I submitted the following proposal for a talk at Debconf6:
This talk offers a "Debian Themed" quick tour through the academic, legal, and business worlds. It overs insight into what everyone outside of Debian is saying about, doing with, and learning from the Debian project.
In doing so, it hopes to give Debian participants some insight into fields and areas that they are largely unfamiliar with (e.g., management, sociology, anthropology, economics, computer supported collaborative work, etc.). It illuminates what others — especially academics — find useful or inspiring about the project and to facilitate self-reflection and self-improvement within Debian. It reflects on the impact that Debian has had in the world beyond the Debian project and, in particular, in those areas that many Debian developers may not be familiar with.
The good news is that the proposal was accepted. The bad news is that this means I actually have to finish doing the research to make the talk happen.
To make the talk excellent, I wanted to solicit examples from you, great Debian community. I’ve already got my own list but I’d like to hear what you think I should talk about?
What I’m not looking for is examples of people or organizations that use Debian. This talk is not about people who use the OS or the people who build it. This is about people who have learned from Debian as a community.
Primarily, I’m looking for academic publications on Debian. However, anyone who has learned and designed a system or community based on such a paper or from observation would be good as well. People who use or have learned from our voting structure might be a good example as would communities with a Debian-derived social contract. Software engineering research is fair game.
Be creative but remember that I’ve got a limited time on the podium and may be forced into the unpleasant position of being ruthlessly selective.
Please add examples to this wiki page or just email mako@debian.org.
That’s if for now and I’ll see you in… Umm… Oaxtepec.