MOTU application for Michael Casadevall (NCommander/sonicmctails)

[Michael Casadevall]

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:43 PM, James Westby <jw+debian at jameswestby.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-10-22 at 11:06 -0400, Michael Casadevall wrote:
> I saw you also said you would join the backports team, is that correct?
>

Yes. I'm already a backports tester. Being a backport team member
simply means I can ACK backports into the archive.

> You still refer to yourself as a Kubuntu developer, and in the last
> days you started getting involved with the Mozilla team, and offered
> to work on the ports kernel, and the .28 kernel I believe.
>
> To me it looks like it is growing, but I don't know which you have
> moved on from, and which are going to be working on in the next
> cycle.
>
>>  That being said, I don't feel
>> specialization in one any section of Ubuntu is good for the project;
>> what good is someone who can solve FTBFSs if they remain only in the
>> Xubuntu section of the repo. In the time I've been here, I've been
>> involved in Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Studio, Server, Ports, LPIA kernel
>> hacking, the Mozilla team, and probably other parts of the project
>> that I can't think off hand.
>
> I think specialisation is good, but I also think breath of interest is
> good, and is a trait that I share.
>

I don't believe there is anything wrong with specialization, but in a
project like Ubuntu, having individuals who generalize over
specialization can provide a benefit. Ubuntu doesn't have any
maintainers per-say, to put it briefly, MOTU is the global maintainer
for universe. By having individuals who can step from project to
project to resolve bugs can be extremely useful.

> My concern is not with you helping out with many parts of the project,
> that is great. My concern is that when someone is doing a job it
> usually gets left to that person. If they then move on then it can
> leave a void. One part of the CoC is to step down gracefully, and
> while I am not asking you to step down from any of your work, I
> would remind you of that and ask you to remember it if you find
> yourself overloaded, or your situation changes such that you are
> able to spend less time on Ubuntu.
>

Having personally seen what can happen when people go poof without
warning, or fail to meet the promises or responsibilities and how that
can hurt the distribution as a whole, I would step down from a
position before letting it get to that point.

> You have been through most of these tasks only once, and I wonder
> whether they will start to clash as you go through a second cycle.
> It's just a case of having too much to do at once, which obviously
> happens to us all from time to time. Do you think you will be able
> to judge what workload you will be able to handle, and pass on any
> extra work as needed?
>
Yes, I do. As a firefighter, I've been trained to know my own limits
and how to pass the torch so to speak when I'm maxed out.

>> I think in some ways this has already happened, w.r.t to FTBFSes and
>> libtool issues. I've already been asked to look at several packages
>> when the explode in a shower of sparks, and I've earned a reputation
>> as the goto guy for difficult build failures. I've been involved in
>> Xubuntu development fairly early in my contributing career, and I have
>> remained involved through out. As stated above, I generally don't see
>> it as taking New Projects, but more expanding my field of knowledge,
>> and providing assistance where needed. I generally go where I'm most
>> needed, so if a new project greatly needs my abilities, it would get
>> my focus, but I would not simply abandon my old projects on a whim.
>
> I'm interested that you don't see it as taking on new projects. Do
> you see yourself as more as picking up things that need doing,
> rather than taking on an area and ensuring it improves from
> release to release, like your position as Debian-Xubuntu collaboration
> lead?
>

There is a distinction between holding a position and doing what is
needed to improve a distribution. I consider myself both a X and
Kubuntu developer, having worked through this cycle to help improve
the quality of both distributions. In the case of the Debia-Xubuntu
liaison, that is a position I fill, the nitch I sit in so to speak,
and I felt I've been successful in this point.

In Kubuntu's case, I don't have any specific position, so it becomes
more doing what needs to be done (or what I want to do). In this case,
it is resolving FTBFS throughout the KDE packages, and porting them to
all architectures. Although I am an Kubuntu developer, I do not have
any official roles like I do in Xubuntu, so what I do to improve the
distribution as a whole is my choice, and should I do less for Kubuntu
due to time or real life concerns, I'm not hurting the distribution.

I consider membership in these teams more akin to a permit saying that
I know what I'm doing with the packages these teams maintained and I'm
aware of ongoing issues (on every team I'm subscribed to, I am
subscribed to an associated mailing list, or at least idle in their
channels), and I feel that I can help do work such as attacking bugs,
sponsoring patches, etc. within the guideline of that team.

To put that another way, every MOTU can upload to any package in
Universe/Multiverse. However, despite this, almost none upload
packages managed by a specific team (i.e., MOTUs who are not involved
with Xubuntu rarely upload Xfce related packages). By being a team
member, I'm saying that I'm willing and able to handle packages
managed by that team.

> On a different topic, I have seen you working strange hours, is this
> due to your job?
>

Somewhat (fires happen at odd hours), but I have a sleep disorder
which makes the hours I'm awake and asleep extremely erratic. If I
have no classes or work for a period of time, any sense of normal
w.r.t to my sleep schedule flies out the window. Needless to say, I
have a lot of free time to kill since most of my friends are not awake
at 3 or 4 AM EST. A good chunk of this time also goes to my hobbies
such as writing and reading (I'd like to be a writer someday),
although if I'm near my laptop, I'm at least somewhat active in the
chatrooms even if not doing anything Ubuntu related.