CNM Tech Board 2023-12-14

CNM Tech Board 2023-12-14 is the meeting of CNM Technology Board‎ that occurred on December 14th, 2023. The predecessor meeting is CNM Tech Board 2023-11-02; the successor meeting is CNM Tech Board 2023-12-21.

Critical priority

All of "old" businesses are related to launch of iDosvid in Kenya in order to make iDosvid pitch real.

Elementor to retire

• Task (critical): To retire Elementor by April 2024
• Situation: In order to save costs, we would like to retire Elementor that we barely use. Our primary websites that deploy Elementor are https://vebka.theeconomicgroup.com/ and https://scheje.com/ . The current subscriptions expire in April of 2024.
• Action decisions:
  1. Gary will move the movable contents to other Educaship WordPress instances.
  2. Gary will assess whether we need to hire any contractors to move the unmovable parts.

Farms to optimize

• Task (critical): To review Opplet Infrastructure in order to suggest optimization paths.
• Situation: We have been developing CNM Farms for many years, but have never really optimized it. Over the years, we generated many DNS records that are no longer in use and just generate security vulnerabilities. We also created a few resources that require payments, but no longer produce any value. Kevin proposed forming a Finance Board or Financial Oversight Committee that would table, say, any new purchase or payment for discussion and expected returns from this investment, budgeting, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and any other matter that involves purchase and payment. Gary feels like those tasks can be done within the existing board. At the same time, Gary has published expense reports in Bureau Infrastructure, Lab Infrastructure, Campus Infrastructure, and Fed Infrastructure to compare against DNS records, web server files, actual resources, and business needs.
• Action decisions:
  1. Natalia will summarize actual resources to compare against the expenses.
  2. Gary will copy DNS records to analyze.
  3. Natalia will copy web server files to analyze.
  4. We will restructure Campus Infrastructure
  5. We will move Fed Infrastructure into Bureau Infrastructure
  6. We will bring experts aboard to review Bureau Infrastructure
  7. Kevin will suggest the action plan for cost savings

GitLab to collaborate

• Task (critical): To create the single platform for technology collaborations
• Situation: Over the last years, unstructured onboarding of new technology contractors and collaboration of existing developers significantly slowed the development. Plus, we use no specialized tool to report bugs and issues, while relying on emails mostly. A couple of years ago, Natalia and Gary used Redmine, but later decided to switch to Educaship GitLab. GitLab features software repository and, therefore, allows for file upload and version control; we don't plan to get rid of that software. The discussion is about its extension. GitLab features its own modules such as GitLab Issues (to manage and track tasks, bugs, and other project-related activities) and GitLab Boards (to visualize and manage our project tasks in a board format), as well as several integrations with standalone project management software such as Taiga or Redmine.
• Action decisions:
  1. Natalia will evaluate the alternatives and report her findings.

HumHub to cultivate

• Task (critical): To deliver Educaship HumHub as the primary tool for initial engagement with the students.
• Situation: Traditionally, a pair of Educaship Moodle and Educaship MediaWiki was used for initial engagement with the students. However, both of those tools lack social interaction, particularly, in meeting organizing. Educaship HumHub looks like a way better tool. For CNMCyber Event-Driven Projects practice specifically, we have added the "Meetings" module. Kevin planned to suggest the action plan, but he lacks power-user permissions.
• Action decisions:
  1. Natalia will grant power-user permissions to Kevin
  2. Natalia will create an experimental HumHub instance on CNM Lab Farm and grant Kevin administrator-level permissions, so he can experiment without worrying about CNMCyber.com
  3. Kevin will review the issues and propose the action plan.

Recording to improve

• Task (critical): To make recording tools available to the students
• Situation: We have been trying to find a safe way of meeting recording for a while. Initially, we recorded Educaship Jitsi sessions using own device software and, later, published it. That way came with multiple drawbacks such as (a) it depends on the recording person's connectivity. If the recording person is disconnected, the recording is interrupted; (b) it consumes the recording person's data transfer, which can be costly; (c) it depends on the recording person's device and makes impossible to record the sessions using smartphones for instance. While trying to record the sessions via VMs on CNM Lab Farm, we encountered two issues: (1) the recordings had some interruptions and (2) VMs went into sleeping modes. To make the newly-developed recording practical, we plan to use it for meetings of CNM Technology Board.
• Action decisions:
  1. Kevin will review the issues and propose the action plan.

