diff --git a/minutes/2023/07/26/2023-07-26-julien.pdf b/minutes/2023/07/26/2023-07-26-julien.pdf new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e181203 Binary files /dev/null and b/minutes/2023/07/26/2023-07-26-julien.pdf differ diff --git a/minutes/_posts/2023-07-26-july-26-2023.md b/minutes/_posts/2023-07-26-july-26-2023.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3047fad --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/_posts/2023-07-26-july-26-2023.md @@ -0,0 +1,284 @@ +--- +layout: contact +--- + +# Minutes of the 29th meeting of the Scala Center, Q2 2023 + +Minutes are [archived](https://scala.epfl.ch/records.html) on the +Scala Center website. + +## Summary + +The following agenda was distributed to attendees: +[agenda](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/agendas/029-2023-q2.md). + +Center activities for the past quarter focused on language and +compiler improvements, tooling and developer experience improvements, +documentation and education, and community and the contributor +experience. + +Details are below and in the Center's activity report: + +* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2023-Q2-activity-report.html) + +One new proposal was received this quarter: + +* [SCP-031](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/proposals/031-scala-websites-vpn.md): Ensure reachability of Scala websites + +The work was already completed by the Center before the meeting, and +no one objected to considering it "accepted" as well as "completed". + +Other business discussed included the now-open technical director +role, fundraising and crowdfunding, certifications, governance, Scala +2 release plans, and community venues such as conferences, meetups, +chat rooms and forums. + +## Date, Time and Location + +The meeting took place virtually on Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at +15:00 (UTC). + +Minutes were taken by Seth Tisue (secretary). + +## Attendees + +Officers: + +* Chris Kipp (chairperson) + * also board member, representing Lunatech +* Darja Jovanovic (executive director), EPFL +* Julien Richard-Foy (technical director), EPFL +* Seth Tisue (secretary), Lightbend + * also board member, representing Lightbend, subbing for Lukas Rytz + +Board members: + +* James Belsey (Morgan Stanley) (subbing for Daniela Sfregola) +* Krzysztof Borowski, VirtusLab (subbing for Krzysztof Romanowski) +* Maureen Elsberry and Diego Alonso, Xebia Functional +* Claire McGinty, Spotify +* Lukas Rytz, Lightbend +* Eugene Yokota, community representative + +Krzysztof introduced himself, as (unlike the other subs) it was his +first time attending. + +## Technical report + +Julien summarized Scala Center activities since the last meeting. +He presented from these slides, which concisely show what the +Center is working on: + +* [slides](./2023-07-26-julien.pdf) + +His remarks were based on the Center's more detailed Q2 +quarterly activity report: + +* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2023-Q2-activity-report.html) + +And the Center's Q3 roadmap: + +* [roadmap](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2023-Q3-roadmap.html) + +The following notes do not repeat the content of the report and +roadmap, but only supplement them. + +Julien announced that he is leaving the Center soon. This is his +last board meeting. + +A board member asked if it is known yet who the Center's new Technical +Director will be. Answer: not known yet, but Darja will keep the board +posted. In the meantime, Julien has already handed over many of his +specific duties to other team members. For example, Seb will manage +the MOOCs and Toli is the new SIP chair. Darja will present the +technical report at the next meeting. + +## Management report + +Darja presented this section. + +She thanked Julien for his years of service to the Center. "My heart +breaks that Julien is leaving. You will be missed." + +Johanna's stint at the Center is ending and the series of six blog +posts she has been working on will begin appearing soon. (A few weeks +after the meeting, the first in the series, about Goldman Sachs's open +source efforts, +[appeared](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2023/08/23/goldman-sachs-leader-open-source-contributions.html).) + +Sylvie is also leaving the Center, to take a different post at EPFL. +A search for a new part-time administrative assistant is in progress. +(Since the meeting, a new assistant was hired, to begin work in +September.) + +Ayman Lamyaghri is joining the Center for a six-week internship, +working on the Scala debugger. + +Darja congratulated Xebia Functional for organizing a successful Scala +Days conference in Seattle, with the Center's help. Xebia is also +preparing the September edition in Madrid. Several Center