This is a draft of the new "Contribute To Ubuntu" we hope to include in the shipped documentation for Edgy Eft.

Introduction

Ubuntu is most of all a community. All of the software, artwork and documentation in Ubuntu has been created, tested, used and discussed openly by people around the world participating in the Open Source community made possible by the Internet. Anyone who uses Ubuntu is part of this global community, and we invite you to help shape Ubuntu to better meet your needs. To make it yours!

Anyone can help shape and improve Ubuntu. You can do it by using Ubuntu in your everyday life and recommending it to others, by helping other users, by translating programs or documents to your native language, by testing the software and reporting issues, by creating artwork or writing documentation, by fixing software issues, writing new software or keeping others' software up to date. You can read more about how to begin contributing below.

No matter how you want to contribute, we will welcome new drive and ideas and any contributions to improve Ubuntu and spread Open Source to the world.

Spreading the Word

The easiest way to give back to the Ubuntu community is by sharing Ubuntu with others: Recommend Ubuntu to others, show them how to download and install Ubuntu and the possibilities and qualities of Open Source Software. As the Ubuntu community grows, so does its influence and the more accepted and supported Ubuntu will become! You can spread the word by:

• Ordering CDs from Shipit and give them to people who might be interested. Drop them off at libraries, Internet Cafes, schools, computer shops or anywhere else where people use computers. Be sure to help people to use and understand Ubuntu if they become interested.
• Give a talk at your local school, Linux User Group or library on Ubuntu! There are lots of notes from other Ubuntu talks given by others in several languages are available on the wiki.

• Write a short account of how and why you use Ubuntu by following these guidelines and send it to mystory@ubuntu.com. Your story can then be used to show others how Ubuntu can be used!

• Join or start a Local Community Team - if you like Ubuntu, it is likely that others around you like it as well! See the "Going Local!" section for details.

Marketing

If you want to help promoting and marketing Ubuntu in a more general and coordinated effort, you can join the Ubuntu Marketing Team which coordinates a number projects including a community-run Ubuntu magazine to spread awareness of Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the MarketingTeam wiki page.

• Join the ubuntu-marketing mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-marketing IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Going Local!

Chances are that you are not the only person in your city, region or country who is using Ubuntu. You can help to make Ubuntu better for people in your area by helping out local Ubuntu users or translating the Ubuntu software and documentation to your local language.

LoCo teams

if you want to meet other Ubuntu users in your area, you should look for a Local Ubuntu Community team (LoCo team for short) to join. There are LoCo teams spread out all over the world, and you can find a list of all of them [:LoCoTeamList here]. If there isn't a LoCo team near you, you can found a new one! Just follow the instructions on the wiki.

Contact:

• Read the LoCoTeams wiki page.

• Join your local LoCo Team mailing-list and IRC channel (details can be found on the LoCoTeamList wiki page)

Translation

If your home language is not English but you happen to have really good English skills and are comfortable using software in English, you help to translate the Ubuntu applications and documentation into your native language. To help out you can:

• Use the web-based Rosetta translation system makes it easy to translate Ubuntu applications into your language. Even if you just translate a few lines you may make all the difference to someone in your own country who is just starting to learn about computers and Free Software.
• Translate popular wiki pages within the Documentation Wiki.
• Test that your local language fonts and display works correctly. If they don't, file bug reports on the issues.

Contact:

• Join your local LoCo Team mailing-list and IRC channel (details can be found on the LoCoTeamList wiki page) to get in touch with other users in your region so you can coordinate your translation efforts.

• Join the Ubuntu-Translators mailing list to stay in touch with other Ubuntu translators.

Helping others with Ubuntu

You can make a major contribution to the Ubuntu project by helping others use Ubuntu. There are four main community support channels where you can help out other Ubuntu users by answering questions and referring them to relevant documentation:

• Join the Ubuntu support mailing-list ubuntu-users.
• Join the Ubuntu support and discussion IRC channel: #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
• Join the Ubuntu Forums
• Check the Launchpad Support Tracker for support requests for Ubuntu that you can solve.

NB: If you prefer to help other Ubuntu users in another language than English, please refer to the LoCoTeamList for info on local language support options where you can help out.

New User Network

If you want to help others who are learning how to use Ubuntu, you can join the New User Network - a group of community supporters who spend 10 or so hours a week helping new users.

