[gnome-women] Debian elections

[Clytie Siddall <clytie riverland net au>]

Hi everyone :)

I've posted this to more than one place, so sorry if you got it more  
than once. I think this is an opportunity to make some change that  
will forward our aims, so I'm trying to publicize it. I hope that's OK.

The Debian Project Leader elections are on. I'd completely missed  
this, being unable to keep up with debian-devel, and my husband, who  
is a keen Debian user, says he had missed it, too. That makes me  
wonder just how many people _do_ know about it.

Debian is a very important project in Open Source, and one where we  
have identified some specific issues affecting the participation of  
women and new people in general.

I've started to read the platforms, don't know if I can get through  
them all, but I'm definitely impressed by this statement from Jeroen  
van Wolffelaar [1]
> I will push for the adoption of a code of conduct. I do feel  
> strongly about that mailing lists should be able to provide a forum  
> for productive technical discussion, where one can ask questions to  
> and get a reasonable result. If some people are not able to  
> contribute to this, but rather hurt the discussion, action must be  
> undertaken. If peer pressure does not help, this may include such  
> things like posting delays, moderation of certain individuals, and  
> in extreme cases, banning from mailing lists. I will work with the  
> listmaster team to see whether they are willing to facilitate this,  
> or whether there needs to be a new team of people performing this  
> moderation.

I believe this is important, and should be applied also to IRC  
channels, fora and any other Debian method of communication.

It's worth me reading the platforms, or as much as I can, then  
voting. I hope you think it's worth your time, too. Here is our  
chance to change things, not just feel unhappy about them.

Voting is not difficult, but you need to have a PGP key logged with  
Debian (to identify you, and prevent multiple voting or other  
deceitful acts). The election mail says:

> NOTE: The vote must be GPG signed
> (or PGP signed) with your key that is in the Debian keyring.

Now, how do we know if our key is in the Debian keyring or not? I've  
asked on my usual Debian mailing list, debian-i18n, and hope to know  
the answer soon. I'll post it when I have it, or iof someone here  
knows the answer, please post it.

The mail to debian-devel said that voting had been very low. This  
means each vote counts more. We can make a difference here. :)

To vote, first read the platform information [2]. Then:

1. Copy the box below into an email:

> - - -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=- 
> =-=-=-
> 52717dc0-26e3-4337-a88b-cc2c260fcb51
> [   ] Choice 1: Jeroen van Wolffelaar
> [   ] Choice 2: Ari Pollak
> [   ] Choice 3: Steve McIntyre
> [   ] Choice 4: Anthony Towns
> [   ] Choice 5: Andreas Schuldei
> [   ] Choice 6: Jonathan aka Ted Walther
> [   ] Choice 7: Bill Allombert
> [   ] Choice 8: None Of The Above
> - - -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=- 
> =-=-=-

2. Then mark from 1 to 8 in the [ ] on the left-hand side.

If you definitely want someone _not_ included, mark them lower than  
None of the Above, e.g. if there is one person you really don't want  
to vote _for_, mark None of the Above as 7, and him [3] as 8. If you  
want everyone to have a good chance, mark None of the Above as 8.  
Anyone below None of the Above will only be counted after all the  
other votes.

3. Attach your PGP key to the mail (your usual "sign with PGP"  
action, e.g. my mailer just has a box I check that says "PGP signed.  
You may have this set to happen automatically: check your preferences.)

4. Send the mail to <leader2006 vote debian org>.

You should receive a receipt mail which has the Debian vote PGP key  
attached. The original mail about this election will be on debian- 
devel, and there should be lots of info about the election at  
<debian.org>.

If you don't receive a receipt email, maybe something went wrong, and  
it would be worth asking someone to check if it went through. I don't  
know whom we would ask, as yet. ;)

Let's make a difference today. Vote in the Debian Project Leader  
elections [4].

from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm  
Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN

[1] http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/platforms/jeroen
[2] http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/platforms/
[3] All male candidates. We need to change this, too. Consider  
getting more involved. ;)
[4] http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_002