Revenue to plan

• Task (critical): To identify the ways for revenue generation
• Situation: Budget limitations have been slowing the development for a while. Although financing is not a technology issue, our technology shall be oriented on sales. For now, we build full-scope vocational orientation services, which will take at least a year to build and another year to sell. They are too big to be sold fast. The simpler the product, the faster the sales. Besides the products themselves, we also need (a) marketing to bring customers aboard for which we can particularly use CNMCyber Meetup group, (b) website and events to educate customers, and (c) payment option and assisting folks to charge and serve. With regards to those products, we may explore:
  1. Short hands-on training sessions via #Training to offer.
  2. Paid career days and other short-term derivatives from iDosvid.
  3. Career counseling and other services. More ideas are expressed in Talk:The Economic Group.
• Action decisions:
  1. Kevin will review the issues and propose the action plan.

Sandbox to MVP

• Task (critical): To define MVP of sandboxes that shall emulate workplaces for the students.
• Situation: We have developed a range of technologies that we can offer our students for practice. However, we don't know at this moment what we shall offer initially and, therefore, what we are missing. Gary developed an initial draft on the Educaship pitch wikipage, but this draft needs reviews.
• Action decisions:
  1. Kevin will review Gary's draft.
  2. Natalia will review Kevin's draft.
  3. If we bring a school tech lady aboard via #Community to pivot, she may review Natalia's draft.
  4. Based on the latest draft, we will decide the scope of the sandbox MVP.

Wiki to public

• Task (critical): To move public contents from Educaship MediaWiki.
• Situation: Educaship MediaWiki no longer satisfies us because of its (a) lack of Educaship LDAP integration, so new students cannot access the wiki, and (b) weak mobile-friendly design. We assessed several wiki engines and are ready to make decisions.
• Action decisions:
  1. We shall use CNMCyber.com/Educaship HumHub's wiki as our primary vehicle to deliver public contents.
  2. We shall keep XWiki in mind for its possible applications to our development and/or advanced training.
  3. We shall keep Wiki.js in mind for its possible applications to our website development training.
  4. We shall use BookStack as our marketing vehicle for EmployableU Concepts.
  5. We shall continue deploying Educaship MediaWiki as our legacy system.
  6. If we build demonstrations for wiki engines, we may utilize BlueSpice.

WordPress to populate

• Task (critical): To position our services on the market.
• Situation: We are getting closer to our MVP, so we can start positioning our services on the market. This may help attract both potential customers and staffers. Natalia set up several Educaship WordPress instances.
• Action decisions:
  1. Gary will start populating those instances that Natalia has set up.

Critical, but depended

For the purposes of this meeting, Critical, but depended refers to those endeavors that literally have #Critical priority, but which execution depends on other projects.

Community to pivot

• Task (critical, but having dependencies to be resolved): To align meetings of CNMCyber Community Board with Educaship pitch
• Situation: Although we postponed the meetings in early October, Gary continued working on Educaship pitch and CNMCyber Event-Driven Projects, which now can no longer be considered drafts, but rather MVPs. However, the meetings can be a good vehicle to connect with a school teacher.
• Action decisions: Until we need to bring a school teacher aboard via #Sandbox to MVP, the project is postponed.

Training to offer

• Task (critical, but having dependencies to be resolved): To launch short-term hands-on training
• Situation: From our experience, short-term hands-on training sessions sold the fastest. "Short-term" implies anything from 90 minute sessions and up to packages of several sessions totaling 35 hours. "Hands-on" implies practical tasks during technology-based training. The training can be:
  1. Built and delivered by us. Particularly, it may relate to the technology that we use. Our professional groups such as CNM Proxmox Users, CNM Jitsi Users, and CNM TensorFlow Users can be instrumental.
  2. Built by someone else, but delivered by us. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) also gains its grounds and many people are interested in obtaining some background. We are discussing opportunities to use partners' content and practices to introduce AI in our markets. In addition, a few software developers make their content available for learning. For instance, these are Odoo's resources -- https://www.odoo.com/slides/all/ . We can further augment those resources with our practical tasks.
  3. Built and delivered by partners. Traditionally, we teamed up with partners to offer preparation for credential exams in PMP, ITIL, and so on. Especially, we are interested in those who were accredited by credentialing authorities.
• Action decisions: Until #Revenue to plan tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Non-critical priority

Clusters to document

• Task (non-critical): To document clusters of Opplet
• Situation: During 2023, we have rebuilt CNM Bureau Farm and CNM Campus Farm into clusters. Their optimization undergoes under the #Farms to optimize project. However, they also need to be documented, particularly because the students will need that documentation during their operational practice.
• Action decisions: Until #Farms to optimize tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Committee to advise

• Task (non-critical): To build our expertise in work with youth, as well as with high schools and other youth organizations
• Situation: Our expertise in work with youth and youth organizations is limited. To attract experts, we would like to create a body, either an organization or a group. At the same time, those experts shall be advocates for smoothing of school-to-work transitions, so a working name for that body is International Council for Vocational Orientation.
• Action decisions: Until #Critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Email fields to hide

