The next day after the main group photo we decided to try and make something that is more funny and more sunny, so we decided to try to make a group photo in the pool. The event was completely voluntary and meant more for fun. At first we tried to create a shape of the Debian swirl in the pool.

It really was the real thing: the shape was never perfect or to the spec, more people were coming in all the time, some people stood back and watched, some sprayed others with water, some tried to organize, some almost drowned … all in all just like the Debian project.

After that we also took a simpler group picture in the pool

After I left, a flame^Wsplashwar ensued. Loads of fun.

Jeroen van Wolffelaar

• ftp-team for a year, looks good
• dpl-team as a good idea, wants team decisions to take less responsibility on his own. Might be wise, but could be un-leaderish.
• pushes for smooth communication, I am not sure how that will work out - smooth communication means sanding off the edges, but we all know that the best development is always on the edge.
• pushes for code of conduct. While the idea might be quite popular it also states that bad behavior in our community is becoming so widespread that a special code is needed to compensate for that. I do not feel that we are at such a bad state now - more flamewars are raised about the code of conduct then about the conduct itself. I feel this is were simple and decisive action by the DPL should be done and not a birocratic procedure to spread the blame of failure.
• “insider reports” - good idea, like an internal Debian News Station (see Howard 100 News)
• encouraging wiki, forums and IRC as official channels of external communication. Several questions arise here: as a user with specific question - where must I go? to which media? to which list, channel or forum category? It must not be too complex. Also there is the question of spreading knowledgeable users and developers too thin across multiple channels of voluntary support.
• infrastructure transparency - good, but how? even tiny bits of paperwork there can slow the whole project to a crawl.
• mediator in flamewar situations - good, DPL should be doing that.
• media coverage - does Debian need more media coverage? I do not think so. I do believe that we need more coverage in more professional circles (even if in circles of professional psychiatrists) to attract more developers and make them understand us better, but I do not feel that attracting huge crowds of general public would do much good for the project.
• in my opinion team players make mediocre leaders

Five word summary: transparent, wide, smooth, mediative, consensus

Ari Pollak

• whoa … pictures, so sweet
• humor, so much needed in our project
• good point about half-DPL - it would be nice to have DPL delegate as much as they possibly can but be strict and easy with what is left
• Debian Police - sounds like a good substitute for Project Scud and the Finnish Inquisition
• good take on licences, however I would add to the Gnocchi licence the phrase “And you must remove any copies of this licence from your memory as soon as you have finished reading it.” That will show them lawyers …

Five word summary: humor, half-*, police, anti-legalese, illustrations

Steve McIntyre

• got in cheap, but a long time ago
• The CD dude!
• not much new on internal communication, same old “will tell you even that I not doing anything”
• same stuff about the code of conduct, see above.
• social skill test within NM. Good idea, but not a good implementation - you will not get much social conditioning with mentoring inside teams. We need someone to get on the candidate and roast them good - test their asbestos suits. After he has made a package, schedule for time and either call the newbie or IRC with him. Grill him about his package. Must sure to slide into personal insults, religion bashing and political discourses. Watch the response. Evaluate. Post audio online
• open cabalish developments - there is little to be done beyond talking to cabal and making sure all semi-private developments use public Debian infrastructure for communication - draft on wiki and develop in svn, so that everyone can see.
• very good points about professionalism. we must be able to be proud about Debian and demand some level of standards from packages inside Debian. The idea of regular DD reexamination might be a very good fit here, see below.
• Steve looks like a good organizer to me
• however he might be a bit too soft on leadership or simply too diplomatically inclined in his platform statement

Five word summary: professionalism, standards, MIA, tests, communication

Anthony Towns

• not wanting to win too much
• speed up! - release early, release often. Sounds good for the everyday processes, but not for The Release. I still want to see Debian as The Most Stable thing ever.
• recruiting - I would ask, recruit for what? People can not just get into the interesting parts of the project and recruiting for general run of the mill development does not sound too engaging to me. You’d better make a contest for new security team members or new ftp masters or any other position that one person or only a few persons hold now. Have clear requirements and tests and actually get those people into doing those critical jobs. After that we can think about …
• … compulsory turnover. Now there is a good idea that I’d like other DPLs to consider, but only with in conjunction with the previous one. We might not need full rotation, but we could have a rotating ftp team leader post that would iterate among ftp team members. That would alleviate the “hit by a bus” problem a bit more.
• DPL as a discussion and direction leader is quite a nice and needed idea in my opinion.
• I do not agree with aj about compulsory kindness and the general idea of expulsion on social grounds. Currently it creates more problems then it could solve in a lifetime.
• Congrats on declassification thing, historians will surely thank us for that.
• nice legal disclaimer, I like those kind of things

Five word summary: continuity, tempo, newbies, direction, bling

Andreas Schuldei

Not online, to be put here when it appears.

Jonathan (Ted) Walther

• photo, nice touch.
• speak your mind. sound essential to a DPL.
• Ubuntu good. Good.
• Make love (and code) and not Desktop. Let Ubuntu make Desktop if they want to.
• We all are strange people, face it.
• Kicking people out is more harm to the project then those people could ever do.
• Kicking fun out of Debian.
• Great points about improving NM process and worshiping James Troup - I fully agree.
• The best idea here - recertification of all Debian Developers every X years (where X is proposed to be 3 currently). This will almost automatically solve many problems we have in Debian: NM frustration, MIA developers, standards of professionalism, reiteration of best practices, social reshuffling.

Five word summary: Here, goes, my, vote, period. Alternate summary: geek, love, tolerate, recertification, statue.

Bill Allombert

• math Ph.D. and researcher.
• wanted to vot for Lars, but as he stepped down saw no one else good enough, so put himself forward. brave words. I like Lars too, bet it’s not like we do not have good candidates this year besides him.
• summary on effect of voluntarism and respectful communication. Quite plain if you ask me. Got me a bit bored there. Not a good sign.
• think globally
• assist others
• help Debian specific software
• observers - sounds like that Debian Action News Team minus all the fun.
• “I am very patient” - be patient when reading and enthusiastic while writing, otherwise people might not read patiently

Five word summary: filler, communicate, more filler, patience

I hope this summary gave someone as much food for thought as it did for me. My favorite is very clear, but can you guess who is my second choice? Leave a comment and let me know what you think