There we go. The last one in this round is Adida Seekin, the Instruction and Access Services Librarian at Manchester University in Indiana, talking about Zoopim LiveChats and Libraries. Go ahead and take it away. Hi, yeah, I'm Adida. Hope everybody can hear me okay and see my screen. Yep, you're open. Yeah, so I'm just going to be talking about Zoopim. It's a live chat service that our library recently started using back in end of October, early November. And just about our university, we have about 1,200 students full-time on our main campus, and we also have another campus in Fort Wayne, that's our pharmacy campus, and there are also heavy library users. So we have about 1,500 students in total that access our resources and that we're serving with this chat program. And we're a part of a consortium that has been talking about adding a chat feature, but as with being a big organization, it's a long time to get started and a little cumbersome and being impatient. I just decided to go ahead and start researching options for us to use on our own. And I had come from a much bigger university before I started here, and so we had LibChat, which I was never a particularly big fan of, and I don't know if that was just implementation there, but I didn't feel like it was very user-friendly. And I also went out and looked for some more alternatives, and a lot of those just seemed kind of like they were made with GeoCities back in the day, and so it didn't seem like they had very much support or infrastructure. They didn't seem like they would be around very long. And I didn't really want to get invested with something that I didn't think was going to last. And a lot of them also didn't really seem to integrate well with our site or with where we want to use it. And then, of course, things like LibChat or the other big official library ones, those are expensive. So when I was doing some searching, I came across Zopim, which is technically, as you'll probably notice, more for sales and customer service for businesses, but we found that it works really well for us too, and they are much more cost-effective. And I actually have an article that we had found from John Carroll University's Gristelli Library that they kind of compared some different chat options that libraries have. And they had mentioned Zopim, which is one of the reasons why we had considered it so heavily. It was after I found it, but they gave us good ideas about the triggers, which I'll talk about in a little bit, but I'll include the article going to their article later. So here's the Zopim name page. I had started with my own email free trial with them, as they say, free for 14 days, no credit card required. The thing with their free trial is, though, that they'll give you the advanced version. And we knew that we didn't want to pay that much for it. So I actually asked them to cancel the trial version, because you'll see it matches up with everything from the advanced, and just take us back down to the free version so we could see what that was like. And actually just a few days later, we decided that it seemed to be a pretty good fit, but we probably want to go for the basic. Luckily, they also gave us a 20% off discount for having done the free trial, so we were able to use that to purchase a year's worth of service from them. So in all we paid, and you'll notice that this is by agent. So if you have two agents, you're going to be paying twice as much. And so we ended up paying about $100 for a year's worth of service for one agent, and I'll show you kind of how that works for us. So we all log in under just, well, it doesn't say there, of course, but our main librarian account. So librarians at Manchester.edu. And we just switch out accounts. Well, we switch out our name and our profile picture every time that we go to do chat. And this is the dashboard. This is mainly where you're going to be working from. They do have a mobile version of it, but I'm not a very big fan. I've at least, we've only tried it on iPhones, and it tends to log you out every time the screen goes off. So that's not super helpful. We've used it once and have actually managed a few chat questions on there, but for the most part we just stick to the desktop version. And since we're not paying for the advanced version with all the fun analytics and things, this is kind of what we get. This is a default. And you'll see that we have our page views, our total visits, our unique visitors, and the number of chats. That is not an X axis. That is actually the number of chats that we get. And I'm actually getting a chat right now for real. This is not, oh, oh, hi. Yeah. Thanks for trying it out. So that's what it looks like when we get a chat. And this is what it looks like on our website. We've integrated it in a couple of different places, and I'll go back to the analytics once I can show you this. I'm always startled when I get a chat. It makes a little squeaky noise for me. So on our website, we actually integrated it into, on the website, the widget for it is hidden in our side navigation, and it appears down here. On LiveGuides, we've hidden the coding in the footer, and it still appears down here. And one of the things that I like best about Open is the fact that if you move between pages, your chat moves with you. And if this person is navigating around at all, I can actually see where they're coming from and where they're going to, along with where they're at, and what browser they're using, what service they're on, et cetera. And I really wish that more students would put in their contact information because they always end up disappearing at some point. So back to analytics. We can see hourly, daily, monthly, weekly, and monthly. So this is about when we started, and we've been increasing the number of people that we've had ever since. Generally, we just have maybe one or two chats a day. This is over a week of this. It's 13 there. But we have noticed that most of our chats are actually research questions. And you'll notice here that almost all of these start with hello. Is there anything I can help you with? Because we have a trigger, which I'll show you in a second, that prompts users to talk to us. And just like the article that we found earlier said, that they also mostly got substantive questions when students were being prompted. So a lot of times, and I'll show you the trigger down here, we have a trigger that says that when a user has been on the site for three or more minutes and they're inactive, which is our way of guessing that they're lost, that they'll be prompted with a message asking them for if they need any help. And that's the majority of the times that we've gotten questions. You'll see that a few times, the ones that don't have that, there's two on that page, we've had people just prompt themselves to talk to us. But a lot of times it's them being asked by the software if they need any help. A lot of times they'll say no, and we'll say, okay, that's cool. Feel free to ask us later. We feel like it's been really good for creating a relationship with students that they know that they can come anytime they need help. And it's just us librarians who do it. We are here usually from at least 8 a.m. until 5 or 8 p.m., depending on who's on it. And that was the thing. We're only paying for one agent, so we have to switch this out. Obviously we don't need departments with one person, they don't ban anybody, there are triggers. For our actual accounts, though, this is where when we switch out, I'll swap this out if, say, Darla's on. I'll swap it out for my name, my department, and my picture. And it takes like 10 seconds to switch it out, so it's a pretty quick and easy thing to do whenever the next person needs to hop on. So that's been worth it, you know, just to have one. And for the sake of taking a look at this again, when you're actually interacting with a patron at night, I love the fact that you can get a full-screen message. I couldn't get that with live chat and it drove me nuts. Like I said, you can see where they're coming from and where they're going to. That'll also pop up in the message itself. You can see if you're giving them a link for some place that they should navigate to. You can see if they followed that or not. A lot of the times I can tell a pharmacy students are talking to me because it'll say that they're coming from Indianapolis, even though they're in Fort Wayne. And especially when we were having an issue with some of our databases, it was useful also that I could get their IP addresses. I could see their browsers and the platforms that they were on to see if maybe that was having an influence on the difficulties they were having. And the patron can also put in their name, their email address, their contact information and send themselves a transcript of the chat. And I can get one also. Our records are kept in here, obviously. But on the patron side of it, we'll reconnect. When they go to leave, and this is one of the only things that I don't like, is to actually close out of the chat. It takes a couple of steps. But that's when they have the option of sending themselves a transcript. And we've also found out that they can write these, which the first time I did it, I just saw that they had read the chat as good. And I was like, I really hope that that's the best option that they could pick. And thankfully it was. So yeah, I tried to do that really, really fast. And I hope I came in in time. So if anybody has any questions, please let me know. And here's my phone. Thank you very much. Yeah, no perfect timing. And our one question for you is, how are you promoting this on campus? Well, we haven't super promoted it. One of the things that we did is we have screens around campus that advertise various events. So we have one that's up there, and it actually comes through. I have no control over this rotating thing. There it is. There's our chat one. We have this on there, and then it actually linked to the Facebook page. Well, the other one did. That mentions it as well. I've tried also whenever I'm talking with faculty what I'm doing a session with them to mention. And in any sessions that I do for their classes, hey, we have this chat function. It's super helpful. If you're there, we're there at the same time.  So it's been a lot of word of mouth. And we've gotten a really good response from it so far. Great. Wonderful. Thank you, Adina, for that. And yeah, everybody on site. And thank you, everybody, for our lightning round. We are going to take our next break, and we'll be doing some checking in with our next presenter and whatnot. And so we will be bringing our slides back up, and we will be back with you shortly and quite possibly keep an eye out for a poll also. We'll probably be doing one of those in this round of break. Thank you very much. Okay, folks, we're going to do another poll. And yeah, let's do that one. We're going to do the Where Are You poll at this point. So East or West of the Mississippi, Canada, Europe, or other. And you know, Saskatchewan, we want to hear from you. Ah, okay, our first one was from Canada. All right, and we'll leave that up for a few minutes. Thanks.


