OLPC:Volunteer Infrastructure Group/2008-08-19

  <hhardy> Hello welcome to the 3rd meeting of OLPC's Volunteer Infrastructure
           Group!
* gregdek will be in and out for the 5:15.  Mostly in, I hope.
  <hhardy> giving people a few minutes to assemble also eating some leftover
           salad from the 1cc all company meeting
 <gregdek> Mmm, salad.
  <hhardy> arugula
  <hhardy> which sounds like a dungeons and dragons monster IMHO :)
* Culseg (1893d58d@67.207.141.120) has joined #olpc-admin
* pgf_ (~pgf@wireless-88.media.mit.edu) has joined #olpc-admin
  <hhardy> welcome
 <gregdek> I SUMMON THE MIGHTY ARUGULA!
  <hhardy> lol

Agenda

  <hhardy> I have a rudimentary agenda for discussion, follows:
  <hhardy> What is the VIG
  <hhardy> Introductions
  <hhardy> Initial scope
  <hhardy> Facilitator for each area
  <hhardy> Future plans
  <hhardy> additions?
* hhardy has changed the topic to: Agenda
  <hhardy> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC:Volunteer_Infrastructure_Group
  <hhardy> isforinsects: thanks for wikizing the infrastructure_gang pages
* gregdek goes to look.
  <hhardy> we have one physical perosn incoming
  <hhardy> *person
 <gregdek> kk

Purpose of the Volunteer Infrastructure Group

* hhardy has changed the topic to: Purpose of the Volunteer Infrastructure Group
  <hhardy> Make the sysadmin's job easier
  <hhardy> Improve the infrastructure systems through "many hands/many minds"
  <hhardy> strengthen ties with the community
  <hhardy> that is the list we came up with at 1st mtng
  <hhardy> comments?
 <gregdek> Like it.
 <gregdek> In fact...
 <gregdek> ...perhaps we should consider it "settled"?
  <hhardy> works for me
  <hhardy> let's put that on the wiki page
  <hhardy> posted

Introductions

* hhardy has changed the topic to: Introductions
  <hhardy> I have to learn not to hit :wq when I edit wiki lol
   <adric> hhardy: could just configure (g)vim as an external editor :)
* rali (~rali@65.219.232.104) has joined #olpc-admin
  <hhardy> I nominate isforinsects as wikimaster for the i-gang
     <cjl> seconded :-)
  <hhardy> objection?
* dogi (~dogi@wireless-19-162.media.mit.edu) has joined #olpc-admin
  <hhardy> so be it
<isforinsects> Happily do so.
  <hhardy> well introductions, I am hhardy, chief data janitor of OLPC :)
  <hhardy> Henry Edward Hardy to my mother :)
    <dogi> hi I am dogi, volunteer canditat
    <dogi> Stefan Unterhauser
  <hhardy> dogi, say something about your unix/linux experience?
  <hhardy> you are a G1G1 user?
    <dogi> i now into linux since12 years
    <dogi> i started with suse
     <cjb> dogi's a debian-ish person, friend of mako and me.
    <pgf_> paul fox here, s/w engineer at olpc.  and i see my old friend reto
           (aka rali), longtime sys/netadmin has joined us, mostly at my
           invitation.
    <rali> rali == Reto Lichtensteiger, chief cook and bottle washer at
           NameMedia ... been doing the SA thing since, well, dirt was a novel
           idea
    <dogi> i had bring a student house into the intenet
    <dogi> +r
  <hhardy> hi rali sorry I not responded to your email
    <rali> NP ... I ignore most of mine too <grin>
  <hhardy> I have such a pile of mail its better to mail sysadmin if you really
           want me to see it
  <hhardy> welcome
  <hhardy> who else is here?
     <cjl> cjl (Chris Leonard) - volunteer-  wiki sysop - support gangster -
           other things by appointment
* isforinsects = Seth Woodworth, OLPC hang-er on and tasked with increasing our communities' capacity for awesome
<isforinsects> I'm mostly here for moral support, outreach, additional
           recruitment, and documenting 'stuff for the wiki.
* adric = adric, Support Ganger and self appointed RT Queue complainer
  <hhardy> lol
  <hhardy> and fixer thereof it is to be hoped
   <adric> In my day (night) gig I'm a linux SA a a webhosting company here in
           Atlanta.
* m_stone : OLPC employee, occasional security guy and present release manager
   <nteon> bobby p - olpc intern/guy.  I'm most interested in activity
           development (with a splash of sugar), and like seth am more here for
           moral support
<reubencaron> reuben caron- olpc new guy here for moral support at the moment
  <Culseg> Sandy Culver..I did the intro thing  Sunday past, support gang
           volunteer
  <hhardy> any other lurkers whow ant to say a word?
   <adric> don't be too modest Sandy .. you are personally partly resposible for
           pulling G1G1 off an iceberg :D
  <hhardy> amen
<isforinsects> +1 Sandy
<isforinsects> :)