members +traveled to North America for the first time, to speak at the +conference and at two meetups in San Francisco. + +Darja also discussed the Center's fundraising efforts and strategy. +New funding is needed in order to maintain the current team size into +next year. Ideally enough new funding can be found to actually grow +the team. The resumption of in-person conferences such as Scala Days +is already proving to be a good opportunity to make contacts that we +hope will lead to new board members and other forms of support for the +Center. Some of this occurred in Seattle and even more will occur in +Madrid. + +One board member asked about crowdfunding. Could it be easier for +Scala users to make a monthly donation to the Center, perhaps via +Patreon or OpenCollective or a similar platform? Darja said they plan +to work on that, but in the short term securing large donors is the +top priority. + +Another board member asked if the Center has considered offering +certifications, as a revenue source. Darja said the extension +school program might be a channel for doing that, but not this year. + +## Scala 2 report + +This was presented by Seth. He said that the 2.12.18 and 2.13.11 +releases this quarter seem to have been well-received. + +For the next releases, he mentioned the following Discourse threads +that the team at Lightbend is using for planning and community input: + +* [Scala 2.13.12](https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/scala-2-13-12-release-planning/6217) +* [Scala 2.12.19](https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/scala-2-12-19-release-planning/6216) + +He said 2.13.12 could be released as soon as August, or not long +after, partly to address minor regressions, but more importantly to +ship the work on actionable diagnostics (or "quickfixes") that we have +been collaborating on with Eugene, JetBrains, and others. The team +also continues to improve alignment with Scala 3, especially under the +`-Xsource:3` compiler flag. The team has noticed that more and more +open source projects are leaving this flag enabled in their builds, +rather than just turning it on briefly to get migration advice. + +## Community report + +Eugene shared some thoughts about how to encourage more activity and +communication in the Scala community, both online and in person. This +sparked a lively and wide-ranging discussion among the board. + +Eugene said there have been multiple challenges around this in recent +years, notably the pandemic of course, but also Twitter's decline as a +central point for sharing, as some users have departed for Mastodon +and elsewhere. "It's currently unclear where communication in general +happens." He recalled past eras of Scala where meetups and Twitter +were key for people to connect with each other, and community projects +flourished as a result. Today there's Reddit, there's Discord, but +there's no central "what is happening" kind of place. "People are +retreating into smaller circles," their colleagues or their +open-source collaborators, with less mingling with people they +wouldn't normally be in contact with. However Reddit is "a pretty good +mix of people," including new people asking questions about Scala 3, +about what libraries to use, and so forth. Reddit, however, is +currently being threatened with boycotts because they blocked access +to third party apps. + +After someone takes a Scala Center MOOC, or reads _Programming in +Scala_, Eugene said, what to do next isn't always clear. Maybe we +could provide some guidance about projects whose source code is +educational to read. The established projects are often too big, too +overwhelming (for example, Lichess). Are there medium sized projects +we could direct them to? + +Eugene: I think it does help if there's a place you can ask a question +and the hit rate is high. Discord is pretty good for that. There's +people hanging out, and there's people who are helpful who will try to +answer sincerely. Maybe we could highlight more that the Scala Discord +exists and people are hanging out there? Connecting with other people, +and learning new things, that's what makes people stick around in the +community. + +Seth agreed that chat on Discord (and Gitter before it) has been a +real bright spot in our community in recent years. "Things have been +really good there," he said. Especially during the pandemic, it was +important that we had that. But I can't think of an action that would +help. But he agreed with Eugene that meetups were also hugely +important, pre-pandemic. "So many of us got involved with Scala +through meetups." So anything we can do to encourage meetups to get +going again could be really helpful. + +Darja said the Center is trying to foster meetups by traveling +together to European cities, by