Hey, Psych2Goers, and welcome back to another video. If you're new here, welcome to Psych2Go. Confidence. Some people are born with an innate streak of confidence, whilst it takes a little time for others to develop confidence, as they develop from children into adults. But there will be times when your confidence takes a knock, right? It's common to feel like you wish your confidence was better. While other things that are out of control may impact your confidence, such as other people, it's important to know which things you are in control of, and how you can prevent yourself from destroying your own confidence. So, here are nine habits that are destroying your confidence. Number one, you care too much about what other people think. How many times have you said to yourself, I don't care what other people think about me? Honestly, the tally isn't quite encouraging, is it? No. That's okay. It's common to care about what other people think, especially if we're trying to impress them. As human beings, you want to be liked and respected by others. However, when you value other people's thinking and opinion above your own, and change your behavior to reflect what you think others want to see, you're doing more harm than good for yourself. Number two, negative thinking. I'm not good enough. I can't do this. You've had one too many of those days, haven't you? Uh-huh. You become what you think. If you always think you're not good enough, then you'll never be confident. Do you have thoughts that you can never get that promotion even though you are qualified? That's negative thinking. Indulging and pessimism creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Oh boy. Yeah, you're gradually destroying yourself confidence with all of these thoughts. Reframing those negative thoughts to say, I am good enough to get this job and I need to show my skills can reinforce a more positive mindset. It's crucial to focus on what you can do instead of worrying about the outcomes that you can't control. Number three, social media living. Do you compare your lifestyle with your friends on social media? Or how many times have you thought that your social media life is better than your own life? The pretty pictures people paint on social media, as we know, are not always as they appear to be. If you consistently find yourself comparing yourself to others and living in your own version of reality and only putting out what you want the world to see, then you may notice that this has an impact on your confidence in the real world. Once you start to understand that this is not what everyday lives are like, then you should start to feel more grounded. Number four, self-deprecating talk. When you diminish what you do, you're taking shots at your self-confidence. If every time you speak in a personal or professional setting and you say that you're not that great, you're diminishing your worth and value. When you're constantly communicating that you're not that great, it's bound to make you feel less than confident. Writer CS Lewis once said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking of yourself less. So remember that and try not to confuse humility with self-deprecation. Number five, the blame game is your favorite sport. When you find yourself in a situation that you are not happy with, such as the job that you hate, do you tend to find excuses and blame everybody else or everything else for what is happening? This destroys your self-esteem and you feel less confident about being able to manage your situation. You'll need to develop an exit plan for your self-esteem. In his video, How to Beast explains this idea of blaming acts as a defense mechanism. So rather than pass the blame, taking ownership of your situation should jumpstart your confidence, fingers crossed. Number six, you set the bar low for yourself. When you disclaim, I'm not very good at this so don't have any expectations. It immediately makes others question your ability. Disqualifying yourself verbally reassures you that others don't have high expectations from you and won't be disappointed. But by setting yourself at this level, naturally your confidence is going to be low as is your sense of value. So when you put confidence on it, it instills confidence in others about you as well. Number seven, thinking that you don't have anything to say or contribute to a discussion. Why don't you tend to get involved in conversations at work or at social events? Is it because you don't believe that you have anything meaningful to add? Maybe. Well, this too is destroying your confidence. As you may feel like people will be bored of what you have to say or that they'll think that you're not smart. Yeah, or they'll make fun of me. This is a story that you've told yourself and you've started to believe that it's true. It may be that the topic of conversation is not something that you're particularly interested in or know a lot about, but it should not be allowed to cost you your confidence. Okay, number eight, you dismiss compliments. Guilty as charged, right? Yeah, me too. We often receive compliments by deflecting or shying away from accepting them because we're embarrassed or we don't believe the comment. By deflecting, we're not only selling ourselves short but challenging the judgment of the person complimenting us. Uh-oh. Accepting compliments graciously doesn't make you an egomaniac. We can accept compliments graciously and take them on board when developing our confidence. And number nine, ruminating. Ever find yourself repeatedly going over what you didn't get right or situations you didn't like? An example of this may be that you continuously think about something you said during a presentation to your work colleagues. Rumination is taking thinking to another dimension altogether. Even though thinking is considered necessary for problem solving, ruminating is focused on the problem and not on finding the solution. In her article for Forbes, Jamie Kaluga wrote that when you ruminate on your poor decisions or setbacks consistently, even the most confident people can struggle at times and it's perfectly normal. You are unique individuals with different skills so use them to your advantage. Using positive affirmations every day where possible can help to remind you of your strengths and what you want to develop. Do any of these describe your experience or did any of these points describe you? If you have any comments or feedback regarding this video, please leave them in the comment box below. We love hearing back from our viewers and your feedback is so important for us when we're creating content at Psych2Go. If you found this video helpful, be sure to hit the like button and share it with those out there diminishing their confidence due to their own habits. Don't forget to subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell for more new videos. As always, thanks for watching. See you next time.


Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 7th of November 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trivandrum and Hyderabad editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the common section for the benefit of the smartphone news. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about an ultimatum given by the National Green Tribunal to ban certain types of reverse osmosis systems. So with reference to this news article, we will be focusing more on the process of osmosis than the process of reverse osmosis, then about the reverse osmosis system and how the use of reverse osmosis system leads to wastage of water and also the present order that has been issued by the National Green Tribunal. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First, let us see what is meant by osmosis. As you can see in this picture, consider an environment where there are two water mediums. In one water medium, the salt concentration is low and in the other water medium, the salt concentration is high and both these mediums are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. Osmosis is a process where the water moves through semi-permeable membrane from an area of low salt concentration into an area or region with higher salt concentration. Now why water moves in such a way is to equalize the concentrations on both the sides under natural conditions. If you see the trees and roots absorb minerals through osmosis process. Now let us see the reverse osmosis process. The exact opposite of osmosis is reverse osmosis. So in case of reverse osmosis, an external pressure is applied to overcome the osmotic pressure. So because of this external pressure, the water is being forced to move through the semi-permeable membrane from an area or region or higher salt concentration to an area or region of lower salt concentration. As you can see in this picture. The main purpose of using this reverse osmosis process is to purify the water. And also reverse osmosis is used for desalination process. If you see there are two desalination plants which are set up in Chennai using reverse osmosis process. So this is the main use of reverse osmosis process. And all those systems which are based on this reverse osmosis process are known as reverse osmosis system. Note that the quality of the membrane that is the semi-permeable membrane determines the purity of the reverse osmosis system. And in turn the price of the reverse osmosis purifiers is also directly related to the quality of the membrane that is being used. So if the system is costly it means that the quality of the membrane is good. Now know that one way of measuring the purity of water is based on total dissolved solids.  And as per a study by World Health Organization if the tedious levels are below 300 milligram per liter then the water is considered to be excellent quality. While if the water contains tedious which ranges up to 900 milligram per liter then the water quality is said to be poor. And if the tedious levels are above 1200 milligram per liter then the water quality is unacceptable. So this is the tedious level that you need to know. Now let us see the present ruling given by the National Green Tribunal. This ruling is based on a plea by one of the non-governmental organization. In this plea the NGO sought the conservation of portable water by preventing its wastage on account of unnecessary use of reverse osmosis systems. Now in this context we need to know why there is wastage of water and reverse osmosis systems as well as unnecessary use of reverse osmosis system. Based on the expert committee that was constituted by the National Green Tribunal the efficiency of the reverse osmosis systems depend on the quality of the membrane used. And if you see most of the reverse osmosis systems efficiency ranges between 20 to 60 percentage. It means that for every 10 liters of impure or raw water only about 2 to 6 liters of water is extracted and the remaining water goes as waste. In addition you need to note that the reverse osmosis systems should not be used if the tedious of the raw water is less than 500 milligram per liter. Why because if the reverse osmosis purification is used again then even the useful minerals that are present in this water with the tedious of less than 500 milligram per liter will also be removed along with the unwanted impurities. Now this is not considered good for the health as the required minerals will also be removed. Therefore the National Green Tribunal is directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India to issue a notification in the month