Ubuntu Open Week - LoCo Teams - Melissa Draper - Sat, Apr 28, 2007

see also Friday session.

TZ UTC-4

(05:02:13 PM) elkbuntu: Mmmkay. lets do this, shall we.
(05:02:22 PM) elkbuntu: Hello everyone! Welcome to the LoCo Teams introduction session.
(05:02:29 PM) elkbuntu: My name is Melissa Draper, and I am the LoCo Team Contact for the Ubuntu Australian LoCo Team. I am also one of the project leads for the LoCo Project. I have a wiki page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MelissaDraper that introduces me in more detail.
(05:02:34 PM) corevette left the room.
(05:02:45 PM) elkbuntu: Over the course of this session, we will be covering a number of aspects of LoCo Teams, such as:
(05:02:52 PM) elkbuntu: * What are LoCo Teams?
(05:02:52 PM) elkbuntu: * How can I find my LoCo Team?
(05:02:52 PM) elkbuntu: * What can I do if I cannot find a LoCo Team for me?
(05:02:52 PM) elkbuntu: * How can I get involved?
(05:02:52 PM) elkbuntu: * What cool things can LoCo Teams do?
(05:02:53 PM) elkbuntu: * Who leads the teams?
(05:02:55 PM) elkbuntu: * Approved teams vs New teams
(05:03:14 PM) elkbuntu: First off, "What are LoCo Teams?"
(05:03:31 PM) elkbuntu: LoCo is short for Local Community, which is fairly self explanatory. LoCo Teams are hence Local Community Teams. For example, the LoCo Team I am contact for is Ubuntu-Au, and we are based in Australia.
(05:03:48 PM) elkbuntu: The teams are run by the people, for the people. They are *not* run by Canonical, however Canonical is highly supportive of them and will provide assistance. We will cover the assistance offered later.
(05:04:10 PM) elkbuntu: Mostly, one LoCo is sufficient for a country, but some countries have chapters for states or regions due to the size of the country and/or population. We do prefer there to be a single national encompassing Team however, for communication sake.
(05:04:32 PM) elkbuntu: This means that they are teams based around certain locations that act as, among other things, contact points for people wanting to get involved in Ubuntu and the rest of the *buntu family of projects. They are a great stepping stone to the worldwide community.
(05:04:52 PM) elkbuntu: They are also excellent points of local advocacy, support (especially if they're based in non-english speaking areas) and all things of that manner.
(05:05:12 PM) elkbuntu: As such, due to the localised nature of these teams, they are also an excellent way to find someone else near you, that uses Ubuntu, and hence 'gets it'. We all know it can be quite lonely as the only person you know who uses Linux, let alone Ubuntu.
(05:05:40 PM) elkbuntu: Closely related to LoCo Teams are Language teams. These are often a group of LoCos that speak the same language and their primary focus is support in that language. Some people consider these to be LoCos in themselves, as they generally come under the LoCo umbrella. There are differing opinions of this, however.
(05:06:13 PM) elkbuntu: One aspect of LoCo Teams that we find is most important, is that they enable and encourage people to interact with other Ubuntu users that are actually near them, as opposed to the other side of the world.
(05:06:31 PM) elkbuntu: A single person with ideas is nothing compared to a dozen equally imaginative people :)
(05:06:48 PM) elkbuntu: To find your nearest LoCo Team, please take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList and find a team that covers your area.
(05:07:12 PM) elkbuntu: If you cannot find a team, or you do and it is unfortunately inactive, the best thing you can do is start a new team, or revive the inactive one. You do not need to know much about Linux or Ubuntu to do this, just how to be a part of a group.
(05:07:53 PM) elkbuntu: I will not go into the specifics of starting teams here today, but tomorrow at 19:00 UTC, Rich Johnson is running a session called "Creating a LoCo Team" which is perfect for anyone in this situation.
