PostgreSQLFR Activities Summary for 2008
PostgreSQLFR association, what for?
To answer this question, here's a quick review of our activities in 2008.
Introduction the association
PostgreSQLFr is a non-profit association declared under the 1901 law. It aims to promote PostgreSQL in french-speaking countries. Our actions are: translation, evangelism, community-based support, software promotion, etc..
The association was founded in 2004 and has currently about forty members, including companies and developers involved in the PostgreSQL community. It works through its volunteers and membership fees.
For more information on the association's history, check out this wiki page devoted to it (french only, sorry):
Exhibitions and Conferences
Like every year, the association has fulfilled one of its main tasks, namely to represent the french-speaking PostgreSQL community in various exhibitions and conferences related to Free Software. We note in particular:
- Linux Solutions in January in Paris (France);
- The FOSDEM in February in Brussels (Belgium);
- PGCon in May in Ottawa (Canada);
- Libre Software Meeting in July in Mont de Marsan (France);
- PGDay Europe in October in Prato (Italy).
Some members of association have done talks in schools and Linux User Groups:
- At the University of Nancy (Stéphane Schildknecht);
- At the University of Calais (Jean-Paul Argudo);
- At the University of Rouen (Christophe Chauvet);
- At Parinux (Guillaume Lelarge);
- At Libre Software Meeting in Mont de Marsan (Guillaume Lelarge).
The association has also organized workshops during the RMLL event (Guillaume Lelarge, Jean-Christophe Arnu, Stéphane Schildknecht).
In the press
A dozen of articles, written by Guillaume Lelarge, were published in “GNU / Linux Magazine France” (number 103 to 112). These articles cover various features of PostgreSQL: transaction logs, full-text search, memory management, etc..
This cooperation with “GNU/Linux Magazine” will continue in 2009, do not hesitate to propose topics of articles!
More information on “GNU/Linux Mag” website (french only, sorry):
Birth of PostgreSQL Europe
2008 saw the official birth of the European PostgreSQL users association. This association is declared under the french law of 1901 (non-profit). Its board was elected at FOSDEM (Brussels) in February. It is composed of Magnus Hagander (Sweden), Gabriele Bartolini (Italy), Andreas Scherbaum (Germany), Jean-Paul Argudo (France).
PostgresQLFr is proud to have been involved in the birth of its “big European sister” !
More information :
A brand new web platform
The sys admins of the association have done a tremendous job!
Earlier this year, the association has received two servers, donated by Continuent. These servers are hosted by LostOasis and Dalibo.
These two new machines have helped to standardize Web services and enhance the quality of service. This work was spread over a period of about nine months. It was divided into several phases:
- The migration of all services on the new platform;
- The integration of these services under a single graphical identity;
- Replacement of the main CMS (drupal) by a more flexible web portal (dokuwiki);
- Creation a new brand new forum (fluxbb) with centralized management of authentication;
- The migration of all articles of the old platform to the new (dotclear).
Each of these tasks required several days of volunteer work. We want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of those who participated in this effort!
More information:
Pgday 2008 in Toulouse
The major event of the year was undoubtedly the organization of the first French conference entirely devoted to PostgreSQL.
On October 4th, about 60 people came to Toulouse to attend technical and practical use cases presented by ten specialists of PostgreSQL and PostGIS.
Motivated by the success of this promising first edition, the association is embarking on the ambitious project to organize a bigger conference in 2009 (see below).
More information:
Translation
One of the oldest and least visible work of the association is the translation.
It is a daily work and it's extremely helpful.
The translators read and correct the French version of the documentation of the five supported versions of PostgreSQL (something like 3 500 web pages). The French translation is generally available a few hours after the release of a new version of PostgreSQL, thanks to the efforts of Guillaume Lelarge.
The PostgreSQL Weekly Newsletter (PGWN) is also translated every week by Nicolas Bougain and the press release announcing PostgreSQL 8.3 has been translated by Stéphane Schildknecht.
But the association is not sleeping on these recurrent tasks. This year a new project has been launched: the translation of documentation for Slony. A dozen people were attached to this task. After a short period of winter break, the work of proofreading should resume quickly.
More information:
White Paper
The idea of a “White Paper” came from a simple observation: PostgreSQL software remains widely misunderstood and underestimated.
To remedy this, the association has launched during the year 2008 a project aimed at writing a few pages containing numbers, evidence, arguments and case studies to demonstrate that PostgreSQL is a widespread, efficient and mature .
Work is currently underway. Anyone wishing to participate in this project is welcome. The release of this book is scheduled for spring 2009.
Under this project, we launched an online survey entitled “How are you using PostgreSQL?”.
Feel free to take a few minutes to answer 15 questions in this survey:
New members
Among the new members, we can notice five new companies: Autoliv France (http://www.autoliv.com/), Benchmark Group (http://benchmark.fr), CS (http://cs.fr), Open Wide (http://openwide.fr) and Syleam (http://syleam.fr). These companies join Dalibo to actively support the association.
Memberships are crucial for the association: they guarantee its independence and sustainability. Feel free to encourage your company to join us. The more members we'll have, the stronger the association will become!
http://www.postgresql.fr/adherents:adhesion
In addition, this year the association has established a partnership with Dailymotion to open a space for hosting videos dedicated to PostgreSQL. You can find these videos of PGDay 2008:
Financial Resume
In financial terms, the resources of the association are scarce. They come mainly from members, donations and sale of promotional items (T-shirts, shirts, badges, mugs, etc.)..
Here is a simplified balance sheet:
- Balance at 1 January 2008: 452.02 €
- Total expenditure: 3346.28 €
- Total revenues: 6651.44 €
- Balance at 1 January 2009: 3305.16 € (+ 2853.14 €)
Many thanks to Sébastien Lardière for his job as treasurer of the association!
What about 2009 ?
As you can see, 2008 was a very rich year !
The good news is that we'll try to do even better in 2009.
Here is a disorderly non-exhaustive list of what we are working on :
- Releasing Slony's Documentation translation (March-April);
- Publication of the White Paper (Spring);
- Organization of the European PGDay 2009 (Fall);
- New membership campaign (spring);
- Presence at exhibits and conferences (Fosdem, Linux Solutions, LSM, JDLL ,…);
- Communication around the release of PostgreSQL 8.4 (April ?);
- Strengthening the web platform;
- Creation of a PostgreSQL User Group in Montreal, launched by Jehan-Guillaume de Rorthais;
- … and other surprises!
All these projects are under the responsibility of specific groups within the association.
If you are motivated by one or more of these actions, please contact us. As you can see, there are many ways to participate, regardless of your skills and the time you can spend.