Proposals, discussions and announcements

Paul Wise | 13 Mar 2012 14:46

how informed should a DPL be?

Recent threads have made me concerned about how well informed some of
our current DPL nominees are about what is going on within Debian.

My question to the candidates is similar to what I asked in 2010[1]:

How well informed should a DPL be about the activity of the Debian project?
Do you feel you are sufficiently informed about the Debian project?
What might be some deficiencies in your understanding of Debian?
How would you improve that if you were to be elected?

Same questions for Debian's relationship with the wider free software
world and with the wider world in general.

1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2010/03/msg00059.html

--

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise

headers

Gergely Nagy | 13 Mar 2012 15:25

Re: how informed should a DPL be?

Paul Wise <pabs <at> debian.org> writes:

> Recent threads have made me concerned about how well informed some of
> our current DPL nominees are about what is going on within Debian.

FWIW, if I say something stupid, or misinformed, please publicly hit me
with a cluebat. I'm very interested in my mistakes being pointed out, so
that I can improve in the future, so please apply the educational stick
to my head as appropriate.

> How well informed should a DPL be about the activity of the Debian
> project?

Reasonably. I don't expect any human being to be completely well
informed, especially not about something as big and diverse as
Debian. If we consider how many lists, forums, channels and other media
there are that one would need to follow to be completely in picture -
it's insane.

I'd expect a reasonably well informed idea about what goes on within and
around the project, but allow for honest mistakes or lack of
knowledge. The rest of the project - especially those involved in the
respective tasks - can correct this deficiency.

> Do you feel you are sufficiently informed about the Debian project?

Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have nominated myself.

> What might be some deficiencies in your understanding of Debian?
> How would you improve that if you were to be elected?

(Continue reading)

headers

Wouter Verhelst | 13 Mar 2012 16:38

Re: how informed should a DPL be?

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 09:46:30PM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> Recent threads have made me concerned about how well informed some of
> our current DPL nominees are about what is going on within Debian.
> 
> My question to the candidates is similar to what I asked in 2010[1]:
> 
> How well informed should a DPL be about the activity of the Debian project?

Very. If it's the DPL's job to take the lead in things, then that
requires him to know what he's leading. You can't lead with a blindfold.

> Do you feel you are sufficiently informed about the Debian project?

"sufficiently" is a fairly subjective term.

Yes, I think I know a fair deal of the goings-on in many parts of the
project.

No, I don't think I know all the DPL needs to know. Yet. This is because
I am not the DPL. Yet. As such, I'll have a lot of getting-up-to-speed
to do.

I do believe, however, that I know enough to get started. I am also
someone who can learn easily if I put my mind to something; this is a
useful skill, I think, for a DPL.

> What might be some deficiencies in your understanding of Debian?

I've been involved with many parts of the project, but there are even
more parts of the project that I've not been involved in. Logically,

(Continue reading)

headers

Stefano Zacchiroli | 14 Mar 2012 14:32

Re: how informed should a DPL be?

On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 09:46:30PM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> Recent threads have made me concerned about how well informed some of
> our current DPL nominees are about what is going on within Debian.
> 
> My question to the candidates is similar to what I asked in 2010[1]:
> 1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2010/03/msg00059.html

Thanks for the question, although you're no longer eligible for the
prize you won back then in my answer [2] 

[2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2010/03/msg00074.html

> How well informed should a DPL be about the activity of the Debian project?
> Do you feel you are sufficiently informed about the Debian project?
> What might be some deficiencies in your understanding of Debian?
> How would you improve that if you were to be elected?

Being informed about what is going on in the project is fundamental for
the DPL, not only due to the (obvious) importance of being informed, but
also because the mood of people in the project highly depends on the
events they're living. Not being aware of those events might imply
missing the reason why something is happening and provide the wrong
answer / reaction.

But as I observed in [2] time is not infinite, so the DPL should at
least ensure presence on all mailing lists of project wide interest and
encourage others to ping him/her for important events happening
elsewhere.

I've been doing the above, as well as temporarily subscribing to lists

(Continue reading)