Dear Developers, let's see if I can intrude in the Squeeze release countdown (to expire during the upcoming week-end [1]!) with some DPL bits. [1] http://news.debian.net/2011/01/22/join-us-in-the-countdown-to-squeeze/ Collaboration with others ========================= Since the last report of mine, quite some collaboration activities with other distributions, Debian-derivatives or not, have been going on. Thanks to the derivatives front desk, and in particular to the work of Paul Wise and Yaroslav Halchenko, we have announced the derivatives census [2,3] as well as some draft guidelines on how to base the work of other distros on Debain [4]. You can help by getting in the census active Debian-derivatives which are not there yet, and by contributing to the derivatives guidelines. [2] http://www.debian.org/News/2011/20110124 [3] http://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census [4] http://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Guidelines The cross-distribution meeting on application installers I've mentioned in my previous report has been held and two Debian people---Enrico Zini and David Kalnischkies---have attended it on behalf of the project. According to both organizers and participants the meeting has been successful and very productive. Reports, videos, as well as press coverage about the meeting and Debian participation into it are available [5,6,7,8,9]. [5] http://www.enricozini.org/2011/debian/appinstaller2011/ [6] http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2011/appinstaller-meeting [7] http://www.vuntz.net/journal/post/2011/01/25/Results-of-the-App-Installer-meeting,-and-some-thoughts-on-cross-distro-collaboration [8] http://www.muktware.com/a/1/4/26/2011/709 [9] http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/44800-linux-distros-in-bid-for-common-app-installer I share the feeling that this kind of cross-distribution activities should become more and more common in the future. I encourage all of you to think about and advance proposals of similar activities. As a side effect of this meeting, we are now more in touch than in the past with people from other distros interested in collaboration and we should put into use those contacts. I've also been contacted by representatives of the GNOME Foundation to get feedback on upstream-distro relationships with them, as seen from Debian. Joss and Pochu have kindly agreed to act as contact points and discussions have started. Communication ============= I've been "SPAM-ing the world" about Debian. I've attended LCA 2011 [10], mainly to deliver the talk "Who the bloody hell cares about Debian?" [11]. A brief report (including pointers to slides and video) is available [12], as well as some press coverage about it [13,14]. The conference gave me a chance to meet not only several Debian-ers there but also people interested in Debian from other projects and companies (Fedora/RedHat, Ubuntu, Google, ...). [10] http://lca2011.linux.org.au/ [11] http://lca2011.linux.org.au/programme/schedule/view_talk/153 [12] http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2011/01/who_the_bloody_hell_cares_about_Debian/ [13] http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/44622-lca-2011-travelling-far-and-wide-to-spread-the-debian-gospel [14] http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/44703-lca-2011-why-people-should-care-about-debian I've been interviewed about the cross-distro meeting [15] and I've been happy to share my enthusiasm about the potential of similar initiatives. [15] http://www.muktware.com/n/01/2011/730 Delegations =========== The Google Summer of Code program is around the corner for 2011 and, thanks to the heads up of various people such as Ana and Sune, I've tried to get things moving a bit ahead of time with respect to past years. A delegation to a team of admins for the duration of the program has now been made [16]. You'll soon hear back from them. [16] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/02/msg00001.html I've agreed with the current Debian Project Secretary, Kurt Roeckx, to re-appoint himself as Secretary for another year, as soon as the current Secretary term will be over. Expect a separate message about that before the end of February. DebConf "vs" Debian =================== Discussions started at DebConf10 about the relationship between Debian and DebConf have been going on, thanks to the coordination work by Moray Allan and Richard Darst, among others. As new results on that front: shared goals of the conference have been published [18] and we agreed that a small core team of DebConf coordinators/chairs should be DPL delegates. They will be responsible before the Debian project for the conference organization. This formal step should leave unaffected the usual way of working of the DebConf team, but hopefully will clarify the relationships between DebConf and Debian. Check the archives of the debconf-team mailing list for more information. I'm currently looking for volunteers as DebConf chairs and/or for suggestions about them. [18] http://www.debconf.org/goals.shtml Miscellanea =========== - Following up some discussions on trolling on Debian mailing lists, the current mailing list code of conduct has been amended to unwelcome "Non-constructive or off-topic messages, along with other abuses". See #610262 for more information. Thanks to Shachar Shemesh, David Prevot, and the listmasters. - I've been in touch with representatives of the Open Invention Network, about the possibility of joining the network. Taking into account past discussions on the subject (thanks to Steve McIntyre for pointing me to them), I've gently declined the offer to join on the basis that their public stance [17] on software patents is a tad too tolerant. [17] http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/patents.php - To ensure we can retain potential contributors into Debian, we should improve our documentation on how people could help Debian. I've sent out a brief call for help about that [18]. If you feel like working a bit on making easier to help Debian, you might also want to have a look at #608400. [18] http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2010/12/how_to_contribute_to_Debian/ Money ===== A proper finance report by the auditors being pending, here are some highlights on some expenses that I've approved or that I'm going to approve shortly: - -www sprint reimbursement (report at [19]) - security sprint reimbursement (report at [20]) - LCA 2011 reimbursement for myself (report at [12]) - cross-distro app-installer meeting participation (report at [5]) [19] http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2011/02/msg00009.html [20] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/01/msg00006.html Looking forward to Wheezy ========================= I encourage you all to start consolidating your plans for Wheezy and bringing them up for discussions wherever you see fit. A distribution never sleeps and shortly after the Squeeze release parties [21] it will be time to implement your Wheezy plans! [21] http://wiki.debian.org/ReleasePartySqueeze Happy Squeeze, Cheers. PS the usual boring day-to-day activity log is available at <master:/srv/leader/news/bits-from-the-DPL.*> -- Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7 zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/ Quando anche i santi ti voltano le spalle, | . |. I've fans everywhere ti resta John Fante -- V. Capossela .......| ..: |.......... -- C. Adams
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