Alpha release process

For those of you who weren't involved in the Ottawa developer meeting, I think 
we should start by explaining that beginning with the 8.5 development cycle, 
we are planning to make regular alpha releases, to make early testing easier 
for more users.  This will happen at the end of every commit fest.  It will 
mostly look like a beta release, except that it will be called alpha and will 
at times perhaps not be as polished as a beta.  (Among other things, it will 
also give as the opportunity to practice the release bundling procedures.)

I have written down the details of the alpha release preparation process based 
on the meeting discussions at 
<http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Alpha_release_process>, reproduced here for 
convenience:

"""
== Prerequisites ==
* Commit fest manager declares commit fest closed
* Build farm is green, or failures are adequately explained (if widespread 
breakage, wait for a few days until fixed)

== Naming ==
* 8.5alpha1, 8.5alpha2, etc.

== Release preparation ==
src/tools/RELEASE_CHANGES applies

Roughly:
* Release version number changes
* Release notes [Note: We'll have to work out exactly how to do this one as we 
go.]
* Optional: Update timezone data
* Optional: Translation updates (probably not useful until the last or next to 
last alpha)
* Tag in CVS
* Build the actual release tarball: make distcheck
* Ask -hackers to check the tarball for sanity
* Upload to ftp server [details?]

== Announcing ==
Announce to:
* PostgreSQL News
* pgsql-hackers
* pgsql-general(?)
* pgsql-packagers

For this one, we don't wait for the binaries to be built before announcing.  
Just make sure that the source tarballs are in place before the announcements 
go out.  This way take a day or three; doesn't really matter.

[[ReleasePrep]] contains notes about how to announce a release, which <em>do 
not apply</em> in their entirety to the alpha process, but are still worth 
digesting.
"""

Please discuss this now if you want changes.

I personally plan to put some time and effort into making this happen, but I'm 
not sure who else will be involved.  In case the traditional release team is 
not available, this would of course also provide opportunities for new people 
to get involved.