[ Apologies for this late/out of time answer, I'll try hard to make this
the last time I bother the -vote-rs :-) ]
On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 09:57:38AM +0200, Frank Lin PIAT wrote:
> Debian project raise it's expectation every year: higher quality, more
> package, more architectures, more Desktops, etc... (cool).
>
> How do we face the challenge to do more every year?
> What would you do about it, as a DPL?
There is growth and growth: some needs a good deal of corresponding
manpower growth to be sustainable, some needs less of that.
For instance, we do in per-package quality release after release
(e.g. we add release goals such as piuparts-cleanness, defenses against
"weird" FTBFS scenarios, etc). This kind of growth can be sustainable
by simply improving our tools and QA checks, and in fact that is what we
have done during the past few release cycles. I do not think the DPL
need to do anything specifically about this kind of growth, beside
helping out in having a project agenda and following it. I've added some
more thoughts on this topic in my platform [1].
Growing in what we maintain (e.g.: packages, architectures) on the
contrary requires an equivalent growth in manpower to be sustainable,
otherwise people will just change the focus of their work, and past
activities will eventually rotten (unless if we assume that the
volunteer time of all of us is constantly increasing, which is
unlikely). The only countermeasure to avoid lagging behind in this, is
increase our ability to attract new contributors. To that end, we've
already discussed in several -vote threads the various plans on how to
attract more people to Debian and I address that in my platform too.
As an executive summary: we need to use our communication media,
starting from the website, to highlight our peculiarities in the current
distro ecosystem. That is our best chance to attract new people. The
role of the DPL in this IMO is to stay in touch with the relevant teams
(e.g. www, press) for collaboration, guidance, and to provide needed
resources.
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
Dietro un grande uomo c'è ..| . |. Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
sempre uno zaino ...........| ..: |.... Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime
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