FINAL REPO RT

SIXTH ANNUAL D EBIAN CO NFERENCE FINAL REPO RT D ECEM BER 2005 Editor Fabian Fagerh olm Layout and graph ics Fabian Fagerh olm Proofreading and layout assistance Jonna Räm ö Texts Fabian Fagerh olm , , Tero Kuusela, Anibal M onsalve Salazar, M artin-Éric Racine, H erm an Robak , Branden Robinson, Andreas Sch uldei, Rebecca Sobol, H enning Sprang, Arto Teräs, Gunnar W olf and Asch w in van der W oude.

Copyrigh t © 2005 by th e contributing auth ors. You m ay redistribute and/or m odify th is w ork under th e term s of th e GNU General Public License as publish ed by th e Free Softw are Foundation; eith er version 2.0, or (at your option) any later version. Tradem ark s and associated logos are property of th eir respective ow ners and subject to different licensing as specified by th e ow ner. D EBCO NF: TH E PO W ER O F CO M M UNITY

ANDREAS SCH ULDEI m ain organise r

ebian conferences (DebConfs) serve both as W O RK O N D EBCO NF5 STARTED sh ortly after D educational and social events and as w ork DebConf4 w as done. W ith out a h otel it w ould be m eetings. Th ose goals furth er an oth er, th e prim ary sim ilar in ch aracter to DebConf3 w ith h eavy load one: to inspire people for yet an oth er year of w ork for th e organizers during th e conference. on . Th e m ain audience of DebConfs are Concerning th e preparations preceeding th e people w h o w ork on Debian in som e w ay. In th at conference th e events feel pretty sim ilar in w ork regard it is uniq ue and even th ough oth er load and necessary attention to detail. conferences m igh t attract larger Debian crow ds, Th ere h ad been som e leftover, unclaim ed m oney DebConfs surpass th ose in th eir num ber and density for travel sponsorsh ip during DebConf4, apparently of developers and oth er deeply involved people. because people could not m ak e sh ort term Since DebConf3 in O slo, DebConfs are arrangem ents for a trip to . To give people preceeded by Debcam ps. During th ose "w ork m ore tim e to plan and book ch eaper fligh ts, w e cam ps", groups th at cooperate via th e net during th e needed to be able to com m it to th eir travel year h ave a ch ance to h ack togeth er for som e sponsorsh ip earlier. To be able to do th at, w e needed consecutive days and use th e proxim ity for m oney earlier. brainstorm ing, m eetings and com m on w ork . So very early (12-9 m onth s before th e conference) w e started to approach potential sponsors for support. But m ost w ere not overly interested yet. Th eir budget w as not ready and "...to inspire people for yet apparently th ey w ere not w illing to plan for anoth er year of w ork on sponsorsh ip for our conference ah ead of tim e. Debian." In Septem ber w e h ad th e first of our m onth ly IRC m eetings, w h ere w e diligently w ent over our todo lists and reported progress or stagnation. W e D URING TH E YEARS w e h ave seen different k inds sent out th e "Generic Sponsorsh ip O ffer" m ail to th e of DebConfs: debian-devel-announce m ailing list, anyw ay, and DebConf4 took place in a conference h otel over th e follow ing m onth about 70 people w h ere th e h otel provided all k inds of services (food, approach ed us to req uest financial support. Th at w as registration, cleaning, inform ation, entertainm ent, m uch better th en in previous years, but w e w ere also guard duty) and unloaded th e organizers from m ost sceptical if w e w ould be able to consider everyone, w ork during th e conference. since th e projected travel costs w ere substantial. To DebConf3 w as h osted in a university and all enable as m any people as possible to attend, w e th ose services h ad to be provided by th e organizers. ask ed people to pay as m uch as possible of th eir Free h ousing w as available in a gym in 20 m inutes travel costs th em selves, so th at w e w ould be able to w alk ing distance. spread th e support as th in and w ide as possible. DebConf0 and 1 piggy-back ed on th e Softw are IN PARALLEL w e w ere look ing for a legal Livre m eeting in and DebConf2 look ed um brella in . W e needed a legal entity th at lik e DebConf3 w ith out th e services. Th e only could sign contracts, pay bills and do oth er business sch eduled events w ere th e talk s, but bug sq uash ing, for us. W e soon found Linux-Ak tivaattori, w h o w ere talk ing and partying took place anyw ay. w illing to w ork togeth er w ith us. H aving th em on

