Hi Richard and Steve, So according to Richard, the issue is "How can Debian ensure that cloud images a user might use are proper Debian?" and the solution is that "trademark team asked the CD team if they would be willing to become a gatekeeper of sorts".
Concretely, the "CD team" is Steve. I still find it disturbing to see Steve being appointed by the trademark team to oversee some works that he did not initiate and that have been running well so far. While standardising Debian cloud images, increasing quality controls and hardening trust paths is a worthy goal, I think that the current situation with the images in the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds is already good enough and does not warrant the intervention of the trademarks team to regulate whether these images can be called "Debian" or not. At the moment, these cloud images differ only by a minor subset of packages, each of which is well justified in its context. And they are prepared by Debian Developers. No serious issues have been raised on this list nor in the BTS, and I am not aware of complaints of users who felt that these images are not up to the quality, Freedom and security standards expected from Debian. Nomination of a manager by the trademarks team is a higly unusual process. When the Debian Project needs people to be formally recognised as decision makers for some topics, it is done through DPL delegations. But I do not think that we even need a DPL delegate at the moment. Also, while Richard's answer suggested that the DPL is involved in what is happening, there has been no communication from the DPL on this list since Debconf 2015, which means that whichever happened to have been disccussed there, it has not been translated into concrete action by the DPL. While I acknowledge the importance of the Debconf conferences, I think that it is important to remember that they are not a place of decision about the works being coordinated on this list, otherwise it would put a large number of people out of the loop, for whom it is hard to attend Debconf. I think also that it is very unfair to expect pepole to watch a video recording of a Debconf meeting. People who have great ideas at Debconf should really translate them it a more publically visible momentum on mailing lists. Otherwise, if we have one community that organises itself by face-to-face and IRC meetings, and another one that organises itself by the use of mailing lists and the BTS, then we have a serious problem of communication. Can we move forward by having excitement, consensus, empowerment and fun driving our future developments, instead of trademark enforcement and top-down appointments ? I recommend you to lead by inspiring others to join your effort, not by giving them the prospect that if they do not follow your directions, their work will be considered unworthy to be called Debian. Cheers, -- Charles Plessy Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