of May this year that is May 2019. As per the ruling given by the National Green Tribunal in May 2019 the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change may issue appropriate notification that prohibits the use of reverse osmosis system where the tedious in water is less than 500 milligram per liter and wherever reverse osmosis is permitted then requirement needs to be laid down for the recovery of water. The recovery of water shall be more than 60 percentage that is the efficiency of the RO purifiers shall be more than 60 percentage. And one more provision was mandated to be laid down by the Ministry that is from the reject water of this RO system further water shall be recovered and this recovery shall be up to 75 percentage. It simply means the recovery of the reject water from the RO systems. And whatever water that is recovered from the reject of the RO system shall be used for purposes like washing of utensils then for flushing in the washrooms then it can be used for gardening purposes then it can also be used for cleaning of vehicles and even floor cleaning as well and also for certain other requirements. The National Green Tribunal also ordered that the directions be issued for the enforcement of extended producers responsibility. Now what is this extended producers responsibility? It is nothing but for RO system certain cartridges and membranes need to be used. Now as per this extended producers responsibility the manufacturers of these cartridges and semi permeable membranes shall be responsible for their disposal. Also these manufacturers need to provide proper labeling on the purifier that shall specify that the unit should be used if the TDS is more than 500 milligram per liter. So this was also ordered by the National Green Tribunal to be enforced by the Ministry. And this news article is about the non-compliance of the above order that we discussed which was issued in the month of May this year. So to conclude this news article we have discussed about the process of osmosis then the process of reverse osmosis then about RO systems that is the reverse osmosis systems and the National Green Tribunal order. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article states that the union cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister of India has approved the creation of an alternative investment fund of 25,000 crore. Actually the union cabinet approved the establishment of a special window fund. This fund is to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the affordable and middle income housing sector. In simple terms this fund will provide relief to developers that require funding to complete a set of unfinished projects and thus consequently this will ensure the delivery of homes to the home buyers. It is needed because according to the government's estimates there are more than 1,600 housing projects in which 4.58 lakh crore units are stalled or delayed. In this what do we mean by affordable housing? The task force on promoting affordable housing of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has defined affordable housing as any housing that meets some form of affordability criteria which could be the income level of the family or the size of the dwelling unit or the affordability in terms of EMI size or the ratio of house price to annual income. Now with respect to the special window fund the government shall act as the sponsor. Here a sponsor is any person or entity which sets up the alternative investment fund. The total commitment that is to be infused by the government would be up to 10,000 crore but the newspaper states it as 25,000 crore. According to the article the fund size will initially be 25,000 crore in which the government will provide 10,000 crore and the balance will be provided by the State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation. Now this special window fund will be set up as a category 2 AIF debt fund that is registered with SEBI. Here AIF stands for Alternate Investment Fund. Now let us see what are these alternate investment funds and category 2 alternate investment fund. In India alternative investment funds or AIFs are defined in regulation 2, 1B of Securities and Exchange Board of India Alternative Investment Fund Regulations of 2012. According to this regulation Alternative Investment Fund means any fund that is established or incorporated in India. It is a privately pooled investment vehicle which collects funds from the sophisticated investors whether from Indian sources or from the foreign sources and they will invest it in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of its investors. The privately pooled investment vehicle can be in the form of a trust or in form of a company or in form of a body corporate or even in form of a limited liability partnership. Hence in India alternate investment funds are private funds which otherwise do not come under the jurisdiction of any regulatory agency in India. As per 2012 regulations the Alternative Investment Funds shall seek registration in one of the three categories. First is category 1 alternate investment fund. Here the alternate investment funds which set up in startup or early stage ventures or those alternative investment funds which invest in social ventures or small and medium sized enterprises that is SMEs or infrastructure or other sectors or areas which the government or regulators considered as socially and economically desirable are category 1 alternative investment funds. This shall include venture capital funds then the SME funds then social venture funds then infrastructure funds and such other alternative investment funds as category 1 alternative investment funds. Now don't go into detail of what is meant by all these funds just remember that these funds come under category 1 alternative investment funds. The second is category 2 alternative investment funds. Those alternative investment funds which should not fall in category 1 and 3 come under this category 2. Then further those alternative investment funds which do not undertake leverage or borrowing other than to meet the day to day operational requirements are categorized as category 2 alternative investment funds and leverages as permitted in the SEBI alternative investment funds regulations of 2012 also come under this category 2 alternative investment funds. Now, various types of funds such as real estate funds, private equity funds that is PE funds, then funds for distressed assets, then debt funds etcetera are registered as category 2 alternative investment funds. Now, in our context we saw that special window fund will be set up as a category 2 alternative investment debt fund. So, let us just see what is a debt fund is an alternative investment fund which invests primarily in debt or debt securities of the listed investing companies or unlisted investing companies according to the stated objectives of the fund. Do not forget that these funds are registered under category 2 in this regard since alternative investment fund is a privately pooled investment vehicle the amount contributed by the investors shall not be utilized for the purpose of giving loans. Further category 1 and category 2 alternative investment funds are required to be close ended here the term close ended means having a predetermined limit or boundary. So, they have a minimum tenure of 3 years in this case. Third is the category 3 alternative investment funds those alternative investment funds which employed divers or complex trading strategies are categorized as category 3 alternative investment funds. Alternative investment funds such as hedge funds or funds which trade with the view to make short term returns or such other funds which are open ended and for which no specific incentives or concessions are given by the government or any other regulator are categorized as category 3 alternative investment funds. Category 3 alternative investment funds may be open ended or close ended. Now, let us see the advantages of this initiative of the government that is the advantages of creation of an alternative investment fund of rupees 25000 crore. Now, we know that the real estate industry is intrinsically linked with several other industries. So, the growth in the sector will have a positive effect hence it will release the stress in other major sectors of the Indian economy as well. So, it is expected to revive the demand for building materials such as cement iron and steel. So, all these sectors will be revived consequently this move in turn is likely to generate jobs as human resources needed to finish the pending projects. Initially, we saw that this move will ensure delivery of homes to the home buyers hence the move and the fund will generate commercial return for its investors. Then there are many genuine developers who are solvent that is they are able to pay their debts, but still they are facing liquidity challenge. This challenge is due to various reasons such as poor sales of homes or apartments and the other reason is that the buyers prefer ready to move in apartments, but to have a ready to move in apartment the project needs to be completed for which the fund is required. So, this funding will enable such developers to complete their projects. So, this is all from this news article which you need to know from exam point of view. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Next, let us see an editorial. In this editorial the author discusses about the threat that is posed by climate change and the sea level rise to the people living in coastal areas then about its impacts and what India must do to alleviate its impacts. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Before moving on to the editorial first let us understand what is meant by climate change migration. As we know the results of climate change is changed weather pattern such as variation in the average rainfall and temperature which results in conditions like flood, drought, rise in sea level then even degradation of land and the ecosystem. So, when the ecosystem around us is affected then the livelihood is also affected. So, an individual is forced to move out of is or are locality when the ecosystem is affected. Now, in case of people living in the coastal areas they might be forced to move inland or to cross the borders to other countries. So, these migrants or refugees can be called as environmental refugees. So, environmental refugees can be defined as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat either temporarily or permanently because of a marked environmental disruption. It can be natural and or triggered by people. So, it has affected their existence and it has also seriously affected the quality of their life and also because it might have affected their existence in that particular area or it might have also affected the quality of their life in that area which made them to move. And one also needs to note that the already existing problems in the region like scarcity of resources, conditions like poverty, internal conflict etc can be exacerbated by climate change. That is all these problems will even become more bigger in the future. So, this is why climate change is often referred to as threat multiplier. Now, in this editorial the author is speaking about one such cause for climate change migration which is the sea level rise or SLR. If you see in our 30th October Hindu news analysis we have explained in detail that 36 million Indians that is 3.6 crore Indians face flood risk due to rising sea