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 5 board proved to be one of th e greater luck y strik es M anagem ent System w h ich w e w ould extend in th e of DebConf5. com ing m onth s to satisfy DebConf's special needs. Ah ead of tim e th e SPI (deputy) treasurer defined O nce th e first people started to plan th eir trip a procedure th at w ould regulate th e reim bursem ent and h eard w h at w e offered as th eir accom odation for of sponsorees from th e U.S. bank ing and ch eq ue th e duration — a dorm , w h ich w e could not prom ise paym ent region. In fact th rough out th e tim e w e m uch about, not even beds — w e noticed th at enjoyed good cooperation w ith SPI w h en it stored DebConf4 w ith its h otel facilities h ad set standards and received sponsorsh ip m oney, passed m oney w h ich w e could not offer th is year, but th at som e along to th e Finnish account w h en needed and people expected neverth eless. A surprising am ount reim bursed th e Am erican participants later. Th is of about 50 people decided to stay in th e nearby w as an encouraging developm ent. (and expensive) Radisson h otel instead of th e dorm . Even th ough w e w ere initially not h appy w ith people leaving th e scene of DebConf and perh aps "...several oth er reporters w ere fragm enting th e event, th is turned out to be very present and w rote about h elpful, as th e dorm could not by far h ave h oused all DebConf5." th e participants th at eventually sh ow ed up. ARO UND TH AT TIM E Linux-New -M edia offered us sponsorsh ip by publish ing a full page advertisem ent SINCE PRESS W O RK H AD BEEN NEGLECTED for in all its m agazines w orldw ide, w h ich w e could use DebConf4, a press team w as form ed th at w ork ed to th ank our sponsors. Eq uipped w ith th at offer w e both on inform ing th e national press and even reapproach ed som e of th e sponsors th at h ad turned publish ed international press releases before and us dow n so far and contacted also a m ultitude of after th e event. O th er efforts to im prove th e new , sm aller sponsors. In th e process of th is w e also visibility of Debian included an invitation to got in touch w ith a com pany th at w as surprisingly Rebecca Sobol from Linux W eek ly New s supportive of DebConf and did becom e our second (h ttp://lw n.net/) to attend and report from th e biggest sponsor. Suddenly w e could afford to conference. Not planned in detail, but still very support everyone th at h ad req uested travel w elcom e, w as th at several oth er reporters w ere sponsorsh ip. Additionally, m any of th e approach ed present and w rote about DebConf5. com panies agreed to sponsor DebConf w ith varying W e estim ated to h ave around 200 participants sum s. Som e luck w as also involved, for exam ple and th at, togeth er w ith th e travel and h ousing costs, w h en a sponsor did th eir q uarterly final budget on a gave us a good idea h ow m uch m oney w e w ould Saturday and w e m anaged to h it th e h our-long need to k eep th e "free food, free accom m odation" w indow of opportunity and got a part of th e leftover standard th at w e h ad set in earlier DebConfs. m oney. Th is w as also th e point in tim e w h en w e O riginally, th e plan h ad been to h ave a few big started to send out invitations to participants w h o sponsors w h ich w ould sh are th e load of th e needed th em to req uest visas or to im press th eir projected 100 000 euro eq ually. Unfortunatly som e bosses. of th e big sponsors w ere not able to m eet our AS A NO VELTY w e w anted to h ave a Debian Day expectations and for a long tim e it seem ed doubtful w ith a focus tow ards th e general public, press and th at w e w ould be able to provide any travel users. DebConf talk s w ould h ave been too tech nical sponsorsh ip at all. in nature for th is audience, so a special program w as TH E W EBSITE W ENT PUBLIC in January and sh ortly arranged. It w as m uch broader in scope and even after th at th e registration opened. Th e Call For touch ed very basic topics (lik e Free Softw are or Papers w as put out and th e license for th e recordings Release M anagem ent). of th e talk s got som e attention and w as m odified to Th e results of th e q uestionnaires from DebConf3 m eet th e Debian Free Softw are Guidelines. Both for w ere reinvestigated in order to refine th e surveys for th e CFP and th e registration of th e conference th is year. Th e video team started form ing and th e participants w e used Com as, a Conference netw ork adm inistrators h ad th eir first IRC m eeting,

6 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT finding th at som e q uestions about th e netw ork topology still rem ained open. A W O RD FRO M TH E DPL AND TH EN W E FINALLY STARTED TO SPEND th e BRANDEN RO BINSO N fortunes w e h ad collected. W e paid airfares for som e participants, w h o could not afford to extend th e De bian Proje ct Le ade r m oney until th ey w ould get reim bursed, ordered cleaning services, insurances, boats for th e daytrip, h e continued grow th of th e annual conference T-sh irts and food. Tof Debian developers is furth er evidence, if From DebConf3 w e k new th at catering services any w ere needed, of th e increasing im portance of w ere able to adjust th e am ount of food q uite flexibly. th e Debian Project and its im pact on th e softw are In Finland h ow ever, th e person w h o could order landscape. O ur prom inence as standard bearers for supplies h ad gone on vacation and only th e cook s th e Free Softw are com m unity is underscored by th e and service personel rem ained. Th e food order w e increasing diversity of our developer and user h ad placed w as from th e tim e w h en registration h ad com m unities, th e q uantity and q uality of th e talk s been closed, at th e beginning of June (and adjusted w e present, th e breadth of th e m aterial covered, and upw ards sh ortly afterw ards). Th e num ber of last- th e enth usiasm of our attendees and sponsors. m inute participants exceeded considerably th ose w e Th e diligence and professionalism of our h ad m ade arrangem ents for and w e w ere unable to conference organizers continues to im press. increase th e volum e furth er. To our rescue cam e th e DebConf occupies an increasingly im portant role for sleeping tim es of th e participants and th e opening us, and if th e attendees are th e lifeblood of its h ours of th e restaurant, w h ich overlapped partly. As success, th en th e organizers are its h eart, getting a result, th e consum ed food m atch ed th e initial order everyone w h ere th ey need to be. better th an th e adjusted one. IN O RDER TO KEEP TIM E unfragem ented for th e participants and due to restrictions placed by th e IN RETRO SPECT Com puter Science Departm ent's opening h ours w e ASCH W IN VAN DER W O UDE decided to parallelize talk s. To find th ose w ith a m inim al overlap in th eir potential audience w e ch airm an, Linux-Ak tivaattori introduced a voting system and optim ized th e sch edule for th e m inim al num ber of collisions. Th is h en Linux-Ak tivaattori w as ask ed to w ork ed reasonably w ell since no one com plained of W legally represent DebConf5 in Finland in m issing an interesting talk for sch eduling reasons. th e end of 2004, w e w ere eager to tak e on th is task . Th e event itself w ent very sm ooth ly and w h ile it But w e also realised th is w ouldn't be a task to be w as as w ork -intense and dem anding as expected, th e tak en ligh tly. Not just because of th e am ount of people from Linux-Ak tivaattori and th e oth er m oney involved, but because of th e focus and volunteers put in an am azing am ount of tim e and personal effort req uired from each of us involved. effort to m ak e it a sm ooth and pleasent experience After deciding to go ah ead, w e gradually becam e for everybody. m ore involved and noticed w e could really h elp At th e tim e of w riting, w ork on De bConf6 in m ak e th is a great Debian Conference. In th e end w e M e xico is alre ady unde rw ay. realised h ow deeply involved w e h ad been, and h ow our personal sacrifices h ad h elped create a w onderful experience for th e participants of DebConf5. Being involved in organising DebConf gave us a uniq ue insigh t in w h at th e Debian com m unity is lik e and h ow it functions. It w as great to be involved in such dynam ic and w e h ope it w ill continue in one form or anoth er.

