Survey proposal about the usage of money in Debian
Hello,
The Debian contributors behind Freexian would like to get some broad
feedback from all Debian developers on various questions related to
the usage of money in Debian.
The primary goal is to help us set guidelines on how we will use
the money that we would like to inject in the community through our
Debian Project Funding initiative:
https://freexian-team.pages.debian.net/project-funding
To this end we are currently preparing a survey. We expect to use
surveys.debian.net (Limesurvey) to generate private links that can be
sent to each Debian developer. (This is so that only Debian developers
can fill out the survey.) Once the survey has concluded, collated
statistics will be shared publicly with the Debian community; individual
responses will naturally be kept private.
You can find a draft of the survey here:
https://salsa.debian.org/freexian-team/misc-drafts/-/blob/master/2022-dd-survey/survey-content.md
(For your convenience, it's also at the end of this mail.)
We have gone through a few rounds of private review, but we want to give
everybody an opportunity to improve the survey so that the result can be
useful to the whole community. Therefore, please have a look and reply
here to share any comments.
If you have a concrete proposal, feel free to submit a merge request
that updates the above text file.
Looking forward to your comments,
Jeremiah, on behalf of the Freexian team.
# Debian developers survey
The Debian contributors behind Freexian would like to get some broad
feedback from all Debian developers on various questions related to
the usage of money in Debian.
The primary goal is to help us set guidelines on how we will use
the money that we would like to inject in the community through our
[Debian Project Funding](https://freexian-team.pages.debian.net/project-funding)
initiative.
However, we hope that the answers to the questions will also help
Debian (and its leaders) identify how to make best use of Debian's
money in general.
We also would like to identify improvement ideas that the Debian
project would like to see come to fruition, and also see where we
could help through targeted application of funds. In short, we want
to know what would be most valuable to fund but also what's
acceptable to be funded as well.
We expect to use Limesurvey (surveys.debian.net) to generate private
links that can be sent to each Debian developer. This is so that only
Debian developers can fill out the survey. Once the survey has concluded,
collated statistics will be shared publicly with the Debian community;
individual responses will naturally be kept private.
## Introductory questions
What kind of contributor do you consider yourself?
* A very regular contributor (contributes almost on a daily basis)
* A regular contributor (contributes on a weekly basis)
* An occasional contributor (contributes on a monthly basis or less)
* An 'emeritus' contributor (very sporadic contributions, used to contribute more)
What are you doing in Debian (please check all that apply) ?
* I'm maintaining packages
* I'm maintaining a service (typically a foo.debian.org or foo.debian.net)
* I maintain Debian-specific software
* I contribute to documentation
* I contribute to translations
* I help organize DebConf
* I contribute to mailing list discussions
* I vote on General Resolutions
* Other, please specify: ...
Select the teams to which you regularly contribute:
* Release team
* FTPmasters (archive team)
* System Admistrators ("DSA")
* Security team
* Long Term Support team
* Quality Assurance ("QA")
* Debian Installer
* Debian CD images
* One (or more) packaging teams
What mailing lists are you following?
* debian-devel-announce
* debian-devel
* debian-project
* debian-vote
* debian-private
What other media do you use to connect with Debian acquaintances?
* Email
* IRC (`#debian-*` on OFTC)
* IRC (other networks)
* forums.debian.net
* Matrix
* Telegram
* Discord
* Signal
* ...
In what context(s) are you contributing to Debian?
* In my professional life only
* In my personal life only
* In both of them
Is your current Debian involvement level sustainable in the long term?
* Yes
* No
* I don't know
Would you like to spend more time contributing to Debian?
* Yes
* No
* I don't know
## Money and you
[ Show the next question only if the person answered "In my personal life
only" to "In what context(s) are you contributing to Debian?" ]
Would you like to get a job where you can contribute to Debian ?
* Yes
* No
* I don't know
[ Show the next question only if the person answered "No" to "Is your
current Debian involvement level sustainable in the long term?" ]
Would you be able to sustain your current Debian involvement level in
the long term if some of your Debian work was remunerated?
* Yes
* No
* I don't know
[ Show the next question only if the person answered "Yes" to "Would you
like to spend more time contributing to Debian?" ]
Would you be able to spend more time contributing to Debian if some of
your Debian work was remunerated?
* Yes
* Maybe, but it would require important changes in my life
* No
* I don't know
## Improvement ideas for Debian
Are you aware of the "Grow Your Ideas" project in Debian?
[https://salsa.debian.org/debian/grow-your-ideas](https://salsa.debian.org/debian/grow-your-ideas)
Please rank the ideas listed below in order of most important to
least important. You can put ideas that you find unacceptable below
"further discussion".
