Debian Voting Information /2009 /Platforms for Project Leader Candidates /Platform for Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre's DPL platform, 2009

Introduction

I've been a Debian Developer since October 1996. I originallyjoined to maintain the Debian version of mikmod; I was the upstreamdeveloper at the time, and wanted the Debian version to work welltoo. In those days, the NM process was rather simpler than today: Iinstalled Debian, then two days later I mailed Bruce Perens with a PGPkey and asked him for a Debian login. He responded almost immediatelywith account details - I was in!

Since that point, I've worked on quite a wide range of packages,some large and some small. Probably the most noticeable technical workI've done for Debian is within the debian-cd team, both developing thedebian-cd software itself and using that same software to create theofficial CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks that accompany each Debianrelease. I've been involved with the CDs for almost every major andpoint release since Hamm.

I host two of our buildds (ball and toffee), and help with localadmin work on two more (cats and grieg). I also keep my own littlefarm of machines covering the majority of our architectures. Thishelps me to debug problems in my own packages, and I give out accountsto other DDs as well where helpful.

Standing for re-election

I am the current DPL, and I am standing for re-election thisyear. I believe that I have done a reasonable job for the project inthe last year, concentrating on three major themes:

• Teamwork - I organised a review of how the various teams in Debianwere performing, running a survey and then working through the resultsof that survey. In several places where they indicated that core teamswere not working as well as we needed/expected, I helped the peopleinvolved to bring in new blood or to improve working methods asappropriate. I've also encouraged people to meet face-to-face where ithas helped, and I have spent Debian money to help achieve that whenneeded. I'm not going to claim all the credit for the improvementsthat have happened in the last year, but I'm happy that Debian as anorganisation is in much better shape now than at this point lastyear.
• Internal communications - I've spent a lot of time this yeartalking with Debian folks: encouraging them to spread the news aboutwhat they're working on, what they need help with, what problemsthey're facing. I haven't quite posted as many "Bits from the DPL"mails as I'd have hoped for this year, and for that I apologise:sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. More about thatlater! I have also helped solve a number of disagreements this year,mediating in arguments before they cause real problems.
• External communications - I've represented Debian a lot oftimes. This includes talking to the press multiple times: about beingelected, about problems in Debian and how we solve them, and aboutLenny and why they should care about it. I have presented severaltalks about Debian to a variety of audiences, and I have been involvedin multiple discussions with other FLOSS projects including some ofthe other Linux distributions.

There's more to the job too, more than I can really cover in thisspace. I gave atalk atFOSDEM last month about this if you're interested in more details,and the video team captured it onvideo too.

Standing with an assistant - Luk Claes

One thing I have learnt in the last year is that the DPL job is abig one. To do the job effectively takes up a lot of time: in myopinion more time than one single person will have, unless they are astudent or they have avery accommodatingemployer. Due to this, I did not manage to make as much progress on mygoals as I hoped for in the last year and so I'm changing my plans alittle. I have asked Luk Claes to join me as an assistant DPL thisyear if I'm elected, and he has accepted my invitation.

Luk started contributing to Debian in 2003 and became a DD in2005. He soon joined the release team to help prepare the release ofEtch, and following Etch he continued on as part of that team. He wasone of the two RMs for Lenny and is staying with the job forSqueeze. Besides working on the release, he has also recently joinedthe new buildd infrastructure team. On top of his various other Debianrelated commitments, he is an elected board member of Software in thePublic Interest, our main legal and financial umbrella.

Goals

Much of this platform will be familiar to people, as it is largelybased on what I have said at this time in previous years. Many of thethings I want to work on in Debian are well known problems, issuesthat have affected us for a long time. The two main ones that I seeare:

Communications within the project

This is a long-term bugbear; DPL candidates have been promising towork on improving communication within the project for as long as Ican remember. There are several places where communication has beenproblematic in the past. I believe I have already helped with this inthe past, but there is more still to be done.

I'm convinced that the more we talk about what we're doing, themore motivated others will be to help us in our tasks. A vibrant,open, friendly project depends on the periodic introduction of freshblood wanting to work with us. Let's make that easier!

