when I woke up today (after sleeping in for the first time with my new
roll-top in front of my bedroom window) I was surprised & confused by a
couple of "congratulations!" messages in my irc away-log. it took
me a bit of time & coffee (& looking into my mailbox) to begin to
realize that my Debian account had indeed been created while I was asleep.
— in fact I guess I still haven't completely realized my new status as
Debian Developer.
as others I'd like to follow the good tradition of taking the opportunity to
thank some of the people who helped me to get there:
- first & foremost Tony Mancill, my advocate, permanent sponsor, &
long-time co-maintainer; for all his support in preparing & quickly
uploading packages, tracking down bugs, encouraging & advocating me but
also for our very pleasant "chats" via email. — we have
already agreed to continue co-maintaining each other's packages.
- the friendly & helpful guys from the Debian Perl Group: Gunnar Wolf,
for always encouraging me (to join the group, to apply for the New
Maintainer Process, ...); Damyan Ivanov, for teaching me so much (even if he
called it "nitpicking"); Gunnar, Damyan, Krzysztof
Krzyżaniak, Niko Tyni, Roberto C. Sánchez, Stephen Gran, Frank
Lichtenheld, Jaldhar H. Vyas, Russ Allbery, Raphaël Hertzog, & some
others for uploading packages I've prepared & helping me when I had
questions or problems; Martín Ferrari, for all his help, expertise,
& especially for the fun & the good times we share on IRC.
- my Application Manager Wouter Verhelst; for guiding me through the New
Maintainer process not only fast but also in a very helpful, at the same
time demanding & supporting way.
- the Debian Women sub-project; for making Debian a better &
friendlier place not only for women but in general.
- finally: the people who used the time while I was asleep to actually
create my account tonight :)
some final thoughts about the NM process from my point of view:
- it took me some time to actually apply for NM; what deterred me was not
that I knew it would take some time but that I didn't know how long
the time would be; & that I knew that the bigger part of the overall
time would consist of waiting.
- I applied on 2007-04-03, my account was created on 2008-04-18; 380 days
is not bad altogether in my opinion; the actual work with my AM was from
2007-08-12 until 2007-11-28 (i.e. 108 days, or 28% of the whole duration).
- I did enjoy the actual checks; I had to read & think a lot, & I
learned a lot in that period.
- Front Desk (i.e. Christoph Berg) was very quick on all necessary
steps.
- I was never demotivated about my Debian work because of all the people
supporting me & taking the burden of uploading packages I had prepared.
but I have to admit that I got a little bored in the last months of waiting
after the report had been submitted by my Application Manager.
& now it's time first to celebrate & then to try to fully grasp my
new rights & responsibilities.
