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bits from the DPL - August 2013



Hi,

Here is my monthly report for August 2013 (+ the beginning of September).

Enjoy.


Outline:
--------
- DebConf
- Follow-up: survey of new contributors
- Participation in OpenZFS initiative
- Status of MariaDB for Debian
- Outreach Program for Women
- Assets
- DPL Helpers and DPL TO-DO list (help needed!)


DebConf
=======
... was fantastic. Kudos to everyone who made this edition such a
success. Having missed last year's DebConf, it was really great to
see again such a vibrant community we are, and to meet so many new
contributors and DDs. Having talked with many of them, I'm reassured
that Debian will have a bright future. :-)

My own sessions/events were:
* talk: Bits from the DPL
  - video: http://penta.debconf.org/dc13_schedule/events/972.en.html
  - slides: http://deb.li/BRhv
  - subtitles (thanks to Francesca Ciceri): http://deb.li/kUBV
* BOF: DPL helpers
  - video: http://penta.debconf.org/dc13_schedule/events/1022.en.html
  - subtitles (thanks to Nattie Mayer-Hutchings): http://deb.li/3ghMR
  - minutes: http://deb.li/3Wfhg

Of course, I also used DebConf to have informal meetings with many people
and teams. See my day-to-day log for details.


Follow-up: survey of new contributors
=====================================
This was the topic of many conversations at DebConf, and resulted in
several actions.

apt-get install how-can-i-help
------------------------------
Following a discussion with Asheesh Laroia, I started working on the
how-can-i-help package (currently available in experimental) that lists
opportunities for contribution after each apt-get run.  The idea is to
expose more such opportunities to prospective contributors. It currently
lists orphaned packages and 'gift' bugs[1] for installed packages.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/GiftTag

encouraging maintainers to provide more info in ITPs
----------------------------------------------------
Following a productive breakfast discussion at DebConf, I filed #719067 on
reportbug to improve the ITP template in reportbug to encourage
maintainers to provide more information in their ITPs.

encouraging packaging questions on localized lists
--------------------------------------------------
The Debian New Maintainers' Guide and the Packaging Tutorial are being
modified to encourage packaging questions on localized mailing lists (e.g.
debian-devel-french@). See #719925 and #719926 for details.


Participation in OpenZFS initiative
===================================
Debian was invited to participate in the OpenZFS community[1].
Interestingly, Debian supports ZFS on Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, and on Debian
GNU/Linux with the FUSE implementation, and with the native ZFS-on-linux
implementation.

[1] http://open-zfs.org/


Status of MariaDB for Debian
============================
At DebConf, I discussed the status of MariaDB (and of a possible inclusion
to Debian) with Monty Widenius and Simon Phipps (MariaDB foundation). In
short, packages have been prepared and tested, but still need to be
reviewed (esp. regarding cohabitation with MySQL) and sponsored (feel free
to volunteer or help!). Some links:
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-mysql-maint/2013-August/005948.html
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-mysql-maint/2013-August/005943.html
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-mysql-maint/2013-September/005988.html
https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/MySQL/MariaDBPlan


Outreach Program for Women
==========================
The next edition of Outreach Program for Women, an internships program
organized by GNOME, will start soon. So far, I failed to find someone to
volunteer to be the coordinator on the Debian side (though it's worth
noting that several people offered to help if such a coordinator stepped
forward). See this thread[1] for details. Time is running out, as GNOME
would like to know the participating organizations before mid-september
(ideally).

[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-women/2013/08/msg00052.html


Assets
======
Two general announcements:
- Debian can sponsor "Sprints" (developer meetings). See
  https://wiki.debian.org/Sprints for more info.
- I'm in favor of sponsoring contributors to engage with their upstream
  community (e.g. funding for a contributor to attend an upstream conference
  on behalf of Debian). See [1] and [2] for more info.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DPL/AskingForMoney
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DPL/SponsoringGuidelines

Auto-approval of minor expenses by DSA
--------------------------------------
There's a discussion[3] going on on debian-project@ on an auto-approval
process for minor expenses required by Debian Systems Administrators to
maintain the Debian infrastructure.

[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/08/msg00041.html

Approved expenses
-----------------
- customs fees for console servers (32.66 EUR)
- airline tickets for Martin Zobel-Helas to attend GanetiConf2013 on behalf
  of DSA. (540 EUR; post-conference report[1])
- sponsor attendance of Michael Bank to the German Conference on Chemoinformatics,
  where he will present a poster on Debian/Debichem. (250 EUR, = half the conference
  registration fee)

[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2013/09/msg00042.html

Follow-up: logo registration as a trademark
-------------------------------------------
Thanks to the work of the Debian Trademark team, SFLC started the process
the process of registering the Debian logo as a trademark, as can be seen
on [1].

[1] http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86037470&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch


DPL Helpers and DPL TO-DO list (help needed!)
=============================================
There hasn't been any DPL helpers meeting during the summer, but the next
one is scheduled on 2013-09-11 (at the same of sending this mail, it took
place, but the pointers to the minutes will be included in my next bits).

As a follow-up to the DPL helpers BOF at DebConf, I will try to include
items of the DPL TO-DO list that could easily be done by someone else.
Obviously not all items have the same importance or urgency -- some of
them are listed just because "it would be nice if this was done and there
was activity recently, so I'm keeping an eye on them".
If you feel like helping with one of the items listed below, please
contact me for details (or just proceed). Thanks!
("C:" means "current status:", "N:" means "Next action:")

*** projects/ideas to help move forward / make sure it happens:
**** new contributors related
- Debian Welcome team (C: http://deb.li/ctX2 + BOF during DebConf -- can't
  find the notes anymore!  N: ??)
- how-can-i-help package (C: pkg in experimental.  N: upload to unstable,
  doc on wiki.d.o/how-can-i-help)
- packaging-tutorial package (N: upload new version, look at open bugs)
- "recruit" some example packages to point prospective contributors
  to. (N: send mail to -devel@, ping major teams)

**** other
- Debian Code of Conduct (C: http://deb.li/3wRWh ; N: iterate with a
  new version?)
- binary-throw-away uploads -- related to reproducible builds (N: check
  what was the consensus, check status)
- debian-installer team (key team for swift releases) (C:
  http://deb.li/b0tF ; N: write and send call for help?)
- package for dvd playing library (C: waiting for ftp-master review before
  final SFLC review  N: reping? do our own review first?)
- Debian PPA (would make transitions much easier to manage)
  (C: implementation not started yet AFAIK  N: ?)
- check status / aliveness of Debian events team (N: ping)
- debbugs (C: team with low manpower  N: check status, write call for
  help?)

*** delegations
- press team (C: someone stepped down.  N: update delegation)
- release team (C: some notes from DebConf meeting  N: draft delegation,
  iterate with team)

*** various other things
- dig mail archives to check status of Debian wrt OIN (Q from Simon Phipps
  at DebConf)
- enable donations via paypal (C: <20130505220527.GA4718@upsilon.cc>)
  + generally improve donations infrastructure
- write DPL part of DebConf13 final report. (C: http://deb.li/hHwh )
- check that anti-harrassement is mentioned on Debian website


Day-to-day log
==============
As usual, my day-to-day log of DPL activities is
available on master:/srv/leader/news/bits-from-the-DPL.txt.201308


- Lucas

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