list of some functional areas of IT

  <hhardy> here is a list of some functional areas of IT
  <hhardy> trac/git
  <hhardy> provision activities-related accounts for git access
  <hhardy> mailing list setup and maintenance
  <hhardy> build system
  <hhardy> websites
  <hhardy> wikis
  <hhardy> mail and shell account provisioning
  <hhardy> rt ticket system

initial scope

* hhardy has changed the topic to: initial scope
  <hhardy> someday I will change the subject before launching into it
    <rali> That would take all the fun out of it
 <gregdek> Oh, adric: you were the guy that adam went to visit, right?
 <gregdek> (sorry, heh)
   <adric> gregdek: He stopped by on his tour, yep.
  <hhardy> so here's what I have for the areas so far:
  <hhardy> trac/git--coderanger
  <hhardy> olpc-sysadmin mailing list --HH for now, good thing for a moral
           support person if they want it
<isforinsects> I'm willing to moderate if need-be
  <hhardy> build system -- not in scope for now
<isforinsects> I'm already moderating a few lists.
  <hhardy> website=wiki, isforinsects
     <cjb> there's a suggestion for a Fedoraish person:  getting us our own in-
           house Fedora mirror
     <cjb> it would be nice if yum install foo worked at the moment, but it
           doesn't because of the Fedora downtime
 <m_stone> (dgilmore did some related work that you might be able to pick up!)
     <cjb> if we had our own mirror, I think that wouldn't be the case
<isforinsects> Fedora mirror +1
<isforinsects> I poked gregdek about that when he was here
     <cjb> it'd be great if someone visiting over here from Fedoraland could own
           that
     <cjb> we could just hand off a machine
  <hhardy> account provisioning, out of scope therefore hhardy for now
  <hhardy> but dgilmore suggested we might think about fas
 <m_stone> hhardy: certainly within scope, no?
 <m_stone> hhardy: we need some agreement on how accounts are going to be set
           up.
 <m_stone> did you intend to discuss that under other circumstances?
  <hhardy> I'm ok with it bu there might need to be some administrative sign-off
  <hhardy> I think we need to show a plan and procedure for provisioning
 <m_stone> hhardy: the _we_ part of your previous statement is the important
           part from my perspective.
  <hhardy> I handle a lot of email, trac and git provisioning it would be nice
           to hand it off
 <gregdek> Fedora mirror: you should be able to talk to Matt Domsch, Fedora
           mirror wrangler, and set one up pretty easily.
 <m_stone> agreed; he's nice. :)
  <hhardy> yes oh security guru :)
  <hhardy> mirror +1
  <hhardy> rt wrangler I nominate adric
  <hhardy> any else interested and experienced?
* cjl scheming for RT complainer job, happy to leave adric with RT fixer position :-)
* rali laughs
   <adric> Lol. I'll take all of the help I can get ... :)
  <hhardy> part of doing rt would be to set up a second instance for internal
           use for sensistive data which would then not be a community thing
   <adric> Yeah, a shadow tickets would be good.
  <hhardy> then we would inherit the exisiting instance for community
           facilitation
<isforinsects> And a third instance for the DC repair center?
  <hhardy> repair centers are going on the main instance for now
   <adric> Hmm? there are lots of repair centers. Better to have them run their
           own, with help?
   <adric> kk
  <hhardy> dc has a queue already and ffm is the god of it
  <hhardy> adric: if they want to sure but we've committed to providing rt
           support for those repair centers who want/need
<isforinsects> They have private info, and they wanted partitioning
   <adric> Oh yes, I'm just trying to think globally.  We don't want _all_ RC
           hosted out of 1cc .. I don't think.
  <hhardy> nice if they can host that themselves
  <hhardy> the whole world is already hosted here just about lol
  <hhardy> I havent seen anyone from antarctica yet
     <cjl> hhardy: it doesn't show on GoogleAnalytics, I looked for it too.
  <hhardy> adric: physical-dogi is asking what is a shadow ticket
   <adric> The private RT instance you mentioned for sensitive data could be
           called a shadow ticket system, a secret one.
  <hhardy> yes that's what I meant
<isforinsects> Ah yes, speaking of which, anyone who wants to be able to view
           the GoogleAnalytics information for the wiki send me an email to seth
           at l.o and give me an email address that belongs to you and is a
           google account.
    <dogi> thx :)
  <hhardy> any additional volunteers for tasks?
  <hhardy> oh here's another thing
  <hhardy> christoph told me he would consider running a 300-500 word article
           about the i-gang
  <hhardy> anyone want to draft such?
  <hhardy> (christoph of olpc-news)
   <adric> Do we have 500 w worth yet? .. Hmm
     <cjl> not necessarily needed to recruit initial set, maybe in a little
           while when there is a "success" to tout, use it to recruit fresh
           horses :-)
  <hhardy> I think we oculd ask gregdek about how the community infrastructure
           project of fedora works, and holt about the olpc support-gang, they
           are my two models for i-g
  <hhardy> ok so what would be a low-hanging fruit?
<isforinsects> I think that the wiki page has decent information.
  <hhardy> setting up the mirror would be a good initiative
<isforinsects> Add in some info about what systems we want help on, and I think
           that we can get it.