Contact:

• Read the NewUserNetwork wiki page

• Join the #ubuntu-nun IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Usability

If you want to improve the usability of Ubuntu, you can try out one of the Ubuntu usability tests on your friends, and record their reactions and impressions of Ubuntu. You can then report these impressions to the Ubuntu Desktop team.

Contact:

• Read the UsabilityTesting Wiki page

• Join the ubuntu-desktop mailing-list

Accessibility

If you are interested in making Ubuntu and its derivatives usable by as many people as possible across ages, language and physical abilities, you can help the Ubuntu Accessibility Team with improving the accessibility support on the Ubuntu platform and the software that runs on it.

Contact:

• Read the Accessibility Team wiki page
• Join the ubuntu-accessibility mailing list
• Join the #ubuntu-accessibility IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
• Participate on the Accessibility section of the Ubuntu Forums

Writing Documentation

If you get stumped by a problem with Ubuntu, chances are good that many other people will be frustrated by it as well. If you are not currently able to write code to fix the problem, you can help everyone else out by writing up your experience and documenting the solution! All documentation and help pages in Ubuntu are written by volunteer community members gathered in the Ubuntu Documentation Team, and you can help out in a number of ways:

• Check the existing documentation to see if it covers your problem. If it does, you can add to it, edit it or remove errors (such as typos, grammar and spelling, and technical errors), send any suggestions and changes to the Documentation Team mailing-list.
• If no relevant documentation exists, you can add a page in the Documentation Wiki which is a separate community wiki for editing and writing documentation. Rather than answer a question two or more times, write up the answer and make it available to everyone in the wiki.
• Read through the HOWTOs and other documentation in the Ubuntu Forums and check them for accuracy, and put them in the Documentation Wiki.
• Join one of the Documentation Team projects and work on directly on maintaining and developing one of the guides for Ubuntu or one of its derivatives. A new version of these guides are released with each new release of Ubuntu, and these are translated through the translation tool Rosetta in the same manner as all other applications in Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the DocTeam wiki page

• Join the Documentation team mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-doc IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

Wiki

You can spell check, edit or write the pages of the Ubuntu wiki. The better and more accessible the information in the wiki is, the easier it will be for people to use. You can find a list of pages in need of editing on the WikiToDo page. The Wiki is maintained by the Wiki Team - a group of active wiki contributors that edit and clean up the main Ubuntu wiki according to a community-maintained Styleguide.

Contact:

• Read the team wiki page
• Join the Documentation team mailing-list and the #ubuntu-doc IRC channel on irc.freenode.net - both of which are also used for Wiki team discussion.

Creating Artwork

If you have artistic talent, you can help improve the style and feel of the Ubuntu desktop by contributing to the artwork and design of the next release of Ubuntu. All of the splash screens, icons, wallpapers and sounds of Ubuntu are designed, discussed and approved by the Ubuntu Artwork team, and you can help out by examining the current approved Ubuntu artwork projects at https://launchpad.net/people/ubuntu-art/+specs and create something that will fit with what is being planned with the next release of Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the ArtTeam wiki page,

• Join the Ubuntu-art mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-artwork IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

Testing and Bug squashing

Ubuntu, like any other software, needs good testers. You can contribute to Ubuntu simply by running the latest version and reporting software issues - we call them bugs - and helping to manage those bugs until they are fixed.

Software Testing

All software-specific bugs is the domain of the Ubuntu Bugsquad which is the Quality Assurance (QA) team for Ubuntu. Getting involved with the Bugsquad is easy:

• Join the Ubuntu devel-announce mailing-list to get all of the announcements of when a new development version of Ubuntu is released. The development version of Ubuntu is the one that the developers are currently working on, so they're usually quite unstable and full of bugs.
• Download and run the latest development version of Ubuntu, and upgrade it regularly. You can download the Ubuntu development version here. Do not use a development release as your main operating system, if you feel comfortable using an operating system that may break with a new upgrade.
• You will run into problems when you run a development version of Ubuntu, when you do you should report those problems as bugs in the Ubuntu bug tracker. Unless you let the developers know of the bugs you encounter, they won't be able to fix them as they need information on under which circumstances these bugs occur.
• When you find a bug, you should report bugs into the Ubuntu Bug tracker. You should check that the bug hasn't already been reported by searching for it. If you find the bug already reported, you can add a comment of your own about it, or change its status to "Confirmed". If the bug hasn't been reported, you can file a new bug report.
• You can make a huge impact by fixing bugs that bother you, and thus improve Ubuntu!

