Ubuntu Wiki

Ubuntu Open Week - LoCo Teams - Melissa Draper - Fri, Apr 27, 2007

see also Saturday session.

TZ UTC-4

(11:04:47 AM) elkbuntu: Hello everyone! Welcome to the LoCo Teams introduction session.
(11:05:29 AM) 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.
(11:05:43 AM) elkbuntu: Over the course of this session, we will be covering a number of aspects of LoCo Teams, such as:
(11:05:51 AM) elkbuntu: * What are LoCo Teams?
(11:05:51 AM) elkbuntu: * How can I find my LoCo Team?
(11:05:51 AM) elkbuntu: * What can I do if I cannot find a LoCo Team for me?
(11:05:51 AM) elkbuntu: * How can I get involved?
(11:05:51 AM) elkbuntu: * What cool things can LoCo Teams do?
(11:05:52 AM) elkbuntu: * Who leads the teams?
(11:05:54 AM) elkbuntu: * Approved teams vs New teams
(11:06:39 AM) elkbuntu: First off, "What are LoCo Teams?"
(11:07:21 AM) elkbuntu: Actually, before i get into it, a reminder that questions are to be asked in #ubuntu-classroom-chat and prefixed with QUESTION:
(11:07:27 AM) elkbuntu: Ok... 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.
(11:07:51 AM) 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.
(11:08:15 AM) 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.
(11:08:41 AM) 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.
(11:08:59 AM) 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.
(11:09:55 AM) 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.
(11:10:45 AM) 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.
(11:11:34 AM) 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.
(11:12:20 AM) elkbuntu: A single person with ideas is nothing compared to a dozen equally imaginative people :)
(11:12:47 AM) 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.
(11:13:16 AM) 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.
(11:13:40 AM) 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.
(11:14:11 AM) elkbuntu: Meanwhile, for those of you who have found an appropriate team, the easiest way to get involved is simply to participate.
(11:14:43 AM) 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. You don't need to know much to advocate, just that Ubuntu rocks :)
(11:15:08 AM) 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.
(11:15:23 AM) 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.
(11:16:13 AM) 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 ;) )
(11:16:35 AM) elkbuntu: The more languages Ubuntu can be available in, or that people can get support in, the better chance it has to succeed.
(11:16:51 AM) 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.
(11:17:18 AM) 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.
(11:17:49 AM) 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.
(11:18:14 AM) 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.
(11:18:58 AM) 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".
(11:19:17 AM) 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.
(11:20:15 AM) 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. I personally recommend that leaders be elected by other members of the team if possible.
(11:20:33 AM) 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.
(11:20:53 AM) elkbuntu: Approved teams get special support in terms of a CD allocation with each release, hosting for team websites, and other random goodies.
(11:21:24 AM) elkbuntu: New and Unofficial teams (which every team starts out as) 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
(11:22:15 AM) elkbuntu: Ok, i'll now take some questions, so get asking :)

<nealmcb> QUESTION: What work is going on to facilitate and promote "best practices" in web site deployment for LoCo web sites? Common designs or apps for sharing photos, synchronizing wiki calendars with ical, etc?

• The theme used on the main Ubuntu.com site is available if you ask the right people. As for what you want to do with the site, that's generally up to you so long as it within the CoC guidelines. Teams have a certain amount of autonomy for their sites

<nealmcb> QUESTION addendum: ... and good models for how members can collaborate on the loco web sites using lanuchpad-based authentication. E.g. openid support in launchpad? Or bzr models for source control and a way to push out a new page?

• For launchpad questions, you'd need to ask the guys in #launchpad. The main thing is to keep things open for the team to contribute however they can.

<spr0k3t> QUESTION: I'd like to get involved in my LoCo but it seems the membership has been rather lax for more than a year... What do you recommend to revive the luster of a faded group, or should a new group be started in its stead?

• If you cannot find any trace of members that were previously in the team, especially if you cannot find the team contact, it's usually a good idea to go about organising to have control of resources such as the launchpad team and mailing list transferred to someone who is active. Richard will talk more about this at 19:00 UTC tomorrow

<CheshireViking> QUESTION: What level of experience is needed to get involved in a LoCo, do you need to be an Ubuntu expert who's used it & Linux for years, or do new users get involved?

• the only experience you need is the experience that made you like Ubuntu. Even someone who can't sysadmin for the life of them can advocate open source software [elkbuntu is one of those people who cant sysadmin to save her life, or program worth a damn :)]

<nealmcb> QUESTION: The Colorado LoCo is planning an "Ubucon/Colorado" which will be an all-day, local self-organizing conference, like Barcamp. Besides the Ubucon/Sevilla, have other locos tried this sort of thing? We've had local Barcamps which are a blast, e.g. http://barcamp.org/BarCampBoulder and a local codecamp is coming up also: http://www.frontrangecodecamp.com/

• you're probably worth contacting a fellow called John Mark Walker. I'll PM his email address to you later. he was an organiser for the first two ubucons, in Mountain View CA and Boston (iirc)

<DoctorOwl> QUESTION: You mentioned that approved LoCo teams get CD allocations and hosting for team web sites. Are the teams "approved" in that sense by Canonical, or phrased in another way, what relationship does Canonical have with LoCos if any.

