Ubuntu Wiki

Hello! I am Kate Stewart, and I work as the Ubuntu Release Manager for Canonical.

Contact Details

• IRC: skaet (irc.freenode.net)

• Email: kate(at)canonical(dot)com

• Jabber: skaet

Also see my Launchpad Profile.

Where to find me

Ubuntu Mailing Lists:

• ubuntu-devel
• ubuntu-devel-announce
• ubuntu-devel-discuss
• ubuntu-announce
• ubuntu-release

Upstream Mailing Lists:

• spdx
• spdx-tech

IRC:

• Freenode

  • #ubuntu-devel

  • #ubuntu-release

  • #ubuntu-quality

  • #ubuntu-testing

  • #ubuntu-kernel

  • #ubuntu-desktop

  • #mklinux

  • #u-boot

Contributions

As the Ubuntu Release Manager, I work with the release team to manage the Ubuntu development and long term support releases. Some of the areas I'm responsible for are:

• holding weekly release meetings to get status across teams and highlight issues for the approaching milestones
• coordinate pulling together the release notes for each of the milestones and final releases
• review key open bugs to determine impact to release and specific milestones
• work with release team to update and maintain release process pages
• work with release team to manage image building and publishing
• host sessions at UDS/rally's to deal with release issues ( post-release process analysis, licensing and copyrights, metric improvements, etc.)

Recent impacts:

• worked with launchpad team to get o-series and p-series opened up for targeting future releases bugs/features to enable better planning
• started bi-weekly SRU and LTS release meetings to get cross functional discussion as work out bi-weekly kernel SRU process intersecting with development release.
• reworked release notes framework for 10.10, and technical overview notes for milestone releases.

On the community side:

• co-chair of the SPDX working group, sponsored by FOSSbazaar and the Linux Foundation as part of their open compliance program. The purpose of this group is to come up with a standard way to exchange copyright and licensing information that can be shared among software supply chain providers. Some of this has been modeled after the DEP-5 approach, but extends beyond what is called for in DEP-5.

• participant in project Harmony effort to standardize contributor agreements.

Trade Shows/Ubuntu/Linux Events

I spoke at the following events in 2010:

• LCA business track (January)
• Invited talk at Linux Collaboration Summit and 1/2 day work session on SPDX (April)
• Linux Conference 2010 (August)
• Panel participant at ACI Software Licensing (September)
• Linux Plumbers- Licensing BOF (November), and was on program committee.

Planned Speaking Events for 2011

• LCA business track (January)
• Linux Collaboration Summit ( SPDX working session )

Testimonials

Kate is a fanastic contributor - she has already brought so much to Ubuntu, and she has a real eye for detail and a firm commitment to delivering a solid release. Her work has been high quality and timely. I would heartily advocate for her approval as a member. -- JonoBacon

Kate is awesome! In the relatively short time as Release Manager, she's already instituted significant process changes for the betterment of all Ubuntu. Her dedication to improving the quality of the release process and Ubuntu itself is unsurpassed. I wholeheartedly give my 1000% endorsement as an Ubuntu member, as she embodies the Ubuntu philosophy in every single way. --RobbieWilliamson

Kate has been the Ubuntu release manager since the beginning of the Natty cycle. She has been key to keeping the release on track, keeping focus on the key bugs and lagging features; a cat herder if ever there was one. On a personal level she has proven to be an intelligent and thoughtful person, happy to admit when she does not know something, and willing to listen to feedback and learn from it. Definatly a worthy addition to our community. -- AndyWhitcroft

I've been working with Kate to help her get started as the release manager. As we go along she's been making every effort to think about how processes could be improved beyond the status quo, and has been keeping our focus on quality by organising high-priority bugs even from an early stage in the release cycle and making sure the development teams stay on track. I'm happy to recommend her for Ubuntu membership on the basis of her contributions so far; I'm confident they will continue. --ColinWatson

Kate has been a great release manager, and has been great to work with as we've made some major changes to the release process for the Ubuntu kernels. She's always been available for discussion as we refine the processes, and has communicated well with everyone involved. She has a good grasp of the inter-team collaboration needed to make a release happen. - SteveConklin