train usually, and doing +events. "We've noticed a huge enthusiasm on the ground. Us coming +would jumpstart things." The tooling summit also helped get Scala +Italy restarted as a conference. "There is enthusiasm out there that +we need to ride and encourage even more." The first action point is +that we will have a community panel at Scala Days, led by Zainab Ali, +who is very active in getting the London meetup going again. The panel +will talk about attracting newcomers and retaining newcomers and +improving diversity. + +Darja also emphasized that the IT economy is not in good shape right +now, and as a result, companies that used to answer "yes" often say +"no" now. She's hearing that from other conference organizers as well. + +A board member observed that one challenge is that many companies +don't have office space anymore. Could we share information around +that, maybe have a database for locations around the world, where free +meeting space is available, which companies are interested in +sponsoring, that kind of thing? + +Another board member observed that Scala itself is in a new phase +where it's not as new and fresh anymore, compared to the early era +Eugene recalled. Scala is more established, so it may be normal that +it's somewhat harder to attract people to meetups. + +Darja: In Madrid we got in touch with Juan Manuel Serrano Hidalgo who +is teaching Scala at a university there, and he secured a university +building in central Madrid for the SIP meeting and tooling summit and +Scala Spree. He also got in touch with local companies. Once you +stumble upon someone like that who is very enthusiastic, activity can +really spread like wildfire, in the most positive way. + +Another board member suggested promoting the Scala Discord at the +events in Madrid, so people know it's somewhere active they can go. +They also mentioned that non-English-language chat servers for Scala +exist and some are quite active. These are linked from the [Scala +community page](https://scala-lang.org/community/). + +## Proposals + +### SCP-031: Ensure reachability of Scala websites + +The text of the Lukas and Seth's proposal is here: + +* [SCP-031](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/proposals/031-scala-websites-vpn.md) + +During the technical report section, Julien summarized how Fabien +Salvi at the Center resolved the issue. "We deployed a new +infrastructure that uses a reverse proxy in front of the EPFL network, +fixing the reachability issue." This was also covered in a [blog +post](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2023/07/12/website-overhaul-and-reachability.html) +published on July 12. + +Since the work is already done, we didn't vote formally. There were no +objections from the board to considering the proposal both accepted +and completed. + +## Other topics + +### Governance page (SCP-030) + +At the request of a board member, Chris asked about the status of +[SCP-030](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/proposals/030-governance-page.md), +"The governance page for Scala". Darja said that an initial round of +work was completed in time for Scala Days Seattle, and then they plan +to make further improvements in time for Scala Days Madrid. + +## Conclusion + +The company presentations will resume next quarter. + +Some board members will be at Scala Days Madrid, but others won't, and +there are many other events on the schedule that week, so we won't try +to hold an in-person meeting. But there will be a dinner for board +members, perhaps in combination with the SIP (Scala Improvement +Process) committee. diff --git a/records.md b/records.md index b4d3fb1..7e6db82 100644 --- a/records.md +++ b/records.md @@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Every quarter, the Scala Center publishes an activity report detailing the work that has been achieved. You can find the roadmap for the current quarter in the [Projects page]({% link projects.md %}). +- [2023, Q3]({% link records/2023-Q3-activity-report.md %}) - [2023, Q2]({% link records/2023-Q2-activity-report.md %}) - [2023, Q1]({% link records/2023-Q1-activity-report.md %}) - [2022, Q4]({% link records/2022-Q4-activity-report.md %}) @@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ in the [Projects page]({% link projects.md %}). ### Board meeting minutes +- [July 26, 2023 - Twenty-Ninth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/07/26/july-26-2023.html) - [April 27, 2023 - Twenty-Eighth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/04/27/april-27-2023.html) - [January 16, 2023 - Twenty-Seventh SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/01/16/january-16-2023.html) - [October 12, 2022 - Twenty-Sixth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2022/10/12/october-12-2022.html)