📓 social coop tech group minutes.md by @flancian ☆

#pull [[social coop tech group]]
[[2022-05-13]]
- Attending:
  - [[akshay]]
  - [[neil]]
  - [[noah]] == [[redoak]]
  - [[eduardo]] == [[flancian]]
  - [[nick]] == [[nick sellen]]
  - [[will]] == [[datatitian]]
- round the table catching up :)
  - [[neil]] first time in one of the tech group meetings!
    - post work on a Friday — nice to be here!
  - [[noah]] happy the group seems to be "revived"
  - [[akshay]] like a Saturday for me due to 80% time :)
    - [[neil]] +1 here, but not off today
    - been doing it for a year
  - [[[noah]]] freelance, working four days a week
    - Fridays are [[disco coop]] / passion projects
    - Let’s meet in [[immers space]] ;)
  - [[nick]] here :)
- let’s seed a potential agenda?
  - [[noah]] what was discussed at the last meeting?
    - https://anagora.org/social-coop-tech-group -> https://www.loomio.org/d/UwAeiBgE/tech-meeting-minutes
  - [[nick]] handing over the keys, how to be able to disengage before the next meeting
    - if we have root in social.coop, what else do we need to get full access to all resources?
    - [[nick]] there’s also the password repository, which is based on gpg keys
    - [[noah]] adding people to the pass repo is maybe the one thing where we surely need nick the most
    - [[nick]] can add Eduardo to the pass repo
      - it requires re-encrypting with all keys
      - need to find the notes on how to do this
      - [[akshay]] is it worth storing in the repo itself how to do this?
      - +1
    - we are pretty confident all credentials are in the pass repo, at least in the past 2-3y everything has been there
    - there is a lingering domain registration issue
      - we need to look up the name of the person responsible
      - [[nick]] enric duran (sp?)
      - there was discussion of transferring
      - -> let’s find the loomio thread, there was a proposal for where to transfer to https://www.loomio.org/d/Jf5Wi4Ph/domain-expired-social-coop-down
      - [[noah]] it would ideally be transferred to a collective entity?
      - probably want to discuss with other working groups
    - [[akshay]] do we keep track of what we have credentials for?
      - [[noah]] no separate source except for the pass repo
      - in short:
        
        admin account in the instance
        
        hetzner
        
        digital ocean for static storage
        
        login for email aliases which is required for git access
    - we could agree on a time slot and then do some coworking on the pass repo
      - next week 2h earlier? 4pm London
    - [[nick]] make sure you have an email alias asap so you can access the git repo so you can do, well, other stuff :)
      - noah, nick, david have access
  - welcome GiacomoSansoni!
    - newbie here!
    - don’t know much about tech (yet)
    - willing to learn
  - [flancian] focus areas / learning exercises
    - mastodon instance (currently on docker)
      - who does moderation?
      - there is a moderation group, [[community working group]] does it
      - [[neil]] is there anything that the tech working group does with registrations?
      - [[noah]] the wiki runs alongside the mastodon deployment and supports the process
      - [flancian] why do we do it this way instead of letting people join (with approval) and then following up?
      - [[noah]] there’s the requirement of joining the open collective first, but there is potential for streamlining as long as we have energy in driving :)
      - [flancian] interested, would like to try to bring this up as a possible improvement — in particular if we want to make it easier to onboard/grow more
      - [[neil]] there was discussion about improving the process in the strategy session
      - [[nick]] there’s only one field in registration and that was considered a blocker
      - [[akshay]] it seems like mastodon in general could benefit from this
        
