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Mon, 16 Jan 2006

OpenSolaris at DebConf

Lars Wirzenius answered one of my last blogs about OpenSolaris being at the upcoming DebConf. I would like to give a short (and long overdue) answer, might be interesting for others, too.

Yes, you are right. Silence does indeed not necessarily signify consent; let me rephrase that: As long as you don't answer again, we did our job and you have the token ;)

However I want to clarify the accepted session a bit: No, we did not accept an OpenSolaris talk. I agree that such a talk would with high probapility be just an advertising session (perhaps even leaving out the important points where the two communities disagree).

What we accepted was an OpenSolaris Round Table. A panel discussion in our political track. I don't see a high potential of Solaris advertisement there, but a big chance to get together, talk and solve problems.

I would like to see it as a chance for a new start: When the two communities first got in contact (I'm too lazy to search the list archives right now, but I'm sure you remember the discussion, both sides made mistakes (them, when they ignored our requests/questions/principles; us, when we weren't as cooperative and polite as we could have been).

I would like to ask everyone attending this session to forget the last flamewar. If it doesn't work out and the problems can't be solved, we can honestly say that we really tried it. If it works out, we might get a nice, new, interesting port - as soon as they worked out the license issue.

postet at 17:48 into [Debian/events/DebConf-6] permanent link


Wed, 04 Jan 2006

Back from holidays! Couldn't you just have mailed?

Well... a week ago I thought, that when I would be back, I would write an other personal blog entry. After I already told you, that I was quite nervy meeting her parents, I could tell you now, that everything went quite well, and that we had quite some fun.

But getting back, I was confronted with a not so nice thing, which tainted my mood a bit. So no details, just a complaint.

Well, but one step at a time. First a small explanation: I help a bit organizing the DebConf-6. I'm member of the "review committee" whose job was to discuss the proposals we got in answer to our Call for Papers. After that we accepted and rejected different proposals, and didn't get any feedback at all.

Well, we did that short before Christmas and then half of us went to holidays. I was one of them, and managed to check my emails from time to time, without receiving any comments about the decisions we made. Therefore I thought everything was quite well, until I retourned.

Then I got back, connected to my irc client (where I was logged in all the time, but was marked as away), and saw a small note in my awaylog, asking me for some rational about something mentioned a few lines earlier. I didn't know about what - I just log someone mentioning my name or some keywords (e.g. packages I maintain or am interested in). Sounded somehow important, so I asked back what the questions was.

Soon I got informed, that there were complains about a talk proposal we rejected. After a bit confusion (according to my memory and some note we indeed accepted the talk), we found out, that we did a small mistake in the database, so the submitter of that specific proposal got the wrong mail telling him the proposal was rejected. Not a big problem; we could still mark it as accepted and send them the information the other accepted proposal got. So at this point you might wonder, what the big fuss is all about.

Well, first of all: The complains about the rejected proposal reached us by luck. Luckily I was in the channel, where the rejection was discussed. Luckily I was connected at that time. Luckily my irssi didn't crashed. Luckily I checked my awaylog carefully. Luckily I was informed about the whole matter. Luckily we could solve the problem. After nearly two weeks I thought everything was fine (and therefore did nothing), it took just two or three hours to solve the problem (most of the time was spent to carefully formulate a difficult mail in a foreign language).

Not a big problem at all - although you might wonder why they raised their concerns in a complete other channel on an other network, instead of simply asking us. What I really dislike is the form they used to raise their complains.

When they complained they asked if the DebConf was bought by Sun or the committee on crack and similar things.

I'm sure they didn't really meant it that way, but after losing a couple of good friends to drugs telling me, I am on crack (or any other drug) is one of the biggest insults you can give me! Wondering if I (or a volunteer project I'm working for) got bribed by a company isn't much nicer.

So let me say this: Yes, we rejected proposals. Yes, we rejected even some proposals we found good in some way or an other. Neither have we been on crack nor have we been bribed! We rejected some proposals because they didn't fit to DebConf, were a rerun or had big overlaps with other proposals we accepted. We rejected some round tables, because the one proposing it didn't provided us with useful information: Whom to invite and what to ask. Sometimes we had mixed feelings about proposals; we usually then accepted them if we knew the one who made the proposal is a good speaker, we rejected some where we knew the proposal come from a bad / disorganized / boring speaker. We did that in a public discussion and answered questions by non committee members when they were raised. I really don't think we did anything wrong, beside the small mistake when we rejected a proposal which was accepted, and I think we got a nice mixture for the main track with some really good talks!

As said: Telling me I'm on crack is a big insult. Nevertheless I tried to stay calm, tried my best to solve that matter, and later wrote a mail, apologizing for the mistake. Part of that mail was that we didn't liked their way of raising their complains (showing that I knew what they said about us). I expected at least an answer, thanking us for solving the problem, perhaps even a small apology about the insults. But till now - two days later - I didn't received anything, not even a small "thanks" via irc :(

Now I just could forget the whole story. But then I saw it again: Someone wondering about the committees decision in the same channel, instead of just asking us!

Damn! If you want to know why we rejected your proposal, just ask! Stop griping in unrelated channels. That's just a wast of other peoples time, resulting in nothing but damage to to the DebConf.

Update: Small correction: We got some feedback. Liw raised some concerns. His mail was answered 8 minutes after we received it by a committee member. Since he didn't answered I guess he is satisfied by the answer or at least doesn't feel very strong about that point.

postet at 22:50 into [Debian/events/DebConf-6] permanent link


Oaxa-dingsbumms

After bubulle asked and Gunar tried to explain (Anybody understood his explanation? Good, I thought I was the only one ;) he finally published it on the DebConf website... somehow I feel some kind of Déjà vu...

postet at 22:50 into [Debian/events/DebConf-6] permanent link


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Alexander Tolimar Reichle-Schmehl lives in Tuttlingen / Germany. He works as IT manager (specialized on Unix and SAN/Storage) for an international automotive supplier.

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