Contact:

• Read the Bug Squad wiki page
• Join the #ubuntu-bugs IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
• Check the devel-announce mailing-list for announcements of Bug days which are special occasions where the Bug Squad mount special efforts to teach new contributors how to find, reproduce, confirm and close bugs.

Also see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs

Hardware Testing

All hardware-specific bugs - ie. bugs that only appear when certain hardware or certain combinations of hardware - belong to the the Ubuntu Testing Teams. With each new Ubuntu development release, it is necessary to test whether all of the Ubuntu system and associated applications still work with all kinds of hardware and peripherals. You can help by testing Ubuntu on your own hardware.

General Testing

• The Ubuntu Testing Teams have made a list of things they need to test on every new development release. Run through the list and test each part. Note any failures and fill out a report and send it to the Ubuntu-devel mailing-list.

Contact:

• Read the Testing wiki page
• Join the ubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-devel IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Laptop Testing

If you have a laptop, you can join the Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team for laptop-specific testing.

Contact:

• Read the LaptopTesting wiki page

• Join the ubuntu-laptop mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-laptop IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

Server Testing

If you run a server, you can join the Ubuntu Server Testing Team for server-specific testing.

Contact:

• Read the ServerTesting wiki page

• Join the ubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-server IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.

NB: Please note that none of these channels are support channels per-se, please use #ubuntu for that!

Writing code

You can make technical contributions to Ubuntu by preparing - we call it packaging - other Open Source software for use in Ubuntu, by fixing bugs in software already included with Ubuntu or by writing brand new software. No matter what kind of technical contribution you would like to make to Ubuntu, we recommend that you join the ubuntu-devel and ubuntu-devel-announce mailing-lists. All information about technical development passes through these mailing-lists.

Packaging (MOTU)

If you know of a cool application, feature or change available else in the Open Source world that you would like to have in Ubuntu, you can add it yourself by packaging it for Ubuntu.

All software in Ubuntu is arranged in software packages called .deb files. Most of these packages are taken from the Debian distribution and merged and stabilized for use with Ubuntu, though others are prepared directly from the source code. These packages are all sorted into two repositories, Main - containing the core component packages which are maintained by the core Ubuntu developers, and Universe - containing all other Open Source packages which are maintained by the Ubuntu developers who humorously call themselves Masters of the Universe - or MOTUs for short.

If you want to get involved with packaging, you can help out the MOTUs as a MOTU hopeful. The MOTUs are community members who have been granted upload rights to the Universe repository by the Technical Board, whereas MOTU Hopefuls are community members (like you) helping out, gathering experience and who one day may gain upload rights themselves.

To get started as a MOTU helpful you can:

• Get in touch with a MOTU Mentor who will help you with the basics.
• Read the Packaging Guide
• Join the MOTU school lessons that address relevant issues about package maintenance.

• Look over the MOTU ToDo list to see which projects need help.

Once you have gained experience with packaging tasks (for example, by playing an active role in the MOTU team), you will be able to move from a universe-only maintainer to an Ubuntu core developer by .

NB: The MOTUs also maintain the packages for K|Ed|X|ubuntu and the other Ubuntu derivatives, so you if you want to contribute to one of these specifically, you will need to get involved with the MOTUs.

Contact:

• Check out the MOTU wiki page
• join the #ubuntu-motu IRC channel on irc.freenode.net
• join the ubuntu-motu, the ubuntu-devel and the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing lists.

Programming

If you want to program brand-new features specifically for Ubuntu or redesign and develop current ones, there are several ways to get you started:

• Look through the list of Ubuntu specifications on Launchpad. Pick one that interests you, and hopefully there should be enough information to begin with an implementation.
• Look through the list of paid bounty projects that are registered for Ubuntu in Launchpad. Pick one that interests you and submit a proposal and references.
• Write and package brand new software for Ubuntu. Contact the MOTUs to get new software into the Ubuntu Universe so that people can try it out and give you feedback. In time it may become part of the Ubuntu Main portfolio of applications that are available to all Ubuntu users by default.

Contact:

• Read what wiki page???
• Join the ubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-devel IRC Channel on irc.freenode.net

Maintaining Ubuntu

The core elements of Ubuntu are maintained by number of specialized teams with their own area of responsibility. If you have a special interest in helping out in one of these areas, you can involved with that specific team.

