Bits from the DPL (May 2018)

To: debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org

Subject: Bits from the DPL (May 2018)

From: Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>

Date: Thu, 31 May 2018 17:33:49 +0100

Message-id: <[🔎] 1527784429.727724.1392002016.1544E1C9@webmail.messagingengine.com>

Mail-followup-to: debian-devel@lists.debian.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 My fellow developers, Greetings from a rather muggy London… Here's an overview of what I've been getting up to as your Project leader during May 2018: * I attended the MiniDebConf in Hamburg, Germany [0] where I gave a brief talk on the "diffoscope" [1] tool as well as provided an update on the Reproducible Builds [2] effort. In addition to this I had a number of extremely interesting conversations as DPL including many on the "inside baseball" [3] of event planning and the intersection between the roles of the Anti-Harrassment team [4] and the Debian Account Managers [5]. From these latter discussions, I followed-up by arranging a brief conference call between these two teams and myself. Regarding the MiniDebConf itself, it was great to see such an excellent turnout and so much work being done in the various sprints. Thank you to the Video Team, frontdesk, the venue staff, etc. for their efforts but I would like to express a very deep and particular thanks to Holger Levsen for leading the organisation of the event. * I accepted an invitation for Debian to join the KDE Advisory Board [6], a "space for organisations to support KDE by giving feedback on their activities and decisions". I plan to follow-up with the Qt/KDE team shortly, but in the meantime solicit any opinions or ideas from DDs on how we can improve our long-term relationship with this project. * I updated the delegation for the Publicity Team [7]. As I wrote in my re- delegation text [8] I would like to thank Ana Guerrero Lopez (ana) and Cédric Boutillier (boutil). * I also have had further discussions with some DDs regarding the possible creation of new teams, as well as made steps towards some NEW queue [9] processing changes and resuming regular ftpmaster [10] meetings. * It was regrettably another rather "involved" month with respect to issues in the anti-harrassment space in both volume and severity of incidents. Developers should remember that, at the very least, "sub-optimal" behaviour in other communities reflects poorly on the Project too, let alone themselves… [ 0] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/de/2018/MiniDebConfHamburg [ 1] https://diffoscope.org [ 2] https://reproducible-builds.org [ 3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_baseball_(metaphor) [ 4] https://wiki.debian.org/AntiHarassment [ 5] https://wiki.debian.org/DAManager [ 6] https://ev.kde.org/advisoryboard.php [ 7] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Publicity [ 8] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/05/msg00004.html [ 9] https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html [10] https://ftp-master.debian.org/ Future of Debian's LWN subscription =================================== As you may be aware, one of the long-time benefits of being Debian Developer [11] has been access to Linux Weekly News (LWN) [12] graciously sponsored by Hewlett-Packard. Unfortunately HP let me know this month that they would be unable to continue this arrangement due to the company's split into Hewlett Packard Enterprise as well as their merger with MicroFocus. However, after persuing a significant number of leads I managed to secure an alternative source of funding for this benefit so DDs can continue to enjoy uninterrupted access to the free software "paper of record". More details to be announced shortly, but in the meantime many thanks to Jonathan Corbet for his patience and assistance. [11] https://wiki.debian.org/MemberBenefits [12] http://www.lwn.net/ Finances & event reimbursements =============================== In addition to responding to various follow-ups to previous requests: * I approved the budget for DebConf18 [13]. * Provided clarification on the source of funds for GSoC 2018 [14]. * Located some missing emails for our Trusted Organisations [15] as well as ensured that some ancient reimbursements were being attended to. In terms of specific events, I fielded requests for: MiniDebconfHamburg [16], OSCAL 2018 [17],Linuxcon, China [18], a Debian Perl sprint [19], the recent UEFI "Secure Boot" sprint, and a potential Debian "cryptsetup" sprint. [13] https://debconf18.debconf.org/ [14] https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018 [15] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Treasurer/Organizations [16] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/de/2018/MiniDebConfHamburg [17] https://oscal.openlabs.cc/ [18] https://www.lfasiallc.com/events/lc3-2018/ [19] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianPerlGroup Bug Squashing Parties ===================== Don't forget that Debian is willing to reimburse 100 USD of expenses to attend a Bug Squashing Party (BSP) [20]. If there are no BSPs near to you, please consider organising one [21]. Reimbursement requests should meet the following conditions: * The requester should be a contributor of some description or have otherwise demonstrated a commitment to perform that kind of work. * The requester agrees to communicate their activities during the event, such as posting to Planet Debian [22]. The goal being to motivate others via the increased visibility of such efforts. [20] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DPL/Reimbursement [21] https://wiki.debian.org/BSPPlanning [22] https://planet.debian.org/ Other ===== In addition to all of the above, I spent time on: * Liasing with GitLab [23] both in a private and public capacity with respect to our migration from Alioth to Salsa [24]. * Discussing a potential scenario where we could provide hardware encryption keys for all Developers, partly as another benefit of being a DD [25] but moreoever to raise the general level of security in the Project. Unfortunately, this now appears like it will not happen. * Redirecting support queries/questions sent to the leader@ alias as well as responding to feedback from my previous «Bits from the DPL». * Drafting my reply to an interview request from the "LibreSur" Argentinian free software community. * Issuing a DD certificate [26] for a Developer. (Note that these are also now available for Debian Maintainers.) * Following-up with Microsoft to request some Windows Subsystem for Linux [27] merchandise in time for DebConf18 [28]. * Recording an episode of the Destination Linux podcast [29] to be released early next month. * Enqueuing various ideas for "micronews" for approval by the Publicity Team [30]. [23] https://gitlab.com/ [24] https://wiki.debian.org/Salsa/AliothMigration [25] https://wiki.debian.org/MemberBenefits [26] https://wiki.debian.org/DDCertificate [27] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/03/06/debian-gnulinux-for-wsl-now-available-in-the-windows-store/ [28] https://debconf18.debconf.org/ [29] https://destinationlinux.org/ [30] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Publicity And finally… ============ In case you missed it: * The charges against Dimitry Bogotov have been dropped, although with some caveats. [31] * We have an extensive number of GSoC [32] and Outreachy [33] interns and projects. [34] * autopkgtests [35] now influence migration to testing. [36] * wheezy LTS support is reaching end-of-life [37]. * The videos from the recent Hamburg MiniDebConf are available. [38] * Alioth really is going away… [39] [31] https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/05/23/russia-finds-a-new-tor-criminal [32] https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018 [33] https://www.outreachy.org/ [34] https://bits.debian.org/2018/05/welcome-gsoc2018-and-outreachy-interns.html [35] https://ci.debian.net/ [36] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/05/msg00001.html [37] https://wiki.debian.org/LTS [38] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/de/2018/MiniDebConfHamburg#Schedule [39] https://wiki.debian.org/Salsa/AliothMigration Great, see you all next month. As usual, I would like to request for any feedback on my activities as your Project Leader as well as how I could communicate them more effectively to you. Naturally, any other questions or concerns about the Project that would be inappropriate and/or difficult to bring up elsewhere are always welcome. Please address these to <leader@debian.org>. Best wishes, - -- ,''`. : :' : Chris Lamb `. `'` lamby@debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk `- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEwv5L0nHBObhsUz5GHpU+J9QxHlgFAlsQI8YACgkQHpU+J9Qx HlgfBw//Q7z8Zbs1nYrcjqhgXQKlAC7r0DK0uHgBYYTACSRIBJhkb0BUDYSgfnZG pRDjQHHN0x47ISJMNmMtRKAKJInwNWY4tnZ/+uucVfXoxmkTLYGym2+AXIsWI+mL 84YXVjuWNToHcL+coCwP5GEPw+693i1r+mPXoll0hqgs6DD9wCU3gYD1FVslPbTq +yeZXmsUvhCw0mnvxUomqYU9FPs6ykNojKCOpMOjShfVpAmg7CztCVyGwASGYGA2 cqsIaBxeI6SyKYRwxQF61W6ttCEz5T6ypyiZOqjis1A6qAjawh8+BLi8ThkcGPlw 6V5vd2IfbCcRSO3h+7XaikFUVZZB7rYnvyJhmZ7Pn8EFhM1noUEf6Vdu64RKOyvN L2usT34l7zDQTu3xK8aWlYHQo4B7wgudZaSCiqy6DaN7EV0U0PBGyMM0Qb47nZUP VcvieDf8ET6Kc1w8eBEIbDkZB+vYDNgb9tThyq7DAvKLbPpP0d9CF1/i9CMZ+ev3 3z3pWb4+Xx7DoSzLagn6sMKKQsoX0YC7ru0u3DtgPDyg55k2Uc4CHZ2jy7H/oD/h /73RDgg/INTh3eKK0UDqQiQV1Vt7Mif56k3ovav05tT75W2UXd9TOefnLKa0d+/2 G/z4iAyrTvgUPrLx1KJ7+bl7POt0UmrXq8UAMkizTjXexTgRKOo= =cD0F -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----