Crowdsourcing Upstream Refactoring

I consider myself very lucky to attend Linux Conf Australia 2013. LCA is the the premier Free and Open Source conference in the southern hemisphere and collects an unique batch of code hackers, Free culture enthusiasts and maker practioners. I've wanted to attend LCA since Jeff Waugh told me about it in 2006. This year has been my chance to get to the land of Oz!

Today Bdale Garbee and I have just given a talk called "Crowdsourcing Upstream Refactoring" in the Cross-distro Mini-conf. We wanted to talk about our experiences in packaging (especially Java applications) and brainstorm on how upstreams and distros can collaborate on addressing our very different goals and share efforts.

I would like to thank Stefano Zacchiroli for providing insight, ideas and pointers to his research on the "Upgrade Problem". I also want to thank Bruno Cornec -- organizer of the Cross-distro Mini-conf -- for accepting our talk.

Below you will find links to the presentation (we were unable to display due to my laptop and the projector not getting along). Before too long the excellent volunteers of Linux Conf Australia will make video of the talk available.