Hello Debianites Herewith follows some bits from the DPL. In this edition: 1. Decisions 1.1. GR: Change the resolution process 1.2. GR: Voting secrecy 1.3. Public statements on world events 1.4. DPL Election 1.5. Community structure and processes 2. Bookworm preliminary freeze dates available 3. News from sponsors / partners 3.1. Freexian survey 3.2. Microsoft sponsoring LWN for DDs 4. Meetings 4.1. DPL/DAM/CT Sprint 4.2. Debian Montréal meetups 4.3. Debian Reunion 4.4. DebCamp and DebConf 5. Debian Publicity == 1. Decisions == We've been quite busy making decisions, and it doesn't seem like we're slowing down on that front any time soon. 1.1. GR: Change the resolution process During previous votes, several problems have been discovered with the constitutional mechanisms used to prepare either a vote for the TC or for a GR. This resolution addresses these issues along with another issue where the role of the TC chair wasn't clearly defined in the event of a tie. https://www.debian.org/vote/2021/vote_003 1.2. GR: Voting secrecy Several developers have expressed that our public voting system had an effect on their vote. Sometimes this could affect whether they voted at all or have simply made them feel uneasy at times. This GR passed the resolution of making all votes private, similar to the DPL elections. https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_001 1.3. Public statements on world events A GR proposal was made to provide a statement on the war in Ukraine, and while it didn't result in a vote, it does seem to remain an unanswered question of how we want to deal with situations like these in the future. I hope that we can follow up on that point another time, since I do believe there are ways in which we can be more socially responsible as a project. https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2022/03/msg00259.html 1.4. DPL Election The DPL election for the 2022 term has concluded. I'm happy to be serving a 3rd term as DPL, thank you all for your trust and support! https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_002 1.5. Community structure Over the years, the Debian Account Managers (DAM) have had to take on an increasing amount of responsibility within the project, mostly because there were no other structure put in place to take on those responsibilities. In recent years, the Debian Community Team (CT) has helped alleviate some of this, but it's been clear from feedback from DAM, CT and the general Debian community that we need some reform so that responsibilities are better distributed, and that we have teams that can serve the project's needs without burning out individuals within those teams. Russ Allbery pondered whether a better moderation structure / team might help alleviate some of the problems: https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2022/02/msg00062.html Discussion on this is mostly stalled at this point, there's been a lot going on recently, and hopefully we can continue this soon and find some concrete ideas. == 2. Bookworm preliminary freeze dates available == The release team have announced preliminary freeze dates for the Debian 12 (bookworm) release. 2022-01-12 - Milestone 1 - Transition and toolchain freeze 2022-02-12 - Milestone 2 - Soft Freeze 2022-03-12 - Milestone 3 - Hard Freeze - for key packages and packages without autopkgtests To be announced - Milestone 4 - Full Freeze The freeze is meant to be short, so please plan accordingly with these dates in mind. https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2022/03/msg00006.html == 3. News from sponsors / partners == 3.1. Freexian survey Freexian has been looking at various ways to fund Debian Developers and the work that their work on Debian projects. The Debian Developers behind Freexian have put together a survey about usage of money in Debian. You need to be a Debian Developer in order to participate, the survey closes on 23rd of April. More details about this survey, and a direct link to the survey is available below: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2022/04/msg00002.html https://surveys.debian.net/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=347114&lang=en 3.2. Microsoft sponsoring LWN for DDs Linux Weekly News is a great source of news on what's happening in the free software world, and having it available for free to our members is a valuable resource. Currently 520 accounts are associated with Debian, and the Linux Systems Group at Microsoft has picked up the bill for this again this year. If you're a Debian Developer who wishes to activate their subscription, please visit the MemberBenefits wiki page. https://lwn.net/ https://wiki.debian.org/MemberBenefits == 4. Meetings == 4.1. DPL, DAM, CT Sprint In January, the DPL, DAM and CT had a sprint to discuss a bunch of outstanding topics. This occurred over a few video calls, since the pandemic got in the way of having an in-person sprint. Sprint report: https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2022/02/msg00017.html 4.2. Debian Montréal The Debian Québec local group are planning to have in-person meetings in Montréal again. For details, sign up to their mailing list, linked on their wiki page: https://wiki.debian.org/LocalGroups/DebianQuebec 4.3. Debian Reunion 2020 was set to be our biggest year of MiniDebConf events to date. Unfortunately the pandemic has put quite a harsh dampener on that. Fortunately, things are kicking off again and Debian Reunion will be a MiniDebConf style event with a few days of working together followed by two days of talks. The event is taking place the last week of May in Hamburg, Germany. Talks will be streamed, so add the event to your calendar even if you can't make it in person! https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/de/2022/DebianReunionHamburg 4.4. DebCamp and DebConf DebConf is set to be an in-person event again this year. DebCamp takes place from 2022-07-10 to 2022-07-16, followed by DebConf which will take place from 2022-07-17 to 2022-07-24 in Prizren, Kosovo. Bursaries are available for people who require funding to attend, and the Call for Proposals for talks and events are open. Follow the links below for further details. Thank you to our platinum sponsors Lenovo, Infomaniak, Innovation & Training Park Prizren and Google. https://debconf22.debconf.org/ https://debconf22.debconf.org/about/bursaries/ https://debconf22.debconf.org/cfp/ == 5. Debian Publicity == Some of these items are probably better suited for Bits from Debian than Bits from the DPL, so if you ever have some free time, please consider writing a bit for them (it's just some markdown in git), they can help you get started on #debian-publicity (just be patient if you ask a question, they aren't awake 24h a day!). If you're working on something interesting and don't have time to write about it, also let them know, perhaps it would be fun for someone else to write about it. https://bits.debian.org/ Thanks for reading! Keep well and happy hacking! -Jonathan
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