Re: Call for bids for DebConf24

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 09:24:29PM +, Stefano Rivera wrote:
> Hi Paulo (2023.10.30_20:08:29_+)
> > But, for 2024, with less months to organize, I think would be good remove
> > this workload from Local Team. Or at least, would be good people know that
> > isn't mandatory organizing 2 weeks of event, right?
> 
> I do worry that DebConf keeps getting bigger and more complex. Things
> only get added, not removed.
> 
> But it doesn't need to be like that. *Nothing* is mandatory, we'd love
> to see bids that want to change things up!

One thing, though: In Capetown there were maybe 20 in the first day. In
DC22 and DC23 (and maybe also DC19) there were 60 people or so already
at the first day of DebCamp. So accommodations had to basically work
from day 1. DebCamp has become more popular.

-- 
mail / xmpp / matrix: tzaf...@cohens.org.il

Fwd: DebConf20 registration is now open (with caveats)

[Tzafrir Cohen]

We are happy to announce that DebConf20 registration is now open!!

With the Covid-19 still rather fluid, we understand that everyone's
plans for 2020 are not what you thought they were going to be when the
year started. Sadly, DebConf20 is no exception.

As of now (May 21st), Israel seems to be on top of the situation. Days
with less than 10 new diagnosed infections are becoming common.
Businesses and schools are slowly reopening. As such, we are hoping
that, at least as far as regulations go, we will be able to hold an
in-person conference. There is more (and up to date) information at the
conference's FAQ [1].

[1]: https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/20/Faq

Which means, barring a second wave, that there is reason to hope that
the conference can go forward. Which is not the same as saying it
_should_ move forward. For that we need your help.

We need to know, assuming health regulations permit it, how many people
intend to attend. This year probably more than ever before, prompt
registration is very important to us.

If you feel that the only thing you want to do is lay low, we understand
completely. All we ask is that you do _not_ register. Conversely, if
after months of staying at home you feel that rubbing elbows with fellow
Debian Developers is precisely the remedy that will salvage 2020, then
we ask that you _do_ register as soon as possible.

Sadly, things are still not clear enough for us to make a final and
binding commitment to holding an in-person conference this year, but
knowing how many people intend to attend will be a great help in making
that decision.

With that addressed, and assuming we clear all the hurdles, DebConf20
will take place from August 23rd to 29th, 2020 at the University of
Haifa, in Israel, and will be preceded by DebCamp, from August 16th to 22nd.

To register for DebConf20, please visit our website at
https://debconf20.debconf.org/register

To request bursaries (sponsorship) for food, accommodation, or travel,
you must be registered by Sunday, May 31st 2020. After this date, new
bursary applications won’t be considered.

Participation to DebConf20 is conditional to your respect of our Code of
Conduct [0]. We require you to read, understand and abide by this code.

[0]: 

This year more than ever, even if you are not certain you will be able
to attend, we recommend
registering now. You can always edit or cancel your registration, but
please make it final before 26 July 2020. We cannot guarantee
availability of accommodation, catering or swag for unconfirmed
registrations.

We do suggest that attendees begin making travel arrangements as soon as
possible, of course. Please bear in mind that most air carriers allow
free cancellations and changes.

Any questions about registrations should be addressed to
.

-- Tzafrir, for the DebConf20 team

Re: Announcing the elephant in the room BOF

[Tzafrir Cohen]

Hi,

On 02/08/2019 9:48, Shachar Shemesh wrote:
> 
> On 30/07/2019 21:04, Sam Hartman wrote:
>> 1) The reasoning behind Social Contract #3 while not directly applicable
>> influenced my thinking. We don't hide problems.
> 
> 
> What I still don't understand regarding that BoF session was why it was
> done with no video streaming and no recording. If our purpose was to not
> cover over problems, why not allow wider distribution of the session itself?
> 
> 
> That decision made it much harder to participate remotely (I ended up
> connecting through what I assume was Tzafrir's laptop). For a session
> about a debconf organized by people most of whom were not present in the
> same continent, that is a problem.
> 
> 
> And in the end I heard that some people were displeased that even that
> low grade connection existed.

In retrospect I think I have misunderstood the purpose of the meeting
and that there was no need for remote participation of other members of
the Haifa local team, given that it made some people in the room a bit
more uncomfortable and that there was already a long queue of speakers
at the BoF.

I was originally under the impression that some more people outside this
project will be in the talk.

That said, I do have full confidence in both Jitsi and Shachar and don't
consider this talk as recorded and practically as not broadcasted.

(I opened a room in Jitso.org and sent it by mail to several people of
the local team. In practice only Shachar joined. Lior Kaplan tried to
join but failed to get audio, and left).

-- Tzafrir

Re: Keysigning Party at DebConf19 (list available tomorrow morning)

[Tzafrir Cohen]

Hi Qobi,

On 20/07/2019 6:44, Qobi Ben Nun wrote:
> What a pity dead line mas yesterday. I mas thinking of asking for help
> to deal with my key today.

Technically that large file of keys is technically just a helpful
shortcut: what we need to do is to verify the identities and keys. So at
the time of the "party" we all verify that we have the same copy of the
key fingerprints file. If you did not send your on time, you have to
distribute yours on your own to everyone who meets you.

In this thread there were two such methods suggested: pgp2ps(1) creates
a sheet you can print, and sm(1) to display it on your laptop's screen.

More work than just saying "I'm no. 42 [or whatever]" on the list. But
it's still just as valid.

-- Tzafrir

Re: Keysigning Party at DebConf19 (list available tomorrow morning)

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On 19/07/2019 23:46, Pablo Mestre wrote:
> Finally... .
> 
> The solution was upgrade gnupg  using the buster repository. I dont need
> to upgrade all the system, only around 16 packages.

$ rmadison gnupg
gnupg  | 1.4.18-7+deb8u5 | oldoldstable  | source, amd64, armel,
armhf, i386
gnupg  | 2.1.18-8~deb9u4 | oldstable | amd64, arm64, armel,
armhf, i386, mips, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
gnupg  | 2.2.12-1~bpo9+1 | stretch-backports | all
gnupg  | 2.2.12-1| stable| all
gnupg  | 2.2.13-2| testing   | all
gnupg  | 2.2.17-3| unstable  | all

Why Adding buster repository may work but is potentially quite harmful
(another hint for those who do it: use apt_preferences to lower its
priority so packages won't be accidentally installed from there).

But in this case you already have the package in backports, right? Why
not install from there instead in such a case? See
https://backports.debian.org/

(rmadison is part of the package devscripts)

-- Tzafrir

Debconf in Israel

[Tzafrir Cohen]

  
  
Yesterday Nasir El-Amin wrote to this list a message.


I was not subscribed to the list and thus cannot reply directly.


The message did raise one relevant issue:


> Palestinian or Muslim Debian contributors won’t be allowed
  by Israel to attend Debconf.


That is certainly not the case. There may be an issue with people
  of certain countries (e.g. Iran, Iraq and Lebanon) or even lesser
  issues with people from Egypt, Jordan and Palestine/The
  Palestinian Authority. However as experience has shown with
  previous similar conferences (specifically the conferences held by
  Wikimedia: Wikimania in 2010, a Hackathon in 2016 and GLAM in
  2018), this can mostly be avoided by working with the right
  people.


This is one of the issues we looked into before submitting the
  bid.


We're certainly looking forward for Palestinian and Muslim
  contributors to attend just as any others.



-- Tzafrir