(05:08:06 PM) elkbuntu: oops... that's supposed to read today 2 hours ago :Þ
(05:08:18 PM) elkbuntu: so yeah, discard that, and read logs instead
(05:09:51 PM) elkbuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekfeisty/lococreate <-- this log
(05:10:05 PM) elkbuntu: Meanwhile, for those of you who have found an appropriate team, the easiest way to get involved is simply to participate.
(05:10:22 PM) elkbuntu: Join the IRC channel, post on the forum, etc. Once you get your foot in the door and make an effort, the rest usually writes itself. Many teams openly welcome any assistance with providing support, translating, and advocacy.
(05:10:45 PM) elkbuntu: Showing you care and putting a little bit of effort in goes a long long way to building a bond, and you will be appreciated.
(05:11:10 PM) elkbuntu: LoCo Teams are effectively the backbone of the Ubuntu Community. As the local community representation, they possess great power in building awareness and user numbers.
(05:11:30 PM) elkbuntu: For many places that speak languages other than english, providing support in local language, and translating are invaluable, as we all know, not everyone has perfect grasp of the English language (heck, this even includes supposedly native English speakers ;) )
(05:11:57 PM) elkbuntu: The more languages Ubuntu can be available in, or that people can get support in, the better chance it has to succeed.
(05:12:24 PM) elkbuntu: However, advocacy, I believe, is the strongest aspect of a LoCo. Who else is in a better position to reach out to an area, than a group that is already in that area.
(05:12:37 PM) elkbuntu: There's a number of ways LoCos can help advocate. Simply spreading the word is a great start, but there's lots of group activities that can be really powerful when done well.
(05:12:51 PM) elkbuntu: Putting posters up on community notice boards (with permission of course!), running stalls/booths at fairs and expos, writing to local media outlets, petitioning your local and national government and many more things, all help.
(05:13:14 PM) elkbuntu: There is an extensive wiki section at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamKnowledgeBase that documents alot of things that people have tried, with information about what worked well and what to avoid, along with some really cool tips.
(05:13:55 PM) elkbuntu: So how does a team get together, functioning and motivated to do things such as this? Well, that is up to each individual team. Each team has a person who fills the role called "Team Contact".
(05:14:15 PM) elkbuntu: These people are responsible for being the communication point for their teams, in this situation, their LoCo. This person not only communicates with other teams and the Ubuntu community at large (Speaking/writing English is a prerequisite for this), but often (but not always) acts as a leader figure.
(05:14:37 PM) elkbuntu: Some teams have multiple contacts, or a panel of leaders, but the general purpose is the same. It is a matter of how this works best for your particular team.
(05:15:09 PM) elkbuntu: Once a team is established, they can go for "Approved" status, which means they more or less become and official team in the project.
(05:15:25 PM) elkbuntu: Approved teams get special support in terms of a CD allocation with each release, hosting for team websites, and other random goodies.
(05:15:43 PM) elkbuntu: New and Unofficial teams also get help to get them started. They are entitled to a mailing list and an IRC channel under the Ubuntu namespace on this Freenode network. If they need, they are also entitled to request a subforum at Ubuntuforums.org
(05:16:30 PM) elkbuntu: I'll now take questions, so get asking in #ubuntu-classroom-chat

