Ubuntu Wiki

Ubuntu Open Week - Community Q+A - Jono Bacon - Wed, Apr 30, 2008

=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Ubuntu Open Week | Information and Logs: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek | How to ask questions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/Rules | Ask questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat, prefaced with "QUESTION:" |See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/JoiningIn to filter out channel noise | Current session: "Community Q+A" - Jono Bacon

[17:01] <jcastro> ok every, Community Q+A with Jono Bacon is next!

[17:02] <jono> hello all :)

[17:02] <jono> :)

[17:03] <jono> ok, this session is totally driven by Q+A about anything you would like to know about the Ubuntu 
community, or myself

[17:03] <jono> everyone should post questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat and include QUESTION at the start of the line

[17:03] <jcastro> QUESTION: How many Ubuntu + Kubuntu + Edubuntu installations exit worldwide now?

[17:03] <jcastro> he means "exists"

[17:05] <jono> sorry, one second

[17:06] <jono> back

[17:06] <jono> sorry about that

[17:06] <jono> its impossibly difficult to tell the number of installations, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu are free 
software, so anyone could install it on any mahcine

[17:06] <jono> machine

[17:06] <jono> so its difficult to give decent figures

[17:06] <jono> we have got millions of users all over the world though, thats for sure

[17:08] <jcastro> QUESTION: jono, how'd you get started in Ubuntu?  What made you get involved with it?

[17:08] <jono> I have been an Ubuntu user from the early days, and had an interest in it when it was just a rumour

[17:09] <jono> I then became an avid user, and co-wrote the Official Ubuntu Book

[17:10] <jono> at the time I was working for OpenAdvantage - a government funded project to spread Open Source in the 
UK, and heard about the job

[17:10] <jono> so I applied and after a bunch of interviews got it :)

[17:10] <jono> the thing I loved about Ubuntu was that it was doing something I had talked about for years - taking 
Debian and making it suitable for everyone

[17:11] <jono> I also really liked the strong commitment to community - it seemed a very pure approach, something 
which I think is the right thing to do

[17:11] <jcastro> QUESTION: There are a few mentions about the "Community Council" in the mailing lists and on the 
wiki, but I can't find  anything about this council. Who is on it, and can you provide more information about it?

[17:12] <jono> the Community Council is the highest governing body in the Ubuntu community

[17:12] <jono> it approves and defines changes in how we govern our community

[17:12] <jono> you can read more about it at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/processes/council - that page also says 
who is on it

[17:13] <jono> we have a diverse council, and most of the  members don't work for Canonical

[17:13] <jcastro> < sommer> QUESTION: what is the process for membership, now that the Community Council doesn't 
handle that, are the local  "councils" setup?

[17:14] <jono> sommer: we have been working on a change to how membership is approved, and it is nearly complete

[17:14] <jono> beforehand membership was approved by the Community Council, and it resulted in very very long CC 
sessions

[17:14] <jono> with so many people wanting to become members, we have set up three localised membership boards

[17:15] <jono> in the Americas, Australasia and Europe

[17:15] <jono> each board has around 10 people on it who will judge membership for people in that particular region

[17:15] <jono> the boards have been assigned, approved by the CC, the documentation is written and are about to be 
announced and put in place

[17:16] <jcastro> < dalejefferson> QUESTION: what would you like to see in Intrepid?

[17:17] <jono> I would love to see Intrepid focus more on a different and strong UI

[17:18] <jono> I would love to see new UI components

[17:18] <jono> and see the entire interface become sleeker - such as getting rid of modeline changes when booting

[17:19] <jcastro> < artir_> QUESTION:whats the state of Jokosher?

[17:19] <jono> hehe :)

[17:20] <jono> artir_: Jokosher is a project I was deeply involved in, but have not been able to contribute to due to 
time - I am pretty busy with my Ubuntu work, my music and my personal life

[17:20] <jono> its an incredible project and literally just needs a few bug fixes to the Gstreamer code in there and 
it will be ready to roll

[17:20] <jono> so if anyone wants to help out, let me know :)

[17:20] <jcastro> < RzR> jono: QUESTION: can you give resources about "bridges between" communities, I know about 
utnubu(debian) but I bet everyone  will win by interconnecting communities, isnt it ?

