Policy-Discussion

[Jan Dittberner <jandd AT cacert.org>]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 02:05:26PM +0100, Matthias Lohr wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> as a reply of Jan's mail about open tasks, I want to start a new thread
> regarding IRC discussion. Couple of years ago, I was co-operator of an
> IRC network, so I think i might be able to help you here.
> 
> But first of all: Sure, that CAcert still wants to operate an own IRC
> server? Currently, there are 41 users and only 20 channels. Maybe it
> would be easier to migrate that to e.g. Freenode? Is there a need for a
> dedicated IRC network for CAcert?

Hello Matthias,

this is a very good question, that I cannot answer fully.

There are few use cases for IRC that are required:

- board meetings via a private channel
- AGM and SGM of CAcert Inc.
- voting during AGMs/SGMs. We have a vote bot ([1], [2]) that tracks votes in 
a
  special #vote channel and takes care of the results

[1] https://git.cacert.org/gitweb/?p=cacert-votebot.git;a=summary
[2] https://infradocs.cacert.org/systems/ircserver.html#votebot

I'm not sure whether irc.cacert.org / dedicated CAcert infrastructure is
really required for these use cases by any of the CAcert policy documents.

@policy group: what is your view on this topic?

I think all of these use cases could be implemented on a different IRC
network from a technical point of view if private channels and the bot
connection are possible there.

> If there's still a need for a dedicated CAcert IRC network, I would be
> happy to help. What are open tasks, how should we proceed here?

I tried to document the IRC system properly at [3], but a second person
taking care of the system (OS updates, checking proper function, operating
the votebot during meetings) would be nice.

[3] https://infradocs.cacert.org/systems/ircserver.html

The open tasks that I am aware of are:

- review of the existing configuration
- update to Debian 10
- move the configuration to Puppet/Git
- automate/script updates for the KiwiIRC web frontend
- (optionally) package the KiwiIRC web frontend

To get access to the system a background check is required. I do not know of
a formal approach for this. When I started in 2009 I met some CAcert people
at Linux Tag Berlin in person.

@board are there any hints how to perform a background check for potential
system administrators?


Kind regards
Jan

-- 
Jan Dittberner - CAcert Infrastructure Team Lead
Software Architect, Debian Developer
GPG-key: 4096R/0xA73E0055558FB8DD 2009-05-10
         B2FF 1D95 CE8F 7A22 DF4C  F09B A73E 0055 558F B8DD
https://jan.dittberner.info/

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