Community Content Server

<isforinsects> There is one other order of business I would like to bring up.
  <hhardy> we will extract these areas and put on page
<isforinsects> s/we/I
  <hhardy> hhardy is all ears
<isforinsects> SJ and I are looking for a content development server.
  <hhardy> explain need pls
<isforinsects> We need a box where we can run big processing scripts, download
           (for instance) 10k images from a...
<isforinsects> from a health images database, run some scripts on them, and then
           upload them elsewhere.
<isforinsects> I can think of several content projects that are right now being
           hosted on other people's servers.
 <gregdek> Gentlemen, apologies, but I need to run.
<isforinsects> The Hesperian documents (~300mb each) are being hosted by scorche
<isforinsects> bye gregdek,
  <hhardy> gregdek brilliant job in kicking this off for us cu soon
 <gregdek> My secret: I never actually do anything.  I just remind other people
           what *they* can do.  ;)
 <gregdek> Toodles.
     <cjb> isforinsects: the mac (orchard.l.o) has previously been used for
           that.
     <cjl> isforinsects: what is the thinnest resource you can imagine using to
           accomplish that, fast tower with big disk?
     <cjb> isforinsects: it's a high-powered server that we bought for the
           purpose.
  <hhardy> I have many gb of sj's pakistani sesame street videos I'd be glad to
           hand off
* gregdek has quit (Quit: Ex-Chat)
     <cjl> sorry, tha was confusing, cjl comment in the middle of cjb
  <hhardy> the mac has no disk space atm
<isforinsects> The mac is currently very very full
  <hhardy> we can upgrade
     <cjl> mac's are generally nice for image processing.  You need bigger disks
           on it, would that be a start?
     <cjb> offload some of the current space to an external hdd.
<isforinsects> I would prefer a more comfortable linux box.  But I can make do
           with mac OS if it had enough storage and I/others could get remote
           accounts.
<isforinsects> cjl: mac's aren't especially magic about image processing.  When
           most people say that it's because of Adobe Photoshop and the like.
   <adric> Agree. For automated processing, ditch the overhead and just run
           linux/bsd straight.
<isforinsects> cjb, the great majority of that content on the big mac are videos
           that it would be nice to have access to for the same reasons. They
           need to be processed and used.
     <cjb> isforinsects: nothing stopping us making it dual-boot.  accounts have
           remote login enabled by default.
<isforinsects> cjb, that sounds like a very workable answer to me.
  <hhardy> so who will take this as a task?
   <nteon> isforinsects: with hhardy 's approval, would it be possible to
           repurpose the linux box under my desk?  noone's using it (except to
           install linux onto sd-cards
<isforinsects> Julia is using the mac currently for video editing, and it's not
           a bad idea to have a system somewhere with video editing software.
  <hhardy> it has 320 gb disk we could put in a 1tb with it
  <hhardy> the box under nteon I mean
<isforinsects> As opposed to just industrial processing via straight linux.
   <nteon> it was mchua's olpc-intern machine, but currently is not doing much
  <hhardy> we can recruit both machines
  <hhardy> she might want it back
     <cjl> In my experience, it is often necessary to visibly and loudly
           demonstrate your suffering (and ability to make miracles happen) on
           inadequate hardware before getting blessed to get new hardware :-(
   <nteon> hhardy: I emailed her about it, she said it was fine
   <nteon> plus, I've already wiped the linux partition multiple times...
   <nteon> hhardy: said she mainly used it to ssh in (but it had been off for
           most of the summer)
  <hhardy> so who will sysadmin community-content.l.o?
   <adric> Is that a machine, a site, or an OU ?