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 7 PRESENTING D EBIAN TO TH E PRESS AND PUBLIC

M ARTIN-ÉRIC R ACINE De bian Day organise r

uring th e course of planning Debconf5, it Press coverage of th e event w as excellent: in D occurred to several m em bers of th e PR team addition to spotligh ts in Finnish publications such as th at h olding a public event for corporate, DigiToday and Tonnik ala, th e conference attracted a governm ent and individual users w ould be lot of attention abroad, especially in th e Germ anic desirable, as a m eans of stim ulating Free Softw are IT press. adoption in Finland. Th e idea w as to regroup th e m ost accessible talk s of th e conference into a single day th at w ould be open to anyone interested in "As som eone w h o visits conferences learning m ore about Debian and about Free Softw are in general. and w ork sh ops regularly, I h ave to Th e m edia of Finland and abroad w ere invited to attend via targeted press releases in th ree different say you guys did a great job. Th e languages. Translations in several m ore languages w ere also distributed by Debian developers, a w h ole event w as very inspiring." testim ony to th e O pen Source developm ent m odel's relevance to m ark eting strategies. Artur Sk ura, Linux M agazine Poland

"Debian is by far th e largest operating system currently k now n to m an!"

D EBIAN D AY W AS q uite successful, w ith over 200 visitors attending th e talk s; am ong th em , a dozen decided to register and attend th e rest of th e conference to learn m ore. Th e tw o talk s th at generated th e m ost positive feedback w ere a presentation about th e Spanish adm inistrative region of Extrem adura's im pressive deploym ent of over 80,000 Debian w ork stations, and an oth er th at offered an exh austive statistical com parative overview of Debian and oth er free and com m ercial softw are distributions, w h ose conclusion w as th at, w ith upw ards of 20,000 readily available softw are products, Debian is by far th e largest operating system currently k now n to m an!

PH O TO BY FABIAN FAGERH O LM

8 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT M ANAGING D EBCO NF'S INFO RM ATIO N

GUNNAR W O LF

y role in DebConf w as to set up and adm in- found m any im portant task s th at need to be im - M ister Com as, a Conference M anagem ent proved for Com as to be used in our upcom ing edi- System I originally w rote w ith a M exican colleague tions. Am ong th em , th e m ost im portant are: for a M exican free softw are conference, CO NSO L. Com as is q uite an am bitious project, aim ing to gath - Allow for greater freedom for specifying er all th e needed inform ation for planning and run- w h ich fields are collected for each person. ning a conference — any conference. Righ t now , w e h ad to create a new branch of Com as just to allow for our specific fields.

Integrate a lodging m odule to Com as (prob- "...th e ultim ate stress test..." ably based on th e w ork w e did for DebConf).

Allow for easier and m ore flexible reports to W h ile w e h ad set up Com as installations for be presented to th e adm inistrators using th e som e different conferences, it w as clear from th e regular front-end, not req uiring direct access beginning th at DebConf, being such an atypical con- to th e database. ference, w ould be th e ultim ate stress test — and I Som e inform ation (as m uch as possible, and as fine-grained as possible) sh ould register w h en it w as last ch anged. Th is is im portant for enforcing th e various deadlines w e h ad.

W e h ad a usability problem : Due to design prob- lem s, Com as did not integrate seam lessly into th e DebConf5's w ebsite. Som e people got confused and th ough t th ey h ad registered in Com as w h en th ey h ad instead created a new user account on th e Drupal- driven w ebsite. In th e end, th ey all registered in tim e in th e Com as system — but th is is a lesson w e w ill k eep in m ind for future editions. O th er th an th is, our system w ork ed just as it w as expected. W e h ad a com plete, trustable set of data, w e k now enough about our attendees, and th is w ill surely h elp us plan better for next year.