Desktop Team

If you are especially interested in the Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, you can get involved with the Desktop Team which works to bring the latest cool GNOME desktop stuff to Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the DesktopTeam wiki page.

• Join the ubuntu-desktop mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-desktop IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Kubuntu Team

If you are especially interested in the Kubuntu KDE Desktop, you can get involved with the Kubuntu Team which works to bring the latest cool KDE desktop stuff to Kubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the HelpingKubuntu wiki page.

• Join the kubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #kubuntu IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Server Team

If you are especially interested in the Ubuntu Server, you can get involved with the Server Team which works to bring the latest system administration tools and server applications to Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the ServerTeam wiki page.

• Join the ubuntu-server mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-server IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Laptop Team

If you are especially interested in the Ubuntu Server, you can get involved with the Server Team which works to bring the latest system administration tools and server applications to Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the LaptopTeam wiki page.

• Join the laptop-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-laptop IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Kernel Team

If you are interested in hacking on the Linux kernel specifically for Ubuntu, you can get involved with the Kernel Team.

Contact:

• Read the KernelTeam wiki page.

• Join the kernel-team mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-kernel IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

X Swat Team

If you want to get involved with the Ubuntu version of X.org, a good place to start would be the X Swat Team which maintains X.org in Ubuntu.

Contact:

• Read the XSwat wiki page.
• Join the ubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-devel IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Installer Team

If you want to work on the Ubuntu Installer, you can get involved with the Installer Team.

Contact:

• Read the InstallerTeam wiki page.

• Join the ubuntu-devel mailing-list
• Join the #ubuntu-devel IRC channel on irc.freenode.net

Giving Ideas and Feedback

If you have ideas and suggestions on new features and improvements that you would like to see and help bring to Ubuntu, you can:

• Add your ideas to the IdeaPool for features you'd like to see in Ubuntu, products, marketing suggestions or any other ideas you'd like to add here. Before each new release cycle is initiated, the developers go through the Idea Pool and bring up any ideas that they like.

• Write a specification - a short description what feature or improvement you would like to implement and why and how it should be implemented. All specifications for Ubuntu are tracked in Blueprint, the Specification tracking part of the Launchpad system. Writing a good specification is an art the finer points of which is discussed [:SpecSpec:here].

• Once you have written your specification, you will need to get it approved for inclusion in Ubuntu by the Ubuntu core developers. Specifications are approved at the Ubuntu Developers' Summit which take place at the beginning of each new development cycle. You will need to add your specification to the Summit listing in Launchpad and show up at the summmit and present your specification, lead discussion and submit it for approval. If you can't make it to the summit in person, you can either have another community member present it for you, or try to present through on-line chat or VOIP.
• Another way to get your feature into Ubuntu is by packaging it for the Universe repositories and thus making it available to other Ubuntu users. This will make it possible for others to try it out before committing to having it as a standard feature of Ubuntu.

Remember that in the open source world, work counts more than talk so try to find friends or link up with people who can help turn your vision into reality.

Ubuntu Membership

Anyone who has made significant contributions to the Ubuntu community can be recognized as an Ubuntu Member by applying for membership to the Community Council. Ubuntu Members play an essential role in Ubuntu governance as they may be called upon to vote on resolutions put to the members by the Community Council and generally confirm its decisions. You also need to become an Ubuntu Member in order to become an Ubuntu Developer or MOTU.

As a Member you will get an email address @ubuntu.com and the right to carry Ubuntu business cards too (We'll supply the artwork, you print your own cards) Learn more about becoming an Ubuntu Member [:www.ubuntu.com/community/processes/newmember:here].

Participating in an Open Source Community

If you have little experience participating in or contributing to an Open Source community such as Ubuntu, it is easy to feel slightly intimidated by the many different channels of communication and specialized tools that the community members utilize to have discussions and share their work.

Below we will give you a short introduction to all of these, as well as some pointers to which ones might be of interest to you, initially.

Community Communication

General information

ubuntu-announce ubuntu-news Fridge Planet Ubuntu?