Name of Discontent?

 <m_stone> hhardy: can we please get a better name?
   <nteon> adric: more of a feeling
  <hhardy> thats what I am calling the machine under nteon at 1cc
  <hhardy> propose a name
<isforinsects> cdev?
   <nteon> franklin.l.o
  <hhardy> franklin +.5
    <dogi> whale
  <hhardy> lol
     <cjl> discontent :-)
  <hhardy> they are telling me franklin is a puppet on tv I was thinking of ben
           f.
  <hhardy> most of the machines here are either means of powering the xo or else
           bird species
<isforinsects> I really like discontent\
  <hhardy> weka,swan,owl,penguin are the most recent
<isforinsects> cjl and I will likely be using the machine the most to start
           with.
<isforinsects> ...
   <nteon> dodo.l.o
* cjl afraid he has sown the seeds of discontent  emu, something flightless :-)
<isforinsects> emu.l.o
  <hhardy>  I like emu
    <dogi> cuckoo for having an other bird
* pgf_ thinks it might be time for the next item.
  <hhardy> there is no next item except next meeting time, same time next week
           ok?
     <cjl> pgf_: +1
* hhardy has changed the topic to: next meeting
<isforinsects> Same bat time, same bat channel.
   <nteon> emu it is?
  <hhardy> I think there is a lazy consensus around emu
    <dogi> +1
  <hhardy> I am really happy about this initiative thanks!!!!
* adric wonders about a release name of Discontented EMu

