Approval Application for Ubuntu West Bengal, India (ubuntu-wb)

Ubuntu West Bengal is a local community team covering the state of West Bengal in India. We are here to spread awareness about Ubuntu, help new users and make more people addicted to this amazing operating system. It would be our privilege to be officially recognized by the Ubuntu Community as a Local Community Team. We are certain that we can meet our goals and we look forward to working together as a team.

Key Details

• Date Founded - (December 2008)

• Team Contact - Parthsarathi Trivedi <parthsarathitrivedi@gmail.com>

• Membership - 15 and more enrolling as of 13th February 2008

• Wiki - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ubuntu_West_Bengal

• IRC channel - #ubuntu-wb

Roadmap

As a local community team, it is our duty to start spreading awareness about Ubuntu. This will be achieved by doing the following in West Bengal, India

• Going to different schools for Audio Visual presentations on Ubuntu

As we visited Calcutta International School earlier, we also plan to visit schools such as Kendriya Vidyalay, Manovikas Kendra and Future Hope, which are institutes that care for orphans and disabled children alike. We also plan to visit public schools in Kolkata following Audio Visual presentations on Ubuntu with a laptop and a projector. Students will also be allowed to use the operating system as part of this presentation along with parents who are interested. Teachers will also be given a presentation on Edubuntu.

• Distributing more free CDs to those who do not have internet connections

Having no internet connection should not deprive anyone from having Ubuntu and we feel that it is our duty to make sure that anyone who wants Ubuntu but cannot download it should receive a free CD from us. It is a service that we will always keep free of cost. People who wish to request a CD can do so by sending an email to parthsarathitrivedi@gmail.com or they can use our IRC channel to do so.

• Organizing a stand at school libraries that will contain fifty Ubuntu CDs each, for students and teachers to take and use

The stand must be kept in a prominent location so that it can be seen by everyone. Over time, the number of stands will also be increased to meet the increasing demand for Ubuntu CDs here.

• Installing Ubuntu on at least two computers in select schools for students to use

The only way for people to get a real feel of the operating system is by using it themselves. If Ubuntu is installed on computers in such places, then people can actually get to know a lot about Ubuntu before installing it at home. It will not only spread awareness, but slowly it will make more and more schools adopt Ubuntu as their primary operating system.

• Fifty CDs should be distributed in one month at least

If people have old computers, then Ubuntu may not be suitable for their machines. In this case, we will always recommend Xubuntu as it will be lighter on their system. Before distributing any CD we will note down the user's computer configuration and we will give them advice on which operating system would best suit their computer. We are confident that we will surpass this target of fifty CDs as we know that more and more people will want Ubuntu.

• We plan to start a service where team members can go over to new users' homes or offices if need be to install Ubuntu or troubleshoot a problem

This will be of great help to new users who are facing difficulties due to lack of knowledge regarding the installation process or other miscellaneous problems. We will have members all over West Bengal who are willing and able to help out new users personally.

• Printing and distributing installation guides with every Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu/Xubuntu given out

This will help new users to understand the installation process and will also enable them to carry out a trouble free installation. The guide will also contain step by step screenshots. We will also print out guides for installing any other software or using the synaptic package manager.

• Placing Ubuntu Posters and CDs in racks, in local supermarkets

These are similar to the racks placed in libraries, but since supermarkets have larger traffic, more CDs will be distributed over a shorter period of time. Also, the supermarkets being a public areas, will tend to a larger audience.

• Since we have contacts with the press, we will place Ubuntu advertisements in local newspapers to spread awareness

This should increase the popularity of Ubuntu by a large amount as the newspapers have a huge area of circulation. We have friends in the newspapers who are willing to help us out and place ads where readers can see them. This shall be done once in two weeks.

• Maintaining an up-to-date wiki and a fully functional forum for user discussions and queries

Our wiki will contain links to a forum on Ubuntu Forums that we wish to start soon after approval. The forum will help local users get in touch with us more easily and we will tend to their queries on a daily basis. The website will also be kept up-to-date and new members will be added to the member section for our records.

• Maintaining a mailing list and an IRC channel (#ubuntu-wb)

An IRC channel is the best way to get live assistance on a problem and to answer a query in real time. We will make sure that atleast two to three members are available on our channel during the working hours in our time zone. Our mailing list will be updated every time a new member joins and we shall keep all members updated on any news or changes via the mailing list.

Experience

We have worked hard and have managed to gather many new users of Ubuntu from Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

• We held a presentation on Ubuntu in Calcutta International School, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, for the students and teachers.

• We spoke on Ubuntu and pointed out how it would help the students and we also spoke about Edubuntu

• We gave the students a basic tutorial on Ubuntu and showed them the installation process on computer in their lab

• We installed Ubuntu on four computers in the computer lab for students to use

• We distributed free Ubuntu CDs amongst the students (37 new users so far!)

• We stuck Ubuntu posters (Shown Below) on prominent notice boards to spread awareness