[Icecrawler-devel] First message :-)

[Guillaume C. <las...@gm...>]

Hello everyone !

Here is the very first message for our project development mailing-list.
Hurray !

As it is a bit long, here is a short summary :

- About this list
- News !
  - Project wiki
  - #icecrawler IRC Channel
  - Next ICECrawler meeting

==== About this list ====

This list is now live ! :-)
Now we can discuss anything concerning the development of ICECrawler on
here. Just send an e-mail to ice...@li... and
you're done !

My use of the English language is intentional. Should anyone have concerns
with using English in the mailing-list, please let me know. A mailing-list
is a communication tool, and therefore it shouldn't bring communication
issues between the members of our team. Since this particular list will be a
main communication place for the development of ICECrawler, everyone in here
should be able to understand and post on it without difficulties. That being
said, if the use of the English language doesn't raise any concern for
anyone of us, I think this list should remain English-only, mainly for these
reasons :
- Communication issues : This is a public mailing-list, which means
absolutely anyone can subscribe to it or read its archives. Should anyone be
interested in our project, this person should be able to communicate with us
without the fear of not being understood or of not being in the right place
to do so.
- Public Relations : As you know, we are hosted on SourceForge. SF.net is
the leader in open-source project hosting. As such, many people browse
sf.net project listings to look for projects in specific categories. Our
project could be discovered by some people in this way and become interested
in it. (see previous point)
- Durability : At that time, no one knows how this project will evolve. The
same goes for the development team. Perhaps you won't want to carry on
working on ICECrawler after the end of this semester. Likewise, even if I do
wish to continue working on it, I could not be able to do so anymore at some
point. Having the main development list in English is a sort of guarantee
this project won't die, should we ever give it up.
- English language experience : I don't think many of us use English as a
daily language. Here is our chance ! :-) There is no better way to learn or
to improve one's skills for a language than to actually use it in "real"
situations, and on a regular basis. We don't need to be English-language
gurus by the way. What's the most important is to be understood, and I think
we can be pretty well !


==== News ! ====

Phewww... The long introduction is now over :-). Now let's welcome the real
news !


=== Project Wiki ===

The ICECrawler wiki is online at icecrawler.sourceforge.net. It should be
our main "blackboard" for anything related to the project. It is both a
communication and a work tool. Most documentation about what we do and how
we do it should go there. I made the decision to make the development area
private until the official end of IC05. After all, we're in a competition
right now ! ;-) Please go there and create an account so I'll give it some
rights. By the way, we're in a tough period right now because of our exams,
and so am I. I don't think I will upload the current status of my work to
the wiki until Tuesday.


=== #icecrawler IRC Channel ===

I've set up an IRC channel : #icecrawler on irc.sourceforge.net. I'll do my
best to be online as much as possible. This channel should be a way for us
to simply have a chat about the project (or anything else :-) ) or to
discuss anything. As we probably won't be seeing a lot one another outside
of IC05 classes, I thought it could be a way to talk without having to meet
physically.


=== Next ICECrawler meeting ===

Now a real question : Tuesday is normally our day for IC05 and thus our day
for ICECrawler, too. As you know, the next Tuesday is a holiday for us. I'm
OK for a meeting on this day, but only if we actually have something to say
or do together. Since I think we are all working for our exams, it won't
necessarily be the case. For my part, I'll be working on ICECrawler on the
next days. If you'll have begun to work on something before Tuesday in the
evening and wish us to meet, please tell us by responding to this list. The
same goes if you think a meeting on Tuesday is useless. Note however that a
meeting could be a meeting on IRC, too.


That's all folks !
Seeya and have a nice sunday !


Guillaume