PH O TO BY FABIAN FAGERH O LM

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 9 O RGANISING TH E TALKS

TERO KUUSELA talk s coordinator vice ch airm an, Linux-Ak tivaattori

lth ough th e task organisation w as done on a w as not enough for all talk coordinators (and video A relatively tigh t sch edule, th e coordinator team people) to w alk to th e TF and eat. team th at w as gath ered during th e last few days of In general, th e cooperation w ith th e staff of th e Debcam p consisted of great people w h o w ere able H elsink i University of Tech nology w ent very w ell. to m ak e everyth ing flow q uite sm ooth ly. It certainly Problem s w ere all settled in a m anner th at w as w ouldn't h urt to confirm th e talk s organiser a bit satisfactory to both sides. earlier in th e future, th ough . Th e guidance at th e CSD w asn't q uite sufficient Th ere w ere 53 talk s and bofs (directed early on, but th is w as corrected q uick ly. H opefully discussion sessions) sch eduled in total, of w h ich future DebConfs m anage to h ave enough signs all th ree w ere not h eld since th e speak er w as m issing. over th e place before th e conference starts. At least one speak er h ad understood th at h is talk O ne of th e good ideas im plem ented during th e w as not sch eduled w h ile it w as actually just conference w as giving im portant announcem ents to transform ed into a bof. In th e second case, tw o th e talk coordinators so th ey could m ention th em im provised talk s w ere h eld instead. In th e th ird, before every talk . Th is really seem ed to im prove th e people ch ose to sit in th e room doing th eir ow n stuff inform ation flow from th e organisers to th e or w ent to listen to th e talk in th e oth er auditorium . conference participants. Despite th e various sm all Also, one extra bof w as organised in th e Com puter issues experienced during th e conference, th ere w as Science Departm ent. a 2-m inute standing ovation for th e organisers after TH E CO O RDINATO R TEAM created sh ort lists of th e last talk . rules and tips for th e speak ers, w h ich w ere sh ow n to alm ost all speak ers before th eir first talk in th e conference. It's h ard to estim ate h ow m uch th is affected th e q uality of th e talk s, but h opefully it TALK FAST FACTS im proved th em a bit. Such rules m igh t h ave been m ore effective if delivered to th e speak ers sh ortly M ost popular talk (big auditorium ) before th e conference and th en just briefly repeated orth , before th eir talk s. Talk by M ark Sh uttlew Th e coordinators ran around w ith m icroph ones 140 attendants to h elp th e audio team and sh ow ed tim e signs to th e speak ers in order to h elp th em m anage th e tim e th ey M ost popular talk (sm all auditorium ) h ad left. Th e signs proved to be very useful, but th e delines m icroph one caused som e trouble since th e audience Th e Debian Free Softw are Gui ts w as som ew h at uncom fortable w ith it. H aving th e by M atth ew Garrett, 48 attendan speak er repeat all q uestions w ould've been nice, but unfortunately not every speak er rem em bers to do it, Average num ber of attendants even th ough w e tried to rem ind th em in various (all) w ays. 85 (big) — 24 (sm all) — 66 O ne problem w as presented by th e distance betw een th e CSD — w h ere th e talk s w ere h eld — and th e TF restaurant. Th e tim e reserved for lunch

10 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT M ANAGING TH E VIDEO TEAM TECH NICAL NO TES FRO M TH E H ENNING SPRANG VIDEO TEAM vide o te am m anage r H ERM AN RO BAK

cam e up w ith th e idea to go to DebConf very h e video team w anted to serve th e view ers Ilate and no sooner I w as recruited to h elp in th e Tsom eth ing th at w as easy to view and listen video team , so I did not really k now w h at to expect to, and th at w ould frustrate th em as little as w h en I arrived. I h ad to figure out th e process possible. Tech nically, w e w anted to avoid th e use of m yself, because none of us h ad too m uch experience tape, and record to disk instead. Th e aim w as to in doing th e video recordings of th e talk s at reduce post-processing as m uch as possible, so th at DebConf in th e scale w e tried to ach ieve. w e could publish videos sh ortly after recording Anoth er ch allenge w as w ork ing w ith lots of th em . Use of m ultiple cam eras w as rejected as too people I h ad never seen or com m unicated w ith labour-intensive. before. I h ad to trust th at th ey w ould be able to get O nce w e got a look at th e large auditorium , w e up at eigh t in th e m orning every day, not to m ention w ere in aw e of th e m ulti-cam era video system th e m yself getting up at seven o'clock to be th ere to h elp CSD h ad in place, and decided to use it. At th e w ith th e daily setup, coordination, answ ering opening of Debian Day w e w ere q uite far from q uestions from volunteers and oth ers, and eventually being ready, so w e ch ose to k eep a separate filling gaps in case som eone w asn't th ere for a sh ift recording of one of th e cam eras as back up. Th at for any reason. cam e h andy, as th e recordings I CREATED A TIM E-SLO T PLAN from th e first couple of days to ensure th ere w as alw ays "...it w as such great fun..." h ad m any problem s. som eone m anning th e video Connecting th e speak er's eq uipm ent for each talk . Also, I PC to th e video m ixer proved h ad to ensure th at everyone got a training lesson difficult. W e settled for pointing one of th e cam eras before doing a job for th e first tim e. Inform ation at th e projector screen, and th e result w as better about available volunteers and th e task s in need of th an expected. attention alw ays cam e in th e last m inute. BECAUSE O F TH E PRO BLEM S during th e first few W ork ing w ith th e plan w as th e biggest ch allenge days, w e did not m anage to process and publish all — it took a w h ile to realize w h at th e m ost th e videos th e sam e day th ey w ere recorded. Th e appropriate m eth od of creating and publish ing th e back log grew , and by th e end of th e w eek w e w ere plan w as, and k eeping everyone up to date. H ow do running out of storage space. O ur setup req uired you realize people read th eir m ails only th ree days copying a lot of video over th e netw ork , and th at after you send it... turned out to be a bottleneck . I believe th e team w ork ed very w ell togeth er, Th e video editing w ork stations w ere excellent. th ere w ere som e really am azing h elping h ands W e only w ish ed th ey h ad m ore disk space. For a sh ow ing up at exactly th e righ t tim es w ith exactly large auditorium , th e m ulti-cam era video and th e righ t sk ills th at really m ade th is venture succeed w ireless m icroph ones gave sw eet results, once w e as w ell as it did. At least m y im pression w as th at of got fam iliar w ith th em . success because I got lots of very positive feedback . In th e sm all auditorium th e sim ple single Finally, I am look ing forw ard to w ork in th e video cam era setup w ork ed w ell in th e m uch m ore recording m anagem ent role for th e next DebConf, it intim ate setting. w as such great fun and I w ant to experience th at again!