[17:21] <jono> RzR: sure

[17:21] <jono> I think its always important to have strong connections between different communities

[17:21] <jono> we are all together in the same fishpond, and many of our processes and workflows are connected and 
related

[17:22] <jono> in terms of social connections, I think its also important to ensure that all communities have good 
connections to each other - it helps identify new and interesting projects and collaborations to work on

[17:23] <jono> part of the plan for my team is to help define these connections between Ubuntu and upstream, and  this 
is something that jcastro works on - he works with upstream projects

[17:23] <jono> we approach this not only from a social level, but from an engineering level - seeing how we can match 
what we do and achieve interesting things

[17:23] <jcastro> < nosrednaekim> QUESTION: you say different and stronger UI ... does this mean KDE4 ?

[17:24] <jono> nosrednaekim: nope - Kubuntu does an excellent job with KDE4

[17:24] <jono> I am talking about thematic changes, artwork, conceptual changes to common elements such as login, user 
switching, virtual desktop switching etc - I essentially mean an interesting merging of GNOME, Compiz, and lots of 
bits of integration

[17:25] <jono> I am also interested in changes to the model - people as topic level objects is an interesting approach

[17:25] <jcastro> < mybunche> QUESTION: Will you be writing the Official Ubuntu Book 3rd Edition this year? And will 
it be based on 8.04?

[17:26] <jono> mybunche: I won't be contributing new content to the 3rd Edition of the Official Ubuntu Book - I just 
don't have the time these days, and I imagine it will be based around 8.04

[17:26] <jcastro> < artir_> QUESTION: Why is your beard so cool? XD

[17:26] <jono> artir_: haha

[17:27] <jono> well I think its cool, not sure everyone would agree :)

[17:27] <jono> its been through a lot of changes too - used to be fairly small but long, then small and less long, and 
now a thin strip

[17:27] <jono> but it feels so bouncy and manageable :P

[17:27] <jcastro> < dalejefferson> QUESTION: Follow up: Would you like to see a simpler interface, ie a easy mode for 
non power users (like the EEEPC

[17:29] <jono> dalejefferson: in my mind, the default Ubuntu interface should be suitable for non-power users - I am 
not keen on the idea of attaching different interfaces to different levels of skill - it makes people who use the 
simpler interfaces feel stupid - I think we can have one, unified interface that is suitable for all users - simple 
enough for new users and powerful and effective enough for power users :)

[17:29] <jcastro> < bobbo_> QUESTION: You dont seem to have much spare time these days, are you going to keep LugRadio 
going?

[17:29] <jono> bobbo_: yeah, things have been something of a rollercoaster in my life in the last year, both 
professionally and personally, and I am pretty much always on the go

[17:30] <jono> I have no plans of leaving LugRadio right now

[17:30] <jcastro> < toobuntu> QUESTION: "people as topic level objects is an interesting approach" Would you elaborate 
on this?

[17:30] <jono> toobuntu: sure

[17:31] <jono> the concept is basically that people represent an element in your interface

[17:31] <jono> there are lots of things you can do with people - email them, IM them, get things from them, send them 
things, learn about what they are doing, get their help etc

[17:31] <jono> much of what we do on computers today is about communicating with people about different things and 
achieving certain goals

[17:31] <jcastro> http://live.gnome.org/Soylent has more information on people-centric stuff

[17:32] <jono> I like the idea of this and I like the idea of how we can achieve this in Ubuntu

[17:32] <jcastro> < RzR> jono: QUESTION: this may be offtopic , but I was wondering if FLOSS communities are fully 
dependent of the internet ? any  feedback from the unconnected world ?

[17:32] <jono> RzR: I think they largely are right now, the Internet is the mechanism in which we flow ideas and 
things that we work on in our community

[17:33] <jono> I love the fact that we are so connected, and have contributors all over the world - just this channel 
will have people from a huge range of countries in it - but it is a huge problem that so many people are disconnected 
based upon where they are living

[17:33] <jono> I am just not sure what the solution to that problem is

[17:34] <jcastro> < d33d> QUESTION: What technologies do you focus on when moving to a "better Ubuntu"...meaning, 
things like social networking, new  hardware, how do those drive the developement in a "better Ubuntu"?

