

- [GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/) is a company and software
  package with features like what GitHub has

  The full thing, with CI runners and all that jazz. There's a
  considerable amount of systems administration to take into account
  when chosing GitLab.

- [Codeberg](https://codeberg.org/) is a non-profit organisation,
  hosting a [gitea](https://gitea.io/en-us/) server

  The GitLab replacement for skeptics of GitLab the company or the
  Ruby monster (?). It might be easier to keep upgraded and running
  than GitLab but to what extent is unclear.

  Paying for hosting:
  - https://hostedgitea.com/ $24/month
  - https://www.stellarhosted.com/gitea/#pricing $49..$249/month

- [cgit](https://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/about/) is a software package (by
  Jason, coincidentally)

  Lean, no frills, no(*) dependencies easy to upgrade and keep
  running.

  Lacks a ticketing system and code review. This is typically handled
  in mail, chat and pads instead.

  (*) libzip, openssl

### Sigsum future

Here's where we want to get to during the fall of 2021.

- Meeting minutes in an archive
  - Contenders: a git repo, a mailing list archive
- Code: GitLab/gitea/cgit at git.sigsum.org
- Issues: TBD
- Code review: TBD
- Web site: www.sigsum.org
- Mailing list: mlmmj or Mailman @ lists.sigsum.org
- Video meetings: Jitsi @ meet.sigsum.org
- Chat: OFTC bridged to #Sigsum@matrix.sigsum.org
- Pastebin: paste.sigsum.org
- Pads: pads.sigsum.org


#### TBD possible more services

- Nextcloud can help with
  - Shared documents
    - Markdown out of the box
    - "Office documents" with some extra work and with some user
      quirks
  - Shared calendars
  - Shared task lists
  - Kanban-like boards for project tracking
  - A [million more things](https://apps.nextcloud.com/)