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 11 INFRASTRUCTURE BY GO O DW ILL

ARTO TERÄS ch airm an, Finnish Linux Use r Group FLUG

h ile not being a Debian developer or even Also, in th e case of DebConf I h ad sent one W active on th e m ailing lists, I've been a particular vendor th e specs of w h at w e w ould need h appy user for about five years. I h ad also m et a lot and got a "sh ouldn't be a problem " answ er early in of nice people during DebConfs 0 and 1 in , th e process. H ow ever, w h en after several rem inders so w h en I h eard th at DebConf5 is going to be in I finally got to th e person w h o h ad tw o servers Finland it felt natural to join th e organizing team . reserved for us it turned out th at h e h ad never Several m ajor h ardw are vendors are support received th e list of specs, th e h ardw are w as q uite m em bers of th e Finnish Linux User Group FLUG ry different th an w h at w e h ad req uested and even th e and I'm th e ch airm an of FLUG th is year, so I expected delivery date w as w rong. Th e dem opool already k new w h om I sh ould contact first. Th e guy w as very h elpful and w as able to find a m ainly response w as q uite positive and I didn't h ave to do satisfactory back up solution, but again one rem inder m uch to get prom ises th at w e'll get som e h ardw are. for us th at very detailed answ ers and com m itm ents O f course m y req uest w as m uch easier to answ er are needed. Th is w asn't th e only case — th e th an substantial financial sponsorsh ips, w h ich w ere conference T-sh irt order presented a sim ilar h andled by Andreas Sch uldei. ch allenge. TH E SM O O TH EST PART w as filling in som e gaps at th e last m inute by h ardw are from m y ow n "...I didn't h ave to do m uch to w ork place, a com puting center. I k new exactly w h o get prom ises..." to contact, got responses q uick ly — including specs — and w e h appened to h ave just th e righ t k ind of eq uipm ent available. Being an insider alw ays m ak es H O W EVER, th ere are several caveats. Th e person a big difference even com pared to very good w h o answ ers sponsorsh ip req uests is often som eone contacts in anoth er com pany. from th e local m ark eting or sales, not th e one w h o H P and IBM also participated w ith th eir local k now s th e specs or h as th e actual h ardw are beh ind organizations in Finland, providing servers and h im . M ajor decisions req uire contacting som eone in printers for th e event. Intel delivered netw ork a senior position. People in th ese positions can sw itch es, w ireless access points and laptops for m ak e bigger decisions but th ey are also th e busiest. participants w h o didn't bring th eir ow n. H elsink i M essages are forw arded to oth er people and get University of Tech nology offered a h igh speed forgotten or m isinterpreted along th e w ay. Internet connection from both th e lecture h alls and DebConf is already so large th at th e com m on th e conference internal netw ork . Additional answ er "Let's see w h at w e'll h ave at th e dem opool h ardw are w as provided by Nok ia, Dam icon Kraa by th en" is not satisfactory any m ore. H ow ever, it's and CSC, th e Finnish IT center for science. not a paying custom er or oth erw ise im portant Th e servers w ere brough t in for building large enough to be very h igh on th e priority list eith er. softw are pack ages, enh ancing Debian support for Sh ipping anyth ing else th an w h at's readily available new 64-bit arch itectures and m aintaining critical in th e dem opool is costly for th e vendors and services of th e internal conference netw ork . Th ere dem opool contents are very unstable — advance w as also a separate file server, laptops, editing com m itm ents of any specific m odels of h ardw are w ork stations and A/V eq uipm ent for th e video team , are h ard to get. w h ich recorded all talk s.

12 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT EXPANDING TH E W EB O F TRUST ANIBAL M O NSALVE SALAZ AR k e ysigning party coordinator