<chuckf> QUESTION: Is there some generic 'we're not responsable for data loss' form for when locos do install fests?

• Not that I am aware of. This would be a hard thing to achieve, since there's differing legislation across the globe, and some countries may not honor such statements. it might be worth contacting the canonical legal team about this, however i havent got the contact info for themn offhand

<chuckf> QUESTION: How soon after establishing the loco should we go for approved status?

• the issue is not time, but instead achievement. we recommend at least 3 events, such as installfests, advocacy days (SoftwareFreedomDay for example) and fair/conference representations, but also, the basic structures of communication need to be in place and working, and the team shouldnt be in a state of civil unrest

<chuckf> QUESTION: What is the current over/under on getting mailing lists created in less than six months?

• emailing rt AT admin DOT canonical DOT com. this is one of the issues however that I will be harrassing people about next week at the Developer Summit

<chuckf> QUESTION: This is US centeric, but how do I get a maryland.ubuntu-us.org address for the Loco?

• i'm not entirely certain who has authority for that domain, but i suggest harrassing richard (nixternal) at worst, he'd know who controls it. if he doesnt, i'll tease him until he finds out

<chuckf> QUESTION: Where can we go to get IRC meeting schedules for Loco topics?

• meetings go on the fridge, such as this: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/913. that page points us to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamMeeting for that meeting, our main focus will be discussing who i harrass about what next week, and those topics cover what is set as the agenda anyway

<chuckf> QUESTION: How do you go about estimating the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

• Definately wikipedia :Þ

<popey> QUESTION: do you think loco teams should have a formal structure? Voting rights etc?

• I dont think there should be any forced structure imposed on a team. Some teams, due to their culture, whatever, need to be freeform, whilst others for the same reason, prefer or need formal structure. It's completely a matter of 'what works for you'

<chuckf> QUESTION: How do we deal with LUGS in the area if they feel we're trying to replace them, despite our efforts to convince them otherwise?

• That is one of the biggest concerns we have with city-based locos, or city-based loco chapters, rather than state-based. Some lugs will see distro-specific teams as a threat if those teams have more momentum. lugs that inherit a huge percentage of Ubuntu users, can often be put on the backfoot, and that old guy who's used slackware since the first floppy of it, will of course feel intimidated and/or jealous. it comes with the territory of being popular, no matter who you are

<rafael_carreras> how about LoCos not related to a single country but to a language or culture, have they any change to get aproved?

• There is a kurdish team. I cannot recall it's exact status. there's also a regional team in china that iirc is based culturally rather than otherwise, but i cant recall that for sure either. language teams can be tricky, especially for a language such as spanish that covers a whole continent, as well as spain and random other countries. we need to take language teams on a case-by case basis, but for spain and france even (with canada and african countries speaking it) it is important to ensure those countries do not get overshadowed by the massive international populations for their languages

<chuckf> QUESTION: When dealing with organizations that have a need for a computer room (for instance) is it fair to recommend a specialized distro (such as IPCOP) for specific purposes?

• it's my opinion, and i say this honestly, that it is more important to make sure the distro someone use does what they need, otherwise it is pointless. while we would prefer that distro to be Ubuntu, i'd rather they be happy with something else than unhappy with ubuntu.

<richb> QUESTION: Are any of the LoCo groups involved with professional bodies at all (Over here in the UK we have The British Computing Society for example)?

• I think there will naturally be representation in those organisations. It's important to not force yourself onto a group, as it can quite easily cause problems such as rivalry between locos and lug in terms of those groups

  <richb> elkbuntu: I was more thinking of promotion of Ubuntu-for example the BCS authors reports for the government on IT systems. approach, petition etc them by all means. but keep within 'reasonable force'

<chuckf> QUESTION: What do you think of your entry in http://planet.lugradio.org/facts

• i intend to harrass, tease and mercilessly annoy mr pope for the duration of UDS

<samgee_> QUESTION: Is a LoCo the right place for me if I seem like a nice guy online, but am an annoying bastard in real life?

• probably. but if you know you're an annoying bastard real life, maybe that's a personality trait you need to work on. you'll probably find yourself happier. online has a way of bringing out people's real selves, where they're not as afraid etc. you have the nice guy in you already, it's not a figment of the internet. locos, especially those in largish countries, very rarely meet, and nobody is obliged to attend functions

<methhhp_> QUESTION: im in a region of Mexico where people speak many regional languages, not listed in the Ubuntu translations, can we create a Loco team and translate to that languages?

• i'd rather suggest create subteams in the existing loco to work on translating as a whole, one big mexico loco is going to be much much stronger than lots of tiny 2 or 3 person locos, but by all means, if you know non-existant languages, and your team has speakers of these languages, get going with a translation

<samgee_> QUESTION: Can virtual worlds like SecondLife also have LoCos?

• In a figurative sense, sure. However they're not likely to get cds, hosting or even mailing list support. guilds, teams, unions, whatever your virtual world has, by all means make an ubuntu one

(05:54:50 PM) elkbuntu: Well, it seems that's all for the questions. If you have any further, we have an irc channel over at #ubuntu-locoteams and there's a mailing list mentioned in the /topic of that channel
(05:55:39 PM) elkbuntu: On behalf of the Ubuntu community, I'd like to thank you all for attending this Open Week. :)
(05:55:57 PM) elkbuntu: I think we've all learned a lot of cool new information
(05:56:39 PM) elkbuntu: Keep an eye out on this space, as I believe these weeks are going to become regular occurrances, probably coincidental with every release :)
(05:56:47 PM) elkbuntu: Again, thankyou all :)