[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

bits from the DPL -- March (+ start of April) 2014



Hi,

It has been a pleasure and a honor to serve as the Debian Project Leader
for the past year. Following the 2014 DPL election, I am very thankful for
been given me the opportunity to continue for a second term, and I hope
that I will be meeting the project's expectations during the coming year.
I also would like to thank Neil McGovern, for running and making many
insightful points during the campaigning discussions.

Below is the 11th monthly report of my first term, covering March and the
first half of April.

Outline:
- Call for sprints before/after DebConf14
- DebConf14 - Debian financial support
- DebConf14 still looking for sponsors!
- Prospective Trusted Organizations evaluation
- Stefano Zacchiroli elected as OSI Affiliates board member
- Delegations
- Assets
- DPL TODO List
- Day-to-day log

Call for sprints before/after DebConf14
=======================================

As you might already know, there won't be any DebCamp organized prior to
DebConf14 -- instead, the conference is extended over both surrounding
week-ends, and will include some dedicated time for hacking.

However, given that many people are going to travel to DebConf14, it makes
sense to use that opportunity to organize sprints just before or after
DebConf14, since that would reduce the overall cost of those sprints by
piggy-backing on DC14's travel.

If your team is interested, please follow the process described at
https://wiki.debian.org/Sprints/HowTo


DebConf14 - Debian financial support
====================================

The DebConf14 team asked for Debian's financial support in order to reach
a balanced budget. Given the importance of DebConf's success for Debian, I
agreed to contribute $36,000 from Debian's reserves. This enables the
DebConf team to move forward with the most urgent matters, i.e. start the
registration and travel sponsorship process -- we need our volunteer
contributors to be able to attend DebConf if we want it to be a successful
event.  However, we haven't received enough support from sponsors to be
able to organize a full-fledged DebConf, and severe cost reduction moves
are being considered.


DebConf14 still looking for sponsors!
=====================================

... which means that WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR SPONSORS!
Every donation makes a difference. Please get in touch with
sponsors@debian.org if you believe you can help!


Prospective Trusted Organizations evaluation
============================================

Following the work on defining evaluation criteria for a prospective
TO[1], Debian France[2] and FFIS[3] provided their answers. I delayed
the formal approval of those organizations due to the DPL election,
and there's now some pending questions for one of the organizations.
If you want to ask more questions, please do it *now*!

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DPL/TrustedOrganizationCriteria
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2014/03/msg00012.html
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2014/03/msg00132.html


Stefano Zacchiroli elected as OSI Affiliates board member
=========================================================

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has been holding elections to renew its
Board of Directors[1]. Debian is an OSI Affiliate Member[1], and as such,
can nominate and vote for candidates for the Affiliates seats on the board.
For this election, there was one open Affiliates seat. After consulting
him, I nominated Stefano Zacchiroli (platform[3]), and he was elected[4].
Congrats, Zack!

[1] http://opensource.org/board
[2] http://opensource.org/affiliates
[3] http://osi.xwiki.com/bin/OSI+Board+of+Directors/Stefano_Zacchiroli_2014
[4] http://opensource.org/node/705


Delegations
===========

Nicolas Dandrimont and Sylvestre Ledru are now officially delegated
as GSoC admins for the 2014 edition of the program[1].

The New Member Front Desk delegation was updated to Jan Dittberner and
Mike Gabriel[2].

Thanks a lot to all of them!

[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2014/03/msg00002.html
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2014/03/msg00012.html


Assets
=======

In addition to Debian's contribution to DC14's budget, I also approved
funding for a DebConf15 kick-off meeting (2500 EUR).