Working effectively; asking for help

Continuing on from the previous point: another part of the DD's jobis to work effectively, both on individual packages and within theproject as a whole. This includes simple things like handling the bugsin our packages in a timely fashion, but also includes bigger things,such as considering the impact of changes on the releaseschedule. Working effectively is not just important for our owngratification; it also makes a major impact on how long we take torelease and the experience our users have with using Debian.

In my opinion, a key part of working effectively is honesty. We canall suffer from a lack of time to do the jobs that we've promised todo. After all, real life has a nasty habit of intruding on ourso-called "spare" time. So long as we don't let things delay too far,we can cope and still contribute. But at some point, we need to bemore honest with ourselves and actually admit that we can't continuewith the jobs that we've promised to do. It's a hard thing to do, butin a friendly community where we're all working together towards acommon goal there should beno shame in asking forhelp.

In a larger scope, procedures exist for DDs to temporarily leavethe project if real life has overtaken them, and re-join when thesituation changes. Again, there is no shame in doing this - we shouldbe happy to acknowledge all the contributions that people have made toFree Software when they could. But, still, many people don't take thisroute and instead simply become missing in action (MIA). It can takequite a while to pick up on DDs who have simply dropped out of theproject.

How to fix these, aka "getting things done"

I want to see improvements made where they are clearly needed.There are cases where communications are lacking, or people and teamsmight not be working as effectively as they want to or need to. Inthose cases, I want to help and encourage the people involved to makethose improvements. If that is not enough, then we may need strongeractions.

This goes for all of us, both as individuals and as aproject. Sometimes it can be all too easy to let nay-sayers slow usdown or discourage us from working on the projects that interestus. If people are not contributing, ask them to help. If they don'twant to help, then ignore them and find others who will. Let's keepDebian what it should be - a great, thriving community of peoplehaving fun by working together on our shared goals.

Why vote for me?

I believe I can continue to do a good job as DPL due to thefollowing qualities:

Experience

I've been a developer within Debian for over twelve years. I'vedone large amounts of packaging work, I've seen Debian evolve a greatdeal in that time, and I've been involved in lots of differentdiscussions. My time working as DPL this year means I already have agood insight into what the DPL job entails, and I'm happy I can doit. I'm also aware of just how big the job is, which is why I haveasked Luk to help me.

Organisation

Besides packaging, I've done a lot of promotional work forDebian. I've organised Debian stands at lots of shows and expos overthe years. I've been an admin and a mentor for Debian in the GoogleSummer of Code for three years running and hopefully for a fourth:fingers crossed! I have been running the sponsorship team for Debconffor several years, meaning I've been actively going out and talkingwith a variety of companies and other organisations, promoting Debianand asking them to support us publically. All of these help raiseawareness of Debian and its goals.

I've had a fair experience at "cat-herding" so far, includingarranging travel for groups to Debconf, FOSDEM and other events. I'mcurrently the treasurer of the Debian UK Society, and I run thedebian-uk mailing list.

Social

I'm a programmer, which means I have strong opinions on manysubjects. (*grin*). Despite that, I believe I am honest, generallyapproachable and easy to work with. I am a good communicator andnegotiator, and I have made many friends in the Debian and wider FreeSoftware Community over the years.

Summary

I have touched on some issues here that are hopefully notsurprising to most of our community. I must also acknowledge the factthat the DPL mostly does not have the power to simply impose changesas he/she sees fit. The best that the DPL can do here is to encourageus to improve, sometimes by discussion and debate and sometimes byleading by example. I don't claim to be perfect, but I believe I cancontinue helping us achieve some of the goals I have listed here.

Thanks for your time in reading my platform, and I hope you willsupport me in my goals.

Rebuttals

Well, this year there's not very much to say here as there is only one other candidate. Stefano is a nice guy and a good developer and when I've worked with him in the past it's been a pleasure. He makes a lot of reasonable, sensible points in his platform and I applaud him for that.

I only have two concerns. I'm not sure he will have the time to do what he's planning: time always runs away more quickly than you expect. :-)

Stefano also says he'll probably appoint a 2IC if elected. That I can understand completely, but I'd be personally much happier if he was to name his proposed assistant before the election. I deliberately did that with Luk, as I want people to be able to vote for a known quantity rather than somebody unnamed.

That's it, really. Good luck to Stefano in the election and I hope the new DPL (be it me or him!) will do a good job for Debian.

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