Key details

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Ubuntu NL

Organization structure:

Roadmap

Our plans for the future are:

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Website

A new website is being developed, and we plan for it to replace our present site.

Community Research

We want to set up/use a an infrastructure that makes it easy to ask community members what they would like to see improved in the community, and in a second analysis ask how important they think those issues are. Such an analysis should then be repeated on a regular basis (yearly).

Work on long term focus points

Up to now, the new Community Board has been occupied with direct attention to organising issues, so it has been functioning more reactively than it should. With decreasing direct action needed, it will be planned to analyze our LoCo thoroughly and formulate long-term goals that will build upon our strengths and limit the impact of our weaknesses.

Experience

Since our last loco approval we have continued to do the following:

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Translating Ubuntu

• All Dutch translations for Ubuntu are done via the Dutch Translation Team. There is no separate team for Ubuntu BE, just like GNOME NL serves both the Netherlands and Flanders. There is a Lauchpad page and a subsection on the Dutch wiki that the translation team uses to coordinate its activities.

Writing localized documentation

• Since 2007, the Ubuntu NL wiki, which is, amongst other things, also the home of the Dutch documentation, can be found at wiki.ubuntu-nl.org.

Providing a support forum

• The Ubuntu NL Forum can be found at forum.ubuntu-nl.org. The forum is for all Dutch-speaking Ubuntu users, including the Flemish. The forum has over 13000 active members, which results in approximately 30 new topics and 400 reactions per day, with an average of 140 forum members online daily.

Providing support via irc

• The IRC Team are the channel ops who try to keep the #ubuntu-nl* IRC channels helpful and friendly.

Creating Artwork

• The Artwork team is currently working on a new theme for the SMF 2.0 forum software. A live demo of this theme can be found here. Please keep in mind that the theme is still under development, so some pages won't look like they should.

• The team is also developing a new support map. People can click the nearest support point and send him/her a message for help. This is a screen shot of the new map that's still under development.

• New icons for our teams have been made:

Organizing Release Parties

• We have a strong history in organizing and attending events.

Collaboration with other communities and commercial partners

• Ubuntu-NL has close ties with the HCC and NLLGG communities.

• Ubuntu-NL has several commercial partners that (financially or otherwise) support the organization of events:

  • Linux Magazine	Certified Secure	Bit	Axolot	Softwareconsulent.nl	Hettes.nl
    Nou&Off	ATcomputing	Ictivity		Computerboek.nl

Exposure

• Whenever possible Ubuntu-NL seeks exposure in the media or otherwise. Though this is not (yet) an organized effort we continue looking for it. For example:

• Full page advertisement in Linux Magazine (Dutch edition)

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• Explicit promotion and presentation of the (Dutch) Ubuntu community in the series of books about Linux and Ubuntu by Jan Stedehouder.

• Article in "Trouw", newspaper with over 2,5 miljoen readers: http://www.trouw.nl/incoming/article1491539.ece

• Chapter about the Ubuntu-NL community in "Open Source Jaarboek 2009", book aimed at politicians, officials and managers.

• Posters in buses. To promote the Lucid Release Party advertisement space was bought in 29 buses. Each poster was sponsored by a community member. On the poster it stated: "This poster was sponsored by: Name, a satisfied Ubuntu user.".

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(photo made in GIMP, no real photo available)

IRC Meetings

• Most Ubuntu-NL teams have consistently held IRC meetings, refining the structure to ensure efficiency.

  • Community board: Meetings, minutes and logs

  • Forum team: monthly meetings, minutes and logs are private for privacy reasons.

  • Documentation team: Meetings, minutes and logs

  • Translation team: Meetings, minutes and logs

  • Mwanzo team: Meetings, minutes and logs

  • Foundation: Meetings, minutes and logs

• Teams without regular meetings: promotion team, server team, artwork team, news team, web team.

Documenting procedures, best practices, experience etc.

• Ubuntu-NL continues an effort to document experience, best practices and procedures to make involving new volunteers easier.