Debian as a volunteer organization couldn't k eysigning party is an event w h ere each afford to organize a m eeting of th is scale w ith out A participant h as th e opportunity to ch eck , both m onetary and h ardw are support of th e face to face, th e personal ID of all oth er sponsors. It's nice to see th at both sm all and large participants. Also, each participant confirm s th at com panies see th e value of Debian — th e only th eir ow n cryptograph ic GPG k ey fingerprint is m ajor GNU/Linux distribution developed correctly printed on th e h ardcopy list prepared by com pletely on a non-profit basis. th e k eysigning party coordinator. Th e k eysigning party is of significant im portance for th e Debian Project because it expands th e w eb of trust of each participant. It is "Th e w orld m oves forw ard by very im portant not only for Debian Developers but volunteer w ork !" for oth er affiliates of th e Project as w ell, especially people in th e New M aintainer process or th ose w ith plans to start it at som e tim e in th e future. It is a prereq uisite to h ave th e GPG k ey signed by at least SO M EO NE M IGH T W O NDER w h y it is im portant for one Debian Developer to start th e m em bersh ip th e sponsors to support events lik e th is. Th ere are process. m any reasons. Th e GPG k ey allow s a Debian Developer to Sale s: M any Debian developers are or w ill be in vote during th e Debian elections each year and to positions in com panies w h ere th ey m ak e or at least upload pack ages to th e Debian Arch ive. influence decisions on h ardw are purch ases; if th ey Th e DebConf5 k eysigning party w as attended k now th at certain h ardw are w ork s w ell in by 160 people. A total of 163 people subm itted 187 GNU/Linux or th at th e vendor is Linux-friendly in GPG public k eys. Th is k eysigning party w as so big general, it can be a decisive factor. th at it w as done on a street in th e H UT cam pus and M ark e ting: General visibility, positive m edia im age. it took about 2 h ours and a h alf to finish . Innovation: Everybody benefits from h aving a strong independent (non-corporate) GNU/Linux distribution. Even if th e sponsor w ouldn't use Debian it m ak es oth er distros (and even oth er O S vendors) try h arder and/or low er prices — and in th e case of Free Softw are good solutions can be even legally copied to oth ers. Econom ie s of volunte e r w ork : Th e w orld m oves forw ard by volunteer w ork ! Calculating even a m odest salary on th e h ours spent w ould result in a h uge sum , com pared to th at th e sponsorsh ip needed to k eep th e activity running is tiny.

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 13 PERSO NAL IM PRESSIO NS

BDALE GARBEE REBECCA SO BO L Ope n Source & Linux CTO LW N.ne t H e w le tt-Pack ard Com pany th ink Debconf5 w as about w h at I expected... ugh t Debconf th is year w as a great th o IInteresting talk s, people staying up all nigh t rience overall. Th e h uge attendance m ade Iexpe and h aving loud parties. I did not expect th e ult to m eet everyone, but w h at I saw it diffic W ednesday day trip, but it w as very fun to tak e a t Debconf th is year is a strong and vibrant clearly a day a off and see th e fortress island. Th e guide ity of am azingly diverse contributors. com m un th at led m y group w as very good and k new m any is is th at Th e greatest benefit of events lik e th interesting h istorical facts. w h o k now each oth er only over th e people Th e food h as been very good, especially get a ch ance to m eet in real life. It's just Internet considering th ey are cook ing for so m any people. ductive and effective com m unicating and m ore pro I really lik ed th e form al dinner w ith th e reindeer w ith people for w h om you h ave som e w ork ing and (lingon ?) berries. Th e H UT cam pus is a nice context and personal back ground. cultural place to tak e long w alk s after dinner, th rough th e representatives Th e active involvem ent of forest and around th e coast line. veral Debian derivative distributions at from se Th e w eath er w as h otter th an I expected, reinforces th e notion th at w h at Debian Debconf obviously not som eth ing th e organizers can delivers is vitally im portant, even w h en does and control. For m ore controllable th ings th e ser doesn't interact directly w ith Debian. th e end u conference w as very w ell organized and seem ed ber and diversity of sponsors th is year Th e num to run sm ooth ly. I found it both fun and and th e resulting increase in th e event budget h elp educational. indicate just h ow broad th e im pact of Debian is, and h ow enorm ous th e larger com m unity of users of Debian and Debian-derived distributions around th e w orld h as becom e! It is clear th at Debian faces ch allenges as th e project continues to grow . A num ber of talk s at th e event th is year addressed th ese ch allenges, and I left th e event greatly encouraged th at th e Debian com m unity can and w ill tack le and overcom e each of th ese ch allenges in one w ay or anoth er.

PH O TO BY FABIAN FAGERH O LM Th e day trip guide explains th e h istory of Suom enlinna fortress island.