• The teams go before the Community Council, at one of the regular meetings in #ubuntu-meeting. The team has to prove they're active, have done a few activities, and not riddled with infighting

<DoctorOwl> QUESTION: CoC guidelines?

• CoC is an acronym for the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct

<samgee> QUESTION: Can organisations as a whole (i.e. schools) become a member of a LoCo or do they need to pick a representative (i.e. the principal)?

• Hmm, good question. I'd personally recommend for a group as large as a school to have a representative/spokesperson. The IT person or principal is probably the ideal candidate for this. If the group/organisation is only like half a dozen members large, then it's probably safe for them to each be their individual selves

<j1mc> QUESTION: I'm part of an active loco, but we haven't done so much to advocate ubuntu outside of the linux/hacker community, we've mostly tried to learn about ubuntu collectively, and support it through collective efforts. What have some locos done to advocate ubuntu that has worked well for them?

• Attending fairs, expos, conferences and such is a really good way. the belgium team has had great success doing this. the knowledgebase i linked to earlier has lots of things teams can do in it. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamKnowledgeBase

<DoctorOwl> You could tell us the story behind the stickers you got, hehe.

• I'm assuming you mean the ones system76.com provide. system76.com will offer to send loco representatives a bunch of 'powered by' stickers to distribute. they're cool guys

<Schalken> QUESTION: When does it become necessary for a LoCo team to break up into smaller ones, for each region in a country, for example?

• That is for each team to decide. The teams in the US are broken at state level, mainly because of population. However, countries that are huge (the US already had this factor too) may validate it for accessibility purposes, while countries with multiple languages may choose to split like that. meanwhile we still prefer one team per country with chapters underneath the team. it's way more sane that way.

<bababian> QUESTION: Has any LoCos ever tried to advertise Ubuntu in newspapers and radios?

• I dont know about adverts in newspapers, but some locos have gotten stories in papers and magazines. there's also adverts running in the german metro at the moment, and around the time of the first ubucon, there were billboards in the silicon valley in the US

<DoctorOwl> QUESTION: Can you explain a little more what the "Community Council" is: Is it governed by Canonical?

• The community council is a representative body. While there are some Canonical employees on the board, including Mark, there's also volunteers on it. It is not governed by Canonical, no. there is info on it at: http://www.ubuntu.com/community/processes/council

<samgee> QUESTION: Can you measure the success of a LoCo teams? If so, is there maybe some friendly competition going on between the teams?

• Um, if there is any friendly rivalry, i havent heard about it, but so long as it stays friendly, i wont discourage it. rivalry is quite motivating. Measuring the success of volunteer teams is really really hard. It's like trying to guess how many times Ubuntu was downloaded worldwide -- way too many variables. However, the success of a loco requires activity, and keeping active and visible is probably the best success of all.

<Schalken> QUESTION: What can a LoCo team do as a group to help with the development of Ubuntu and its software?

• the *best* thing a loco can do is translate. while theres a ton of translations in rosetta (the translator application in Launchpad), most of them still have work.. and of course as things change, there's new sections to be done. Teams can also make localised versions of Ubuntu, with their native language as default, and with applications useful to locals. Teams often work really well with sub-teams. a translation subteam, a localisation subteam, etc, but of course, local support is also very important.

<DoctorOwl> QUESTION: WHY are you and others part of a LoCo group?

• Haha! Because we *LOVE* Ubuntu. We found the freedom of Linux, and we really want others to share that experience.

<Schalken> QUESTION: Does "Australian" have its own language pack?

• We do actually. While I'm fuzzy on the details, it's something like a sub-translation under the en_gb or something. It means that dictionaries can contain local words and place names, non-american spelling and so forth.

<samgee> lol, does it have a lot of 'mate' in it?

• considering 'mate' also applies to the actions by which baby animals are made, yes. 'mate' is in most English language dictionaries.

<bababian> QUESTION: How can a LoCo work with NGOs?

• working with hmm. trying to getting sponsorship from NGOs that are into that sort of thing is probably worth a try. i'm not really sure how one would mess with them other than that :-/

<irvin> QUESTION: do other teams have an office address?

• office address? some may have a post office box, but i dont know of any teams with premises

<Pricey> QUESTION: What's your favourite thing that you've done with your LoCo?

• LCA! linux.conf.au 2007 rocked. i organised a booth, and we ran it and were quite popular. i'm quite away from the majority of my team, since im in a non-metro area, so it was the best thing i've personally done with them

<DoctorOwl> QUESTION: Say you have a problem installing Ubuntu, is it best to go to a LoCo team for help - or somewhere else?

• If you're not too great with english, your loco is probably the better option. if you're competent with english, probably #ubuntu or the forums

<Schalken> QUESTION: How might a business, small or large, interact with their LoCo to help spread Ubuntu?

• Sponsorship. Posters in their premises. Using it themselves. there's a huge number of ways system76 actually sponsor the colorado team i believe

(11:58:35 AM) elkbuntu: we also have an addendum to the 'where to go' question: <Pricey> elkbuntu, or answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu ;)
(11:58:38 AM) elkbuntu: thanks pricey :)
(11:59:32 AM) elkbuntu: I think that's about all for tonight folks. I'll be running another session tomorrow at 21:00 UTC  if you need more answers :)