levels and these new estimates were based on a new software which is called as coastal DEM or the coastal digital elevation model. At present the estimates on risks posed by flooding or based on the maps of earth that are taken by shuttle radar topography mission know that this is a mission of NASA that is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which is the space agency of the country of United States of America. By this mission high resolution digital elevation data of the entire earth is captured. Now, as per the new estimates which is based on the new software called coastal DEM the number of Indians who would be affected by rising sea levels may have been underestimated by as much as 88 percentage. This is because if global emissions continue to rise in India almost 36 million that is 3.6 crore Indians would face annual flooding by the year 2050 and this may increase up to 44 million that is 4.4 crore by the year 2000. So, this data is much larger than the previous estimates. Now, if you would like to know more about these new estimates and the new model for calculating the elevations please refer to our 30th October analysis. Now, let us look at the editorial. In this editorial the author is of the opinion that getting accurate sea level dry projections is always a difficult task. This is because the sea level rise varies with many factors like the expansion of warm waters in the seas then due to melting of glaciers and also because of the subsidence of land. But the common agreement is that if high emissions of greenhouse gases were to continue then the average global sea level rise could be as high as 2 meters by the end of this century that is by the year 2000. In this context let us now discuss in detail about the impacts of rising sea level which can be useful for the exams. Some of the adverse effects of rising sea level are coastal flooding that is the coast can be flooded with water then salt water intrusion into the land can happen from the sea. Next the coastal infrastructure might get destructed or get affected and also those communities especially the coastal communities which are living near the sea line will be affected or destructed and also the coastal ecosystems will be put into danger. So, all these will have an overall impact on the entire economy. So, when the sea level rise increases more than what is expected its effects will also be much more. Also people living along the coast will be forced to move inland probably to the nearby towns and cities and in case of small island nations or in low-lying delta regions like in the country of Vietnam this is not possible that is they cannot move to nearby towns or cities. So, the people will be forced to move across borders because there will be geographical limitations. So, the author is telling that this will severely impact the political stability of the region because now they will become environmental refugees. According to the author the most affected due to sea level rise would be the people who are living in the continent of Asia especially from countries like China, Bangladesh, India and many other island nations and according to author in India the most affected cities would be the cities of Mumbai and Kolkata where the author is telling that a major portion of both these cities would submerge under the sea by the year 2050. In the later part of the editorial the author talks about what should be India's future policies or what should be India's future stand. The author tells that first of all we must accept that climate change is real and the challenges that are posed by climate change is also real. Now you can include a point here telling that not just India but the entire world countries should try their best to achieve the goals of Paris climate agreement that is they should work towards meeting the nationally determined contributions under the Paris climate agreement. Next the author is of the opinion that India must focus on protecting the coast through measures like having natural barriers or levees or flood barriers or even hard barriers for preparing for the sea level rise. Here the term levee is nothing but an embankment that is built to prevent the overflow of a river. Then the other measure is to stop the infrastructure construction along the coast and integrate that is combine the anticipated sea level rise effects into coastal planning activities. So this will reduce the exposure of risk to the investors then to the builders and also to the insurance companies. The author tells that there should be plans to retreat from the most vulnerable areas well ahead of time. So this would reduce the impacts on infrastructure and also the impacts on human lives. The next measure is integrating the proposals for new migrants in future urban policies as we know climate change migration is a reality and in India the coastal population when they are threatened will definitely move towards inland areas. So these inland areas must be well prepared and planned for this migration otherwise it will result in internal security issues. So the author is telling that in this scenario the government should take initiatives to increase the openness of people who are living in inland or rural areas. If their own livelihood is at risk then they will not be open to migrants from other places even if they are Indians. So the author tells that the government should invest more in rural economy in such a way that unemployment and poverty is reduced. So this will improve the sustainability of the livelihood of the rural people and once they are more resilient to risks then they will be open to others in this case the environmental refugees or those people who move from coastal areas towards inland or rural areas. Next the author tells that India should not fortify its borders against cross-border climate refugees. He tells that it cannot be justified in practical terms and also in ethical terms. Hence the author suggests that India and its neighbours must collaborate on developing regional agreements for migration then regional policies for labour and skill development etc. As we have discussed South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The author says that considering our shared ecological zones, borders, coastlines, languages and histories we must take coordinated efforts to manage the extreme events. So the author here emphasizes regional coordination. This must also address the most pressing issue of cross-border migration because the author is of the opinion that we cannot classify migrants as political migrants or climatic migrants because the causes for migration are interlinked according to the author. So the author emphasizes that the discussions on the rights of migrants should cover all classes of migrants. So these are some of the policies which the author tells that the government should pursue. To summarize this editorial we have seen the threats that are posed by climate change and sea level rise to those people who are living in the coastal areas. Then the impacts of sea level rise and what India must do to alleviate the impacts of sea level rise in the future. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is with reference to the issue of forming government in the Maharashtra state. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See recently the elections for the state legislative assembly of Maharashtra was held in October 2019 and if you see in the state of Maharashtra there are totally 289 seats in the state legislative assembly and among them members for 288 seats are directly elected and one member is nominated. So to form a government in Maharashtra conveniently by a single party that particular party should have at least 50% plus one seat. That is it should have a simple majority of at least 145 seats. But if you take the recent election results in Maharashtra none of the parties which contested the elections have this simple majority. So as a next move some parties should come together to form a government and if they are coming together then this government will be called as a coalition government. Here those who come together should have at least 145 members among the coalition parties in order to win a simple majority in that particular state legislative assembly. Now the issue with Maharashtra is that even though the results were announced on 24th October 2019 till now no leader or no party commands a simple majority by taking into the confidence of members of other parties also. That means a government can never be formed if this trend is going to continue. Now what if it continues for an unlimited period? That means what will happen if no one could claim majority to form the government? Then there are two options. One option is conducting a fresh election and the second option is the governor proclaiming for the president rule in the state. According to the news article it states that the governor of Maharashtra has no intention of imposing president's rule in the state in a hurry. It means that the governor is in the wait and watch mode to see whether any leader could claim majority or not. Most probably if no one could claim formation of the government by 9th of November then the governor may impose president's rule in Maharashtra. So the governor is adopting wait and watch approach because if some parties come together and try to form a coalition government then whatever money spent by the government for the recent elections will have some meaning. Note that if president's rule is imposed then both the legislative and executive powers of the state will be taken by the central government. Generally the state legislature is either dissolved or suspended. Here when the state legislature is dissolved the MLAs lose their membership and when the legislature is under suspension that is suspended animation then the members do not lose their membership but they cannot enact laws for the state. And note that the maximum period that is prescribed for the operation of president's rule is three years. The proclamation for the president rule is made by the president under article 356 of Indian constitution. The proclamation can be made by the president of India with the receipt of a report from the governor of a state or even without a report from the governor. And this news article talks about governor because if government could not be formed then the governor may send a report to the president to proclaim the rule of the president in the state. And once the rule is proclaimed then both the houses of the parliament that is both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have to approve within two months from the date of proclamation. And once approved by the parliament the president's rule continues for six months. And this president's rule can be extended by the approval of the parliament for a subsequent period of six months. Whatever be the case it can be extended till the total period reaches a time frame of three years. And beyond three years the president rule must end and normal constitutional machinery must be restored in the state. That is either legislative assembly has to be reactivated from suspended animation or fresh elections have to be conducted to form the state executive that is the chief minister and council of ministers. Let us see the case of Maharashtra now with respect to Maharashtra note that none of the elected representatives who have won the recent elections have taken the oath of office as a member of legislative assembly. In this scenario if the president's rule is proclaimed then there are two possibilities. One possibility is that after the imposition of president rule if there is a possibility for the parties to come together to form a coalition government then a government may be formed in the state of Maharashtra and meanwhile the president's rule can be removed from the state. The second possibility is that if no parties come together then president's rule will be there in the state till the situation becomes conducive for the election commission to conduct fresh assembly elections. This means fresh assembly elections will be conducted after some point of time. These are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is regarding the order by supreme court with respect to the appointment of information commissioners as we know the information commissioners are appointed under the right to information act of 2005. