[Imc-web] web/tech meeting notes for 6/7/04

[Drew Tarico]

tech/web ad hoc group meeting 6/7/2004

attending: paul r, clint p, dan , zach, mike l, drew (notes), arun b, wendy
please excuse spelling errors!

prod room
sound forge sdoesn't work stand alone, (the board gets rewired, inputs are
changed)
We should set up a poster with logical diagrams and with actual ports for
to make audio setup easier on non-tech folks
or we need to set up the patch panel with a default map on it.

longterm: rackmounted computers with less accessible ports.
MD recorder only works half the time, needs to be replaced.

FOR NEW BUILDING, PLANNING: upgrade to rack needs

lan: dewey (file server, winserver, backup, -100baseT) and the router are
both stable, but only one can be booted without an operator (both need a
keyboard to boot right now without bios changes).  Zack sees disk backups
in the future instead of tapes, just disks on the shelves!

domain admin is root account because of smb, and if logging in with a
domain account user needs admin access to use cd-r (local logins are
exempt)

exploration of linux DAW solutions? USB hardware is supported, bootable
cds are available for "dynebolic" (rastafarians)

who has root on dewey?  Root passwd hasn't changed.  can ssh into
dewey.urbana.IMC on the local net.

WEB MAINT-

dada - we're at 0.98.1 current is 0.98.2
changes aren't in CVS, so they might be lost with an upgrade.  Try a diff...
Clint's changes are all available in patch form locally.  Arun says we
should be using CVS locally.
Clint will set up CVS for dada and upgrade to the next version.  Dan has
~origfiles that he can diff.

Missing MIME types are in browser problem land, evil spiders...
email address verification is not working

Performance has been slow because of a "variety of things."  Apache has
many processes running that are taking CPU time, started happening since
kernel upgrade.  Kernel and apache/mod-perl will be updated.  There will
be a new server installed for tesbed (athlon thuderbird 1.6 GHz 1GBDDRram)
to replace imsahp.  SPiders that are looking for mp3s and are poorly
written, attacks from DoS etc.

acorn has taken over business admin of chambana.net in order to take in
some funds.

ORGANIZATION

Zach is interested in - monthly meetings, maybe more frequent meetings but
after some outreach.  That's a prioity (ACM without getting bogged down in
policy and politics, just geek stuff).  We should be a working group or a
caucus of reps from other work groups to share tech stuff.  We might want
to encourage reps even if groups say they don't have techies in order to
drive geek learning.

Mike - no geek stuff, no more than once a month meetings, ad hoc basis, he
thinks everyone is happy with the way policy has been enforced.  There
should be more editorial review, but folks are pretty flexible about the
definition of trolling.  People want to "just hear, what should we do
about it?"  Get rid of the mailing list for on e less mailing list.

Dan - Sysadmin UNIX, dada IMC  Thinks we bend over backwards to protect
attackers on the site.  If it looks like it, and it smells like it...

Arun - similar to dan, web maint, sysadmin more than editor.  SOme
interset in policy.  Work parties, monthly meetings, later at night.

Paul - primarily policy, present it clearly and democratically, stick to
it unambigously.  Current situation is deficit of the policy, needs a
redraft.  2/3 of IMC devolution has to do with website - who edits it etc.
 We should leave behind clear instructions about web editing.  Paul is
burnt out on hardware tech shooting.  Paul likes tech as a steering group
of sorts, puts in on the back of the entire IMC.  Tech doesn't exist for
its own sake without lots of committed folks.  Spokes from other groups to
share the knowledge, or just for contact.  One meeting a month.  How do we
separate policy and tech geek stuff?  Needs to be democratic
accountibility of the editors for future planning sake.

wendy - programming and some graphics

Discussion about the necessity of all groups having some basic knowledge
of the tech setup - mutual responsibility.

drew is somewhere in the middle of all that.

zach suggests first half meeting, second half work party.  Pot luck! 
First hour meet, second hour work.  bring $5 or a dish?  discussion about
club atmosphere rather than labor: talk, then play.  Spokes only commit to
the meeting part, the rest commit to an evening of work.

We consent to the multi-hour meeting, and the second Tuesdays of the month
starting at 7pm.
The NEXT MEETING WILL BE JULY 13TH.

This will be presented to July's steering meeting for consent.  We will
all do outreach to individual working groups.  Paul has librarians, zach
has print and shows, wendy has ragg...

MORE STUFF
dada upgrade is important, workshop about assembling the production room.
Paul wants to look into linux production tools.
Appeals others for tech interests.
Designing the future IMC for us and for grant writers (what could you do
with $87,000)
We're going to recycle the shitty computers in july.  They're too shitty
for the halfway house.

WORK GROUP WORRIES
print has trouble updating their website because the applications for
doing this are distributed among comps.  Print needs a single comp. The G3
on the floor?

Video - needs some hard drive space, figuring out among themselves.

Library - Library search and archive search are giving internal server
errors.  Related to perl upgrade.

Mediageek - mov type will stay where it is for many reasons ($, time)

RAGG - we should talk to them about a "tech liason" for their own benefit
and edification

WEB EDITORIAL POLICY
paul- suggests bringing policy closer to practice.  We need to empower
editors to hide posts, and make that strictly defined.  We don't
differentiate between comments and posts.  Dan spam is original posting,
others have had comments hidden.  Trolls have been pulling topics toward
their own ends through the use of comments (UCIMC censorship practices,
why the UCIMC sucks...).  We need to write our policy to discourage the
barrage of insults at any orginal post.  We also need to encourage a
useful, constrctive dialogue.  We don't want a shooting gallery, but we do
want critique.  Should ban any posts without email addresses attached. Web
tech may need to be the venue to bring banning motions.   Paul will
ciculate a draft of these thoughts.

Dada can operate in moderated mode (only approved posts can be seen) but
we want to avoid that as a last resort.
Nazi spam is a network wide problem.  We may want to replenish our spokes
to the global tech lists.

"web editorial" may be a better name for the web list since it has more to
do with policy than tech stuff.

zach asks for openings in email list admins