MOTUApplication
Contents |
I, Nick Ellery, apply for MOTU.
Name |
Nick Ellery |
Launchpad Page |
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Wiki Page |
Who I am
My name is Nick Ellery. I'm a student from Canada, I spend too much of my time on the computer and playing video games, and once in a while I participate in real life.
My Ubuntu story and My involvement
About a year and a half ago, I decided to install Ubuntu. This would be my first Linux distribution, coming from a Windows background. At the time, the latest release was Gutsy, and I was very impressed by the system. From there, I quickly got into the community. I've been contributing to Ubuntu in general for about one year now, and Ubuntu Development for about 9 months. I started off contributing to the Doc team, and quickly moved into bug triaging and QA work. By doing so, I prepared myself well for becoming a developer by getting used to working in the community. Working my way up to a universe-contributor, I contributed many merges, new upstream releases, bug fixes, as well as two new packages.
Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of
- Contributed a significant amount of merges and sync requests.
- Packaged two plasmoids
- Significant decrease in amount of errors and changes needed for submitted debdiffs
- My knowledge of Ubuntu development in general has increased dramatically since first starting out from scratch
Areas of work
- Merging/Syncing packages. Packages in Universe, with emphasis on many science-related packages.
- New upstream releases
- Maintaining the two plasmoids I've packaged
- Bug fixes for packages in Universe
- Recently started reviewing packages of REVU and plan to do much more with MOTU privaleges
Things I could do better
- Ensuring that there no errors in uploads by going out of my way to double and triple check
- Not to be too overconfident that an upload is perfect as it may blind me from errors
- Read more documentation and expand my knowledge
- Ensuring quality over quantity in my work
- Taking on more challenges while still maintaining confidence in what I am doing
Plans for the future
- Join ubuntu-universe-sponsors and give back some of what I took from all of the sponsorship of my uploads.
- Join MOTU Mentors. My mentor, Nicolas Valcárcel (nxvl) did a huge amount to get me started and on my way. I'd like to have the same effect on another new contributor.
- Upload more new packages
- Increase my overall knowledge of Ubuntu Development
What I like least in Ubuntu
I feel that Ubuntu's contribution back to Debian is lower than I would like. In many cases, I find that changes made in Ubuntu are not forwarded to Debian right away. As somebody who has contributed a lot of merges, I find that I am reporting these changes to Debian as I come across them during a merge. This means that if the package isn't updated in Debian for quite some time, the Ubuntu change isn't in Debian for quite some time. Fixing this could be as simple as Ubuntu developers forwarding changes to Debian as soon as they are made in Ubuntu. However, in the future I'd like to see more changes in Ubuntu as a whole which are a benefit to both Debian, as well as and upstream projects. I believe that in time, this will eventually occur as Ubuntu becomes bigger and there are more developers. As a sponsor, I would ensure that everything that should be forwarded is forwarded.
Comments
If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.
Endorsements
As a sponsor, just copy the template below, fill it out and add it to this section.
Daniel Holbach (dholbach)
General feedback
Nick does great work and improved a lot over time. I sponsored around 15-20 package for him.
Specific Experiences of working together
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/slony1/+bug/244713
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/keepassx/+bug/250299
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mouseemu/+bug/269965
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk-recordmydesktop/+bug/255791
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/planfacile/+bug/133523
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glunarclock/+bug/300532
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/modconf/+bug/300547
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunty-changes/2008-November/001286.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnotime/+bug/304642
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-reference/+bug/309258
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dasher/+bug/305868
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/meta-gnome2/+bug/310334
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smarty/+bug/310786
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unbound/+bug/310779
Areas of Improvement
Nick could generally still be a bit more careful, but his contributions have improved a lot already and he's generally doing a great job.
Nathan Handler
General feedback
I have sponsored a fair number of Nick's packages. His recent work has been nearly perfect except for a tiny issue every now and then. On the few occasions where it was necessary for him to revise a patch, he was always very quick to prepare a new and correct one. Nick has demonstrated a good understanding of the various procedures and processes involved in Ubuntu. He has also helped send many patches back upstream to Debian for the merges he has performed. Whenever he had some uncertainty about an issue, he always asked another developer for help. Overall, I think that Nick has been doing an outstanding job!
Specific Experiences of working together
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debian-maintainers/+bug/384992
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/klogic/+bug/384331
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ldaptor/+bug/384197
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/resolvconf/+bug/384131
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/httrack/+bug/379588
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-widget-stockquote/+bug/371957
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/heimdal/+bug/368947
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/httrack/+bug/368951
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasmoid-tvprogramme/+bug/321242
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smarty/+bug/311806
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jack-audio-connection-kit/+bug/311692
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ctypes/+bug/311401
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/inetutils/+bug/311085
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smarty/+bug/311037
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/iscsitarget/+bug/310321
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mozilla-noscript/+bug/307628
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/httrack/+bug/308865
Areas of Improvement
All of the bugs listed above, except for LP: #371957 and LP: #321242 were merges. I would like to see Nick work on some other types of bugs in the future.
TEMPLATE
== <SPONSORS NAME> == === General feedback === ## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?) === Specific Experiences of working together === ''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.'' === Areas of Improvement ===
NickEllery/MOTUApplication (last edited 2009-06-12 01:26:48 by 99-21-107-94)