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First let us see the supreme court order then we shall be seeing the difference between the central information commissioner and the state information commissioners. Now coming to the supreme court order in February 2019 the supreme court passed an order regarding the appointment of information commissioners. Then the supreme court had said that both the central government and the state governments have failed to appoint the information commissioners on a timely manner against the existing vacancies. Then the supreme court had also observed that the central information commission and the state information commissions have become the bastants for both the serving and retired bureaucrat. Then the supreme court had also asked the government to look beyond the coterie of retired bureaucrats. Here the term coterie means small and exclusive group of people with shared interests. Here one thing to be noted is the section 12 of the RTA act of 2005. This section 12 of RTA act says that the chief information commissioner and the information commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance. This means that the act itself envisages the appointment of information commissioner and the appointment of chief information commissioner and the other information commissioners from varied domains. As we know the Right Information Act of 2005 is one of the most empowering legislations in the history of independent India. It helps the people to raise objections then make the government accountable and also to make the governance more transparent. But the present issues like not filling the existing vacancies and bias in favor of bureaucrats in appointment etc will defeat the purpose of the act itself. According to this news article the supreme court had now ordered the center and eight states such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala etc to present a report card on the appointments made to the information commissions. We can hope that this will bring a solution to the problems. Now we will briefly compare the central information commission and the state information commission. Note that the central information commission or CIC entertains complaints and appeals pertaining to offices, public sector undertakings etc which are under the control of central government and union territories. And the state information commissions entertain the complaints and appeals pertaining to offices, then public sector undertakings etc under the concerned state governments. Now let us discuss the organizational structure and appointment. The central information commission consists of a chief information commissioner and not more than 10 information commissioners and all of them are appointed by the president on the recommendation of a committee. This committee shall consist of prime minister who is the chairperson then the leader of opposition on the Lok Sabha and a union cabinet minister who is to be nominated by the prime minister. Now let us see the state information commission. The state information commission consists of a chief information commissioner and not more than 10 information commissioners and they are appointed by the governor of that particular state on a recommendation of a particular committee. This committee shall consist of the chief minister of that particular state who is the chairperson then the leader of the opposition of the legislative assembly in that particular state and the state cabinet minister of that particular state who is to be nominated by the chief minister. Next let us discuss the tenure. First we will see with respect to the central information commission. The chief information commissioner and other information commissioners shall hold office for a term of 5 years or until they attain the age of 65 years whichever is earlier and know that they are not eligible for reappointment and this tenure is also the same for the state information commission. So, the chief information commissioner and the information commissioners of the respective state information commissions shall also hold office for a term of 5 years or until they attain the age of 65 years whichever is earlier. Now let us discuss the procedure for removal. The president can remove the members of the central information commission on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity but if you see this can be done only after an inquiry by the supreme court into the set cause for removal and the president can also remove the members of central information commission on the following grounds. If that particular member is adjudged as an insolvent then if that member engages in any other paid employment during his term of office which is the office of profit then if that member is unfit to continue due to infirmity of mind or body that is because of physical or mental weakness in the opinion of the president etc. Here a person who is adjudged as an insolvent means he or she has been declared as unable to pay debt or liabilities by a judicial procedure and in case of the state information commissions the governor can remove the members of the state information commission on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity but this can be done only after a supreme court inquiry into the set cause of removal. Here note that it is not the high court but again the supreme court. The governor can also remove the members on the grounds if the member is adjudged as an insolvent or if that member engages in any other paid employment during his term of office or if that member is unfit to continue due to infirmity of mind or body etc. So, from this article we have seen the supreme court order with respect to the appointment of information commissioners for the central information commission and also for the state information commissions and also regarding the office of the central information commission and the state information commission. To know more on the RT Act of 2005 and some of the important provisions and detailed comparisons of both the central information commission and the state information commission please refer to our 12th October Hindu News Analysis. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. See the first question. The question is consider the following statements with reference to reverse osmosis systems. They have given four statements and they have asked you to choose the correct statements. The first statement it tells that the RO systems are based on reverse osmosis process in which under external pressure water moves from low salt concentration region into high salt concentration through semi permeable membrane. This statement is wrong because osmosis is a process where the water moves from low salt concentration region into high salt concentration region through a semi permeable membrane but in case of reverse osmosis process there will be an external pressure under the external pressure the water will move from the high salt concentration region into low salt concentration region through a semi permeable membrane. So the first statement is wrong here. Now see the second statement. It tells that the RO systems are used in the purification of the impure water. This statement is correct. It is mainly used for purification of water and it is also used to convert the salt water into potable water. Now see the third statement. It tells that the RO purifiers remove only unwanted salts. Here you have to know that though RO purifiers remove unwanted salts but they can also remove wanted or useful minerals as well. So the third statement is wrong. Always be careful when there are superlatives like only read the statement again and make sure if that statement is correct or not. Now see the fourth statement. It tells that the extended producer's responsibility also applies to RO systems. See as per a direction of NGT that is a national green tribunal in May 2019 extended producer's responsibilities also applicable to the RO systems. Under this extended producer's responsibility those manufacturers who produce the cartridges and membranes have to make sure they are properly disposed and this order also directed the manufacturers to provide proper labeling on the purifier to specify that the unit should be used if our TDS is more than 500 milligram per litter. So the fourth statement given here is correct. Now the question is asked you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option B, 2 and 4 only. Now see the next question. The question is consider the following statements with reference to alternative investment funds. They have given two statements. The first statement is the definition and the second statement is the definition for category 3 alternative investment funds. Here the first statement is correct. It is the definition of alternative investment funds and know that there are three categories of alternative investment funds. Category 1 alternative investment fund category 2 and category 3. Here the given description is not the definition for category 3 alternative investment funds but it is the definition for category 1 alternative investment funds as we saw during our discussion. Now, this question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A1 only. Now, see the main question. The question is recent studies are telling that Asian countries including India are the most vulnerable to sea level rise due to climate change. Discuss the impacts of rising sea levels. What can India include in its future policies to mitigate these effects? This question has to be addressed in 250 words and 15 marks are loaded for this question. You can split this question into three parts, three statements, three parts. For the first statement, you just give an intro quoting the study which tells that India is vulnerable to sea level rise due to climate change. And in the second part of the question, it directly asks you to discuss the impacts of rising sea levels. So try to address this in 80 to 100 words and the intro ideally should address in 40 to 50 words. Now, see the third part. It asks you what can India include in its future policies to mitigate these effects? This statement is basically a suggestion. So try to give the suggestions from different angles. And this part can also be addressed in 80 to 100 words and finally conclude the answer in 30 to 40 words. You can post your answers in the comment section for this question. The answers will be moderated and suggestions would be given in the next five to seven working days by our team. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like, comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.


