Request for Proposals - Extended Support for Joomla 3.x

February 2023 - version 1.0

Background Information

Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) is a Not for Profit Corporation under the laws of the State of New York, USA and provides financial and legal support to the Joomla! Project.

Joomla 3.x entered the Security Support phase on August 17, 2021, when Joomla 4.0.0 was released in its stable version. As per the software development roadmap, this Security Support phase would last 2 years from its start, so the official security support for Joomla 3.10 will end on August 17, 2023.

However, the Joomla 3.x series is still widely used throughout the community and many websites are based on such versions. Therefore, OSM intends to extend the support for Joomla 3.x through a third party vendor, to provide extra-time to website owners in planning their migration to Joomla 4.

Responders

• Individuals, organizations and corporations are eligible to respond to this request.
• Responders shall meet the following requirements:
  • Proven Joomla development experience (development of extensions or contribution to the core).
  • Solid knowledge of the Joomla core structure and APIs.
  • Proven experience in contributing to the Joomla core development.

Scope of Work and Services Required

• The awarded applicant will be required to provide Security Support for Joomla 3.10 core, developing patches and releasing security update packages for 18 months from August 2023 onwards.
• The awarded applicant shall establish an alternative Joomla Update Server, to be used with the Joomla Update component integrated in the Joomla core, to distribute patches for security vulnerabilities that may arise in relation to the Joomla 3.x core.
• The awarded applicant may make available updates based on paid subscriptions to users, sharing a commission with OSM for each sold subscription following an agreed structure as well as provide detailed accounting and financial transparency.
• The awarded applicant must agree to pay Open Source Matters the due commission according to a monthly schedule.
• The awarded applicant must agree to handle all sales, enquiries, returns, refunds, complaints and issues in a transparent and timely manner following the general industry standards.
• The awarded applicant will be licensed to use the Trademarks in order to provide the service.

Proposal Details

Responders are requested to write a proposal in which they highlight the understanding of the services required and sufficient information about related experience in similar roles.

Interested parties are encouraged to provide any additional information not otherwise requested that may help Open Source Matters in awarding this professional service contract.

Signature Page

Each proposal must contain the signature of a duly authorized agent or officer of the company submitting the proposal.

Restrictions

1. The awarded vendor shall not develop nor release any new feature in Joomla 3.x core.
2. The awarded vendor shall only release security fixes for the Joomla 3.10.x core for the contract period.
3. The awarded vendor shall not release any additional minor version of Joomla 3.x.
4. The awarded vendor shall ensure backporting of Joomla 4.x API into Joomla 3.10.x core to ensure users have the chance to use the integrated upgrade features. The official procedure to Joomla 4 shall result unaffected by the changes applied to the vendor.
5. The awarded vendor shall not create a fork of Joomla nor continue to provide updates after the contract expiration date.
6. The awarded vendor shall provide support for the updates exclusively for the contract term.

Submission Timeline

Contract Terms

• Contract will be for 18 months, with no possibility of renewal.
• OSM reserves the right not to award a contract. In any contract awarded, OSM will require the vendor to agree to certain minimum legal terms acceptable to OSM, such as audit rights, representations and warranties, indemnification,compliance.
• All confidential information included in bid proposals will be treated as confidential, but a listing of bidders and the general terms of the winning bid will be made publicly available.
• The RFP can be withdrawn at any point without reason.
• No compensation will be given to any entity submitting a proposal or working on a proposal.
• The vendor selected for this proposal will be solely at the discretion of Open Source Matters, Inc.

Changes to this document during the RFP Process

This RFP document version may be occasionally updated to include additional information based on the questions we get from potential vendors and the version number at the top of this document will be changed as necessary.