At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/673.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Welcome to Debian Day!

Welcoming people to Debian Day

We will explain what is Debian, what is Debian Day and provide an overview of what the day entails, the speakers and events for the rest of the day and any necessary logistical information.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 09:45:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/541.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Establishing and carrying through a commitment

This talk looks at both successful and unsuccessful attempts to adopt
open source software (the term is preferred to "free software" in
government) and lays out some principles for people inside and outside
government agencies to promotes its use. In particular, I will discuss
the assessment of costs and benefits done for the city of Munich in
Germany, the creation of Forge.mil by the Department of Defense, and
the process used to choose OpenOffice.org for the state of
Massachusetts (a project that was defunded). The importance of using
explicitly political arguments for the adoption of open source
software, and for agency managers to understand the community and
workings of open source at a deep level, will be stressed.

Free and open source software has been used by government agencies for
quite a while, although often without fanfare, and prospects for
increased use have been greeted enthusiastically by both knowledgeable
government employees and free software communities. But mobilizing the
necessary forces in government to move ahead has proven
difficult.

Cost savings, the naive enticement, don't provide good enough
motivation in the end. Although proprietary software tends to come
with high licensing fees whereas free software can be downloaded
without payment, monetary arguments for deploying free software are
usually unsuccessful because of the high costs of conversion,
retraining, and developing an adequate base for support. More subtle
arguments citing the public interest are required.

Some themes I will highlight include:

Rational considerations (cost, and even public access) are not enough
to drive adoption of open source. It must be pursued in a politically
and even morally motivated way.

Open source software is inherently borderless, so advocacy should draw
on support from international sources.

To successfully promote open source within an agency, a manager cannot
simply like open source software in the abstract, but must have a
direct understanding of its modes of development, its strengths and
weaknesses, and its relation to users and communities.

Proponents must be alert to an ever-growing range of creative
unethical methods and backroom maneuvers used to squash open source
adoption by proprietary software companies, who see its adoption by
government as an existential threat to their own businesses.

Topics in this talk (and the paper I am currently revising) include:

1. Reasons for adopting free software that are particular compelling in
   a government setting

2. The importance of the open government or government transparency
   movement and its relation to free software

3. The relation of open standards to free software and the importance
   of standards

4. The importance of starting with a profound insight into the
   community and development processes for open source

5. The value of explicit political goals

6. Processes for establishing government agency requirements

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 10:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/609.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

how to have fun via NMU campaigns and RC bug fixing

In recent release cycles, it has become more and more evident that a "selfish" approach in which maintainers only care about their own (team maintained) packages does not scale. To keep up with our principle of releasing RC-bug-free software we all need to care about the packages of other, in particular when they are RC-buggy. That, of course, involves actions such as NMU-ing properly, but timely too.

This BoF aims will bring together people that care about keeping the RC bug count low not only for what concerns their own packages, but also when it comes to packages of other fellow DDs. Topics of discussion include:

• How to spot packages that need NMU from other maintainers.
• Official guidelines for when and how do NMUs (devref §5.11.1).
• Best practice and invidual work-flow for NMU campaign (the guidelines used by the BoF proponent are in the links section).
• How (and if?) communicate about NMU campaigns to get other fellow developers involved.
• How to train new/forthcoming Debian developers to care more about packages other than theirs.
• etc.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 11:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/628.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Debian, Free Software, and Education

Educational contexts are powerful testimonies to the value and importance of free so...

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/537.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Presentation of the projects and their status

This event will gather the admins, mentors and students of the 2010 Google Summer of Code at Debian to present our organization work, the students, their projects and how they are doing.

At the time of Debconf10, our students should be way into their projects. The Debian organization of the 2010 run of the Summer of Code will be presented and discussed, gathering feedback, especially in regard of the relation between the projects and the rest of the community. This event will be an opportunity for mentor and student pairs to present the projects they have been working on and update about their progress, and for the Debian community to give face to face feedback and help.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 14:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/563.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

The paper and and presentation I propose will concentrate on the importance of
Debian products for the University of Groningen, one of the major Dutch
Universities.

To summarize:

Spin-offs of these projects were developed or are being developed right now by
others, like ccbuild' (Bram Neijt) and flexc++' (Jean-Paul van Oosten,
Richard Berendsen, and myself). Moreover, the Debian Developer George Danchev
visited us last fall when the CIT organized a course on Debian
Package Construction.

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 14:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/663.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Project Caua is an Open project to create millions of private sector, environmentally friendly jobs in urban areas of Latin America utilizing FOSS, with implications of creating hundreds of thousands of
jobs in North America and millions more around the world.