Sfodd y bydd y clyw yma, dwi'n gweithio'r lleidio a ddynnu'n gweithio ar Neil McGovern. Hei, hefyd, yma. Rwy'n gweithio'r holl, ac mae'n gofynu. Yn fynd i'r syniad yng nghymru fel y Dpl, Dybym Yn Ym Mhwyllfa Lleidio, Stefano Zacaroli, dyna'n gweithio'r cwestiynau i ddim yn ei ddweud. ac ydych chi'n gwybod am y cwestiynau? Mae'r cwestiynau hefyd yn fath yw'r cwestiynau, mae'r cwestiynau yn fath ar IRC a'r gwahodd, ac mae'n dechrau dwy'r cwestiynau. A'r cwestiynau, mae'n cwestiynau ar yr edrych, ac mae'n cwestiynau allan o'r ddechrau, maith gwybod gan hynny, ac mae'n gweithio'i ddiffrwyddiad. Mae'r ddifrwyddiad arherwydd'r ddiffrwyddiad a'r ddiffrwyddiad yn llwyddiad, It is not my fault. Hmm... Zac you've been around a lot of different people in the community, not just in Debian. And you gave a talk about why you think Debian is still important, still relevant. Why do you think, what is it that you think that Debian adds to the free software community and it's place within that community, First of all, I delivered that talk with the other provocative title, which was something like, Would The Bloody Hell Careers About Debian? And I think the reason why I wanted to do that talk is that a lot of people among us have been doing Debian for so long that we might have forgot why we are doing it. And also the reason for the existence of Debian over time has shifted a bit. So 18 years ago was just one among the other distribution made in a new way, in a collaborative way, but nowadays it's important to define what Debian still has to give. And that's something which I've been telling in most of my DPR talks since they've been elected. What I think we have to give is actually our own governance model, which is, I think, unique among the big distribution, which it's a bit awkward to say, because it's not like the big player and the small player and we are better than the other, it's not like that. But the popularity of a distribution is a thing that exists, and we are for sure one of the most popular distributions. And among them, we are pretty unique in the fact that we are a volunteer-based project, and we have a governance model which is very open, in which it's easy to have an impact on the distributions. So if you're willing to do the work, you can essentially change everything in Debian, and also we are deeply rooted in free software ideals. So if you take these things together, I think we are pretty unique and we should be aware of that, and we should strive to make the project live long and prosper. And how do you think other people see Debian? What's the perception do you think of Debian with not only just the community and other Linux distributions out there, but also the users and people who use us? You mean technically or both technically and socially? So I think we are seen as a distribution which is for hardcore geeks, so for tech savvy users, which maybe are not able to use Debian, and I think we are perceived as a distribution which has some sort of technical entry barrier that you need to go through before being able to use it, that is on a technical level, and on an ideal level I think we might also be seen as some sort of fanatic of free software which are not ready to give some easy stuff to use to people just because it would not fit with some of our ideals, which might be perceived as somehow fanatic. I think that that's not a good... Well, technically it might be a good representation, but I don't think we have set that as a goal. I think distribution is... Debian is the right distribution for people who understand free software ideals, no matter their technical level. So I think we are a good fit also potentially for newbie as long as they get why we are doing what we are doing, I think we are a good match. And then the technical skill which I need to use Debian can be easily learned. And about the fact that we are perceived as difficult to use, I think it's just a matter of the people who are doing Debian that historically are more of the system and the institutional type than of the desktop user type. But I think if we found people that can make Debian easier to use on the desktop, we will have no problem integrating the needed changes in the desktop. Well, we have in the past had the Debian desktop project which we haven't gone very quiet recently. Do you think it's important that this is something we should be concentrating time on in making Debian easier to use? Is it a bad thing that we have a reputation as being a hardcore distro, however undeserved it may be? I think it's something we should work on. So I know we have a Debian desktop mailing list. I confess I've never been involved with that list because it was not my area of interest in the project in the first place. But I know it exists. I know they work on, for instance, the theme. So release after release they work on the visual identity of that Debian release and I think that's something which is very needed, very much needed. And I think we should just advertise it a bit more.  So if you are the desktop user type, well maybe you should come to us, join that initiative and make Debian easier to use on the desktop. And I've seen a lot of people in this conference who actually care about that. There is people, I think there is in parallel to this session, which is trying to identify these small things which make it needlessly difficult to use Debian on the desktop. I've seen various people blogging about this kind of stuff. So, yes, it's a direction in which I think we should push. And the way to push for it will be just, you know, attracting people who want to do that. And given that it is still at the moment quite hard, we have the title that Debian is the universal operating system. Does that still hold? So that title, I think it's sort of weird history. So I think it's entered the history of Debian in some weird way, but it's something that I think we start to like. I think it's universal, not necessarily meaning that it's good as it is for every possible use case, but it's universal in the sense that if you want to make Debian useful for a specific use case, you are free to come, join us and actually do that. That is my own interpretation of universality. But I know there are different notions like everywhere or a lot of other different interpretations. Let's move quickly on to other distributions in the area. What do you think other distributions are doing better than Debian? And which of those things that they're doing should we be doing? So I think we have been the first in doing a lot of stuff in the distribution area, but other have essentially been learning from what we did right and what we did wrong. For instance, I think in terms of governance, we can be way more, I would say, open for instance by setting up governance boards which are not only the DPL role or not only the delegates. So I think that other distributions have been watching what Debian has done and learned from it and established better structure and governance is one of them. What else? So while there are a lot of stuff that they cannot mention at the moment, but I think it's about time for us to stop looking only at Debian and review what other distros are doing and concede that they might have gotten various things right even if they didn't do it the way we are used to. So is that a plea for system D, perhaps? No, not at all. It's not specific to that. I mean, not about technical decision. I'm more concerned about culture and communities. For instance, I think the example of deciding together a code of conduct, it's a good example that many other projects are pushing out. Well, there is one well-known code of conduct which has been pushed rather top down, but then other project has started to think, okay, maybe it's a good idea for us and then this kind of change is something we should look at and learn from that. And not working? Testing? Is that working? Somebody mentioned, was it BDL earlier in the week that it's very difficult to retrofit social codes like a code of conduct? And I think that we were very fortunate in Ubuntu that we were able to set that from the start. And it was always my sense as well that it would be very difficult to retrofit that to Debian. How do you think, or do you think it's at all feasible to make that sort of change post hoc in the Debian community? So, yes, I agree that this particular aspect of Ubuntu governance, I believe it's something that has been learned from the experience in Debian. And I guess that the point is that if you look back 20 years when Debian has been created, I think nobody thought that a community could be big enough to have important social issues. So, if you look at the constitution, they are very tough on the technical committee part. So, there is a body for resolving technical disputes, but there is no provision whatsoever about social issues. And I think it's normal that back then no one was thinking of it. About Debian going that way, well, it's way more difficult to add something like that in an existing project than it is, you know, creating from scratch a new community and sort of imposing that change from day one. So, as a direction, I think it's something we should consider, but it's by no mean easy, because even if, you know, the code of conduct in not only Ubuntu, it has been adopted in another project, it's something that it's opt in essentially. It's a requirement to join the community, but it's an individual step. So, imposing that to an existing community which has been created without that requirement, it's very difficult at the social level. Zach, I'm disappointed by your answer. I don't think it's working. Okay, great. Yeah, I'm disappointed by that answer. I think that you can say what you usually say, which is the democracy will make that happen. And I think that to get a code of conduct, the way it would start would be individuals writing it and opting in for themselves, and everyone else noticing it was a good idea and slowly over 10 years the community moving that direction. Oh yeah, and be bold. Can you summarize the question for me? Yeah, I think it was more a comment. Let's say, why do you think this should be something that you as a DPL push for, rather than the community coming up with it themselves? If the community haven't already decided that they want code of conduct, why do you think that you should enforce that on them? No, not quite. I can answer to that briefly, so I actually don't think it's something that the DPL should put forward. So I think DPL is just coordinating discussions and tensions and desire that exists in the Debian project and actually try to drive them to conclusion, but I don't think it's something that should be pushed specifically by the DPL. But in general, and this is one of the points I made in the opening speech of this conference, I think it's time for Debian to realize that there are auxiliary tasks, which are very much needed to make the Debian project sustainable and in some way professional, not in the company sense, but in a way being efficient in supporting the project itself, and thinking about social issues is one of those directions. So in terms of the other projects and things that are going on, not just other distributions, there's also talk at the moment of project harmony. Which involves copyright assignment. What do you think about that? Is this something that Debian should be looking into? So this is mean. I didn't say I was going to be nice with my question. So there are some advantages in having a single entity having copyright for all specific base of software. But I think there is a huge difference in assigning a copyright to a company and assigning a copyright to some non-profit organisation. So I don't think Debian needs something like that, in particular because we don't do much development in the first place. A lot of the code we write is packaging stuff which do not get linked in software itself. So I don't think we need that. Personally, as a free software enthusiast, I disagree we need copyright assignment in the first place. But this is a personal position. Generally, I don't see the need for us to even have a position on something like that. Emmet, I guess you have a question. OK, so you mentioned briefly, but how do you think the DPL can