[clue-admin] Notes from Tuesday meeting

[Mike Burton]

As the aforementioned "gentleman known only by his email address," I'd like
to introduce myself. My name is Michael Burton and I have been attending
CLUE for probably coming up on ten years or more now, off and on. I think
the first meeting I attended was when the group was still down on Colorado
Boulevard.

At any rate, this last Tuesday I volunteered to fill the position of Speaker
Coordinator for DTC CLUE. Hopefully I'll do a respectable job bringing in
interesting and engaging speakers. I would sincerely appreciate any
suggestions any of you have, so feel free to reply to this thread, start a
new one, or email me directly at MisterBurton at gmail.com

--
Michael Burton



On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Jed S. Baer <cluemail at jbaer.cotse.net>wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:50:09 -0700
> Collins Richey wrote:
>
> > Here are the notes I took at the Tuwesday meeting.
>
> Allow me to elaborate.
>
> 1) The immediate question is the continuation of hosting, as our current
> account expires on Jan 28th.
>
> Resolved, to renew our hosting agreement with Spry/VPSLink, by purchasing
> 6 months of the Link-4 plan, which will upgrade our memory to 512MB. This
> will require, if I understand their billing correctly, an initial outlay
> of $192.90.
>
>  * The higher memory gives us headroom for running MySQL, expanding
> Spamassassin coverage, ... other possibilities.
>
>  * The 6 month period, during which we will primarily continue operating
> as we have, allows a time frame for more fully exploring future
> requirements and options.
>
>  * Implementation details not fully discussed:
>  - We are currently running CentOS 4, and our current environment does
> not allow an upgrade path. (Our current VPS runs under OpenVZ.)
>  - Crawford has mentioned in the past that switching to a XEN VPS would
> have benefits in terms of better monitoring tools.
>  - Crawford has also suggested "migrating the VPSLink over to Linux
> ETC's accounts (easier to maintain on our end since we have 3 client's
> VPS systems here plus our own)" and I'll let him elaborate on that.
>  - 1 benefit of upgrading to CentOS 5 would be the availability of a
> newer version of Dovecot, which has a "deliver" script which will
> accomplish a slightly smoother deliver of mail to IMAP folders.
>
>  * We will need a migration plan, and volunteers to perform various tasks.
>
> I suggest we start a seperate thread specific to the accomplishment of
> the above, so that the various details don't get lost in a more general
> discussion.
>
> 2) Funding
>
> * VPSLink accepts payment via credit card.
> * We need a means to accept donations other than in-person at CLUE
> meetings.
>
> David Willson has volunteered to be the donation person, and to use his
> CC for payment of the VPSLink account.
>
> David has also volunteered the use of his PayPal account for the
> acceptance of donations.
>
> We will need to put a PayPal donation button on the website, linked to
> David's account.
>
> 3) Hosting Requirements
>
> Our requirements for hosting involve 2 general things, the website, and
> the mailing lists, which are interconnected in that the mailing list
> archives are web-accessible.
>
> Getting the easy-to-state pieces out of the way:
>
> * Mailing lists: Currently, we use GNU Mailman, which requires a server
> which provides Python and an SMTP server.
>
> * Mail delivery: in addition to the above, we receive mail at the CLUE
> server for various function-related aliases, such as President, Speakers,
> and Sponsors. As a mail host, we also have a Postmaster address, and we
> should have an abuse address.
>
>  - Suggested we investigate the feasibility of offloading some mail
> processing to managed services.
>
> * Functions the website fulfills, and suggestions for improvements:
>
> * Mailman archives. Comes with Mailman out of the box. Minimal
> configuration required, and IIRC the Mailman package supplies the
> necessary Apache config stuff
>
> * Meeting / event information
>  - CLUE meetings
>  - Installfests
>  - Others - in the past, we've had auctions, booths, what else?
>
>  - Suggested that we provide automated e-mail notifications of upcoming
> events.
>
>  - Suggested that we implement a calendar function. (I have some php code
> for a calendar display floating around someplace -- contributed by Dave
> Hahn -- I just have to find the right old backup)
>
>  - Suggested we explore using a managed service for calender functions
>
> * Announcements of interest to participants and visitors
>
>  - Solicitations for volunteers
>  - Announcement of new volunteers for various roles
>
> * Suggested improvements:
>
>   - Meeting and event reports - particularly attendance count. (This is
> of interest to sponsors, who like to know the size of the audience they
> are, or would reach, by sponsoring CLUE.)
>
>   - Sponsor activity acknowledgement - post a news item on receipt of
> any sponsor contributions
>
>   - Other donation acknowledgement?
>
>   - Any other improvements to make CLUE more attractive to sponsors?
>
>   - ability for CLUE participants to submit articles for
> publication
>    + Might be served by wiki or similar software
>
>   - Ability for CLUE admins to directly update content
>
> * In keeping with the above funding model, we need a donation button.
>
> 4) Other general requirements
>
> * backups - Since it appears that we will be moving forward with a VPS
> solution, the current backup scheme can continue to operate. Any changes
> need to be done with an eye towards our ability to backup our data.
>
> * version control. Content posted to the website should be done with some
> sort of version control.
>
> 5) People. CLUE still could use some volunteers.
>
>  - Greg Knaddison has volunteed to be Sponsor Coordinator
>
>  - A gentleman whom I currently know only by his e-mail address has
> volunteered to be DTC Speaker Coordinator
>
>  - A suggestion to form a system admin team, to distribute the workload.
>  + Mail administrator: might or might not be the same person who
> receives Postmaster mail - would handle config of Postfix and Spamassassin
>  + Abuse mail recipient
>  + Mailman administrator
>  + Additional backups -- I have a nighly rsync, but it wouldn't hurt to
> have a 2nd copy
>
>  + David Willson volunteered to receive Postmaster mail. Not sure what,
> if any conditions attend to that. David and I can discuss this offline, I
> think.
>
> 6) Software choices: Many were suggested
>
>  - mediawiki
>  - wordpress
>  - roll-your-own
>  - drupal
>
> I suggest that we create seperate discussion threads for various items. I
> might see if I can find a wiki platform someplace to host a more formal
> documenting of requirements and planning. I don't currently have a
> hosting account to use for this, and I might attempt to see whether our
> current VPS will support a wiki without bogging. I think that will mean
> using a flat-file wiki. But if someone who has a hosting account would
> like to host a planning wiki, that'd be fine too.
>
> jed
> --
> Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin
> sitting down after having gorged itself on herring. Still with me?
>  -- Linus Torvalds
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