Written by Silvia Macovei, Head of Cloud Business

Well-organized documentation is a must for any Open Source project. With the right tools in place, community members are able to get started quickly, give feedback and make their own contributions. For instance, the XWiki open source project has been using XWiki Standard to create guides, document features and best practices for years.

On the eve of XWiki's 15 year anniversary, we're excited to announce we'll be offering our cloud subscription for free to open source projects.

What is XWiki Cloud?

If you do not want to handle all the bits and pieces involved in getting your wiki started, XWiki Cloud is the way to go. XWiki Cloud is a SaaS offer provided by XWiki SAS, which includes hosting, monitoring and regular updates of your XWiki Standard instance.

What does it mean for open source projects?

Open source projects that request a cloud wiki, will be able to host their wikis with XWiki SAS at the bronze level and receive regular updates (technical support not included). Open source projects may also request free licenses for XWiki Pro apps. Projects that wish to create a cloud wiki or ask for Pro app licenses, should meet the following criteria:

• the project should be licensed under a license listed on the Open Source Initiative website
• the project source code should be available for download
• the wiki instance on XWiki Cloud should be accessible to the public
• the request should be made by the project lead or a committer

To apply for a cloud wiki all you have to do is fill in the form on the Try XWiki page and create a new cloud demo instance.
In the form, you should specify the following information:

• the project name, URL and a short description
• the Open Source license used
• a link from where the source code can be downloaded

Once you've filled in the information and created your instance, we'll reach out to you as soon as possible to validate your request.

Why make it free?

At XWiki, we are big believers in the Open Source movement and its values. We both develop and use Open Source software. We’d love to have more Open Source projects use XWiki to organize their information.