guide to the project? Can guide to the project? How do you see your rollers basically steering the project around or do you just see yourself, your rollers being there to facilitate what the project wants? I have an interesting discussion with the DDA Rabu on this point which was, if you look at the constitution, there is written that the DPL essentially guide the discussions but should not use his position to, you know, favour his position, take advantage of his position to impose his own view on the project. So I think it's really sort of a secretary role in which you keep track of what the project needs to discuss and you start to propose the discussion, see what people stay and actually say, OK, I believe that the consensus is this or is that, or I believe we do not have consensus at all. But the distinction is quite blurry because at the same time, I personally don't want to censor myself and not expressing my view just because I am the DPL. So it's kind of middle ground on that front. OK, Emmet. In terms of the amount of DDs we have now, the DD population has shrunk due to inactivity or more precisely quite sharply because we picked up on the inactivity before. How would you encourage new people, others who perhaps haven't been interested in Debian before or involved at all to get involved? I know you mentioned the sort of management and other tasks we have, but would it be quite difficult for Debian to see our reputation as a hardcore distribution to push that? OK, so I think we need a sort of strategy in where we are going to pick new people that would like to join Debian. Part of the strategy I've been trying to pursue in that direction is actually going to derivatives, explaining what Debian is about and explaining that if they share the value of Debian, they could contribute to Debian directly and benefiting not only the derivative they started from, but also Debian and also free software as a whole. I think that sort of strategy has worked quite well because if you look at the flow of new developers in Debian, quite some of them come from derivative distribution. Of course a lot comes from Ubuntu because it's the most popular derivatives we have and also the one which reaches out to a very large public. So that's I think part of the strategy we should pursue. Another is making clear what are the areas of contribution you can work on in Debian. For instance, if people think that Debian do not need web skills or graphic arts, well you will not be able to attract those kind of people. So I think we should make it clear on our website or in general in our documentation what are the areas in which you can work in Debian, what are the areas in which your contributions are welcome and as a separate step which we have already taken making clear that all this kind of contribution mattered to become part of Debian and this is something we have done. You can become a Debian developer as long as you share the value of Debian and as long as you are ready to make commitment in contributing Debian in the long run. Rhonda. There is a question related from ISC from Keviks about how to get more people involved in Debian. I know you covered that in one of your talks that we are doing quite well but it doesn't probably look like that to the outside. It's always better to have more people around. Part of the answer is what I was saying. Clarify on our documentation now to join Debian in which area you could work, like divide peer profiles. Are you a developer, a pure software developer? Those are the development tasks we need. Are you an artist? Those are the things we need. This is the first step. Another one is actually giving credit to all the kind of contribution we have in Debian. Long time ago we used to have a page which was the list of package maintainers. We still have it but it is now polluted by all the teams. The maintainer field is now more and more often associated to a team which is great but makes it a bit difficult to know who is working on what. I think we need a central place in which you see all the people contributing to Debian, not only the Debian developers but also people committing to some alias project, translators, porters. You see that this person is doing this, this and that in Debian. In a central place that would be a very good step forward to give credit to people working on Debian and motivate people even if it is only on an ego basis. You see my name is on that page. I am doing this, this and that for Debian. Although the number of Debian developers themselves has gone down slightly recently, do you feel that the amount of people contributing to Debian has increased especially since Ubuntu and the other derived distributions? The figure of existing developers is an interesting figure because a couple of years ago Dam started doing a run to see who is inactive and to remove them for the project which I think is a healthy thing to do. Then we had the drop of like 100 people and then in the press they were saying the Debian project is dying, they are losing a lot of people where it was simply bringing the figures back into a good representation of reality. So very few projects out there have the history of Debian. Very few for the first project has been around for 18 years. So we have a problem of turnover and actually making a saying to another of people going away and new people joining. This is something not many projects out there have. I think the flow of new people is pretty steady. So I think all in all we have quite healthy to a number of people. It's difficult to keep that in being matching the reality of people actually working on Debian. But overall I'm pretty happy about the flow of people coming in and going out of Debian. I do want to just ask about the make up of those people. The diversity of developers is quite poor in Debian and to be fair it's not just Debian, it's free software and computer science in general. Specifically with regards to gender diversity so the overwhelming amount of males in the project and also the BME diversity. So it's quite still centred on European and North American developers as a percentage. How would you like to see that change? Is there anything specific you would like to do to try and address that? That's a very difficult problem. It's absolutely a problem for us. I think we tend to be a sort of, well not only us as you said, several free software projects tend to be monocultures and monoculture are generally bad because you don't have many different views represented. I think we should aim for diversity on every level. First of all gender diversity which as you said is very low. In that specific aspect I think we should compare however with the diversity that exists in general in computer science and free software. But the problem is that even if you compare to the gender diversity you have in computer science and in IT in free software it's way lower than that. So it's even more of a problem. Also I think Debian is representative of a general figure in free software so I don't think we are doing necessarily worse than other free software projects. And I'm very proud that initiative like Debian Women was one of the first initiative to actually increase diversity in free software and I'm very happy about that. So it is a big problem having low diversity. I'm not exactly sure of how to take all that. So I think that accepting as developer people doing other stuff than packaging was a good step. So that's a topic in which I welcome every input you can have because it's really something we need to work on. Now moving slightly on, we have recently had a distinct lack of GRs in the project. I think the last one was very consensual anyway. It was essentially sure we do this thing which everyone seems to agree with and it was about putting a stamp on it. Why do you think that we haven't had anything as divisive as previously? So my view on GR is that we should not use them for technical stuff. So we should use them for general direction, political direction, philosophical direction of the project but we should really not use them for technical stuff because we know from experience of standardisation body which has existed since 20 to 30 years that consensus and working code is a better way to take large decision than voting because it's very prone to, I wouldn't say populism but it's very prone to asking non-informat judgement on specific technical issues. I think the fact that we have had not many GRs lately it's a good sign. It's a sign that we are making consensus actually work even if we are a very big project and even if we always have someone who will disagree with everything. So I think one of the most interesting questions I've been asked in interviews was like so you will be representing a project of 1,000 developers with 2,000 different opinions so it's true but working on consensus is better than voting on every single issue. The walls on the political direction, I mean when you were elected you had a majority of 380, you were also the only one standing which always helps if you are seeking election as a politician, I know that, that's very useful. I felt like a dictator at that moment. Do you think that a possible factor in why people don't run anymore is that the DPL role has got too large? I'm scared by that so it seems to me that people have been happy with some of the things which I've been doing and of course I appreciate that but I do feel bad about the fact that no one is willing to, you know, in that election being the only candidate has been pretty sad for me because I feel like, you know, if someone does a good job at that then no one else feels entitled to step in and that's not particularly good because I think we need to sort of train generation of DPL as long as we have this role that's something we should do to control. So, yeah, well, I'm not sure what to do to train that but I am a bit scared about that specific aspect. So people, come on, step in, run for DPL in the next elections. Is there any other reason you think why people haven't stood till last time? I'm not sure. So even though it sounds like self praise I think that's a likely reason because I think I've made a mistake in, you know, making clear that I would be running again too early. I should have done that probably the very last minute. But yes, what you said is right. So it might be a sort of a scary role. So that's another problem. So the question is, is it sustainable as a role to have a project big like Debian and having, asking a volunteer to do that. Is it sustainable or not? That's a good question. I don't have a good answer at the moment. Will you run again? I can't pretend I didn't answer the question. Of course. Colin. So you've said in the past that you've been fortunate that your employer has supported your work as DPL. Do you feel that's essential nowadays? I think it is not necessarily essential in terms of work time because, well, the DPL role you can stretch or enlarge what the time you spend on it quite flexible manner. So if you have a lot of time, you can do a lot of work. If you have less time, you will do less. But I think it's very important at, how to say, responsibility level. As a feeling responsible and feeling you have enough energy to work on that. So for me it's been very important to know that in theory I could have, you know, stretched my work time to work a bit on DPL time. Even if I didn't necessarily use that often. But knowing that the possibility was there at a psychological level has been very important for me. So in the lack of any other questions, will you run again? I don't think so. So I think it's something that you need to have a lot of enthusiasm to do. I'm still very enthusiastic about what I'm doing now but I'm not sure I will have enough enthusiasm to do that for another year. So at the moment I don't think so. Two years does seem to be sort of the limit that people come to. Because I know certainly it can be very hard to keep that going over the long term. Do you think there should be a enforced maximum two-year limit on DPLs to prevent someone thinking that they could do more when they can't? So are you mean as a self-defense measure? I don't know. It's very personal. How do you take this kind of stuff? So I'm not sure a strict role will