Approval Application for Brazil Group (ubuntu-br)

Key Details

• Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/people/brazilianteam (Team of Ubuntu Members from Brazil)

• Web Site: http://www.ubuntu-br.org/

• Wiki: http://wiki.ubuntu-br.org

• Planet: http://planeta.ubuntu-br.org/

• Forum: http://forum.ubuntu-br.org/

• Users Map: http://wiki.ubuntu-br.org/UbunterosNoBrasil

• Users on Launchpad: http://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-br

• Mailing Lists: ubuntu-br@lists.ubuntu.com, registration url

• IRC Channel: #ubuntu-br @ Freenode, irc.freenode.net

Experience

The Ubuntu Brazilian team was started about five and half years ago with the creation of the Planet Ubuntu Brazil and our Wiki. Since then we have increase in size and quality with each user that Ubuntu wins in Brazil, and we like to think we had something to do with this increase.

On the Ubuntu Brazilian Users team on Launchpad we have more than 1431 members, which all of those have signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct.

With 19 Ubuntu Members, the Brazilian Team is one of the biggest Ubuntu teams.

We have Regional Teams which are subteams that cover 24 of the 27 brazilian states. These local teams are formed to give local support and attendence to the local events that happens every month. This includes Install Fests, FLOSS Events, Local discussion meeting, etc.

With a centralized system, we distribute Ubuntu CDs, be passing on the loco cd or burning and sending via mail for those who can't download or wait others users. In this page http://wiki.ubuntu-br.org/CDsNoBrasil any user can leave his name and contact information organized by state/city to be a 'sending post' so then other users can request CDs in a colaborative way.

The Ubuntu-BR Website, has a complete reference of all the ways to get Ubuntu, get support, get involved, get knowledge and so forth. There we have a visit average of 2.500 unique visitors daily.

The Teams

• Whe have a centralized community that works together in each segment and subteam, which are the following ones:

• Documentation Team - This team was created one year ago with the proposal to create, translate, organize and maintain the documentation about Ubuntu in Brazilizan Portuguese. This work is being done by the people of the team among the users and others contributors that are always invited to join us. Some results of this work can be found in the Brazilian Documentation page.

• Translation Team - The responsible to bring Ubuntu almost entirely translated in pt_BR, the default set of applications are > 90% translated. This team is coordenated by AndreGondim since 2008.

• Security Team - Team responsible to create documentation about security and how to hard your Ubuntu box, and also works in the translation of some critical Ubuntu Security News (usn). This team is without admin ATM

What we are doing

• Guiding and Educating Users - Trying to make the switch to Ubuntu even easier, we have worked hard to get the new users comfortable with their new community. The current http://www.ubuntu-br.org webpage was written thinking on usability and acessibility. To direct new users where they should start, we have created the page Start Here page.

• Advocacy - With more than 30 columnists, the Planet Ubuntu Brazil brings the word of Ubuntu every single day to the Ubuntu Brazilian users, keeping them updated about the Ubuntu news, tips and tricks and promoting the OS to new users.

• Support - To help users to get support and involved with Ubuntu, we offer the support and discussion forum. Our huge portuguese forum is used by people from different countries where Portuguese is their main language, totalizing more than 12.000 registered users. Another form of support is the discussion lists freely available for the community. The major list is the ubuntu-br, where we have 1014 registered users.

• Documentation - The main activities of the Brazilian Documentation Team are related with creating new documentation (tutorials, tips, how-to,...) in portuguese and organizing them in the Ubuntu Brazilian Wiki. The content is focused on new users, trying to make the instructions as easy to follow as possible once the number of new ubuntu users in Brazil is growing fast.

• Translation - As you may know, the Translation Team is responsible for delivering to the end user a system completely translated in their languages, and it's what the Ubuntu Portuguese Brazilian Translator does.

• Advocate - We participate on some events giving presentations about the Brazillian community and how to use Ubuntu at home and yours organizations.

• We also encourage new users to participate actively in the community. For example, each team has a wikipage explaining how to help, contribute and join the team, guiding the user through the "easiest" and "quickest" route to contribute. See the Documentation Team How To Participate page and the Translation Team one, and also the general How to Participate.

Roadmap

What we plan to do

• Increase even more each team, bringing new people to help and spreading the ubuntu philosophy
• Get Ubuntu 100% translated to PT-BR (we're on the way!)
• Create an interaction between the Wiki and forum. It's a good way to create more documentation and at the same time offer a place where the user can solve its problem related with
• Do (in the next few months) our first Ubuntu-BR Open Week -- with sessions teaching how to translate, to document (something like a Open Wiki ;)) and so forth.