Debian-NP @ Debconf

Debian-NP Bagunça

A bangunça is a mess — but it's the good kind of mess that's a lot of fun. The Debian-Nonprofit project is planning exactly that sort of mess during Debconf4.

A mess of folks including:

• Several participants on the Debian-NP project;
• Several people who've mostly been active on the sidelines but are looking for a way to expand their role in -NP;
• People who are working with non-profits and with Debian but are currently not totally plugged into Debian community;
• Unnamed and unknown others;

...are going to get together to brainstorm and hack on Debian, GNU/Linux, non-profit organizations and grass roots organizing, Custom Debian Distributions.

We're going to use Debconf4 to plug our own projects into the Debian world and to bring them closer to each other: to join forces to create a better operating system — to join forces to create a better world.

Bangunça Goals

• Shape future of Debian NP development
• Map and plan Debian NP Server;
• Strategizing on collaboration of different participating groups and projects (Freegeek, riseup, Praksys, other CDDs (Skolelinux, etc)) and how to work together and identifying other like-minded groups/projects to connect with, as well as with the larger free-software community;
• Familiarize group with the "Custom Debian Distribution" Framework, and focus on integrating all our work into that framework;
• Discussion/familiarization with installer and hardware detection (specifically doing custom package selection with the debian installer);
• Creating specifications from social point of view;
• Work on Skolelinux meta-packages and CD building projects;
• Exploit face-to-face opportunities for increased social connection;
• Freegeek and Praksys additions to DebConf questions and filing wishlist bugs for low priority installation questions, adding custom configurations that Freegeek has already done into base debian packages;
• Reflection on the global/local nature of software, localization and finding ways to make Debian NP easy for people like E-riders to customize for a specific locality.

Bangunça Schedule

Debian NP has one specific day of Debconf scheduled, but there are also many workshops at Debconf that Debian NP people would benefit from attending, additionally we anticipate work to be happening throughout. The following sessions are particularly important:

• Intro to Custom Debian Distributions (Debconf)
• Building Custom Debian Bootable CDs
• Focused CDD Integration
• Future Debian NP Development
• Visioning and Creating NP server version 0.1
• Creating Specifications (with participation from groups coming to an event organized by Tactical Tech)
• Focusing on Debian NP group participation (with representatives Freegeek, Praksys, riseup, other CDDs))
• Mediating local/global, localization
• Backporting Packages (Debconf)
• Women in Debian (Debconf)
• Mail/Spam (Debconf)
• Keysigning Party (Debconf)
• Localization (Debconf)
• Ethical Volunteerism in Debian (Debconf)
• Quality assurance (Debconf)

Debian-NP Day

Debian-NP Day is a one-day sub conference during Debconf4, the official Debian conference.

Debian-NP will be running the following sessions:

Intro to Custom Debian Distributions

This talk will be an introduction to Custom Debian Distributions and the emerging CDD framework. (This talk may be given earlier in the week and not Debian-NP day.)

Building Custom Debian Bootable CDs

Alex De Landgraaf, author of Morphix, will lead a session about Custom Debian Bootable CDs and their future with CDD and with Debian-NP.

Creating Specifications

Joined by representatives of non-profit and civil society groups from a parallel meeting organized by Tactical Tech, this session will allow "users" to sit down and do one-on-one discussions about shortcomings and strengths of free software and let developers run ideas they've developed in the week by a group of potential users.

Visioning and Creating NP Server Version 0.1

There has been a deal of discussion about a Debian-NP Server version. This session will aim to create some more concrete proposals for proceeding with the idea.

Specific times will be announced as soon as they are available.