14 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT SUBJECT: FINAL REPO RT

FABIAN FAGERH O LM board m e m be r, Linux-Ak tivaattori

riting a Final Report for th e diverse audi- catch ing th eir breath , th ey w ere ready to go again. W ence of sponsors, visitors and th ose w h o Th e reception desk , w h ich w as actually a ground- follow ed th e conference th rough m ailing lists, IRC, level balcony w ith a ch ipboard carefully balanced w eb sites, press releases and video clips is not an on th e railing, becam e a place w h ere people w ould easy task . DebConf5 produced a m ultitude of statist- gath er to listen to m usic, to talk and socialize. Th e ical inform ation from w h ich interesting patterns can people staffing th e reception did an am azing job, be extracted. H ard facts are available in large q uantit- contributing to th e atm osph ere. ies, and a large part is already in digital form , ready TH IS REPO RT W O ULD NO T h ave been com plete for processing. O n th e oth er h and, th e num bers can't w ith out capturing at least a sm all glim pse of th e express w h at th ose w h o participated, on location or spirit of DebConf5. So instead of focusing entirely via th e net, h ave experienced. An overw h elm ing num - on dem ograph ics, I proposed to w rite a Final Report ber of personal encounters occurred. th at included m ore w ords th an num bers. Th e experi- Th e purpose of th is Final Report is to look back , ence sh ared in th is report tells m e th at everyone h as to return in our m em ories to a tim e w h en w e didn't learned a great deal — about each oth er, and about k now all th e th ings w e k now now . W e m ust gath er at th em selves, but of course also about all th e practical least som e of w h at w e h ave learned and present it to th ings th at are involved w h en organising an event of th ose w h o are w atch ing and listening. th is scale. In all th ese, I believe, lies th e greatest value for th e Debian Project. M Y PERSO NAL ATTENTIO N h as been directed to- "...som eone's luggage appeared w ards th e w ork flow , th e processes, th e to be on th e oth er side of th e com m unication, th e legal arrangem ents, and th e h u- w orld..." m an resources of th e conference. I w as am azed at h ow q uick ly th e video team caugh t on to th e notion of th ink ing at a h igh er level th an m erely operating W O RKING W ITH TH E O RGANISER TEAM in th e back th e video eq uipm ent w ould h ave req uired. Th ey office of th e reception, trying to grasp th e flow of in- w ere clearly a very talented team w ith just th e righ t form ation being generated on-line and during th e people, and th e outcom e of th eir w ork speak s for it- talk s, I h ad th e great fortune to h ave people com ing self. in to ch at all th e tim e. Everyone h ad a problem need- To facilitate th e needs of th at team , Tero ing to be solved: som eone's luggage appeared to be Kuusela and I participated in som e of th eir planning on th e oth er side of th e w orld but w as finally found m eetings. Issues w ere brough t up about th e team a w eek later in anoth er Finnish city, th e video team m em bers w ork ing too h ard, not sleeping or eating h ad w ork ed for h ours w ith out eating and needed enough . W e w ork ed togeth er to im prove th e process food, th e form al dinner contract w as still not signed, and provide w h atever th e team needed to do th e job. and countless oth er th ings. I still rem em ber w ith a sm ile th e day w e finish ed a Each and every person req uired th eir ow n spe- m eeting and concluded th at w e w ere no longer cial treatm ent. For som e, it w as im portant to get a needed; th e team h ad jelled, and th e m em bers w ere q uick answ er. For oth ers, it w as m ore com fortable to now look ing after each oth er. After th at, th ey w ere sit dow n in th e office, am ong th e piles of paper and unstoppable. conference t-sh irts, and feel tak en care of. After

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 15 D EBCO NF BY NUM BERS

asse m ble d by FABIAN FAGERH O LM base d on various data source s

h e Com as confer- D EBIAN D EVELO PERS NO N-M AINTAINER TO TAL Tence m anagem ent 22 Germ any BUT INTERESTED 86 Finland system allow ed visitors to 20 United States 53 Finland 39 Germ any select one of four categor- 19 9 Sw eden 31 United Kingdom ies: Debian Developer, 13 Finland 8 Norw ay 30 United States non-registered softw are 7 6 United Kingdom 16 Sw eden m aintainer, non-m aintain- 6 Japan 5 United States 15 Spain er w ith an interest in 5 Sw eden 5 Spain 13 Norw ay Debian, or persons accom - 5 France 4 Germ any 8 Italy panying som eone else. 4 Norw ay 4 Austria 8 France Visitors also selected 4 Italy 2 Russian 8 Brazil th eir country w h en regis- 4 Austria Federation 8 Austria tering. Late registrants 4 2 Italy 7 Japan and unregistered visitors 3 Neth erlands 2 France 7 are not included. 3 Brazil 2 Estonia 6 Australia 3 Belgium 2 Argentina 5 Neth erlands NO N-DD M AINTAINER 2 Sw itzerland 1 Sw itzerland 5 Belgium 10 Finland 2 Greece 1 Ireland 4 Sw itzerland 9 Germ any 1 Uk raine 1 H ong Kong 4 Russian Federation 5 Argentina 1 Russian Federation 1 Brazil 3 New Z ealand 5 United Kingdom 1 Poland 1 Belgium 3 Estonia 3 Spain 1 New Z ealand 1 Bah am as 2 M exico 2 Neth erlands 1 M exico 1 Australia 2 H ong Kong 2 New Z ealand 1 Latvia 2 Greece 2 United States 1 H ong Kong ACCO M PANYING 1 Uk raine 1 Australia 1 Fiji 10 Finland 1 Poland 1 Belarus 1 Denm ark 4 Germ any 1 Latvia 1 Belgium 3 United States 1 Israel 1 Bosnia and 3 Brazil 1 Ireland H erzegovina 2 Sw eden 1 Fiji 1 Brazil FO O D 1 United Kingdom 1 Denm ark 1 Estonia During DebConf5, 1 Japan 1 Bosnia and 1 France th ree m eals w ere 1 Italy H erzegovina 1 Israel available for each 1 Belarus 1 Italy registered participant every day. Num ber 1 Bah am as 1 M exico of allocated servings for th e entire 1 Norw ay conference: 1 Russian 1450 break fast Federation 1755 lunch 1 Sw itzerland 1760 dinner

16 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT SPO NSO RSH IP BUDGET Around 130 000 euro, bound up in facility rental costs, insurances, m ateri- al and eq uipm ent costs, transportation, prom otion, adm inistrative costs, etc.

