Re: making developer location from ldap public?

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Robert Lemmen]
> db.debian.org contains (optional) fields for the location of each
> developer, an information which currently is only used to generate
> edwards's fancy maps. there are other potential uses for this, like 
> making it possible to find fellow debian developers at some place that 
> you are going to for business or a vacation, and inviting them to a 
> drink and some keysigning. imho this would be pretty cool, but brings 
> with it a small problem: it would in effect make that information 
> public, in the moment it is only accessible to debian developers. 

[Thomas Bushnell]
> I don't understand why making it possible to find fellow Debian
> Developers this way should in effect make the information public.

There are ways to use this information without making the location
public.  We could add a geo-location search field, and then show the
developers with geo-location closest to the point of interest, and
their distance to this location.  This way the actual location of the
DDs are still not public, but you can easily find the DDs to contact
by searching for the position of the place you are visiting, and send
emails to the closest ones.

I believe mapserver is able to provide such search system, or
something based on grass, but have not tried it myself.

And for the record, I am opposed to making my geo-location information
public, and will require answer no to an opt-in.