        +1
    - backups and restores
      - secondary server?
      - [[nick]] there was some effort previously some time ago (https://git.coop/social.coop/tech/ansible/-/merge_requests/12 - although it’s more about an instance for testing upgrades, but same principle for restores)
      - one of the complications was to try to bring up a new instance which isn’t federating, which could mess up the fediverse
      - there’s a merge request in git
      - nicks didn’t reach agreement
      - wu lee (sp?)
    - new services
      - has this been brought up?
      - [[noah]] one of the old meeting minutes has ideas on this front: https://www.loomio.org/d/UwAeiBgE/tech-meeting-minutes/35
      - the obstacle is procedural + organizational: something that enough people want, are willing to have some workload for them
    - [[akshay]] instance customization
      - is there interest?
      - [[noah]] some people are definitely interested
      - [[noah]] putting together a survey in general would be useful for both gauging this and interest in new services
      - [[akshay]] themes would also be nice
      - [[nick]] there was -some- customization previously but it might have been ripped out to lower maintenance cost
      - [[neil]] in the strategy sessions people mentioned [[hometown]], main feature that was desired seemed to be local only timeline
      - [[noah]] there is some risk associated with the switch, but it shouldn’t be a very involved process. [[hometown]] keeps up with mastodon pretty regularly.
      - [[darius]] is active in the fediverse and could maybe help out
      - [[nick]] deployed a hometown instance rencetly, used [[coop cloud]] for it. setting up a parallel second setup might be a good idea. https://coopcloud.tech/
      - [flancian] is there consensus on whether the community wants that?
      - [[neil]] no consensus, just has been brought up a few times
      - [[nick]] as a user, likes the concept but it adds a bit more complexity to the already relatively complex mastodon post visibility options. third party apps don’t support it. it works maybe better for technology-engaged communities.
      - [[noah]] has an alt on dads.cool and it’s pretty nice, but it makes sense in the context of that server
      - [will/datatitian] it’s good for complaining among other coopers :)
  - (breaking here until next time)
    - [flancian] maintenance pending
    - [flancian] engagement with other working groups
      - -> could be related/linked to a solution to gender imbalance/diversity
    - [[neil]] steps for onboarding new tech WG members
      - might be linked to focus areas
    - [flancian] documentation sources of truth, do we have too many? do we share enough with other working groups?
- checkout round
  - [[GiacomoSansoni]]: on customization, could be just put things to a vote on loomio one by one?
    - +1, this sounds like a good idea
    - send a notification to everybody on the instance requesting a proposal?
  - [[noah]] signing off, nice to see you!
  - [[nick]] glad I joined, climbed out of bed, now need to eat dinner :)
    - enjoyed it more than I thought!
      - [flancian] +1
  - [[neil]] nice to put faces to handles :)
    - +1
    - nice to get a start on how the meeting is run, looking forward to next Friday!
  - [[akshay]] was looking forward to the meeting and enjoyed it, see you next Friday :)
    - this being the second meeting it feels like the start of something
[[2022-04-08]]
- Hi all :)
- Let’s try to keep communal notes here?
- [[nick]] == [[nick sellen]] got involved in social.coop during a crisis long ago
  - saved it from going offline, stabilized for a bit
  - then david and noah came onboard
  - not very active in the instance as of late
  - periodic emergencies
    - certificate renewal
  - trying to empower others to join in, but don’t have capacity for being really active again for now
  - in the UK (Bath)
- side note: [[gender imbalance]] here pretty obvious
  - (what do we do about this?)
- [[akshay]] been on social.coop for ~1y
  - mostly lurking :)
  - saw the certificate thing happen, thought maybe I can help
  - ops + software development experience
  - based in [[Berlin]], originally from [[India]]
- [[idmyn]] == David
  - being in the instance for ~4y
  - joined around the same time the nicks rescued the instance
  - based in UK
  - doing some tech bits with [[Noah]] for a while, then dropped off — mostly here to offer any knowledge that is singly homed in brain :)
  - focus areas:
    - [[wiki]]
    - [[meet.coop]] registration form in the wiki
- [[flancian]] == [[Eduardo]]
  - living in [[switzerland]]