help. And also there are a lot of people making the analogy to state constitutions and the Debian constitution and say why there is no hard limit on the number of time. But actually DPL is not that much power technique. It's just a coordinator and someone who could use moral persuasion to convince people to do something or something else. I don't think there is a need to put any strong barrier to avoid abuse of power or whatever. So on to a couple of easier questions now I suppose. What's the proudest thing you've done as DPL? I get asked that question fairly often and I fail to have an answer. I think even if it's not something which is very visible it's like streamlining a bit their role. So trying to be very transparent on what I do and being regular and sending updates to the project it might be a thing which is not that important but I think people really appreciate that and you need to be able to show that when you have not worked for a given period of time people should know about that and they should not assume that given you have not been communicating you have been doing secret stuff or all this kind of stuff. So I think that streamlining their role a bit showing that it is possible to have periodic updates every month or so I think that's, I'm very proud of that. What decision would you make differently if you were given another chance? Okay, so in a couple of occasions I've been asked to try to solve conflicts and in some occasions I've been replying too quickly to support one position or the other so I don't have a specific example to mention but it's something, there are a couple of occasions which have not been particularly happy about how quickly I reacted, giving the impression that I was in support of one position or another and another one, which is something which I'm trying to work on is communicate more often, like blog more often which seems like a silly thing but in the world we live in giving your opinion and show that you are present in a given discussion on some Damian-related issue or some free-soft-related issues is fairly important too to play the role that Damian I think has to play And how do you think it's possible to separate out the role as what you think and what the DPL thinks and again what the project thinks? That's pretty tough, so in the publicity buff we have had, I recommend, not in the publicity buff in the publicity talk the press team made clear that every single developer when he's asked an opinion the people asking the question wants that opinion to be the opinion of the Damian project so if you have the head of the Damian developer and you say something, people want to take that as the opinion of the Damian project as you can imagine when they ask that to the Damian project leader is even worse so I think that personally is one of the words that I've used the most in when people were asking me questions so I try to say ok this is my personal position but it's very difficult if people want to make the headline Damian thinks that they will make the headline Do you think it is possible to separate those roles? Not really because as someone pointed out in the past few days the DPL is the only elected body we have in Damian so one way or another the view of that person are representative of the view of the project so I don't think it's really possible a final question What are you wearing under your kilt? There is only one thing you can wear under your kilt and you know that So I should have a... Thanks We should have about 10-15 minutes left for questions from the floor which we do so I did time it correctly Do we have any questions? We have one there first Does it work? So there is a question from ISC related to your... The Kilt? No No, not related to the Kilt Previous project leaders had seconds in command and as far as I remember you don't go high and do you think that having a second in command could make it easier to run for DPL for another year? No, I don't think so So there is a need of splitting the task and not doing everything by yourself because if you do everything by yourself the chances of burning out are very high but when I have had that need I've tried to establish something more persistent for the future than just having a second in charge which will last only for this term So what I've been trying to do is there is a need to work on specific tasks let's try to establish some position that will last in the Debian project so that other people in the future can benefit from that without having to rethink about it every single year on the other hand the problem of doing that is that delegation tend to be more sticky than they should be so this is part of the governance problem I was mentioning so I would really like Debian to have some sort of governance body which are open and can be reviewed periodically and can have some to and over within themselves but even if there is this problem I prefer to have some stable structure to be created than to have just you know an assistant that will last only one term and then need to be recreated the next year I think there was another question Steve, in the front Oh I think you were, whatever So maybe put you on the spot can you name any other people in Debian who you would like to see stand for DPL I can but they will not do that here Any other questions? Nobody has any other questions This is your chance the DPL is on the spot here Andrew Do you think that eventually the DPL will receive a stipend for their work or something to enable them to work more on Debian while out of the DPL and not need to hold down a job or be paid by an employer while out of the DPL? I've heard it quite badly Do you think that the DPL should receive a dividend or allowance or something that would enable them to work more full time on Debian rather than also have to concentrate on a job? No I don't think so I think it would not be healthy in term of taking a step in I want to do that on a purely voluntary basis so I don't think that would be healthy In that case Does that limit the ability of people who might be suitable to be DPL to people whose employers are happy for them to take the task on and consequently does that mean that possibly those employers are in fact sponsoring Debian by supporting the DPL in that way for a year or two? Yes it surely does limit the set of possible candidates and that's actually the reason why in several countries around the world elected bodies have higher salary than the average and the argument they use is that that enables even less wealthy people to do that. At the same time it's for me having Debian as a volunteer project is something that matches my view of society. So a society in which you have a job but you also take a step forward and try to help in your spare time the society to run properly and to run smoothly together So for me it's really a challenge to have Debian succeed even if we are not paid for doing what we do and we have no guarantee to succeed but for me it's something that it's a battle that they want to see Debian fight. While the microphone is going back we have the Debian project who makes Debian GNU Linux and hopefully K through VSD soon as well How much do you think Debian should try and take a political role in influencing not only societies but also within the sort of free software world how much we should be advocating for that and how much also do you think Debian should be pushing for other ideals for example freedom of speech freedom of association and other human rights. That's an interesting question I think that we have a role so the Debian project is an association of people that have a mission of creating a free operating system the best possible operating system and I think that everything that touches that specific role is something which we should be entitled to make position statements or the like. An example is if software patents are something that arm creating a free software operating system and they do, it's something on which we should have a position and we could send out statement on why this kind of stuff hindered the creation of a free operating system I don't think we should move past the border of creating an operating system like human rights or green energy or whatever and we sometimes have the tendency of doing that but you should keep in mind that we have a specific mission and not try to stretch it to other stuff. So I've met one person at DebConf a few years ago who specifically did not want to join Debian because we have a project leader Do you think Debian needs a project leader and any other comment on that? I don't know who that person is but he has my sympathies I would prefer to see Debian not having a project leader I would prefer Debian to have a sort of board like many other free software project have and having that board having roles for election in the board and having that board express a sort of director or representative of Debian or something like that that's not that much different from having a leader and having an opinion more open and even less scary for the representative of the project. You are running for a second year Sledge was doing it for two years too there were some discussions going on over the times that the voting overhead with nomination period platform and all this is quite an issue and there were discussion going on with extending the term so what's your opinion of potentially extending it? So one year is definitely too short for value things the first thing is learning the job which is something we can improve by writing down some documentation, some best practices or the like and something that I've been planning to do since a long time even though I haven't yet managed to actually do that another thing which requires time is actually getting to know the people you will relate to like representative of other big free software projects or representative of other entities which you have to deal with like SPI or any other trust organization so all this stuff requires time and in my experience a good slice of the first year can be spent in doing that and in getting up to speed in working efficiently with those people two years is a better time frame to be ideal but at the same time if you are saying that there all is already a bit scary as it is extending the period to years will make it even more scary so I have sympathies with an idea of having a two years period with an easy way out in the middle like by default we have an action unless a given number of people says you know what we are fine like this and you just continue by default something like this so we might find some middle ground and I don't think I will push that myself because I don't think the priority of this is very high but if someone else want to propose a constitution change in that direction talk to me I will be happy to have and there's a question just behind as well so if one of the big obstacles for getting other people to apply to be DPL is the well one of the big obstacles in terms of doing the job is learning the job is it possible to have every month training period that's open to volunteers inside Debian to work with you and have you assigned them tasks so they understand the process even outside of the election I've actually been trying to do that I've been called for volunteer to work on DPL related tasks and my idea was to actually do two things at once one is the training but not training it's not like I am entitled to train them but showing what is about being a DPL and also of the interested people forming a sort of informal board which meets every month or something like that on IRC and discuss what we need to do so that at the same time it will give training and also more openness in what is going on but in fact I got only two people who applied and get a list of the thing which I have on my to-do list which can be outsourced and then in the end nothing has happened so I'm trying if someone is willing to apply and help out and discover what is about there is plenty of work to be done and I'll be happy to work with anyone who wants to do that I think we got probably time for one more question if anyone has them okay well it just remains to say thank you very much to Stefano here and hopefully we'll hear a lot more from you in the future thanks a lot