Re: [Ghm-discuss] FOSDEM organisation

[Alex Sassmannshausen]

Hello,

Please find below my revised proposal for the devroom. I will submit it
late tonight (sorry for the delay in sending it to the list — I'm
currently on the road).

Some notes on what I did:
- primarily minor changes to wording
- updated number of packages (> 380) from Free Software Directory
- updated contact details
- added GNU Guix as an example of an infrastructure package
- changed (expanded) final paragraph

The text is largely a derivate of José's original. Let me know any
thoughts or reservations you may have. After submitting the proposal I
will formulate a first invitation for talks, as a heads up, to be
distributed amongst GNU projects before the publication by FOSDEM of the
list of accepted devrooms.

Best wishes,

Alex


2 Devroom name. 
================

  GNU.

3 Devroom description: 
=======================

  The GNU Project is a long-standing community of maintainers,
  developers, translators, webmasters and document writers whose
  primary task is the development of the free GNU Operating System.
  The GNU Project maintains and develops a broad set of over 380
  programs and libraries. This growing set ranges from system
  libraries and compilers to video games, desktop environments and
  business support tools.

  A development room at FOSDEM would serve 2 main purposes:

  The primary motivation for most people working on the GNU Project is
  philosophical (i.e. the ethical considerations that drive the Free
  Software movement); but technical excellence is a necessity for the
  maintenance of an operating system composed of hundreds of
  independent packages maintained in a largely decentralised fashion.
  GNU programs must feature a high degree of cohesion in order to work
  properly together.  On a theoretical level, the GNU Coding Standards
  and the GNU Maintainers Guide define some practices and guidelines
  that guide development to achieve this needed level cohesion.  Many
  of the guidelines laid down in those documents are implemented and
  provided through GNU infrastructure packages like autotools, gnulib,
  Guile and Guix.  The GNU devroom aims to share new developments in,
  and to promote the discussion of the guidelines themselves and the
  packages implementing them.  Maintainers of some of the
  infrastructure packages are expected to attend the event and to
  organize activities in the devroom.

  The second goal of this devroom is to strengthen and build the
  vibrant community of GNU maintainers and developers.  Experience
  gained through the organization of our GNU Hackers Meetings (please
  see URLs below for information on and videos of past GHMs) shows how
  useful and fruitful getting diverse hackers meeting face to face can
  be.  In addition, we have found that these kinds of encounters can
  be invaluable for new hackers interested in wanting to contribute to
  the GNU project, and thus Free Software in general.  At the GNU
  devroom they will be able to share experiences directly with
  experienced GNU maintainers, fellow 'newbies' also starting out on
  this exciting journey and many other interested developers.  We hope
  to provide everyone with a good picture of how we work and organize
  ourselves.

4 Related URLs 
===============

  - GNU Project: [http://www.gnu.org]
  - Last GNU Hacker Meeting: [http://www.gnu.org/ghm/2013/paris/]

5 Responsible for the devroom 
==============================

  - Name: Alex Sassmannshausen
  - Email: address@hidden

6 Preferred day. 
=================

  No preference, but see the Comments/remarks.

7 Comments/remarks. 
====================

  Some major GNU projects may have dedicated devrooms.  It would be
  interesting to schedule the GNU devroom in such a way that it won't
  collide with any other GNU project devroom.  This would allow the
  maintainers and developers of all GNU projects to contribute in the
  GNU devroom.