An agenda going forward for Debian-IN
I've been meaning to write this for some time but only now have got around
to it. Some things I say might sound critical but rest assured the intent
is not hurt anyones feelings but to help Debian progress further and
further which is what we all want right?
I am pleased to see the number of events organized by our community is
increasing. However there are some concerns.
1. Debian-In is not a legally recognized entity. This means receiving
any kind of monetary donations, goods, services etc (which will be
essential for growth). is playing with fire. Our first of business should
be to get it organized as a duly constituated NGO, charitable society or
whatever status makes sense under Indian law. This organization could
also formally invite foreigners to events (a need which I unexpectedly
experienced recently.)
I can tell you we can forget about hosting Debconf in India any time soon
with out this step.
2. Debian content. The principal aim should be to increase awareness of
and participation in the Debian project. While we do intersect with
other Free Software/Open Source projects to lesser or greater degrees,
Debian has a unique viewpoint. It is not clear to me that this always
gets articulated. Take the recent minidebconf/debutsav flap for instance.
Frankly I don't see why there has to be any non-Debian content in a Deb*
but if there is it should only a minor amount and still have a Debian
"angle" in some way.
3. Speaking of 2. Do we have some metrics on how many people are brought
into the Debian world in these events? (Not just DD/DM path but
installing Debian etc.) This should be required as part of the
post-mortem of any event.
4. The current focus seems to be on college campuses. This makes sense
because the infrastructure is there and IT students are the most natural
audience but I would like to see more effort to branch out to the public
at large. Who is to say the next Indian DD might not be a housewife or
some government clerk? And the chronically short-staffed i18n efforts
could surely benefit from the literary communities of our various
languages. Politicians and bureaucrats need to hear the Debian viewpoint
before they make laws that could impact the shape of computing in the
future. You get the idea. This relates to speakers too. You don't need
to be "famous" or even formally associated with the Debian project in
order to give a talk at a Debian event just passionate about the project
in some way.
5. I have already said, as some of you know, how geographically we are
missing coverage of the entire Northern and Eastern parts of the country.
Either we should try and find organizers to set up events there or ensure
there is a generous travel budget (back to point 1) so that interested
people from those locales can attend existing events.
6. Publicity. I am worried that the Debian community at large is not
aware of all the good things going on in Debian-IN. I saw some reports on
Debutsav in Debian News which is good but bloggers should also make sure
their posts show up on Debian Planet. As soon as event dates are somewhat
firmly set, there should be frequent updates on debian-project and maybe
even debian-devel-announce mailing lists. One can go even further and
inform non-Debian outlets such as Linux Weekly News or Linux For You. A
fortunate side-effect of this is that Debian people who might be visiting
India for other reason might also be able to attend.
Given all this, I'm wondering if it might be a better idea tactically to
aim for a big event annually or semi-annually rather than the smaller ones
we have now. It would be a good practice for hosting debconf if nothing
else.
Anyway these are just my thoughts. Take them as you wish.
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@debian.org>
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