Re: Question for the DPL Teams
On Wed, 15 Mar 2006, Anthony Towns wrote:
> So this is for the members of the various DPL teams.
Cool, at least some questions that I can answer ! ;-)
> (1) Did you join the (proposed) DPL team as an endorsement of the
> candidate or the team concept, or because it seemed the best opportunity
> for you to assist Debian in the event that candidate was elected?
Since I'm in 2 teams I have to give 2 answers :
For Jeroen, I candidated spontaneously since I endorse his platform and
because I have a very good working relationship with him (mainly due to our
work within the QA team). So it looked like a great opportunity for me
to help Debian in areas where it's difficult doing so if you're not aware of
the internal problems. (And indeed, I already learnt many things for the
few days that I've been part of both "candidate teams")
For Andreas, he contacted me to ask me if I would join his team. I
accepted but I informed him that I was also on Jeroen's team and that
he was not my preferred choice in this election and that I didn't want to
campaign for him. However, since I'm interested to help Debian, should he
get elected, I'm willing to work with him to improve Debian: either by
giving my advice to him or by undertaking projects where I have a strong
interest.
> (2) Should one of the other candidates be elected, do you expect to
> contribute as much as you would if your DPL team won?
I don't know, but probably not. I would still do a lot and would offer my
help to the elected DPL, but bringing back some pleasure in the work of
internal teams is a difficult thing to do if you don't have any regular
contact with them.
> If not, what contributions do you feel you wouldn't be in a position
> to make?
Those contributions are difficult to describe because they're mostly
immaterial but I believe that a team can help a lot provided that the
members always keep in mind :
- they are here to provide help to the core teams and work *with* them
- the project at large request transparency and thus they should try
to provide news about what goes inside, and fill any gap left by the
internal teams
- mediate conflicts when they happen
I think I am a reasonable person to work with, I can change my mind
and happily admit that I have been wrong in some occasions. Thus I'd like
to make use of those skills where they are needed, and the DPL team looks
like a good starting place for me, in particular since this year the
leader@debian.org alias will point to the team directly.
> What, if anything, could the other DPL candidates or the project in
> general do to encourage your contribution?
Share as many information as possible with the whole project, or with me
directly if the information is not ready for public disclosure.
But really it depends on his analysis of the situation. (And that's a
disadvantage of the single DPL, he's the only one with direct access
to the information and it's more difficult for him to give the required
context to any person who would work with him, whereas with a team the
other members have the same set of information and can effectively help
the leader without loosing too much time)
Most of the technical contributions I can make won't be affected by the
election, but my motivation to work on some projects may vary depending
on it.
> (3) Will you all be going to debconf6 in Mexico, and can we therefore
> expect you to flip a coin to see who gets Steve and Raphael for an
> exciting game of five-a-side football or ultimate frisbee?
I'll be there, I have my plane tickets. But I wonder if I should really
come given how you picture what will happen... :-)
> (4) When asked about why things didn't work last year, both Andreas [0]
> and Jeroen [1] seem to have mostly pointed to Branden not doing things
> that, if elected, they will. What, if anything, will you do this year
> as a member of a new DPL team to provide the new DPL with more support
> than Branden had?
I have an history of doings things and will continue with that both for
the work for the DPL team and for the other projects that I'm part of.
Jeroen's team has been formed with several people who are active and
are willing to work to fix things ...
"Leading by example" is something important IMO (and for that I share many
ideas of your platform as well).
> (5) How would you rate the importance of your participation on the DPL
> team compared to your other roles in Debian?
Equal ? I don't know, the importance a given project over another varies
over time ... and with the achieved results.
> (6) Has your DPL team had any meetings already, for which minutes could be
> published?
There's an IRC channel, but we had no formal meeting. However we
already discussed how we could improve Debian's press coverage (following
the recent discussion in -project and a mail exchange between Jeroen and
Martin Joey Schulze).
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Premier livre français sur Debian GNU/Linux :
http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/
Reply to: