[blag-whereto] Well, this is embarrassing

[Abdur-Rahman Morgan]

:-)

It has been a month since I last posted and just over the past two to 
three days I have been using the livecd-creator tool to make an iso 
image that would be a reflection of the next release. A tabula raza so 
to speak that contains very little fedora branding.

So, first, I want to apologize for not being around for a month when I 
said it would only be a week. To anyone who has been following the 
project more as of late, it is my deepest intention that we have a new 
release this year and "I am sorry", if my lack of participation as of 
late caused any disappointment amongst you.

Sooner is always better now that Fedora 13 has an Alpha and that updates 
will still be readily available for the previous release, but later is 
better than never because we always have supported any release of BLAG 
and the efforts of every individual is worthwhile.

With that said, I have been documenting the efforts of creating the 
LiveCD on tearms.dyndns.org on a day by day basis. Not much content is 
available, but the purpose is to document the process of the components 
that I am interested in building before it all goes on the wiki.

Simultaneously, while I was working on the LiveCD, I begin using the 
other 8 Free distros listed on gnu.org to see what makes each of them 
unique. If you take a look at my recent identi.ca 
(http://identi.ca/tearms)notices, you can see some of the comments about 
the distros I have looked at so far. Reply to them is you have some 
feedback. What I see in the ones that I've viewed and used are the 
elements which make the Free Software community unique. As you all think 
about participating and becoming involved with BLAG, I want to stress 
that each of us has a unique element to contribute.

As I reflect on using gNewSense 2.3 predominantly a year ago as my main 
distro, I never imagined myself creating iso's, trying to setup a build 
system and communicating with as many individuals that I have met as I 
have become more involved in BLAG this year. I wanted to share that with 
you because, I think that many of us sometimes are hesitant in 
contributing because we feel that we do not have programming skills or 
specific skills to bring and I think its important that you bring what 
you know and build from that. On the flip side, I think sometimes the 
means to contribute or understand where you can contribute is not well 
documented. Both areas require that we as individuals break out of our 
shell and take a step and those that need help advertise the means by 
which we need help. This is something I need to get better at and during 
my break last month, I created groups within at 
http://we.riseup.net/blag, a collaborative tool, where individuals can join.

In March I started setting up commitees on we.riseup.net/blag to reflect 
areas where we need help or that may be of interest to people. Thus you have

blag+artist
blag+contributors
blag+developers
blag+users
blag+veterans
blag+webdevelopers

I created these groups to reflect areas where I think we need to 
structure people's interest. And just so you know, you can belong to 
more than one group. I recommend that everyone join users at the very 
least, but if you have suggestions for other groups, just let me know. 
The purpose of this space is not to replace tools like the wiki, forum, 
lists, but have a space where we can build on ideas in a concrete 
environment. I define this as blagstorming. In any case, it provides the 
ability to upload documents, create new documents and other types of 
content which I think is important.

I want to go back and talk about shells and steps. GNU/Linux is 
evolving. Back in 1999 when I begin using Redhat 7.2, I remember 
thinking, "This is going to be the next great thing". I was not at all 
aware of the Free Software aspect, but as I grew to using it, I 
understood just how powerful the concept of Free Software would be in 
changing society. Thanks Richard Stallman. As, I have stated many times, 
I think what GNU/Linux has accomplished over the past quarter century is 
more than I imagined. It's adoption on the desktop is growing slowly, 
but in the mobile market people are using it and just not aware of it. 
It's important to me that people know what they're using because 
freedom, people's rights are important. In the digital age, I feel more 
people people do not take the time to understand or concern themselves 
with the implications and consequences this has for the future, which I 
think we all can be an agent of change in the present.

So, where as I used to be a singe distro non-libre user, I will start 
using each free distro to understand the challenges it meets in defining 
the freedom that I value. I try to reflect that personally in the 
devices that I use as well because I think in the next decade is where 
the challenge is going to lie in questions of freedom and privacy. 
GNU/Linux seems to be at the core of powering most of today's mobile 
devices and as the definition for computer evolves, so must we too with 
the devices out there that will connect us. A good discussion we can 
leave for the mailing list or live on IRC, as GNU/Linux evolves how we 
look at it may change to and it is natural that we may have to as well. 
That's my point about shells.

In terms of steps, I am referring more to infrastructure than anything, 
specifically to the tools we're using to move us forward. Our 
infrastructure consists of

main site(http://www.blagblagblag.org)
forum(http://forums.blagblagblag.org)
wiki(http://wiki.blagblagblag.org)
trac(http://trac.blagblagblag.org)
collaboration tool(http://we.riseup.net)
microblogging(http://identi.ca/blaggers)
irc channel(irc://irc.indymedia.org #blag)

We are growing and as we do our infrastructure needs to reflect that. 
There is no longer a core developer. Each of us are now leaders who can 
contribute. I like that. It's not total democracy or anarchy, despite 
the political structure we live in or associate with. It's fantastic, 
but also trying at times when the information we need is not there or 
available. Another IRC discussion.

In any case, I wanted to bring up these points and provide a base where 
we could start based on jayeola's last message. I have been working an 
livecd/iso. Today, I was able to successfully create a 693MB image which 
runs nicely. The package list for the iso is: http://pastebin.com/hDxcSCT3
I am especially proud that it has the latest kernel-libre by default. It 
still needs some work before we can call it an Alpha. On a thread on the 
forums, Spartacus was the name many people liked for the next release. 
It sits well with me, what do you think?

Also, myself, weyasey, jayeola and others have been working on building 
koji, the BLAG build package system and need some help with databases. 
Any knowledge on databases would be helpful.

You can find me or IRC and if you choose to sign-up for identi.ca, you 
can just send me a message.

Thanks,

tearms