UDS Boston Training BOF

Date: 2007-11-01, 14h00

Participants

1. Billy Cina (phone)
2. Belinda Lopez
3. Alan Pope
4. Mark Van den Borre
5. Christer Edwards
6. Torsten Spindler
7. Richard Weideman

Meeting Minutes

1. Lessons learned from the Ubuntu Desktop Course development [TS]
   • BL: high entry level for participating
   • AP: stumbling blocks docbook, bazaar, launchpad
   • BL: concern on merge
   • BC: doc team uses mentoring program, as docbook/XML and bazaar + LP are hard to use
   • AP: Wiki is good for long term collaborative editing, publishing from wiki to docbook
   • MB: no easy way to do this
   • AP: How to get more people involved
   • TS: eclipse (docbook xml editing capabilities?)+ bzr plugin
   • TS, BC: feedback time too short
   • AP: Other WYSIWYG editors are available "lyx" for example on windows and linux, conglomerate on *nix
   • BC: worth time investing in better tools will benefit the doc team too
   • BL: Artwork team solicited for contributions from the forums with some success
   • AP: mailing list subscribership is not a guarantee for active participation

   • AP+TS: docbook writing with lyx: http://bgu.chez-alice.fr/doc/db4lyx/

   • TS: DocBook export from OO.o is not nice, loses the advantages

   • BL: isn't this the other way round? normally, producing the content using whatever tool comes first
   • BC: will look into two companies who make wiki software that supports docbook
   • AP: will explore existing graphical user interfaces for docbook and bzr, see what would be involved
   • BL: Is there a difference in developing materials for different types of courses? i.e. Sys Admin vs. Desktop, etc.? would the process/tools change?
   • BC: May or may not be additional training courses
   • BC: took me a while to understand relation launchpad - bzr
   • AP: Make instructions for using launchpad and bzr to participate better
   • RW: launchpad language should be friendlier, ecnouraging non-technical participants (teachers,...)
   • BC: 520 pages in two days, too much. (usually 100 per day is about right), some of it optional rather than all of it compulsory. Re-arrange sections, open source and ubuntu introductions at about 30 mins, comparison between MS and Ubuntu (possibly not required, possibly too derogatory), check with legal about whether we are being too disparaging about MS. Maybe some high level comparison, but not as specific correlations. compulsory versus optimal parts .Too much content, section 3 (quick tour of desktop) needs to be before the comparison with MS. Too much chalk and talk before they get their hands on the system. Delegates interested in partitioning and dual booting
2. Community involvement in training [BS]
   • Discussed above.
3. Games for teaching Ubuntu courses [TS]
   • Use games/exercises to reinforce learning
   • Exercises could be paper based exercises, or tasks to actually use the system
4. Infrastructure required for running Ubuntu Desktop Courses [AP]
   • Space, network, computers, desks etc
     • BC: digital material required: DVD with music and movie, photos with red eyes
     • TS: proxy server for low bandwidth classroom
     • BC: Internet access very useful, some students do not know about topics like RSS up front
     • BL: example content on the standard cd usable?
     • BL: screencasting (AP) may fit in sometime in the future, discussing that here