Czajkowski

We now have this fantastic all in one place information on teams, global and local events.  It makes finding information for everyone a lot easier.  It’s come on a long way and looks rather pretty also and is still being worked on there are bugs logged for some issues so with every week there are new improvements coming.

What I have noticed however is the amount of teams there on the LD with not up to date information, no wiki page listed, no mailing list, no website, no IRC channel listed or any information about themselves and in many cases most of the teams are providing this help.  We need you to update your information, that’s either through your team leader, point of contact or you have admins set up on launchpad who can edit the loco directory,  if you see your team has other resources that are not listed there PLEASE ASK OF YOUR TEAM TO ADD IT!

This morning there were 69 teams listed on the LD with no fix abode they had no country listed against them.  I’ve gone in and added them all, bar 5 which I need help on.  In the LD Language is a mandatory field, I’ve added the one language against each team, you can select more, PLEASE SELECT MORE if you have more than one language in your team.

Think of the directory from a new persons point of view a yellow pages of information they can access.  If someone was in your area and wanted to learn more about your team, that information should be visible.  They shouldn’t have to join a mailing list or an IRC channel just to find out where your wiki page is located.

Also a really handy tool for people who are travelling is they can view the LD and see if there are any events going on in the area so they can drop by and say hi.

After spending some time on wikpedia and learning a lot about other countries and their languages I was able to reduce the list to following 5

*edit: All teams are now listed under a country! including the 5 homeless ones above!  See I won’t be beaten!

The lovely LoCo Directory(LD) developers have done an amazing job on the LD.  What started off as an idea has really come to fruit and now is a useful source of information for everyone.  For your own team, for people travelling to see if they are in the area and if you’ve events running so they can join you.  With this in mind there are some bugs that need YOUR help with.  They need YOUR OPINIONS Now rather than later.

The first bug is one Chris Johnson is working on and is looking for some constructive feedback on the bug – https://bugs.launchpad.net/loco-directory/+bug/616544

The following bugs are CSS related and need some help with as well :

1) Launchpad bug 601944 in loco-directory “In a team detail page, the label column don’t have a fixed width
2) Launchpad bug 610944 in ubuntu-website (and 1 other project) “the header seems to be shapeless

3) Launchpad bug 612047 in loco-directory “Menus are getting crowded

4) Launchpad bug 612089 in loco-directory “Add a style box around confirmation messages

As Always please add your comments to the Bug in question as that keeps all of the information in one place so the developers and others can follow the flow of ideas.

Log into the LD  and do make sure your team information is up to date, right link to your wiki page, website, forums, IRC etc, correct language and location http://loco.ubuntu.com/

If you do find any bugs, or think there is a bug there, please report it on https://bugs.launchpad.net/loco-directory/+filebug Also most of the developers hang out in #ubuntu-locoteams pop in and say hi

Please do leave feedback for the developers now, rather than when it’s all been implemented!

So firstly for those who may be unfamilar with a Global Jam  and what it’s all about.  The Ubuntu Global Jam (UGJ) is a a world-wide online and face-to-face event to get people together to fix Ubuntu bugs – we want to get as many people online fixing bugs, having a great time doing so.  This is not only a great opportunity to really help Ubuntu, but to also get together with other your team mates and work on things as a group and help one another.

This year the  Ubuntu Global Jam will take place over the weekend of  27th – 29th August and it’s a great opportunity to work  together to improve Ubuntu. Everyone is able to contribute to the Jam, and everyone is welcome and encouraged to get involved. It’s for all levels so don’t be put off thinking it’s only about development and looking at bugs for the weekend, there are loads of areas to help.

The Ubuntu Global Jam incorporates events that have been organized over the world to get Ubuntu contributors and fans together to have a great time and improve Ubuntu. Each event has one or more of our themes:

• Bugs – finding, triaging and fixing bugs.
• Testing – testing the new release and reporting your feedback.
• Upgrade – upgrading to Maverick from Lucid and reporting your upgrade experience.
• Documentation – writing documentation about how to use Ubuntu and how to join the community.
• Translations – translating Ubuntu and helping to make it available in everyone’s local language.
• Packaging – work on Ubuntu packages and improve them.
• Other – other types of contribution such as marketing and advocacy etc.

So what do you need to do to have a UGJ – a venue where you can meet up, suggestions for places to work on are a library room which many will donate free, a coffee shop will often oblige.  Having them in colleges  class rooms are ideal as many are closed for the summer.  Have one in a friends house, just remember to bring something to say thanks!  Don’t be put off if you are having a problem finding a place, you can always join people remotely on your loco irc channel or on #ubuntu-locoteams.

Remember not everyone will have experience in areas, try and help them, use this weekend as an opportunity to help you team learn how they can help with Ubuntu.  If there is someone who likes writing documentation or is good at proof reading manuals, get them to help with your loco wiki, or pick a part of the Ubuntu wiki and work on that as a team.  Encourage your team members to help and mentor others, break into groups and work on things together.  Work still gets done and confidence builds up for future events.

WE have create the Ubuntu Global Jam event on the LoCo Directory - There are at present over 142 teams located on the LoCo directory and only 8 teams have added their events! So lets see if we can get more events on there!   This is a Global event! Lets spread the word and get everyone involved! Join us in #ubuntu-locoteams during the weekend

If you’ve not heard about the LoCo Directory by now, something is wrong! It’s a great site full of some really useful information for you, your team and also for anyone visiting places they can find out all about your team!

All of your team information is stored and displayed here.  You (admins) can edit your team page and list the resources your team offers, from an IRC channel, to wiki, website, help etc.

A great feature for the directory is the fact you can create events on here and keep a track of who’s coming and bringing along folks.  We’re really encouraging everyone to make full use of the directory, but we also know it’s still in its infancy and has some teething issues.

That’s where YOU COME IN, we need your thoughts and inputs. The developers have done an AWESOME  job in getting it up and running and ironing out the kinks but they need some help.  With that in mind Daniel Holbach has organised a meeting and wants YOU THERE!

The meeting will take place in #ubuntu-meeting(irc.freenode.net) on July 8th, 14:00 UTC.

Topics we’d like to talk about:

• explain the project to new interested contributors
• review the list of open bugs and reprioritise for the next 2 or 3 releases
• general Q&A

If you know anything about  Django, Python, Web development or are keen to learn about it and be part of a fantastic project that powers a great and fantastic part of our community, be there and talk to us.

We need your help now to help grow the directory and sort out any issues there are present.  Help now rather than moan about things not working afterwards!