KEYS Th e dorm itory building w as divided into several apartm ents, and each room h ad its ow n k ey. Th e participants could com e and go as th ey pleased. H ow ever, th is req uired lots of coordination from th e organisers. Num be r of k e ys for th e organise rs to k e e p track of: 67 Num be r of k e ys lost: 0

h e budget for DebConf5 w as bigger and m ore com plex Tth an ever. Apart from issuing travel support th rough both CO O RDINATIO N BY EM AIL Finland-based Linux-Ak tivaattori and U.S.-based SPI, th e Th e organisers used several organisers h andled transactions by ch eq ue, bank transfer and different m eans of com m unication to cash in at least th ree currencies on site. coordinate th e event from th e first Th e pie ch art above sh ow s th e approxim ate expense stages of planning th rough th e final distribution over five m ain categories. O ne additional m ajor clean-up. Em ail traffic w as carried on category does not appear in th is ch art, as th e food bill w as four different m ailing lists. As th e h andled directly by one sponsor. Th ese num bers are prelim inary Final Report w as finalised, th e total and are subject to ch ange. A professional accounting firm is am ount of m ailing list m essages for currently w ork ing on an auditing report. each list look ed as follow s: 1859 debconf5-event 814 debconf5-team 317 debconf5-video 78 debconf5-w ebsite 3068 Total

VIDEO W O RK Th e video team captured all talk s and bof sessions. Th e m aterial w as post-processed into individual video clips and a DVD. Th e total tim e of video footage after post-processing produced by th e video team : Th e num ber of registered participants and th e sponsorsh ip approxim ately 2800 m inutes or 46 budget h ave increased each year. DebConf5 w as m ore th an tw ice h ours. th e size of th e previous conference. Th e ch art above sh ow s th e Th e m aterial is available on developm ent since th e second Debian Conference. Data for h ttp://m eetings-arch ive.debian.net/pub/debian- DebConf0 is m issing. Th e num bers are approxim ate. m eetings/

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 17 TALKS: SM ALL AUDITO RIUM TALKS: BIGAUDITO RIUM Th e size of th e audience for each Th e size of th e audience for each talk in th e sm all auditorium : talk in th e big auditorium :

Sm all Team s in Debian Debootstrap Debian W om en and W om en in Andreas Sch uldei 43 Anth ony Tow ns 117 Free Softw are Appealing presentations w ith W TFM : W rite th e Fine M anual Erinn Clark , M agni O nsøien 110 LaTeX beam er Branden Robinson 65 Asterisk , or VoIP in general Andreas Tille 22 M ultiarch — a proposal and an M artin List-Petersen canceled Search Engines in Debian im plem entation Debian Installer — a developers Tak atsugu Nok ubi 20 Tollef Fog H een 100+ view on its past, present & future SPI, Inc. W ork sh op Debtags H olger Levsen, Joey H ess, Ch ristian Perrier, Benjam in M ak o H ill 19 Enrico Z ini 9 6 Frans Pop unk now n O penO ffice.org in Debian Debian developm ent in th e th ird Are w e really devoted to our Ch ris H alls, Rene Engelh ard 25 w orld: Latin Am erica users? Debian W ebsite R ound Table Gunnar W olf, Ch ristian Perrier 55 M argarita M anterola unk now n Frank Lich tenh eld 29 Debian Derivatives Conducting Cooperatively Autobuilding Experim ental Benjam in M ak o H ill 115 tow ards a better Debian Andreas Barth 19 Em bedded Debian Dem o Jeroen van W olffelaar 53 Docum entation in Debian W ook ey 9 5 Safer H ex in Public Tak atsugu Nok ubi 12 Custom Debian Distributions H olger Levsen 57 Custom ization of GNU libc Andreas Tille 9 6 FAI — th e Fully Autom atic locale files Debian R elease M anagem ent Installation Denis Barbier unk now n Andreas Barth 128 Th om as Lange 64 Altivec O ptim izations on Alternate approach es to pack age Structural Evolution Debian/pow erpc m anagem ent and autobuilding Bdale Garbee unk now n Konstantinos M argaritis 8 Sim on Rich ter 66 Tutorial about program s, Debian-M ed Debbugs, tips, trick s, and h ack s debconf, m an pages translation Andreas Tille 16 Anth ony Tow ns 106 using gettext Using Debian in h ardw are W riting enterprise ready softw are Ch ristian Perrier unk now n w ith out O SS drivers Petter Reinh oldtsen 56 Cross-com piling applications and M anuel Rom ero canceled Linda — A Debian pack age creating Debian pack ages for O pen Source in South Asia ch eck er w ritten in Pyth on em bedded system s Jaldh ar Vyas 15 Steve Kow alik 81 Carlos Aguiar, Joao Leite, Ending flam ew ars w ith Securing th e Testing Distribution Afonso Costa canceled Polygen Joey H ess 100+ Next-generation Debian Enrico Z ini unk now n Sh ared Library Pack aging initscripts Debian-Edu Junich i Uek aw a 76 H enriq ue de M oraes H olsch uh 53 Petter Reinh oldtsen unk now n Ubuntu Talk Volatile arch ive for Debian Th e Debian Free Softw are M ark Sh uttlew orth 140 Andreas Barth , Guidelines Z en and th e art of Free Softw are M artin Z obel-H elas 33 M atth ew Garrett 48 Enrico Z ini 107 Cross-Com piling Debian from Free Standards Debian-Kernel Team O verview Scratch M att Taggart 45 Dann Frazier 132 Tim o Savola 27 Pack age M anagem ent and Debian New M aintainer Process Using Debian for Science R evision Control, a w edding H anna W allach , Dafydd H arries, R esearch Scott Jam es Rem nant unk now n M oray Allan 126 H elen Faulk ner unk now n Freezing H EL O ver Scott Jam es Rem nant 60

18 D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT TH ANK YO U FO R M AKING IT PO SSIBLE

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 19 w w w .de bconf.org

D EBCO NF5 FINAL REPO RT 2005