Czajkowski

Last day *sob* the week has flown, it’s not even funny, day one I knew nobody, and in less than a week I’ve made some great friends and it was fantastic.

Final sessions for the Community track:

• Friday Roundtable
• Revamping The Free Culture Showcase
• Translations Roundtable
• Women In Ubuntu
• Membership Boards Review
• Technical Board Review
• Feedback Session

So firstly for those not familiar with the Free Culture showcase, lets explain it a little.

The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is an opportunity to show off high quality free culture content in Ubuntu. At the heart of Ubuntu’s ethos is a belief in showcasing free software and free culture, and with each development cycle we open the opportunity for any Free Culture artist to put their work in front of millions of Ubuntu users around the world. Although the space restrictions are tight, and we are limited to how much content we can include, this is an excellent opportunity for artists everywhere.

So the discussion was about how to make it more open to more people how to advertise it better to include as many people as possible, how to better upload and perhaps the use of Ubuntu One to upload the submissions. The use of facebook, twitter, digg, identi.ca to promote the event, these avenues can always be used for LoCo team events also. I personally try and let local colleges know about my events as student might be interested in coming along or participating in them.

The Ubuntu Women discussion happened as I’d mentioned to Maco about the possibility of a meet up at the begining of the week, and the good thing about UDS is that you can at times if space is available add a new session which we did.

We covered topics on how best to encourage women to come into the channel, use the mailing list basically point out that these resources are availabe and are a way of intereacting with folks. It was a packed session with many guys participating which is great as they had some questions on how to attract more females into their groups and participate in events.

Also there seems to be some perception that one needs to be a developer not only to be involved in -women but also within the community.  You don’t have to be the are many other areas you can participate in the project.

I’m not a developer but I like to organise things, put people in contact with others.  Translations and bug triaging always need to be done and anyone can help out and do these things. Hopefully this month the Ireland LoCo will run a Jam session that will help with these two aspects.

Finally the feedback session, the final wrap up. It was a great week with ideas floating all around the place and projects to work on.  I can only imagine how long some of the leaders action list of items to do are.

Thanks to the folks at Canonical who made this week possible. Thanks to the community who were not only welcoming but also made particpating fun. See you soon!

It’s the second last day of UDS in sunny Barcelona, the week has flow by. There has been much discussion, brain storming and mingling taking place through the week, during the day and in the evening time over dinner. I’ve been lucky to combine my summer holiday and hanging out with some awesome geeks. Win

On todays schedule we have the following:

• The Burnout Cycle (presentation)
• Better LoCo Team Development Participation
• Community Participation In Translations Templates
• Community Council Review
• Ubuntu Developer Channel
• Remote Participation at UDS

So, how does one get LoCo community involvement, how do you get interaction, feedback organsie events.  It’s very hard starting off as you may not know who to talk to or approach. A great resouce is the #ubuntu-locoteams channel. Even if you’re already established, you might be going stale, low particpation at turning up to events. Why not ask other LoCo’s what they are doing, I suggested geeknic and a lot of folks were interested in it. A day out away from the laptops and a nice way to meet people face to face. Find more information here.

Now I was very lucky to attend UDS and participate, but not everyone can. Remote participation is encourage, though perhaps it could be a bit better know. All of the talks are streamed so anyone can listen in and intereact via channel and comment on the discusion.

We also got to take a group pic, savage amount of people from all over the world involved in Ubuntu in one way or another and I got to meet them.

UDS Karmic Group picture

Half way through the week already, hard to believe. I must admit not knowing any people going to UDS it really forced me to make and effort and chat to new people which was great as I met some really great people who had some pretty cool ideas about how things could be shaped not only in the community but also in Ubuntu in general.

Todays Community Topics that I attended were

• Round Table
• Improving Bug Triage Best Practise
• LoCo Council Review
• Improving Packaging Training
• LoCo Team Conference Packs

The improving bug triage was my favourite discussion session today. It’s one I see is an issue as many folks want to take part in bug triaging but don’t know how to. Yes there is documentation out there, there is nearly too much at times so you don’t know where to start.  As a test I emailed the Irish LoCo and asked them about their experiences, where they ran into difficultly and what did they think could be done to help folks get more involved. Thanks to all the nice folks who replied, I’ve forwaded on all the replies to dholbach.