• Task (non-critical): To hide email fields from the registration, while offering to submit emails voluntarily through Opplet.net
• Situation: Historically, email fields in the Opplet.net registration confuse the applicants. We plan to alternate the model; however, no developer is available at the moment. Gary wrote the initial code, which later was re-written by Sergey Zlomovsky. Then, Roman F. moved the code into the Yii framework. Gary failed to find Sergey. Natalia contacted Roman, but his original interest didn't fruit a solution. Now, we will look for new freelancers.
• Action decisions: Until #Critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Help desks to create

• Task (non-critical): To create help desks
• Situation: Kevin raised an issue of help desks. Indeed, our customers and staffers need to have direct channels of bug reporting and troubleshooting. One, technical help desk should be delivered via the #GitLab to collaborate project; Natalia will serve it. For non-technical help desk, we plan to use a module of Educaship Odoo.
• Action decisions: Until #Critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Odoo to explore

• Task (non-critical): To deliver Educaship Odoo as the primary tool for advanced engagement with the volunteers, staffers, and whomever are engaged with the enterprise.
• Situation: As of December 2023, we don't deploy any ERP or another software that makes a company a company. For instance, our staffer candidates haven't applied for a job via the company's website, the staffers don't use the company's email and don't report work hours. Furthermore, we will not be able to function when we get to sales and accounting.
• Action decisions: Until #Critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

No priority backlog

Cloudflare to utilize

• Task (no priority): To move those web resources that have higher risks of attacks to Cloudflare
• Situation: Obviously, CNM Farms have some limitations. Cloudflare is a leading global content delivery network (CDN), which security features DDoS protection and web application firewall (WAF).
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

LDAP to upgrade

• Task (no priority): To upgrade Educaship LDAP
• Situation: Since its deployment in 2017, Educaship LDAP was never revised, upgraded, nor optimized. Particularly, we missed OpenLDAP Long Term Support Release 2.5.16.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

LMS to practice

• Task (no priority): To provide the students with LMS instances to practice
• Situation: Educaship Moodle looks like well-suited for CNMCyber Bootcamps. We also plan to use Canvas LMS and/or OpenEdX. All of them shall be available on CNM Lab Farm to practice.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Meetings to live-stream

• Task (no priority): To live-stream meetings
• Situation: We would like to organize livestreaming of our meetings over CNM Tube and/or CNMCyber YouTube Channel.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Servers to mail

• Task (no priority): To advance mail servers from prototypes to MVPs
• Situation: Natalia has set up three mail servers -- mail.opplet.net, mail.bskol.com, mail.cnmcyber.com. However, we haven't revised, optimized, or integrated them with other of our applications but Opplet.net.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

PHP to review

• Task (no priority): To review PHP support at Opplet
• Situation: Since its deployment in 2017, CNM PHP was never revised, upgraded, nor optimized. PHP troubles emerged a few times, particularly in connection with Educaship MediaWiki.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

Time to track

• Task (no priority): To track time of volunteers and staffers
• Situation: To emulate corporate work environment, we would like to track work time of volunteers and staffers, tentatively, while they are using virtual machines (VMs).
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

VMs to automate

• Task (no priority): To automate delivery of virtual machines (VMs)
• Situation: We would like to automate creation, life, and retirement of CNM Lab Farm's virtual machines (VMs), most likely, via usage of Ansible, Pulumi, or similar COTS.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

VPN and proxy

• Task (solved): To deploy VPN and Shadowsocks in Opplet
• Situation: Gary was going to a country with restricted Internet. Natalia successfully deployed OpenVPN and Shadowsocks, which is the secure split proxy that is loosely based on SOCKS5 and works with Outline VPN. This article -- https://www.howtogeek.com/802198/vpn-alternatives-what-can-you-use-besides-a-vpn/ -- prompted to explore Shadowsocks. The initial testing of OpenVPN showed that, at one place, it was blocked. Natalia changed the port and the block was lifted. Both worked amazingly well in the target country. Now, Gary proposes to consider deploying VPN and Shadowsocks as production instances in Opplet.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.

WSO2 IS

• Task (no priority): To augment Opplet.net's identity and access management (IAM) with WSO2 IS
• Situation: When Opplet.net was initially deployed, it used simpleSAMLphp, which allowed for single sign-on (SSO). However, SAML came with many limitations and itself was outdated protocol. In 2017, simpleSAMLphp was substituted with OpenLDAP, which has many advantages, but no longer allows for SSO. Then, we decided to augment Opplet.net's identity and access management (IAM) with WSO2 IS. Natalia installed WSO2 IS on the CNM Lab Farm and plugged it into Opplet. She also plugged in our instances of Educaship WordPress, but need someone else's expertise in order to plug in the other applications.
• Action decisions: Until #Non-critical priority tasks are resolved, the project is postponed.