Re: On a policy for non-debian foss content in a mini debconf
Hi, Praveen and Shirish (and Indian Debian Users),
> > The event is being organized in an engineering college with a good track
> > record of free software contributions [3]. I proposed a mini debconf in
> > the hope of getting more contributions to debian. Since we did not get
> > many debian contributors to attend the event and encouraging the student
> > who already contributed to give talks on their Free Software contributions.
> >
> > But many in the community felt mini debconfs and debconfs have been
> > primarily about debian and having other talks would confuse attendees.
> > Some suggested 1/3 of the talks could be about debian as debconfs have a
> > debian day where local community can join.
> >
> > I would like us to define the requirements of calling an event mini
> > debconf as a policy so we don't have to have this debate every time we
> > organize a mini debconf.
Well, a DebConf is about Debian, and I mostly agree with Steve's
answer: Not just any Linux conference should be called a DebConf or
MiniDebConf. There has to be a Debian "slant" to the conference as a whole.
> > My suggestion would be to leave that to the local organizers based on
> > the strength of local communities to decide how much debian content
> > would qualify for calling it a debconf.
I will not give such a strong line as Steve did (50%+1), but will
point to a MiniDebConf that you could relate to: The Panamá
MiniDebConf (2010), which I helped organize but sadly was unable to
attend:
http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2010/minidebconf-panama/
You will see that from the nine recorded talks, five are not
*directly* related to Debian, but can be easily linked to it.
Oh, and I'll point out: You can see the Panamá MiniDebConf was not
large in attendance:
http://teotihua.org/wp/2010/03/28/mini-debconf-panama-despues-de-un-rato/
However, we organized it with the clear (and successful!) goal of
celebrating DebConf in Central America — Which we did, in Nicaragua,
2012.
> I understand that both Debian, debconf and minidebconfs have a certain
> reputation to protect. Now forgive me, but most of the debconfs have
> been in some of the more developed economies (it might be a fallacy
> and would love to be proven wrong) where there are more than enough
> Debian contributors and if not, funds are there to fly people in and
> out which is all nice.
Well, DebConf has been held in France (2000), France (2001), Canada
(2002), Norway (2003), Brazil (2004), Finland (2005), Mexico (2006),
Scotland (2007), Argentina (2008), Spain (2009), United States (2010),
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011), Nicaragua (2012), Switzerland (2013)
and United States (2014).
So, of course it depends on how do you count a "developed economy" to
be. But I would say, five from those fourteen were in developing
countries, and the remaining nine in first-world economies.
> But in places like India, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh or Africa there
> might not be many Debian contributors even if they are Debian
> enthusiasts. And while we want to turn Debian enthusiasts into Debian
> contributors, we can't do that under a gun (either real or imagined).
> So what we would like to do is make it possible to have events where
> people could use the name Debian and have some other word added to it
> irrespective of the talks/demos in it.
In my opinion, it would be very good for you to hold a MiniDebConf
with the clear goals of attracting people to Debian, getting them
involved, getting more to become involved. Either technically or
socially.
But then again, I'm just one more random DD :) Talk among yourselves,
talk with our DPL (Lucas Nussbaum), talk with the DebConf Chairs
(Moray Allan, Tássia Camões, Martín Ferrari), and... Get the ball
rolling :)
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