Day 2 of UDS, and there is still sun shining,and people being upbeat and chatty and ideas are flowing.

So again today I plonked myself in the Community stream as there was some very interesting sessions going.

• Tuesday Roundtable
  
• Improving Ubuntu Open Week
• LoCo Directory
• Improve The Translations Community
• Helping Ubuntu With NGOs
• Code Of Conduct Boundaries

I’d never been at a round table before, but basically it is where we discuss what ever is on our mind, perhaps something from the previous day or something that we think could do with having a session on.

An interesting one was the COC, as in is it being too often when talking to the person to resolve the issue rather than escalating the issues to council in some cases. If you can try and reason with the person and see both sides of the issue in question,  if a discussion on an issue is getting heated, walk away for 10 mins, or advise the person who’s ranting and raving like a loon to do so instead.

The COC is there for us to use and guide us by, but often it’s over used on small issues, one needs to remember we are a large community with a diverse active culture and one needs to respect that, as that’s one of the greatest things for us.

However, I’d like to point out that one needs sometimes to realise that what I say here is how I’d say it, not only is it myt whacked out opionion it’s also the way I say things in a coloquial manner and is unoffensive for here, elsewhere someome else may take umbrance with it as it means something else where they are from. I’m sorry but one needs to respect and understand that sometimes things said on here or on irc are a persons way of say  things and in no way mean offensive.

So another thing I got to work on today was an idea I had in the discussion group on Monday with Efrain Valles.  I’d never created a blue print which is the idea of what we want to work on, so Efrain guided me along and showed me what to do. So  our blueprint on the idea is HERE.

From there you need to write a wiki post and detail the reasons why, and a possible solution of what you’d like to see, again having never done this before, or indeed would have though5t I could even do so, it’s being here in UDS that has made this possible and now I can think that I may have made a slight difference in Ubuntu which is just great! You can participate and get help face to face and it makes all the difference.

Finally the NGO session was very interesting as I got to learn about resources that are available to them that I didn’t realise were there. Also i was able to suggest to folks that you should invite them to your talks so they can gain and mutially benefit can be obtained for everyone.

Still loving UDS would recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Well I made it to Karmic UDS taking place in Barcelona, it’s great so far. Firstly having never been to a UDS before, I didn’t know what to expect and while I know a couple of people to see and chat to it’s still rather daunting walking into a large room of people where a lot of folks know each other.

So to kick start the day and wake people up, Jono is pretty awake and enthusiastic and kick starts the day with a video of what had been  a happening in the community to a kick ass up beat tune ” ‘I’ve got a soul, but I’m not a  soldier” by The Killers. It was great way to start the day and also nice to see what was going on.

Onward and forward, Mark Shuttleworth spoke next on the ideas coming forth in Karmic and he even set someone a goal of a boot up in 10 seconds…. We can but wait and see.  So I decided to plant myself in the Community stream for the day of talks as that’s what I mainly focus on.

• Improving LoCo Team Events
• Refocusing The Ubuntu Spirit
• Free Culture in Ubuntu
• Finding Tasks For New Developers
• Launchpad Bugs Feedback Session

These were the sessions I attended and took part in. The use of Gobby throughout the sessions is very useful as many people in the room can leave thoughts in it and also if you missed the session you can access the document and leave some comments.

In the Improving LoCo Team Events session I was able to give some examples of things I’d like to see and was fortunate enough to get to work with Efrain on an idea for LoCo events and to me this was great.  I had an idea someone else had a similar idea and we were able to mash it up and work on something that can benefit everyone. How cool is that. It’s the reason why I am here.

So far I’m really enjoying meeting people and being able to ask questions about stuff that has been niggling away and I get an answer, feedback, and sometimes there is even a solution.

UDS Karmic ROCKS!