Conclusion

     <cjl> I have a comment on "possible initial tasks" list on the OLPC:VIG
           wiki page.
     <cjl> The mailing list administrators are a defacto sub-group of the
           infrastructure gang (with a very specific focus) they are mentioned
           in contacts section, but it's not shown under "possible initial
           tasks", should the two specific openings be added there?
     <cjl> SJ recently advertised for two list admins (library and sugar)
     <cjl> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/library/2008-August/000703.html
  <hhardy> cjl go ahead and update as such
  <hhardy> I can't speak for sj
  <hhardy> try to get him here for next wk
     <cjl> Is there a page (teamwiki or wiki.laptop.org) that shows the list
           administrators?
<isforinsects> each individual /listinfo/foo page does
  <hhardy> not per se you have to go to the specific mailing list page such as
           http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sysadmin
<isforinsects> I would like to keep information about lists @ lists.l
   <adric> The one for I-G shows hh's gmail addy.
  <hhardy> it is listed at bottom
   <nteon> kiwi: http://static.zooomr.com/images/3051616_6ce63fd5a0_o.jpg
  <hhardy> yep cause I am it for now
<isforinsects> The lists that have been created on the wiki are far out of date.
   <nteon> (its safe for works, folks)
* kimquirk (~kimquirk@dhcp-47-111.media.mit.edu) has left #olpc-admin
  <hhardy> ewwww
  <hhardy> lol
  <hhardy> ok we are done thanks folks
   <adric> What, no action items?
  <hhardy> oh yea
* hhardy has changed the topic to: ACTION ITEMS
  <hhardy> gregdek will abominate me if we dont do this
   <adric> Uh huh :)
  <hhardy> ok let's see
     <cjl> look at fedora mirror?
  <hhardy> isforinsects post transcript, update wiki
  <hhardy> isforinsects: post transcript, update wiki
* isforinsects accepted
     <cjl> shuffle some boxes for content provisioning
  <hhardy> nteon and isfor: shuffle boxes
   <adric> A subcommitee to discuss RT ?
  <hhardy> adric: to org rt committee
* isforinsects isforinsects I'll poke at the server
   <nteon> hhardy: I gracefully accept
  <hhardy> say if you accept I'm not assigning just suggesting
  <hhardy> woot
   <adric> Roger. Who all is interested/affected by RT discussion ?
     <cjl> adric there are a number of RT stakeholders
  <hhardy> holt, me
  <hhardy> kimquirk
<isforinsects> So coming out of this meeting, we're going to have areas of focus
           (RT, et al) and specific tassk
<isforinsects> s/tassk/tasks
  <hhardy> rt stakeholders: repair centers
<isforinsects> I would like to bring up those tasks at the start of the next
           meeting and find out what got done and what didn't
  <hhardy> rt: caryl for the volunteer queue
<isforinsects> Re-assign^w volunteer as needed.
   <adric> Lots of stakeholder, lots of IP .. maybe a representative democracy
           ..
<isforinsects> This should be logged from the wiki page, and then cached, unless
           we start using RT tickets as task lists.
  <hhardy> adric come up with a plan and report at next mtng eh?
   <adric> For now I just need to know who to book a meeting with, to see what
           our tasks and groups are.
   <adric> accepted
  <hhardy> adric: me and holt at a minimum
<isforinsects> I'm a fan of archaro-syndicalist myself...
<isforinsects> Re Caryl: I would say that that is not part of the infrastructure
           domain, that's a decision and assignment for the support-gang.
  <hhardy> http://sugarlabs.org/go/User:Hhardy#General_Principles
  <hhardy> other ACTION ITEMS
   <adric> Caryl: I'll solicit for input about what features folks want/need. Or
           just mail me / the list.
  <hhardy> yep use list for offline and this chan for online
  <hhardy> olpc-sysadmin@laptop.org
  <hhardy> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sysadmin
     <cjl> support gang list would also draw plenty of comments on RT
  <hhardy> last call for ACTION ITEMS
<isforinsects> Any questions, ping hhardy, or in case of emergency (or if it's
           the middle of the night) ping me.
<isforinsects> But list first
  <hhardy> 1cc folks have my mobile if you have a real emergency
     <cjl> hhardy: you need a shadow sysadmin in India to cover the night shift.
   <adric> You don't have to go that far for night shift, lol.
* isforinsects has most of his wiki-failing issues in the middle of the night
  <hhardy> agenda item: offhours sysadmin
  <hhardy> offhours is 5am-1pm EDT lol
  <hhardy> I frequently cross shifts with the night people when i come in at 7
           lol
     <cjl> it can be nice to have some offhours coverage (if completely
           trusted).
  <hhardy> ok done but feel free to carry on
   <adric> Thanks hhardy , folks :)
  <hhardy> in the context of 24/7 I have big sister running here
     <cjl> ?
    <dogi> ?
   <adric> "big sister" ?
  <hhardy> http://thinker.laptop.org/bigsis login: olpc pw: tq0m1ns-1p

Dénouement

  <hhardy> "the quality of mercy is not strained, it's pureed"
     <cjl> did I mention that emu is spelled with the Greek character set?  e-µ
   <adric> Oh, a bit like Nagios .. yay, blinkenlights
  <hhardy> yeah very similar
    <dogi> big sister ... nice
   <nteon> hhardy: crank has net trouble! alert!
  <hhardy> yeah it needs to be tuned
  <hhardy> creank is perpetually slow
  <hhardy> we could consider big sis as an area which could be community
           maintained
   <adric> Has she a readonly mode?
     <cjl> hhardy: change the gearing on crank, it will get faster :-)
  <hhardy> I am going to change the password in a few so dont be sad
  <hhardy> the big sis pw
  <hhardy> just showing
   <adric> kk
    <dogi> kk
    <rali> must run ... sorry to be mainly lurker ... I'm in the office today
           and have the usual endless queue ...