blog/archives/2012/10zack's home pagehttp://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/archives/2012/10/zack's home pageikiwiki2012-10-10T06:39:26Zbits from the DPL for September 2012http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2012/10/bits_from_the_DPL_for_September_2012/2012-10-10T06:39:26Z2012-10-09T13:02:34Z
<p>Just <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/10/msg00001.html">
posted to d-d-a</a>, bits from the DPL for Septemer 2012.</p>
<hr />
<p>Heya,<br />
here is the periodic report of DPL activities, this time related to
September 2012 (posted here with some delay, as I've been traveling
oversea on behalf of Debian for the past few days).</p>
<h1>Help needed: Google Code-In</h1>
<p>The <a href=
"http://code.google.com/opensource/gci/2012/index.html">Google
Code-In (GCI)</a> initiative is about to start again. We don't have
a great track record of participating into it, and that's a pity.
The initiative revolves around small tasks that other Free Software
projects have come to call "easy hacks", showing how effective
they're in attracting new volunteers. To participate, we need both
mentors and admins. If you're interested see Ana's <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/soc-coordination/2012-September/001361.html">
call for help</a> and please volunteer on the soc-coordination
list.</p>
<p>Related to this, you've probably seen the <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/09/msg00011.html">
report</a> of our participation in GSoC 2012. I'd like to thank all
students, mentors, and admins for a very well organized
edition.</p>
<h1>Logo relicensing & other assets</h1>
<p>The DFSG-relicensing of the <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/logos/">Debian logo</a>, which I've
mentioned in recent updates, <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2012/10/msg00000.html">has
now happened</a>. The so called Debian "Open Use" logo, in both
variants (with and without "Debian") is now dually licensed under
LGPL3+ / CC-BY-SA 3.0. The change has been made effective with a
<a href=
"http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2012/2012-09-07.rtb.1/">
resolution</a> of the SPI Board of Directors.</p>
<p>Note that the so called "official" logo, which we seem to use
very little, is still released under the terms of a non-free
license. <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2012/10/msg00002.html">Discussion</a>
is ongoing on -project to stop promoting it. If you're using it or
if you've arguments in favor of against that, please participate in
the discussion.</p>
<p>I've got from SFLC an updated draft of the new proposed
trademark policy, implementing most of the changes requested during
related August discussions on -project. I'll post it for review
there shortly.</p>
<p>The Japanese Trademark Office (JPO) has sent us the final
confirmation that trademark transfer request (from individuals
Debian contributors in the area to SPI) has happened. We've paid
the needed fee of 457 CHF to conclude the transaction.</p>
<p>We finally settled a domain transfer agreement with the current
owner of the debian.eu. Technically, the domain will be transferred
to FFIS in the coming weeks.</p>
<h1>Core teams (non-)news</h1>
<p>Quite some core teams are in the process of changing their
formations these weeks, but most are still pending proper
delegation (or equivalent). So here are just a few "teasers":</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>as you might have read in the <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/09/msg00012.html">
ftp-master sprint report</a>, we have a new ftp-master: congrats
Ansgar! (delegation update pending, but no suspense here)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>we have a new front-desk member (delegation pending +
suspense)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>we have a new debian policy team (delegation pending +
suspense)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>the tech-ctte is <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/09/msg00004.html">
in the process</a> of selecting a new candidate to fill the vacant
seat. I've nominated a couple of candidates myself, and I'm now
waiting for tech-ctte recommendations as per Constitution ยง6.2.</p>
<p>On related news, the tech-ctte has now <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/10/msg00000.html">
dealt with</a> the conflict on Python interpreter maintenership,
which was also the longest standing issue brought before them.
Having invested quite some energy in that issue myself, I'm
delighted to see it finally addressed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I hope to finalize all the pending tasks above this month.</p>
<h1>Future events</h1>
<p>I've spent quite some time to plan my participation in events
I'll be attending during October on behalf of Debian, such as the
ACM Reflections conference in Urbana-Champaign (at the time of
writing, this has already happened), the Ubuntu Developer Summit in
Copenhagen, and the LinuxDay event in Turin.</p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<hr />
<p>PS the day-to-day activity log for September 2012 is available
at the usual place
<code>master:/srv/leader/news/bits-from-the-DPL.txt.201209</code></p>
put some Debian salt in the Ubuntu charity marathonhttp://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2012/10/put_some_Debian_salt_in_the_Ubuntu_charity_marathon/2012-10-04T11:41:16Z2012-10-03T10:08:46Z
<p>Fellow geeks of the <a href=
"http://www.jonobacon.org/2012/09/26/get-ready-for-the-24-hour-horsemen-marathon/">
Canonical community team</a> will be doing something pretty weird
this week. They're fund-raising for charity, for causes ranging
from environment to autism, from homeless support to kids
education, from poverty fight to water supplies. But that's not
weird. What's weird is that the fund-raising will culminate in a
24-hour work <a href="http://marathon.ubuntuonair.com/">marathon
stream live</a>, which will kick off tomorrow (Thursday) at
<a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2012&month=10&day=4&hour=10&min=0&sec=0">
10:00 UTC</a>.</p>
<p>As I like charity, and as I like contributing to Free Software,
I gladly accepted to rely here a <strong>challenge to the Debian
community</strong> by one of the marathon "horsemen", Michael
Hall:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>if Michael receives at least <strong>5 Debian-tagged
donations</strong> for the cause he has chosen to support (<a href=
"http://autismresearchtrust.org/">Autism Research Trust</a> -
<a href=
"http://www.justgiving.com/mhall119/Donate"><strong>donate</strong></a>),
he'll do his marathon day wearing a <strong>Debian t-shirt</strong>
(which apparently is also the first Free Software t-shirt he has
ever owned).</p>
<p>I've already donated, so that makes only 4 donations to go to
add some Debian promotion salt to an Ubuntu marathon <img src=
"http://upsilon.cc/~zack/smileys/smile.png" alt=":-)" /> . To "tag" your
donation as originating from the Debian community, just leave a
message containing the word "debian" at the end of the donation
process.</p>
<p>The work Michael will be doing tomorrow is not entirely
Debian-specific, but Michael is Canonical's responsible for
relationship with upstream. I've worked with him in the past on a
range of topics, and I can testify that part of his work is
generally useful to Debian.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Raising the stakes, Nick Skaggs has decided to propose a similar
challenge:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>for <strong>every 5 Debian-tagged donations</strong> to Nick's
cause (<a href="http://www.wateraid.org/">WaterAid</a> - <a href=
"http://www.justgiving.com/nicholasskaggs/Donate"><strong>donate</strong></a>),
Nick will <strong>write a manpage</strong> for a Debian <a href=
"http://qa.debian.org/man-pages.html">package that is in dire need
of one</a>.</p>
<p>As above, just mention "debian" in your post-donation message to
tag your donation as originating from the Debian community.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Wanna take the challenge?</p>
<p>And how about the other 4 horsemen? No challenges to the Debian
community? Feel free to leave a comment and I'll raise the stakes
even more, updating the list above.</p>
<p><strong>Update 4/10/2012, 13:35 +0200:</strong> Daniel Holbach
added his own challenge to the Debian community:</p>
<ul>
<li>for <strong>every Debian-tagged donation</strong> to Daniel's
cause (<a href=
"http://daniel.holba.ch/blog/2012/09/community-team-marathon-why-oxfam/">Oxfam</a>
- <a href=
"http://www.justgiving.com/dholbach/Donate"><strong>donate</strong></a>),
Daniel will <strong>(triage and) forward a patch</strong> from
Ubuntu to the Debian BTS.</li>
</ul>