DPL TODO List
=============
*** delegations and teams
- discuss the debconf chairs delegation with debconf team (summarize, take to debconf-team?)
- revisit thread on handling of release goals (C: thread at http://deb.li/3D9kV)
- Debian infrastructure discussion (http://deb.li/3X0j)
- [lucas] re-re-delegate policy editors to address concerns (http://deb.li/3s5PN)
- [lucas] set up board
- make sure that the most important teams are represented at DC14

*** money / accounting / TOs / auditor / trademark
**** auditors
IU (I = importance, U = urgency, 1 is the top)
11 - [lucas/auditor] build global overview of Debian finances - see platform, 3.3.1. (N: centralize data)
11 - [auditor] improve reimbursement procedures (C: http://deb.li/s6MI, N: formalize and document process for use of RT to track reimbursements).
12 - [bgupta] rework donations web page. (N: HTML mockup; #681501)
12 - [lucas] TO evaluation: Debian.ch (C: questions sent, no reply yet)
12 - [lucas] TO evaluation: Debian France (C: discussion in progress)
12 - [lucas] TO evaluation: FFIS (C: discussion in progress)
13 - [auditor] update delegation (with new members). N: draft task description
13 - [auditor] rationalize Debian's approach to donations, hardware donations, partners and sponsors. (see email from lfilipoz@, 2014-02-08). N: define an actionable plan
13 - more coordinated fundraising (http://deb.li/i2dMv). N: define an actionable plan
13 - [auditor] work with SPI to improve tracking of incomes and expenses. N: ?
13 - wrap-up status of debian-uk. (C: GBP 1903.21 remaining (see email from 2014-02-06), Steve to talk to DSA about spending it on more hard drives for bytemark)
31 - [lucas] terminate the visa card as it has not been useful and costs money (C: request sent to SPI treasurer, waiting for answer about costs)
22 - [bgupta] work with SPI to enable donations via paypal (C: ?)
33 - set up royalty scheme about Debian book from Packt Publishing (C: see email from 2014-01-20. N: docs to fill)
33 - [bgupta/SFLC] look at donations using cryptocurrencies (C: ?)

**** trademark
- [bgupta]Â define a policy for the handling of debian.* domain names
- [trademark] prepare delegation
- [trademark]Â send 'bits' email
- (blocked) [trademark] Debian logo registration

**** legal
- [zack] copyright assignment / license enforcement for Debian

*** communication
- [lucas] answer interview from C. von Eitzen
- [lucas] decide if going to DistroRecipe 2014

*** projects/ideas outside DPL scope to help move forward / make sure it happens:
**** new contributors related
- Debian Welcome team (C: http://deb.li/ctX2 + BOF during DebConf - http://deb.li/w3bM . recent email: http://deb.li/3tCUj )
- "recruit" some example packages to point prospective contributors to. (N: send mail to -devel@, ping major teams)
- adjust documentation around 'gift' tag, or rename the tag. See http://deb.li/GWs4
- debbugs submissions via http (C: http://deb.li/3F03i N: follow-up on #590269)
- improve reportbug template (#719067)

**** other
- Free access to public Clouds for Debian development (C: list of options+instructions sent to DSA for review)
- Debian Code of Conduct (C: http://deb.li/3wRWh  N: iterate with a new version?)
- binary-throw-away uploads -- related to reproducible builds (C: http://deb.li/3NPsz N: dak work)
- Debian PPA (would make transitions much easier to manage) (C: implementation not started yet AFAIK  N: dak work)
- open discussion on ligthening the SC #5 wording ("we support the use of non-free works")? (could also help with FSF's Debian freeness assessment)

*** Blocked / To watch
- finish wrapping up events team discussion (N: list content of events box, update events@Â alias) 
- look at http://www.uefi.org/join and decide whether we should join
- package for dvd playing library. was reviewed by ftpmasters (N: Dmitry Smirnov to include feedback and provide a description of the packaging that can be reviewed by SFLC)
- FSF recognition as a free distro (WIP: non-free.org; blocker: fsf-provided list of issues)
- discuss new nm.debian.org website and possible integration with the DM workflow (with the DM keyring team)
- debbugs (C: team with low manpower; call for help sent in dpl bits  N: ?)


Full/up-to-date list: http://people.debian.org/~lucas/todo.txt


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.201403

- Lucas

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


Reply to: