CommunityContributePages

Ubuntu Community Contribute Pages

Contents

Ubuntu Community Contribute Pages
1. Structure
2. Content

As part of the 10.10 we are keen to provide a simple tour of contributor roles on ubuntu.com/community, providing a rock solid set of opportunities for how people can contribute to Ubuntu. This will be structured as a list of the common roles, each of which links to a page which provides a common structure with key information about that role.

To get the ball rolling I have produced this common structure and documented an initial set of components, but need help to flesh out the content to get it ready.

When editing content please bear the following rules in mind:

The writing style should be clear and easy to read.
The style should be attractive and excited about contributing - the goal here is to "sell" getting involved to prospective community members.
This content is targeted at end-users and potential developers, but don't assume the reader knows anything about the technology.
Please keep your content within the structure of the Structure section below.

Please don't add additional components to this page yet.

Any questions? Email Jono Bacon at jono AT ubuntu DOT com or chrisjohnston AT ubuntu DOT com.

Structure

Caption that explains who is in the photo.

First provide a 20 world bolded out description that summarizes (a) the role and (b) how it makes Ubuntu better.

Now provide two paragraphs of more detailed content about what is involved in the role. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis interdum metus sed odio aliquet mollis. Pellentesque imperdiet suscipit dui vitae tincidunt. Donec a iaculis enim. Morbi pharetra vestibulum facilisis. Pellentesque egestas aliquam eros, eget blandit odio malesuada varius. Donec dolor nibh, elementum ac dignissim a, sagittis sed dui. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Nam nec turpis nibh, eu dapibus lectus.

Morbi adipiscing erat id felis elementum luctus. Nunc erat mi, aliquet sed pulvinar vel, lacinia ut nulla. Fusce id urna est. Duis luctus convallis turpis, et suscipit risus ultricies id. Proin ut lacinia nunc. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Mauris blandit, eros sed ultrices ullamcorper, risus nibh condimentum lorem, at accumsan quam elit quis turpis.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.

Case Study: <Person>

Provide a case study, no larger than 100 words about an individual who has participated and loved their work. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis interdum metus sed odio aliquet mollis. Pellentesque imperdiet suscipit dui vitae tincidunt. Donec a iaculis enim. Morbi pharetra vestibulum facilisis. Pellentesque egestas aliquam eros, eget blandit odio malesuada varius. Donec dolor nibh, elementum ac dignissim a, sagittis sed dui. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Nam nec turpis nibh, eu dapibus lectus.

Content

Content can be added below...

Developers

developers

Ted Gould and Aurélien Gateux working together.

Create packages, resolve problems and have your work affect millions of Ubuntu users the world over.

Developers are the backbone of the Ubuntu community. They work to take software often created elsewhere in the Open Source ecosystem, they package it with the Debian Packaging System and these packages are added to Ubuntu. Not only this but developers will often take contributed fixes and additional features and add them to Ubuntu packages to make them better. Our developer workforce help make Ubuntu what it is: a world renowned, powerful Operating System for everyone.

Everyone is welcome to become a developer. To do so you first need to learn the Debian Packaged System that we use to create packages (read our Packaging Guide at <URL>). You can then participate by contributing your first packages. To do this new developers need to contribute their work to the Sponsorship Queue, whereupon existing developers will review it, provide feedback, and upload when it meets our quality requirements. To get direct upload access to Ubuntu you need to become a 'core developer', and you can find out more about this at <URL>.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Make new software available to all Ubuntu users - if a software application not available for Ubuntu, you can package it and make it available to everyone.
Help get other's contributions in Ubuntu - we have many bug fixes and patches that our community creates, and developers help to get these benefits into Ubuntu.
Excellent technical training - becoming an Ubuntu developers plugs you into an incredible technical learning experience and ride, and these skills are transferable.
Help your career - a variety of different distributions and software integrators hire developers as a priority; kickstart your career by learning the skills.
Have your work touch millions of users - Ubuntu is used by millions of users and your work on a package or adding a bug fix can bring huge benefits to these millions of people.

Find out more:

Ubuntu Packaging Guide - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide - learn how to get started learning the skills to produce Ubuntu packages here.
Getting Started as a MOTU - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/GettingStarted - if you want to get upload access to Ubuntu, this is the place to begin.

Case Study: <Person>

Documentation Authors

Caption that explains who is in the photo.

First provide a 20 world bolded out description that summarizes (a) the role and (b) how it makes Ubuntu better.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.

Case Study: <Person>

Artists

Caption that explains who is in the photo.

First provide a 20 world bolded out description that summarizes (a) the role and (b) how it makes Ubuntu better.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.

Case Study: <Person>

Support

(pleia2)

Elizabeth of the Ubuntu Pennsylvania Team explaining the boot-up menu to volunteers at Girls, Inc. in Philadelphia.

Providing support to users through forums, mailing lists, chat, and through online and in-person outlets.

One of the first questions many people ask when they begin using Ubuntu is "How do I get help?" Help for Ubuntu is primarily community-based, so the support community is always looking for more people to help so that users get answers to questions when they have them..

There are many ways to contribute to support within the community, which makes it a very easy to give support to users whether you're more comfortable using mailing lists, or helping in chat, or joining your local team and giving support in person. Getting started is simple, join the help outlet you wish to use and help answer questions you know how to answer as they come up.

Five reasons to get involved in support:

Easy to get involved - Everyone is someone's guru! As soon as you start learning about Ubuntu, you know that much more than someone new to Ubuntu.
No commitments - Want to volunteer to help for 20 minutes a week? 20 hours a week? For a couple hours every few months? All of these are fine! You're welcome to sign up for mailing lists or join chat and support users on your time, as much or as little as you want.
Helps new users make the switch - Many new users to Ubuntu seek out support to get used to the new system, knowing there are support people like you available to help goes a long way to help users make the switch.
Self-satisfaction - There is satisfaction in helping someone else resolve their problem so they can enjoy the distribution, too.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Chat
Forums
Mailing Lists
Launchpad Answers - Launchpad's technical answers system
Local Community Teams - Localized teams promoting and supporting Ubuntu

Case Study: <Person>

Bug Triagers

Bug Triagers working together at the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam in London.

Keep track of current bugs in Ubuntu and make sure that major bugs do not go unnoticed by developers.

The Ubuntu Bug Triagers Team is called the Ubuntu BugSquad which is an essential asset in progressing Ubuntu and its derivatives; The BugSquad is the first point of contact for the bugs filed about Ubuntu. Members assign bugs to packages, ensure that bug reports are complete, find duplicate bug reports, recreate bugs, and forward bugs to their upstream authors. All of these activities help bugs get fixed and subsequently make Ubuntu even better.

What the BugSquad does is also known as Triaging, which is similar to the process of prioritizing patients in a hospital based on the severity of their condition. This allows developers to spend their time more effectively, and is a great way to learn about how Ubuntu works as an operating system and as a community. It's also not uncommon for triagers to discover new and interesting features they didn't know about!

Five reasons to get involved as a Bug Triager:

Help to make Ubuntu even better - Making sure that major bugs do not go unnoticed by the developers.
Improves the Quality of the software - By triaging the Bug reports of that package.
You Don't need programming Knowledge - It's a great way to contribute to Ubuntu even if you cannot program at all.
It's a pleasure helping solve someone's problem - Being the first point of contact to people sending us their bugs, it's always a huge satisfaction helping solve someone's problem and they reply-back thanking us for helping fix their bug.
Triage at your convenience - You can triage anytime you want to.

Find out more:

BugSquad - The Ubuntu BugSquad home.
How To Triage - Documentation about how to triage bugs in Ubuntu.
UbuntuBugDay - Ubuntu Bug days are perfect to join the BugSquad.

Case Study: <Person>

Testers

developers

The Ubuntu QA team, working together at Prague.

You can help making Ubuntu better, one testcase at a time.

Every piece of software needs to be fully tested before it reaches a wider audience. In Ubuntu we test every single piece of free software that is part of Ubuntu. As an Ubuntu Tester you will have the opportunity to try the latest features that the rest of the users will use in the following six months. You will learn how Ubuntu development works and you will get in contact with other testers and developers.

Using your own hardware, or any of the virtualizations technologies available in Ubuntu, you will be able to test the installer during milestone testing, test the newest desktop applications or try to find regressions in the old ones, test new technologies like multitouch, test your hardware, to see if it works correctly with Ubuntu, etc. Ubuntu is a huge project, so there are always open opportunities.

Five reasons to get involved as a tester:

You make Ubuntu better - You are helping making Ubuntu always better by providing good bug reports.
Ubuntu will work better on your hardware - If you test the kernel with your own hardware, the kernel team will get feedback and they will work on it.
Learn the development process - You will need to talk to other testers and developers on IRC. Soon, you will realise that you are learning how the Ubuntu development cycle works.
Know about the latest developments - You will get to play with the latest Ubuntu developments before anybody else.
Have fun breaking stuff - Play. Research. Discover. Break the software on ways nobody has ever tried before. And, of course, submit a bug report

Find out more:

Testing - The central location on the wiki for testing resources.
Desktop Testing Program - This program aims to test the desktop applications in Ubuntu.
Writing a useful report - This is a guide on how to report bugs that are useful for developers. Every tester should read this document.

Case Study: <Person>

Translators

(dpm - WIP)

Catalan team doing translations during the Ubuntu Global Jam.

Translate Ubuntu software make the Operating System available in everyone's own language

We believe that every computer user should be able to use their software in their language of choice. As an Ubuntu translator you can put your language skills to work by translating Ubuntu from English to your language. Use Launchpad and your browser to translate free software online with an easy to use, wiki-style interface and make it possible for users to naturally use Ubuntu in their own tongue.

You choose how much you want to get involved: from submitting a few translation suggestions to joining a translation team and becoming a full-fledged Ubuntu Translator. The range of opportunities to help improving Ubuntu's native language support is broad: translating applications, drafting translation terminology and guidelines, filing and fixing internationalization bugs, participating in discussions and helping other translators, providing internationalization support to applications are just a few examples.

Five reasons to get involved as a translator:

Make Ubuntu accessible in your language - enable users to work with Ubuntu in their language of choice.
Promote the use of your language - being Free Software, Ubuntu can be translated to almost any language. From day one you can spread the use of your language in IT, the Internet and in social life through the Ubuntu platform and community, without depending on anyone else than you.
Learn about other languages - join the global Ubuntu Translations community and get involved in a rich and diverse translator community from all over the world.
Translate collaboratively - use Launchpad Translations, the online translation tool for Ubuntu and other projects. With it, you can easily translate software and build translation communities without the need for special tools or in-depth technical knowledge on translation technology.
Get experience with internationalization technology - if you are interested in the underlying technology for Ubuntu translations, you can also get involved at the technical level by adding or improving natural language support for applications, fixing bugs or providing better font or input method support.

Find out more:

Ubuntu translation teams - join the translation team for your language.
Ubuntu translations in Launchpad - start translating Ubuntu in Launchpad.
Ubuntu Translations wiki - learn more about Ubuntu Translations.

Case Study: <Person>

Advocates

(czajkowski)

Advocates

Laura Czajkowski with members of the Ubuntu Ireland LoCo at a global jam.

Helping members of the community get motivated, organised and involved in the development of Ubuntu and promotion of it.

The first question everyone asks is How can they get involved? , followed by Where do they start? Keep it simple. If you are involved in your LoCo why not organise a talk for you LoCo , pick a date, time and a location and turn up and discuss something topical. Try and organise events on a regular basis, an Ubuntu Hour is a great idea, it's informal and just requires folks to meet up face to face. Make sure when you organise an event to publish it to the LoCo Directory, that way more people know about it. Simple regular events keeps people interested in helping out.

Mentor people in your team, they could be shy and don't want to try things on their own. If you help them or get others to help, pair people up they'll feel more confident about helping out that way. Pool your resources, ask your team for help or for contacts in the media if you have an event or an idea you'd like more coverage on. Try to encourage people to contribute, be patient, there is a role for everyone in the community to give back and help promote Ubuntu. Try and attend events run by other organisations, working with other groups is often a great way to open other avenues to advocating Ubuntu you never would have had the chance of doing so.

Five reasons to get involved in advocacy:

It's very easy to get involved - Everyone wants to help they're just unsure where to start.
If you want to help, it's always welcomed no matter what size of the contribution
Helping users and new users get involved - We need users and helping them get involved means more people to spread the knowledge of Ubuntu
It's a great way to meet people, learn how they do things and get ideas for your own area you are promoting.
You'll enjoy it and want to help more and more people!

Find out more:

Chat - IRC join #ubuntu-locoteams and meet the large Ubuntu community
Forums - loads of great ideas and discussions taking place
Mailing Lists - Ubuntu LoCo Contacts list is a great way to discuss ideas for LoCos, also your LoCo Mailing list
Launchpad Answers - Launchpad's technical answers system
Local Community Teams, can be seen on the Ubuntu LoCo Directory - Localied teams promoting and supporting Ubuntu

Case Study: <Person>

Designers

(tbd by Jono)

Caption that explains who is in the photo.

First provide a 20 world bolded out description that summarizes (a) the role and (b) how it makes Ubuntu better.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.

Case Study: <Person>

Application Authors

(jono)

Caption that explains who is in the photo.

First provide a 20 world bolded out description that summarizes (a) the role and (b) how it makes Ubuntu better.

Five reasons to get involved as a <component>:

Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.
Reason - no more than 50 words about the reason.

Find out more:

Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.
Resource name that links to a site - description of the resource.

Case Study: <Person>

CommunityContributePages (last edited 2010-09-16 20:56:27 by pc-213-49-161-190)

Ubuntu Wiki

CommunityContributePages

Ubuntu Community Contribute Pages

Structure

Content

Developers

Documentation Authors

Artists

Support

Bug Triagers

Testers

Translators

Advocates

Designers

Application Authors