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.<br>
<br>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 <a href="mailto:MisterBurton@gmail.com">MisterBurton@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>--<br>Michael Burton<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Jed S. Baer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cluemail@jbaer.cotse.net">cluemail@jbaer.cotse.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:50:09 -0700<br>
Collins Richey wrote:<br>
<br>
> Here are the notes I took at the Tuwesday meeting.<br>
<br>
</div>Allow me to elaborate.<br>
<br>
1) The immediate question is the continuation of hosting, as our current<br>
account expires on Jan 28th.<br>
<br>
Resolved, to renew our hosting agreement with Spry/VPSLink, by purchasing<br>
6 months of the Link-4 plan, which will upgrade our memory to 512MB. This<br>
will require, if I understand their billing correctly, an initial outlay<br>
of $192.90.<br>
<br>
* The higher memory gives us headroom for running MySQL, expanding<br>
Spamassassin coverage, ... other possibilities.<br>
<br>
* The 6 month period, during which we will primarily continue operating<br>
as we have, allows a time frame for more fully exploring future<br>
requirements and options.<br>
<br>
* Implementation details not fully discussed:<br>
- We are currently running CentOS 4, and our current environment does<br>
not allow an upgrade path. (Our current VPS runs under OpenVZ.)<br>
- Crawford has mentioned in the past that switching to a XEN VPS would<br>
have benefits in terms of better monitoring tools.<br>
- Crawford has also suggested "migrating the VPSLink over to Linux<br>
ETC's accounts (easier to maintain on our end since we have 3 client's<br>
VPS systems here plus our own)" and I'll let him elaborate on that.<br>
- 1 benefit of upgrading to CentOS 5 would be the availability of a<br>
newer version of Dovecot, which has a "deliver" script which will<br>
accomplish a slightly smoother deliver of mail to IMAP folders.<br>
<br>
* We will need a migration plan, and volunteers to perform various tasks.<br>
<br>
I suggest we start a seperate thread specific to the accomplishment of<br>
the above, so that the various details don't get lost in a more general<br>
discussion.<br>
<br>
2) Funding<br>
<br>
* VPSLink accepts payment via credit card.<br>
* We need a means to accept donations other than in-person at CLUE<br>
meetings.<br>
<br>
David Willson has volunteered to be the donation person, and to use his<br>
CC for payment of the VPSLink account.<br>
<br>
David has also volunteered the use of his PayPal account for the<br>
acceptance of donations.<br>
<br>
We will need to put a PayPal donation button on the website, linked to<br>
David's account.<br>
<br>
3) Hosting Requirements<br>
<br>
Our requirements for hosting involve 2 general things, the website, and<br>
the mailing lists, which are interconnected in that the mailing list<br>
archives are web-accessible.<br>
<br>
Getting the easy-to-state pieces out of the way:<br>
<br>
* Mailing lists: Currently, we use GNU Mailman, which requires a server<br>
which provides Python and an SMTP server.<br>
<br>
* Mail delivery: in addition to the above, we receive mail at the CLUE<br>
server for various function-related aliases, such as President, Speakers,<br>
and Sponsors. As a mail host, we also have a Postmaster address, and we<br>
should have an abuse address.<br>
<br>
- Suggested we investigate the feasibility of offloading some mail<br>
processing to managed services.<br>
<br>
* Functions the website fulfills, and suggestions for improvements:<br>
<br>
* Mailman archives. Comes with Mailman out of the box. Minimal<br>
configuration required, and IIRC the Mailman package supplies the<br>
necessary Apache config stuff<br>
<br>
* Meeting / event information<br>
- CLUE meetings<br>
- Installfests<br>
- Others - in the past, we've had auctions, booths, what else?<br>
<br>
- Suggested that we provide automated e-mail notifications of upcoming<br>
events.<br>
<br>
- Suggested that we implement a calendar function. (I have some php code<br>
for a calendar display floating around someplace -- contributed by Dave<br>
Hahn -- I just have to find the right old backup)<br>
<br>
- Suggested we explore using a managed service for calender functions<br>
<br>
* Announcements of interest to participants and visitors<br>
<br>
- Solicitations for volunteers<br>
- Announcement of new volunteers for various roles<br>
<br>
* Suggested improvements:<br>
<br>
- Meeting and event reports - particularly attendance count. (This is<br>
of interest to sponsors, who like to know the size of the audience they<br>
are, or would reach, by sponsoring CLUE.)<br>
<br>
- Sponsor activity acknowledgement - post a news item on receipt of<br>
any sponsor contributions<br>
<br>
- Other donation acknowledgement?<br>
<br>
- Any other improvements to make CLUE more attractive to sponsors?<br>
<br>
- ability for CLUE participants to submit articles for<br>
publication<br>
+ Might be served by wiki or similar software<br>
<br>
- Ability for CLUE admins to directly update content<br>
<br>
* In keeping with the above funding model, we need a donation button.<br>
<br>
4) Other general requirements<br>
<br>
* backups - Since it appears that we will be moving forward with a VPS<br>
solution, the current backup scheme can continue to operate. Any changes<br>
need to be done with an eye towards our ability to backup our data.<br>
<br>
* version control. Content posted to the website should be done with some<br>
sort of version control.<br>
<br>
5) People. CLUE still could use some volunteers.<br>
<br>
- Greg Knaddison has volunteed to be Sponsor Coordinator<br>
<br>
- A gentleman whom I currently know only by his e-mail address has<br>
volunteered to be DTC Speaker Coordinator<br>
<br>
- A suggestion to form a system admin team, to distribute the workload.<br>
+ Mail administrator: might or might not be the same person who<br>
receives Postmaster mail - would handle config of Postfix and Spamassassin<br>
+ Abuse mail recipient<br>
+ Mailman administrator<br>
+ Additional backups -- I have a nighly rsync, but it wouldn't hurt to<br>
have a 2nd copy<br>
<br>
+ David Willson volunteered to receive Postmaster mail. Not sure what,<br>
if any conditions attend to that. David and I can discuss this offline, I<br>
think.<br>
<br>
6) Software choices: Many were suggested<br>
<div class="im"><br>
- mediawiki<br>
- wordpress<br>
- roll-your-own<br>
- drupal<br>
<br>
</div>I suggest that we create seperate discussion threads for various items. I<br>
might see if I can find a wiki platform someplace to host a more formal<br>
documenting of requirements and planning. I don't currently have a<br>
hosting account to use for this, and I might attempt to see whether our<br>
current VPS will support a wiki without bogging. I think that will mean<br>
using a flat-file wiki. But if someone who has a hosting account would<br>
like to host a planning wiki, that'd be fine too.<br>
<br>
jed<br>
<font color="#888888">--<br>
Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin<br>
sitting down after having gorged itself on herring. Still with me?<br>
-- Linus Torvalds<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br>