  • Community governance

  • Forum team moderation procedures are documented, but for internal use only.

  • Documentation guidelines

  • Translation team guidelines

  • International community documentation

  • Releaseparty organization

Growth

Since our last loco approval that we failed (21-12-2010) to pass, we have done these new things:

Ubuntu Nederland governance

Under inspiring leadership of Sense Hofstede Ubuntu-NL has recently set up well documented new governance structures and processes. As a result a new Community Governance body, a Community Board and Chair were chosen. The new governance bodies are operating with confidence, and previously existing problems with governance seem to be resolved.

Team Reports

• We have started producing team reports.

  ( Full list of Team Reports )

Ubuntu-NL Mwanzo

Ubuntu NL Mwanzo's most important goal is to help willing community members become more active community contributors by:

• organizing workshops: on completion, the community member will have gained skills or talents that can be used in or referenced by the local and international Ubuntu community.
• personal guidance: an established member of Mwanzo engages in personal conversations with a community member, exploring his of her capabilities, talents and interests. The Mwanzo member can point or recommend the community member to one of the subteams, where the capabilities, talents and interests of the member can be put to work usefully.

Ubuntu NL Mwanzo members are acquainted with of the Dutch Ubuntu Community and can answer questions about its structure.

Mwanzo is not only a significant part of the Dutch Ubuntu Community, but a great way to improve community input and interaction.

Dutch translation of Ubuntu Manual

The Dutch Translation Team worked hard on the Dutch translation of the Ubuntu Manual. It's ready for download now. Hurray!

New Website

A new community server has been obtained for development and testing. For our main site we plan to use Drupal, and a test site is near to completion. A new Drupal module has been developed for Launchpad, Ubuntu LoCo directory integration to show team information and meetings etc. nicely in Drupal. This module can be used by any LoCo team that uses Drupal for their website. A new forum theme is being developed, it integrates nicely with the rest. And last, but not least, the community voting application has been dressed up nicely to fit in the new site.

Software Development

Several community members are active in software development and several projects have been founded in our community:

• OpenTeacher

• Just For Learning

• MwanzoBot

• Ubuntu LoCo team info

Online Workshops

Mwanzo organised several workshops on IRC. The announcements, logs and summary can be found here.

Topics:

• Introduction to IRC

• IRC tips and tricks (sequel of introduction)

• Introduction to working with wiki's (focus on moinmoin)

• GPG and signing the Ubuntu Code of Conduct

• Weekly course on Python (13 lessons)

Ubuntu-NL foundation

• Ubuntu NL has established a foundation to support our community. There is a need for a foundation to make fund raising possible (bank account), to provide insurance for volunteers organizing events, to be taken seriously by commercial partners etc.

• The foundations website can be found here.

News team

A news team is being formed to take care of all Ubuntu NL news spreading throughout the diverse social media.

Opening up communication channels

• Ubuntu-NL has opened up communication channels:

Ubuntu Global Jam

Ubuntu-NL has joined the Global Jam movement.

• 16 april 2011 Nijmegen

• 16 april 2011 Burgum

• 4 september 2011

Elections Infrastructure Development

A special website for the elections was developed where candidates can register, present themselves, and where Ubuntu-NL members can vote, and where the results of elections are presented:

New Hosting for services

The second oldest hosting provider in the Netherlands, community driven, the HCC is now hosting the Ubuntu-NL services. A new sysadmin team was formed to take on the task of moving the services to the new hosting. This newly formed team has done a great job under time pressure and our hosting is now secured for the future.

New community server

For development and testing a new community server has been set up for Ubuntu NL. The server is paid for by the new Ubuntu NL support foundation.

Ubuntu Members

The following Ubuntu Members are active in the Dutch LoCo teams:

• soulzing

• Sense Hofstede

• Ronnie van de Crommenacker

• Rachid

• Cees Sluis

• Sebastian Schauenburg

• Keimpe de Jong

• Thomas de Graaff

• Marten de Vries