Bits from the DPL

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   Hello fellow developers!

   It's already been 10 days since I started my DPL term and I haven't
made any formal annoucement yet, so here it is. It's a bit late to
comment on the elections, but let me thank all other candidates anyway,
with extra sympathy for Steve McIntyre who for the second time came
second by less than 10 votes and Gustavo Franco who had a platform very
similar to mine yet wasn't rewarded with as many favourable votes. Also
many thanks to Anthony Towns, my predecessor, and Steve McIntyre again
for making the switch as comfortable as possible.

   I spent most of the week answering to the press, but a few real
things also happened or are going to happen soon.

   Since Etch was released before my term started, Debian is now rid of
the stress and bubbles with new ideas and new projects, and I love the
atmosphere I've been thrown into. The current release team is already
poking the various packaging teams[1] to make plans for Lenny, we have
nine students who are going to work on various Google Summer of Code
projects[2] (amongst which a web-based interface to the BTS, which I am
awaiting with breathless expectation), the web team is discussing both
structural changes[3] and cosmetic changes[4] to the website, and I am
really sorry for not mentioning /your/ great new project here, but feel
free to use d-d-a for this purpose!

   I have been asked whether I'd be continuing with a 2IC position or
something similar this year. I don't know yet. At that time last year
Anthony had already decided so, but I am not sure I want/need that
right now since I am more in favour of delegating people for a precise
project. I will keep you informed of the organisational changes I plan
to do. For now, and until they no longer wish to, Anthony and Steve are
still subscribed to the leader@ alias so that the transition is smooth,
and so that they can hit me hard with their experience when I screw up.

Teams
-----

   In my platform[5] I suggested in many places that I wanted to have
more people in our various core teams. As much as I cannot throw anyone
in a team and expect them to work together magically, I can also not
throw anyone in a team when I have no idea who they are. So please,
don't hesitate to talk to me about what you would like to do in Debian.
I cannot guess who you are.

Events
------

   I will attend an Etch Install party in Paris[6] on May 5th and give
a talk about the Debian project. Christian Perrier will also attend and
give a talk about what is new in Etch.

   Sun sent us an invitation for the JavaOne[7] conference in San
Francisco on May 8-11th. Since Sun is making Java GPL, we can hope for
very productive cooperation with the Debian project. I cannot attend,
but Anthony Towns, who is already familiar with the Debian-Sun relations
with regards to Java, should be able to attend.

   I will attend the Encuentro Linux 2007 conference in Arica, Chile[8]
on October 11-14th. I know it is in 6 months, but I thought it might be
an opportunity to meet with other developers in Latin America, so this
is a warning that I will be in the area. I'd be happy to know of other
Free Software events in Latin America that I could attend.

Meetings
--------

   Matt Taggart proposed that dpkg developers meet in person during a
dpkg summit[9] to talk about future dpkg development. The meeting would
be sponsored at least by Debian and HP. I suggested inviting people from
the Fink and ipkg projects as well as other distributions, too.

Press
-----

   We took part in the GNOME Mobile & Embedded Initiative announcement
on April 19th[10]. This is an excellent opportunity to remind you that
Debian is still the #1 distribution in the embedded world according to a
linuxdevices.com survey[11].

   A few weeks ago a WHATWG discussion about the