The Mailing Lists

List Description -changes archive upload notification list edubuntu-devel Edubuntu development discussion edubuntu-users Edubuntu Users Help and Discussion kernel-bugs Kernel Bugs tracking kernel-team Kernel team discussions kubuntu-devel Kubuntu Developer Discussion kubuntu-users Kubuntu Help and User Discussions laptop-devel laptop-specific development laptop-testing-team Ubuntu laptop testing sounder Ubuntu community random chit-chat list Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list of the accessibility team ubuntu-announce Ubuntu Announcements ubuntu-archive Ubuntu Archive Team discussion and co-ordination ubuntu-art Discussion on Ubuntu artwork ubuntu-backports Backports Discussion Ubuntu-bugsquad [no description available] Ubuntu-DCT Mailing list for the Debian Collaboration Team ubuntu-desktop Desktop Team co-ordination and discussion ubuntu-devel Ubuntu Developer Discussion ubuntu-devel-announce Developer-related announcements and information ubuntu-doc Documentation team coordination and discussion ubuntu-hardened Ubuntu Linux Proactive Security deployment and development ubuntu-marketing Discussion on community-based marketing of Ubuntu ubuntu-mirrors Announcements, feedback and discussion for Ubuntu mirror maintainers Ubuntu-mirrors-announce Ubuntu Mirror Annoucement List Ubuntu-mono Packaging Mono for Ubuntu Ubuntu-motu mailing list of the Masters Of The Universe ubuntu-news Interesting news about Ubuntu for users and developers ubuntu-security-announce Ubuntu Security Announcements ubuntu-women Ubuntu-Women xubuntu-devel Xubuntu Development Discussion

IRC channels

List of Ubuntu IRC channels

Support channels: #ubuntu Ubuntu help channel

#ubuntu+1 Help channel for development versions

#kubuntu Kubuntu help channel

#edubuntu Edubuntu channel

#xubuntu Xubuntu channel

Team channels: #edubuntu-doc Edubuntu documentation

#kubuntu-devel Kubuntu development coordination

#ubuntu-accessibility The Accessibility Team channel

#ubuntu-boot Boot/Init team

#ubuntu-bugs Channel for Bugdays

#ubuntu-desktop The Ubuntu desktop team

#ubuntu-devel Ubuntu development coordination

#ubuntu-doc Ubuntu documentation team coordination

#ubuntu-hardened Discussions on the Ubuntu hardened project

#ubuntu-java Ubuntu java development coordination

#ubuntu-kernel Ubuntu kernel team coordination

#ubuntu-laptop Ubuntu laptop development

#ubuntu-locoteams Coordination of all local coordination teams

#ubuntu-marketing Marketing Team channel

#ubuntu-meeting All meetings are held here

#ubuntu-mirrors Channel for mirror administrators

#ubuntu-motu Coordination of the Ubuntu MOTU team

#ubuntu-motu-school Ubuntu MOTU team schooling channel

#ubuntu-science MOTU Science team and general Ubuntu science discussion

#ubuntu-server Ubuntu server help and discussions

#ubuntu-toolchain Coordination of the Ubuntu toolchain team

#ubuntu-translators Coordination and discussions about Ubuntu translations

#ubuntu-trivia The place for challenging your geeks buddies

#ubuntu-women For Ubuntu women

Web Forums

Community Tools

Unresolved: Launchpad...

The Ubuntu Wikis

A [:HelpForBeginners:wiki] is a series of webpages that anybody can edit and where changes can be revised and undone if necessary. You may have heard of the Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia which is also a wiki, albeit a very big one. Ubuntu has two separate wikis with different functions. Both of them are open for anyone to edit and improve, but you'll need to log in first so that other people can see who edited what.

The Documentation Wiki

If you come across a solution to your support problem, you can help make it easier for others to find the same answer. The documentation that ships with Ubuntu is all written and maintained by the Ubuntu Community. You can contribute to the documentation in the [:help.ubuntu.com/community:Documentation Wiki].

The Community Wiki

The [:wiki.ubuntu.com:Ubuntu Community Wiki] contains all other community documents apart from the Help Documents. Here you will find minutes from community meetings, detailed specifications, details on Ubuntu Summits and conferences, various policy documents and personal pages. You can explore the Wiki and learn a lot about the Ubuntu community in that way.

The Ubuntu Bug Tracker: Malone

Whenever you come across something that doesn't work right in a computer program, it is most likely a bug - a problem or error in the programming code. You can report bugs to make the developers aware of them so that they can fix them. You should be prepared to communicate with them, since they will often need additional information. Ubuntu uses a bug tracking system called Malone which is integrated with the [:www.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs:Launchpad system]. Be sure to check whether the bug you have encountered is already known before you file a new bug report. Every bug report helps to improve Ubuntu!

The Ubuntu Specification Tracker: Blueprint

The Ubuntu Translation Tool: Rosetta