In accordance with our mission statement, the Ubuntu Belgian Team wants to grow the local ecosystem of individuals, companies, non-profits and governmental and intergovernmental institutions in Belgium working (or wanting to work) with Ubuntu. We want to do that by organizing and supporting promotional, educational and community activities.

Because Belgium is a small country with 3 official languages (and many other spoken by immigrants and expats), and all those languages are primarily spoken outside Belgium, we work together with the respective LoCoTeams of those languages (currently mainly ubuntu-nl & ubuntu-fr) so that their and our efforts aren't split up. Many Belgian Team members are also members of their respective language-related teams, e.g. to give support and/or to help with translations or writing documentation.

Key Details

• Date - 2010-02-14

• Team Contact - Jan Claeys <ubuntu@janc.be>

• Membership

  • 123 volunteers listed on https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-be as of 2010-02-14

  • 393 people subscribed to the mailing list as of 2010-02-10

• Mailing List - ubuntu-be on lists.ubuntu.com

• IRC - #ubuntu-be on Freenode

• Web - http://ubuntu-be.org/

Roadmap

• Improving the organization of the Be LoCo Team to work more effectively

  • Activation of the Ubuntu Belgian Events Team

    • in charge of initiating and organizing activities and events

    • https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-be-events

  • Improving the coordination within the Belgian LoCo Team

    • improve and amplify communication through the IRC #ubuntu-be with weekly and dedicated meetings https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/IrcMeetings,

    • development of local teams taking initiatives of events,

  • Reflexion on how to to organize ourself more effectively

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/TeamOrganization

• Promotion

  • Presence at more computer and other fairs

    • Ubuntu-be.org volunteers will participate with booths in most of the Dipro computer fairs (Micro Mega Markt) in Belgium

    • 2010 Planned Schedule : Antwerp, Hobby & Computerdagen, 20/02/2010 – 21/02/2010 in cooperation with the computer club HCC regio Vlaanderen, Brugge, 28/02/2010, Charleroi, 07/03/2010, Mechelen, 14/03/2010, Oostmalle, 21/03/2010, Genk, 28/03/2010, Ghent, 18/04/2010, Antwerp, 09/05/2010

    • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs

    • More about the fairs at: http://www.dipro.be/

  • Looking for opportunities to promote Ubuntu through participation to local initiatives

    • the yearly Digital Week (Ostend (11/2/2010), Bree (07/03/2010), ...),
    • install parties and presentations to local communities (Brugge (18/03/2010), ...),
    • meetings with local authorities and other groups.

• Support points map v3 development

  • the current site is a standalone application. Many of its features are generics (ie. authentication, password retrieval, etc.).

  • it was decided to drop the current codebase and re-boot the project as a Drupal module. A Drupal module would allow it to easily integrated in any LoCo website using Drupal. It also leverage the work done by the Ubuntu Drupal project for theming and integration with Launchpad (OpenID).

  • as for the previous one, the project is developed using the Launchpad infrastructure. Early code is available at http://launchpad.net/support.points.map

• Website development

  • Integration of the support points map in the main website (see above).
  • Streamlining of the existing features (planet, agenda, etc.).

Experience

Activities Ubuntu-be since October 2006

(This is not complete, but it's representative.)

Release Parties

• Karmic Koala : Ubuntu-be participated to RP's in Antwerp on 01/11/2009 and Mechelen on 02/11/2009.

• Jaunty Jackalope Ubuntu-be organized a RP in Ghent on 21/04/2009 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ReleaseParty/Jaunty/Ghent) and participated to RP's in Hasselt on 25/04/2009 and Brussels on 03/05/2009.

• Intrepid Ibex : Ubuntu-be participated to RP's in Brussels on 02/11/2008, Mechelen on 03/11/2008 and Hasselt on 22/11/2008.

• Hardy Heron : Ubuntu-be organized a RP in Herk-de Stad on 03/05/2008 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ReleaseParty/Hardy/Herk-De-Stad_03-may-2008) and participated to a RP in Brussels on 24/04/2008

• Gutsy Gibbon : Ubuntu-be organized a RP in Roeselaere on 24/10/2007 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ReleaseParty/Gutsy/Roeselare24-10-2007) and participated to RP's in Hasselt on 20/10/2007 and Brussels on 21/10/2007.

Ubuntu-be.org volunteers participate with booths in most of the Dipro computer fairs in Belgium

(https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs)

• 2010 : Hasselt, 24/01/2010, Ghent, 31/01/2010, Kortrijk, 07/02/2010
• 2009 : Bredene, 2009/01/25,Brugge, 2009/03/01,Kortrijk, 2009/03/22, Ghent, 2009/04/19, Antwerpen, 2009/05/24, Ghent, 06/09/2009, Antwerpen, 13/09/2009, Hasselt, 27/09/2009, Kortrijk, 04/10/2009, Charleroi, 11/10/2009 in cooperation with local LUG, Ostende, 18/10/2009, Oostmalle, 25/10/2009, Ghent, 08/11/2009, Antwerpen, 29/11/2009, Genk, 06/12/2009, Mechelen, 13/12/2009
• 2008 : Genk, 2008/03/09, Gent, 2008/05/11, Brugge, 2008/10/19, Bredene, 2008/11/02, Antwerpen, 2008/11/09, Gent, 2008/11/23, Mechelen, 2008/12/07

• 2007 : Hasselt, 2007/01/07, Antwerpen, 2007/01/14, Gent, 2007/01/21Antwerpen, Hobby & MicroComputerdagen, 24-25 februari 2007, Kortrijk, 2007/03/18, Mechelen, 2007/04/01, Gent, 2007/05/06, Antwerpen, 2007/05/13, Hasselt, 2007/05/20, Antwerpen, 2007/09/09, Gent, 2007/09/16, Charleroi, 2007/09/30, Kortrijk, 2007/10/14, Oostende, 2007/10/28, Antwerpen, 2007/11/11, Gent, 2007/11/25, Genk, 2007/12/02

• 2006 :Leuven, 2006/10/15, Liège, 2006/10/22, Oostende, 2006-10-29, Kortrijk, 2006-11-05, Gent, 2006-11-26, Mechelen, 2006-12-10, Namur, 2006/12/17

Other fairs

• Ubuntu-be.org was present at the International Fair Accenta 2009 in Flanders Expo - Ghent on 19-20/09/2009 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/Accenta_2009).

• Ubuntu-be was present at the Reva 2009 fair in Flanders Expo - Ghent on 23-25/04/2009 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/Reva2009).

FOSDEM

Ubuntu-be.org volunteers participate at FOSDEM (Free And Open Source Software Developper's European Meeting) FOSDEM is a free and non-commercial event organized by the community, for the community. Its goal is to provide Free and Open Source developers a place to meet.

• 06-07/02/2010 (http://www.fosdem.org/2010/ - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Fosdem/2010)

• 07-08/02/2009 (http://picasaweb.google.be/david.madbox/Fosdem2009#)

• 23-24/02/2008 (http://picasaweb.google.be/david.madbox/Fosdem2008#)

• 24-25/02/2007

Other events

• Ubuntu-be participated to a meeting organized by Digipolis – Section Ghent (http://www.digipolis.be/) on 14/12/2009. The subject was the development of 77 Public computer rooms in Ghent area. The Be LoCo Team presented Ubuntu and other FOSS as alternative.

• Ubuntu-be participated to the Software Freedom Day 2009 (19/09) in collaboration with the computer club HCC regio Vaanderen organizing an Open Door Day (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/HCC_Vlaanderen_OpenDeurDag_2009-09-19)

• Ubuntu-be.org was present at the Flemish education conference BelgianTeam/VLOD_2007 (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/VLOD_2007).

• Ubuntu-be.org was present at the Wetenschap Expo-Sciences fair on May 3-5, 2007 BelgianTeam/WEXS_2007, together with the BxLug (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/WEXS_2007).

• Ubuntu-be initiated train station actions with distribution of flyers and presentation on wide screens at the stations in Leuven on Sunday evening 21/10/2007, in Leuven on Sunday evening 28/10/2007 and in Liège on Sunday 21/10/2007.

• Flares of active press work, and a listing continuously updated Ubuntu press coverage list at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/PressCoverage . A few well prepared press releases and active followup. Some highlights: articles in the biggest newspapers De Standaard, Het Nieuwsblad, Het Laatste Nieuws, interview on Radio 1 (local equivalent of NPR, but with 10x the local market share),...

Development of the website http://ubuntu-be.org

• Main Website
  • we started with a lightweight CMS and later switched to Drupal.
  • the initial goal of the website was to provide minimal but attractive information about Ubuntu and Ubuntu-be

  • it has has been continuously developped with addition to meet the needs of the LoCo team and sustain its activities:

    • use of the Ubuntu Drupal modules

    • a chat page, to ease participation to the discussions in our #ubuntu-be
    • an agenda, to gather information on Ubuntu/FOSS related events in Belgium

    • a planet page, to create more community feelings by sharing content already produced by member of the LoCo team.

    • a forum page, to provide an alternative means to access the mailing list.
  • Main contributors Pierre Buyle.

• Support Points Map (http://map.ubuntu-be.org)

  • allow supporters to register and commit to provides new-comers with

    • Ubuntu CDs (from ShipIt, home burned, etc.)

    • help with their first installation
    • demonstration of Ubuntu
  • proved useful, especially to efficiently distribute CDs

  • initialy developed by Mark Van den Borre

  • rewritten in PHP4 (using the CodeIgniter framework) as an open source project (http://launchpad.net/support.points.map)

  • dev. stalled but the site remains useful and continue to prove useful
    • currently being rewritten as a Drupal module (see roadmap)