tl;dr: Review the tl;dr on https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1frd37p/its_time_to_solve_the_singlepointoffailure/ and then read this: the plugin and themes repos are downloaded, scripts written to keep them up to date, plans in place for replicating the APIs, and also for allowing plugin authors to distribute directly to AspirePress CDN. Also, we have a major CDN backer for data transfer. Community matters, and you all are important.

Recap

For those of you just joining the conversation, here's a short recap:   The WP .org plugin and theme repositories are a single-point-of-failure for the community and the world. The whims of one person can apparently impact whether or not you gain and retain access to these repositories. This is unacceptable. A community problem demands a community solution.   I have been working feverishly over the past week and a half to build a mirror of the .org repository as well as the foundations for an open source project that will make it possible for anyone – anyone at all – to host their own mirror.  

Update

This week I finished work on the script that downloads the plugins and themes from WP .org and completed a first round download of all of them.   I'm moving on to writing the APIs that WP .org uses to communicate with your WordPress instance, so that it can replicate the update functionality for core, themes and plugins.   I've created a subreddit, r/AspirePress, where I'll be posting more information about the effort and how you can help. I desperately need help! This is not a solo project that I can do alone. It requires contributions from the community.  

The big news of the week

The biggest news of the week is that I have received tentative confirmation from a major CDN player (top ten) that they are willing to provide free bandwidth and services for this project. They are doing so based on my relationship with them, their relationship to the community, and their willingness to commit to doing the right thing.   I am not ready to name this CDN since their approval is tentative, but if all goes according to plan, I expect to launch something on their CDN by mid-week.  

How you can help

Follow along in r/AspirePress, or visit our website at https://aspirepress.org and GitHub repo at https://github.com/aspirepress – make sure you star the project so you can get updates.   You can read the vision I wrote for the project there, as well, which is in draft form, and I am open to comments and suggestions on it!  

Community is everything

The WordPress community is extremely important, and is bigger than any one person, any one company, or any problems we may face. WordPress succeeds or fails based on our collective actions, and it will continue on or not based on our collective behavior. I'm a huge believer in community – we just have to come together with a goal in mind, and we can do anything.