Marketing Team/Meetings/Infrastructure Team

Trimmed Log from Infrastructure Team meeting 2011 February 15

21:59	dogi	#topic wanted services
21:59		#info * new lists replacement
21:59		#link http://lists.sugarlabs.org/
21:59		#info possible replacement
21:59		#link http://groupserver.org/groupserver/features/
21:59		the other thing _bernie wanted ...
21:59		+s
21:59		#info * better planet
21:59		#link http://planet.sugarlabs.org
21:59		#info * better schooltool demo
21:59		#link http://schooltool.sugarlabs.org:?port?
21:59		#info * question/answer service
21:59		#info what is a question/answer service?
21:59		#link http://askubuntu.com/
22:00		#info an AGPL/ruby solution:
22:00		#link http://shapado.com/
22:00		we can offer VMs for
22:00	silbe	dogi: I thought groupserver is an enhancement rather than a replacement?
22:01	dogi	silbe, ups
22:01		yes
22:01	silbe	We should be very careful about replacing the list software. The mailing lists are very
                high priority, potentially even more important than the wiki.
22:01	dogi	+1
22:02		but we can always test that in a VM before
22:02		VM = sandbox
22:02		#info * new features in aslo?
22:02		#link http://idea.sugarlabs.org/drupal5/
22:03	silbe	we can't really. The "interesting" part is the software at the subscribers end.
22:03	dogi	FGrose, ?
22:03		you added this?
22:03	FGrose	Is idea.sl.o a possible ?!server?
22:04	dogi	?
22:04		idea is search a maintainer
22:04		ups searching
22:05	FGrose	by configuring ideas to questions, etc.
22:05	dogi	ohhh
22:06		now i get you
22:06		yes it is? and we have 160 users
22:07	FGrose	If we find a maintainer, it might serve as sandbox for evaluation.
22:07	dogi	wanted to move this userbase from ideatorrent to shapado
22:08	dirakx	I like shapado more ;)
22:08	dogi	which is more general
22:08	FGrose	deferring to your judgment for infrastructure...
22:08	dogi	:)
22:09	FGrose	There's just a lot of teachers who are familiar with drupal
22:09		Cerlyn has quit IRC
22:09	dogi	FGrose, yes
22:10	FGrose	But shapado looks suitable too.
22:11	dogi	we will speak more about this when we have a volunteer willing to set this up
22:12	FGrose	Will pass this by Marketing for ideas..
{...}
22:19		#topic www.sl.o redesign
22:19		#info Marketing Team log:
22:19		#link http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/s[…]11-02-15T15:05:53

22:20	FGrose	Sugar Labs marketing has stalled for a number of reasons. High among them is the
                difficulty of providing an easy Sugar demonstration for newcomers.  The Marketing Team is
                wondering if the Infrastructure Team can help by providing something like Dogi's sugarbush
                to provide an experience of a working Sugar to the public.

22:24	dogi	hmm
22:24		#info sugarbush demo
22:24	silbe	FGrose: the way dogi did it (using VNC) is the only way that doesn't require major changes
                to Sugar in order to work (assuming you're talking about "running" it from a web browser).
22:25	dogi	#link http://one.treehouse.su/gar.html?host=one.treehouse.su&port=80
22:26	dogi	FGrose, it is not so easy to get from a working prototype to a reliable demo for our 
                endusers
22:26	silbe	FGrose: sugarbush is nice for a short demo, but a) latency makes it a PITA when used across
                a "long distance" link (e.g. across a continent). I'm also worried about the load that more
                than a handful of users would cause.
22:26		(the last sentence should have been b) )
22:26	FGrose	silbe: yes, but can it support the traffic or are there ways to limit traffic or provide
                some mirrors???
22:27	silbe	FGrose: it runs Sugar on the server and copies the image to the browser pixel-by-pixel
22:27		FGrose: so every "mirror" would need to be a server running Sugar
22:28	dogi	FGrose, the only thing we could offer right new is this link to selected users
22:28		silbe, +1
22:28	silbe	FGrose: I would expect CPU and memory to be exhausted before we hit traffic limits
22:29	dogi	but right now the only running example is located in North America
22:29		what about other locations
22:29	FGrose	OK, I follow.  So it would take a lot of resources, could Amazon cloud serve it?
22:29	dogi	FGrose, +1
22:30		and vmware.com
22:30		is working on his vmware contacts
22:31	silbe	FGrose: It could, but I wouldn't even want to think about the costs.
22:32	dogi	silbe, maybe the are willing to donate some services
22:32	FGrose	Good opportunity for corporate donation.
22:33	dogi	FGrose, amazon cloud, rackspace and vmware are possible candidates
22:33	silbe	dogi: There already was talk about using Amazon hosting for some other stuff in the past.
                AFAIK Amazon wasn't interested in sponsoring.
22:33		something related to Fedora... maybe mchua recalls the details
22:34	dogi	silbe, oh good pint
22:34		point
22:34		we can ask on the Fedora Cloud list
22:35		#action dogi FGrose : ask on the Fedora Cloud list for VMs
22:35	silbe	feel free to go ahead. :)
22:35	FGrose	So a technical strain, but something that might be considered.
22:35	silbe	but remember that there are a lot of open source projects, all of them doing something
                cool, and most of them wanting free hosting.
22:35	dogi	FGrose, enough about the web demo
22:35		back to the actual www
22:36		#link http://www.sugarlabs.org
22:36		is there a git repository of this page available
22:37	silbe	FGrose: FWIW, I'd love to see us put up such a demo server. But we should be aware that it
                doesn't require a Slashdot article to take down the server by friendly DDoS.
22:37	dogi	silbe, invitation only ...
22:37	FGrose	JT4sugar is considering coordinating a design firm who have offered Sean pro bono services,
                some college students, + a teacher review panel
22:38	dogi	FGrose, right now such a service would need a around the clock protection/monitoring crew
22:39	FGrose	Right, I'm following your cautions.
22:39	silbe	dogi: we could put it on an ex-WMF server. Then it wouldn't matter if it went down, so no
                24/7 monitoring required.
22:40	dogi	FGrose, right now I can setup 5 demos on dextra.media.mit.edu
22:41		is working on the debian squeeze
22:41	FGrose	OK, more planning needed.  Thanks for considering!
22:41	dogi	version
22:43		FGrose, bingo
22:43		FGrose, who is the actual maintainer of the www
22:44		#link http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Service/000_other
22:44	FGrose	Sean will provide meeting notes from today's Marketing meeting.  There will be other
                infrastructure requests such as ?!server
22:44		maybe unmaintained...
22:44	dogi	ok
22:44		#action dogi set up git for www
22:45		new page should be i18n able
22:45	FGrose	#link This has some other thoughts, for reference,
                http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team/Website
22:45	silbe	dogi: FWIW, you could use a simple web frontend for registration (using OpenID, e.g.
                https://ssl-test.sugarlabs.org/) and run each VNC instance as a separate unix user.
22:46	dogi	silbe, yes - but right now not possible
22:47		every other then :0 is gnome
22:47	FGrose	Timeline is 3 to 6 months I presume.
22:47	dogi	not sugardesktop
22:47		ups display :0
22:48		FGrose, that sound realistic
22:48		+s
22:48	FGrose	dogi: I had more luck with display :# in Fedora than Ubuntu in December with Sugar
22:49	dogi	the demo is in ubuntu cause I was not able to install soas on a kvm ...
22:50		but debian is already next to finished
22:50	FGrose	dogi: that is display :0 (but I was just playing and didn't do much more)
22:50	dogi	and then I will do Fedora 14