How to find volunteer administrators? (Was: RE: Free Web App Co-operative)

[MJ Ray]

Bogdan Bivolaru <bogdan.bivolaru at gmail.com> wrote: [...]
> 1) As I see it the big problem is not the hardware nor the bandwidth (we 
> can think of a web cluster-like system to operate it, REBOL style 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REBOL ): the problem is finding capable and 
> good-willing volunteers to administrate it.

Do they need to be volunteers?  Could some members be allowed to pay
their subs by doing root work instead?

> I would offer root access to 
> a computer I own on a internet connection I am responsible for. If that 
> mail server starts sending malware, who will be responsible/liable for 
> charges in justice?

I believe you would, if you own the computer.  It's up to you to watch
what people who give access to and/or put in reasonable liability in
their use agreements.

[...]
> How do you approach this initial lack of criteria for selecting volunteers?

I think you have to apply the theory of moles, try to limit their
return on investment and build up trust in each other over time.
http://mjr.towers.org.uk/writing/fightingshadows.html

> 2a) Since all projects running on such a service would be free (both 
> Afero GPL-style and as in free beer) [...]

Oooh, I hope it's really free, not Affero.

> 2b) I could also pay some monthly fees for a BlueHost / Dreamhost 

Might be better to go with locals who support free software, such as
bytemark.co.uk, GPLhost.fr (does UKFSN.org offer hosting? I forget.)

It's necessary to beware a lot of hosting services, as many use
control panels which are not free software, such as the irritating
Plesk.

> 3) DNS naming and directory:
> What about a DNS register? As far as I know there are no free DNS names 
> registrars, right?

There are a few like eu.org, but they seem overworked to me.

I can't answer your Tor question - I'll leave that to the members as a
whole once it comes into being ;-)

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html tel:+44-844-4437-237 -
Webmaster-developer, statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder,
consumer and workers co-operative member http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ -
Writing on koha, debian, sat TV, Kewstoke http://mjr.towers.org.uk/