Tech team meeting - 27-02-2007

Agenda/topics discussed

• subversion status
• developer tools
• NDA
• blog status
• community tools status
• verification upgrade status
• newsletters preferences
• server access guidelines ??
• member project gallery
• collective info/self-serve page for the next collective
• age by birthdate
• developer communications
• remote contribution after the collective

subversion status

Joe & Anu (testing the tool) spent quite a bit of time last week exploring if Darcs could be used for code review purposes. It was too slow so was ditched. Exploration for better solutions continues. Suggestions:

• Mercurial
• SVN with some additional scripts enabling more automated review of patches
• Perforce, Bitkeeper (commercial solutions, but might have the options for non-profits to get them for free)

Assigned: Joe (Anu for testing out a solution)

developer tools

• server watch page: to keep an eye on our various servers and their condition and things such as spooler getting clogged after a code change..

• New page for developers (like ambassadors and admins have) to have a better overview about developer-specific issues. Could include e.g. bugs assigned to you, relevant links to wiki, groups, mailing lists, contact us questions to be looked into etc.

Assigned: ??

NDA

Lawyer not happy and is not really open to modify what he has written. Casey will ponder further.

blog status

Kamel did something, somewhere, and it needs to get integrated. Anu will request more info from anywhere available (Kasper most probably), and possibly try local & server installation after finding out where the work was saved.

community tools status

(enabling tools & support for the new ambassador system)

• basic infrastructure done
• we're launching it along the next collective update newsletter
• completing the additional tools requested in the ambs definition page
• vamp-up existing ambassador page to enable cohesion of the ambassador network
• possibly coming up with new tools / vamp-ups to existing tools to support ambassador activity

Assigned: Anu

verification upgrade status

Paypal, new server certificate Assigned: Casey

newsletters

enabling preferences for receiving different kinds of newsletters Assigned: Joe

server access

We need more people to be able to access servers to get database updates for example done in a timely manner

member project gallery

Showcase page for member projects (such as War on Them, or charity-cycling across Europe) Assigned: Joe/Richard

collective info/self-serve page for the next collective

Enable members toggling themselves as collective members plus information? Assigned: Joe / Richard

age by birthdate

Often requested by members Assigned: ??

developer communications

• Internal as well as external communications
• Starting with regular conference calls with the next tech meeting (assigned: Anu)
• To be further discussed at the next meeting

remote contribution after the collective

Across the topics discussed, we did agree more code ownership is necessary: this will enable us to keep working towards our common goal even when it might be hard to keep connected with topic of the day all the time. Also agreed we have begun with this already in a less formally, based on individual interest, so it's a matter of further defining our roles and also making this visible to other users of the site. How: making "page owner" visible on the page a user sees. Assigned: Joe

Roles as of now: (open source projects)

• Casey: verifications & the backend stuff others don't dare (yet) to get into
• Kasper: MVC, code cleanup all over, interest in meetings development (ridesurf)
• Joe: coding infrastructure, search (phone)
• Anu: community enhancements = ambs, member services, translation fixes since Kasper's off now - starting off with things coming from Brainstorm
• John: mapsurf, location fixing
• Jim: admin-specific functionality, member services