In addition, Project Caua will open an avenue for free (as in beer) wireless Internet to help defeat the digital divide, and to provide low-cost training to get even more people off unemployment and create taxpayers.

The specifications for Project Caua can be found at www.projectcaua.org.

While Project Caua is distribution neutral, Debian would be a natural choice as the underlying distribution and sample implementation. This talk will outline Project Caua and hopefully open the discussion for
actual implementation details.

This is a project that I had been formulating slowly for about five years. Two years ago it picked up steam when a Brazilian friend of mine called and said that he felt it would work in Brazil and we started fine-tuning it. One year ago we applied for some grants to do the pilots and those are still being fine-tuned.

We are still figuring a way to finance it, but we also want to start turning our attention to the finer aspects of the technical issues. I would like to present this on Sunday (Deb Day) as it does have a lot of social impact, shows how FOSS is about the only way this can be done, and would be good for people in the general audience to see that. However I would also like to have a BoF to discuss some of the technical details, which software could be used and why...etc. on Monday.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 15:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/597.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

What are the challenges for the collaborative design process?

Keywords: design, collaboration, interface, community

“Design by committee”, “too many cooks in the kitchen” and other terms have been used derogatively to imply that the creative process breaks when it involves too many individuals. At the same time, the software world has been completely revolutionized by the open source, networked collaborative process. When it comes to graphic and interaction designs (two fields critical to software development) Open Source software seem to lag behind the more conventional production models. It seems like in design the Open Source community have not managed to nourish robust collaboration models. One could argue that even successful free software design projects like Firefox or Ubuntu are often developed in a more traditional process. What are the challenges of networked collaboration in the creative process? Can and how might they be solved? Or is it just that designers don’t like to work together?

I will be tackling these questions in the light of my collaborative work as founding designer of ShiftSpace.org and my educational research leading the Open Source Design class at Parsons’ AAS Program in Graphic Design.

6mins version of this talk is available here: http://www.mushon.com/2009/12/18/shortaudio-my-open-source-design-slides/

*Disclaimer: I am not a Debian community insider, that's a part of what I want to talk about.

I would love to submit this as a full paper if the abstract is excepted.

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 15:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/674.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Hon. Gale A. Brewer, former Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government, current Chair on Committee on Governmental Operations will discuss the ways that government can foster freedom in technology.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 16:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/664.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

One of the first programmable devices was the Jacquard loom, which used "punched cards" to control fabric designs. ...

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/542.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

History of a Bold Idea to produce "free manuals for free software"

Started in 2005, FLOSS Manuals has been the locus for over 40
volunteer-produced books and ties together a worldwide community of
over 1,000 people who care about free software and free documentation.
This presentation describes the value of FLOSS Manuals, its
development processes and leadership style, and its strengths and
weaknesses as seen from its key organizers.

Started in 2005, FLOSS Manuals has been the locus for over 40
volunteer-produced books and ties together a worldwide community of
over 1,000 people who care about free software and free documentation.
This presentation describes the value of FLOSS Manuals, its
development processes and leadership style, and its strengths and
weaknesses as seen from its key organizers. Although I'm currently
listing it as a lecture, if it is accepted, I will encourage other
FLOSS Manuals volunteers to attend and try to turn it into a panel.

Like all community-based projects, the success of FLOSS Manuals cannot
be attributed to any single facet. Its technology is not whiz-bang,
but focuses on staying supple and on always evolving. The site offers
"good enough" tools for authoring, coordination, remixing, and
printing. Leadership remains loose and the impetus for projects come
from community members, new and old alike.

The FLOSS Manuals site offers books in two stages: an open wiki that
anyone can contribute to, and a more controlled stable site for
versions vetted by the projects responsible for the books' production
and maintenance. Many books are produced through an innovative process
called a book sprint, which is refined with each project and
documented in a FLOSS Manuals book of its own. The community also
stresses translation projects and offers support to people setting up
sites for translations and books in other languages.

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 17:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/644.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Welcome to Debconf!

The opening plenary would be the first thing that would be scheduled to kick-off Debconf (after debcamp). It would be the general welcoming to the conference, providing a opening cohesion and hitting a few key things. Ideally the plenary would be scheduled first thing, and not in competition with other things. It would be brief (30 minutes probably).

The opening plenary would be the first thing that would be scheduled to kick-off Debconf (after debcamp). It would be the general welcoming to the conference, providing a opening cohesion and hitting a few key things. Ideally the plenary would be scheduled first thing, and not in competition with other things. It would be brief (30 minutes probably).