[17:35] <jono> d33d: indeed - social networking, better hardware support, ease of use, compatibility etc

[17:36] <jono> we want to ensure Ubuntu "just works" on every level, hardware, social, task-based...everything

[17:36] <jcastro> < DoruHush> QUESTION: Why well develop applications from older applications are whipped out in the 
new version and replaced with  other with no functionality (nm, Screen&Graphics)?

[17:37] <jono> DoruHush: I don't understand the question, sorry

[17:37] <jcastro> < jerichokb> QUESTION: as Ubuntu spreads and the user base become much larger - for instance the 
french police force adopting  ubuntu, iirc - do you envisage the community growing at the same rate, or slower/faster?

[17:38] <jono> jerichokb: sure, I expect the community will grow in tandem with the user base - the user base is the 
community to a large degree, and we need to ensure that our community scales and accomodates this new growth

[17:38] <jono> our community is going to continue to get bigger and bigger, thats for sure

[17:38] <jono> brb, 2 mins

[17:41] <jono> back

[17:41] <jono> sorry about that

[17:41] <jcastro> < DoruHush> QUESTION: What mentoring means to community and who does it?

[17:41] <jono> DoruHush: mentoring is an important part in a community - and it essentially mean helping people to be 
productive

[17:42] <jono> we try to encourage as much mentoring as possible, in all parts of the project

[17:42] <jono> you can see it in MOTU, LoCo Teams, and else where

[17:43] <jcastro> < mybunche> QUESTION: Are thoughts on moving to a default 2 CD image? More room to play with 
so-to-speak. I feel that the size of a  1 CD image is restrictive for Ubuntu and maybe pushing some users away because 
their install don't work.

[17:44] <jono> mybunche: I disagree, I think the one-cd approach is one of our biggest assets - people can get one CD 
and install full Operating System

[17:44] <jono> we make easy for people to download additional functionality, so I think it is less of an issue

[17:44] <jono> as for a possible optional add-on CD, I am not the best person to ask about if that would be doable

[17:45] <jcastro> < mybunche> QUESTION: Are thoughts on moving to a default 2 CD image? More room to play with 
so-to-speak. I feel that the size of a  1 CD image is restrictive for Ubuntu and maybe pushing some users away because 
their install don't work.(rephrasing DoruHush's previous question): Why are tools like networkmanager and 
screens&graphics put into a release even if there are regressions from the previous tools?

[17:45] <jcastro> oops

[17:45] <jcastro> (rephrasing DoruHush's previous question): Why are tools like networkmanager and screens&graphics 
put into a  release even if there are regressions from the previous tools?

[17:45] <jcastro> sorry

[17:45] <jono> DoruHush: you will need to speak to the package maintainers about that

[17:46] <jcastro> < jake_peters> QUESTION: Jono, seems like you attend many conventions, how do these off-line events 
matter for the community and as  the community grows, do you think the role face-to-face interaction will change?

[17:47] <jono> jake_peters: I think face-to-face conferences have their place - much of it for me is being there to 
speak face-to-face with specific groups, but naturally confs are very time consuming and expensive, so I try to limit 
them where possible (and still end up travelling all the time!)

[17:47] <jono> I think as the community grows the number of confs will grow, and we will see less of the same people 
visiting every conf

[17:48] <jcastro> * waiting on questions *

[17:48] <jono> looks like we are done

[17:48] <jcastro> one more!

[17:48] <jcastro> < tehk> QUESTION: A new slew of Girl Friend/grandma Test blog post have sprung up, and they stumble 
when it comes to installing  things. Do you think a quick 'on first start' video that explains Add/Remove would help?

[17:48] <jono> ok, last one

[17:49] <jono> tehk: I would love to see this - and popey is the best person to ask about this

[17:49] <jono> maybe popey speak to you about this in -chat

[17:50] <jono> ok, I think we are done

[17:50] <jono> thanks everyone!

[17:50] <jcastro> woo, thanks everyone for showing up!

[17:50] <jono> have a great open week :)