Single Global Instance

Software improvement
1

What is the need / problem

Every Manel (instance manager) around the world currently has to finance their own server costs and the administation of these servers. With most instances only having a few thousand users max this seems like a gross waste of resources.

Further the cost of this is totally prohibitive to many global south regions wishing to start to use OFN.

Who does it impact

Manel in lost resources. And every user of the platform in increased costs.
Most significantly this impacts everyone in lost devops capacity. The opportunity cost of managing ever more servers is huge.

What is the current impact of this problem

New regions are not coming online on the OFN as they find the costs prohibitive.
Much funding that could be used to develop the product is instead being diverted to system adminsitation and server costs.

What is the benefit in focusing on this

Saved time of technically skilled contributors and financial resources

Links to more details

Potential solutions that will solve this problem

To solve this problem we will need in place:

Backend

Front End

  • Customised Local Experience including landing page and social links.
  • Map
  • Terms of Service and Legal Compliance

We will then need to consult on a robust architecture, and it is thought we will want to recruit from industry to support this.

2 Likes
2

This research (which includes input from OFN UK) might help with this

3

Thanks @lin_d_hop for summing that up here, I support 100% that strategic direction, and we discussed it with the OFFrance team who is super positive about it.
Also I strated to share about that with our funders, potential partners, etc. and all the feedbacks are super positive, so for me this is really the way to go.
It would lift the barrier for people in regions where there is not yet instances and would make it easier to start new local OFN affiliates worldwide. I guess in our vision and reflexion on the business model we will need to imagine the pricing model for users who are out of any local affiliate scope, but that can be done later.