• welcoming to debconf
• general information
• highlights of what is to come
• something funny
• introduce the conference team
• logistical overview
• columbia rules/regulations
• questions/comments/heckling
  (please add others!)

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-01 19:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/569.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Bits from the DPL, you know the drill 😃

Some topics that will addressed:

• how are we?
• are we aging properly?
• what's our role in the (always changing) ecosystem of FLOSS distributions?
• are we doing well in (continuously) attracting new developers?
• are we doing well in communicating within the project and with the external world?
• how's doing the (newbie) DPL?
• how are we wrt to ... ?
• total world domination is just around the corner

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 09:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/617.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Many developers have not yet investigated the new suite of GPLv3
licenses. This presentation helps developers already familiar with
GPLv2 and LGPLv2 to improve their understanding of GPLv3, LGPLv3, and
AGPLv3. This presentation covers changes in the patent provisions,
improved license compatibility, improved source code provision terms,
the internationalization of GPL and many other changes.

Many developers have not had the time to investigate the new suite of
licenses in depth, and understand the differences between the
GPLv3-based and the GPLv2-based licenses. This talk will help
developers who are generally familiar with the GPLv2 and LGPLv2 to
improve their understanding of GPLv3, LGPLv3, and AGPLv3.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 10:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/567.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

The Debian Java Maintainers [1] team has 50+ members and currently maintains close to 500 packages [2], including OpenJDK [3] and the Java Policy [4].
In this birds-of-a-feather session we will discuss issues related to Java and Debian. Anybody interested in learning more about it is welcome
to attend. People who maintain Java packages outside the team maintenance umbrella are highly encouraged to attend as their feedback is most
appreciated.

[1] https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-java/
[2] http://pkg-java.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/pet.cgi
[3] http://packages.debian.org/source/sid/openjdk-6
[4] http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/java-policy/

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 10:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/528.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Meet the SPI Board

Debian is an Associated Project of SPI and this BoF is a chance to meet the SPI Board members who are present at DebConf 10 and learn more about SPI and why you should become or continue to be involved in SPI.

Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI) is a New York not-for-profit organization which was founded to help organizations develop and distribute open hardware and software. It encourages programmers to use any license that allows for the free modification, redistribution and use of software, and hardware developers to distribute documentation that will allow device drivers to be written for their product.

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 11:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/585.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Until this year Debian Java policy has been stagnant for quite a long time.
With the changes in the Java ecosystem, particularly the arrival of openjdk, a
lot of changes are necessary. Niels Thykier has pushed through a lot of the
changes which had been discussed, but lost momentum.

This talk covers those changes which have been made and lead discussion into
what policy changes are further desirable. Changes that Niels made were largely
to bring policy in line with current practices. We will also review what
things are not in policy but which are part of current packaging practices.

Discussion on future policy changes will . We will also review what
things are not in policy but which are part of current packaging practices.

Future policy changes to be discussed will focus on simplifying library
transitions, dependencies and other issues.

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 11:30:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/570.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

present and future of Python helper tools

This talk briefly introduces current and future Python packaging helper tools. Python 3.2 allows sharing source code files among multiple different versions of Python interpreter, new dh_python will take advantage of it.

• python-support, python-central - how to use them? What problems do they have?
• new dh_python / PEP 3147 proposal - can it solve our problems?
• Debian Python Modules Team and Python Applications Packaging Team, what do we do? How to join us?

Room: Davis Auditorium
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 14:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/584.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Programs and libraries written in Java have a lot of special packaging
requirements in common. When I started packaging Java programs I was
annoyed at the lack of tools to automate some of these tasks and hence
Javahelper was born.

Javahelper provides tools to help with the workflow right from processing
upstream releases (which can be tricky with some Java upstreams) through
building packages where upstream doesn't have a sane build system to
generating packaging metadata and installing files into packages.

This talk gives an overview of the dh7 and cdbs integration, how to use the
various helper tools available in javahelper and finishes with example packages
of a selection of simple Java programs and libraries.

The aim of Javahelper is to provide tooling to implement Debian Java policy,
automate common tasks required by Java packages that aren't provided for by
debhelper and to simplify the packaging of Java software.

Room: Interschool Lab
Scheduled start: 2010-08-02 14:00:00

At: DebConf10
http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/595.en.html
https://debconf10.debconf.org/

Past. Present. And Future?

This talk will present the status of the GNU/Hurd OS and of the Debian port, its future, and how ...