  - joined a couple of years ago, but not that involved until recently
  - when recent cert issue happened felt rusty but perhaps they could help out
  - SRE recently, linux experience
  - not sure if recent experience is relevant but willing to learn!
- [[edsu]] == ed summers
  - been around for ~4y
  - use the instance quite a bit, notice when it goes down — thank you nick for bringing it back every time!
  - is invested so would love to know more, learn
  - software developer background, mostly web. working mainly with libraries (in the organization sense) which have digital repositories and a web presence.
  - love the idea of pitching in to help and this group being a coop.
- [[datatitian]] == Will
  - joined in 2017
  - got involved with the tech group back then but didn’t have a lot of specific experience; now would be interested in trying again
  - working on immers.space which is activitypub based
- [[nick sellen]] love how the recent disruption has served to get people together, shows how as long as we have fundamental organization we can channel energy in the right direction :)
- [[nick sellen]] server access
  - there’s a thread on loomio to decide who gets server access, we can use that
    - https://www.loomio.org/d/jrbG5tue/server-access
  - we’d vote people in for access and then people can request assistance/more information as needed
- [[nick sellen]]
  - love the coworking/colearning model
  - really enjoyed learning about the background of others just now
- [[flancian]] is there a ‘root node’ for tech docs/etc.?
  - [[nick sellen]] https://git.coop/social.coop/tech/operations
  - assumes social.coop email addresses, but this can be worked around with aliases (check)
  - we use [[pass]]
- [[flancian]] I see we have one server — do we have a backup server? do we have backup+restore processes?
  - [[david]] we have database backups but unclear when they have been tested
  - [[flancian]] what about using this as an exercise in which the "new wave" of admins is tasked with setting up a new server off backups and such?
- [[akshay]] what’s this [[sauce]] repo mentioned?
  - [[nick sellen]] the other nick named it after ‘special sauce’
  - in principle it could be all consolidated into ansible
  - [[docker compose]] setup
  - the update process involves touching the sauce repo which then somehow results in updates configs making it to prod
  - [[akshay]] love automation, been doing this for the past few years for employers
- [[datatitian]] thinking of oncall schedules for the group — need not be too granular
  - [[flancian]] +1, plus having a secondary/backup would make for a simplified learning experience
  - [[edsu]] would love to join a rotation
  - [[edsu]] the instance feels pretty stable though, it’s a challenge when problems only come about too sporadically
- [[edsu]] perhaps other working groups within the coop might be interested in other tools we could provide for them?
  - [[datatitian]] there’s been a long term interest in bridging loomio and mastodon
  - [[edsu]] issue tracker for FRs?
  - [[flancian]] [[git.coop]]?
  - [[akshay]] if access to git.coop is limited, that would be a bit exclusive
  - [[edsu]] loomio might also be a good platform for this
  - [[nick sellen]] love the idea about building bridges — and the oncall sharing
- [[edsu]] how did you notice the recent instance problem?
  - [[nick sellen]] I do use it often enough :) also keep up to date with matrix.
- (wrap up round)
- [[nick sellen]] happy with this meet, would like to support everyone any way I can
  - next steps: next call next week
  - happy to receive more questions over matrix/mastodon/loomio
- [[akshay]] already have a git.coop account, would like access to ansible/sauce if possible to see how this works :)
- [[david]] happy to see new and familiar faces!
  - won’t be able to make the other call but will stay reachable and happy to answer questions and assist
- [[flancian]] thank you for social.coop! happy to meet you all
  - will read docs, think about where to focus
  - please feel free to pull me in if you need work on any particular direction
- [[edsu]] happy to meet all, would love to learn more about side projects that people have here
  - would like to learn more about mastodon
  - do have a git.coop account already, will take a look — have used ansible before
  - will tune in next week
- [[datatitian]] will start coordinating on loomio focusing on the oncall schedule
  - [[flancian]] framadate: https://framadate.org/social-coop-tech-group
    - (this is also on https://anagora.org/social-coop-tech-group , where I keep my notes)
- [[akshay]] how to join in loomio?
  - (people apply)