Re: Question to candidates: How do you plan to manage finances/accounting?
Hi Nilesh,
Am Fri, Mar 22, 2024 at 09:23:12AM +0530 schrieb Nilesh Patra:
> I am interested in knowing about what the current candidates think about
> accounting bits in Debian and how they think about spending the money.
I admit my knowledge about how Debian money is spent is currently low
and incomplete. Here is a list of things I know / have heard about:
1. DebConf (and MiniDebConfs)
In my perception the money usage for DebConf is transparet enough
I have no idea about MiniDebConfs.
2. Smaller in person meetings (Bug squashing parties, team sprints)
Sprint organisers have to estimate their budget and need confirmation.
Confirmed budget is payed.
I have no idea whether those data are published somewhere.
3. Infrasturture hardware
I was always happy to see that it worked from my mere developer
point of view and did not read the reports about this but I
know there are some reports.
4. Hardware for developers
I once profited from a Debian sponsored laptop in exchange for some
review[1]. I know that other DDs also got hardware which is for
different reasons interesing to make sure Debian runs properly.
I have no idea whether there is some list about this (in terms of
transparent usage of the money)
5. There is probably way more missing in this list.
> As I have read and from time to time observed, the finances in the project
> do not have a lot of transparency and there are updates posted semi-occasionally
> on -private and sometimes in DPL talks. Jonathan also wrote about it in one of their
> previous campaigns.
I would love to be transparent about money. Currently I have no idea
how time consuming this process compared to DPL tasks in general might
be. I'd love to get help here which is also a way to increase
transparency if more eyes are looking onto this topic.
> Itd also be good to know if there's a plan on where the budget
> shall be best spent.
I have no idea how to measure "best" usage objectively. I strongly
believe that in person meetings are very important so I consider the
money for item 1. and 2. of my list above spent well and would encourage
people to organise those events which should be supported by Debian
money.
Its probably without question that we need good infrastructure hardware.
If bottlenecks might be spotted which can be fixed quickly with existing
money I'm all for it.
> I would like to know if the candidates for this term have any plans about it or any thoughts
> in general.
In general I think that people donating money to Debian expect their
money to be spent for the progress of Debian (rather than filling up
our bank account[2]).
I'm also open to exploring new ways to allocate funds. I'm hopeful that
we can derive some positive insights from the Debian Developer's Survey
on the Usage of Money in Debian[3]. Personally, I'm open to discussing
whether to compensate contributors for important tasks that either
nobody wants to do or lacks people with sufficient time capacity to
undertake those tasks. I recall the various pros and cons raised during
past discussions on this matter, but if people believe it's time to
initiate a fresh discussion, I'm very receptive to that.
BTW, I don't believe that only the DPL can initiate such a discussion.
But for sure I'm very open for suggestions and will support any
initiative to make Debian better.
As a very personal note what I think about money: In my eyes money has
a great power to divide people. Discussion about it is usually heated
and it is hard to find a good consensus due to very different
perspectives onto that matter specifically since there is hardly a
technical proof what is right and what is wrong. This makes a great
difference to other decisions we have to draw inside Debian.
> Both of your platforms have only a (very) vague idea about it and I'd like to know more
> specifics about it.
If you want to know more details please be more specific in your
question.
> PS: I urge _only_ the candidates to reply to this mail 😀
I'm personally interested into specific proposal how people consider
money well spent and might answer these in different treads (since
Nilesh wants only replies from candidates).
> Best,
> Nilesh
Kind regards
Andreas.
[1] https://fam-tille.de/debian/frame.work.html
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/10/debian_project_address/
[3] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2023/04/msg00001.html
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