* PPA for Debian
* Interactive web interface for bugs.debian.org where you can
comment and manage bugs
* ...
* Further discussion
Note that most of the ideas have a corresponding issues in the "grow your
ideas" project, and please consider upvoting the ideas there that you
consider worthwhile to pursue. You do that by clicking the "thumbs up"
button at the top of each issue on salsa.debian.org.
*TODO: we must complete this list with concrete ideas collected out of our
own brainstorming and out of a discussion that we should start in debian-devel.*
## Usage of money in Debian
Debian has lots of money on its own, and it can benefit from external
funding on targeted projects as well. Please indicate whether you
agree/disagree with the following assertions:
* As a Debian contributor, I would be fine with having Debian pay other
Debian contributors
* Debian should experiment with paying Debian contributors to implement
long-awaited improvements
* Debian should experiment with paying Debian contributors to get rid
of specific bottlenecks (e.g. NEW processing)
What kind of work is acceptable to be paid by Debian to Debian contributors?
* Work that is limited in scope and not recurring
* Work that is a chore that not enough persons currently want to do
* Work that no volunteer picked up in X months
* Work that is meant to support an existing team of Debian volunteers
* Any work is acceptable to be paid by Debian
* No work is acceptable to be paid by Debian
What kind of work is acceptable to be paid by external funding to Debian contributors?
* Work that is limited in scope and not recurring
* Work that is a chore that not enough persons currently want to do
* Work that no volunteer picked up in X months
* Work that is meant to support an existing team of Debian volunteers
* Any work is acceptable to be paid by external funding
* No work is acceptable to be paid by external funding
On what provisions would you be happy with Debian contributors being paid?
* I have a fair chance to apply for a similar funding
* The paid work is always reviewed/controlled by another volunteer
Debian contributor
* The paid work is planned and implemented in the open, e.g. using
Salsa, Debian mailing lists and/or the BTS, and is open to
contributions from anyone in Debian.
* The paid work complies with the Debian Free Software Guidelines
(DFSG)
* Where the paid work is packaging, the paid work results in uploads to
Debian 'main' (i.e. no paid work should benefit to non-free packages)
* The paid work uses tools added to or already in Debian 'main'
* Debian teams may not consist solely of paid contributors
* Paid contributors do not outnumber volunteer contributors in the same
team
For each possible use of Debian's money quoted below, please indicate if
such a use is a "good idea", "good idea in some specific cases", "bad
idea" or if it's "totally unacceptable". Select "uncertain" if you can't
make up your mind.
* Paying for package maintenance (handling bugs, new upstream release,
improving packaging, etc.)
* Paying for the initial packaging of software new to Debian.
* Paying for development of new features/improvements for
Debian-specific infrastructure (e.g. bugs.debian.org,
tracker.debian.org, dak, etc.)
* Paying development of new features/improvements to Debian specific
software (e.g. dpkg, apt, debhelper, lintian, etc.)
* Paying development of new tools to experiment new workflows or new
services
* Paying technical writers to improve the documentation for new
contributors
* Use Debian funds to help the Debian Project Leader (DPL) role in some
way
* Pay Debian contributors to complete large scale changes in a
reasonable time frame
* Pay specialist porters to support release architectures at risk of
being dropped from Debian releases due to lack of porters.
Assuming that Debian contributors can request "grants" to help them pursue
some well-defined project, what body should be in charge of
selecting/choosing the grants ?
* The Debian Project Leader (DPL)
* The Debian technical committee
* The Debian developers at large (e.g. through some vote)
* A new team elected for that specific purpose
* A new team designated by the DPL
* The donors who contributed that money
* None of the above
*RH: Maybe this should be a traditional condorcet vote where you rank
acceptable options above "none of the above" by order of preference*
For each role listed below, please answer the following question: Should
this Debian role include a stipend or otherwise be funded to allow more
time to fulfill the obligations of the role? (yes/no/unsure/no opinion)
* Debian Project Leader (DPL)
* Debian Release Manager
* In general
* During the freeze
* Member of the archive team ("ftpmasters")
* In general
* Those who process NEW and RM
* Member of the Security team
* Member of the LTS team
* Member of the Technical Committee
Are there other roles that should be funded to allow more time to fulfill
the obligations of the role?
[Multi-line text field]
Are you concerned that a team of paid contributors could outpace the
ability of Debian volunteers to participate?
* Yes
* Somewhat
* No
* I don't know
Were you aware of the possibility to request a grant from Freexian for
projects improving Debian? It's our [Project
Funding](https://freexian-team.pages.debian.net/project-funding)
initiative.
* Yes
* No
If you have reservations or concerns about paid work that are not included
in the survey, please share them below:
[Multi-line text field]
Reply to: