Ubuntu Wiki

   1 === cjohnston changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Ubuntu Classroom || Ubuntu User Days | Current Session: Getting involved in the Ubuntu Community ~~ Presented by jcastro || Please ask questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Ubuntu User Days Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WQWHJQY
   2 [22:01] <Pendulum> Up next is jcastro  talking about the Ubuntu Community
   3 [22:01] <jcastro> Thanks Pendulum!
   4 [22:01] <jcastro> ok, welcome everyone
   5 [22:01] <jcastro> I hope you're having a good ubuntu user day!
   6 [22:01] <Pendulum> Please don't forget that we have a survey about today, please fill it out at some point during the day http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WQWHJQY
   7 [22:01] <jcastro> thanks for everyone who put this together.
   8 [22:01] <jcastro> I'm going to talk to you about how to get involved in this lovely jumble called the "ubuntu community"
   9 [22:02] <jcastro> So I'm going to have a little intro
  10 [22:02] <jcastro> then talk about bits
  11 [22:02] <jcastro> then let you ask questions, and then we can go from there
  12 [22:02] <jcastro> I purposely don't have an outline for this because I don't want to just spam you with bullets
  13 [22:02] <jcastro> I'd love to just be swamped with questions.
  14 [22:02] <jcastro> so, let's start!
  15 [22:03] <jcastro> first off, my name is jorge castro and I work at canonical on the community team.
  16 [22:03] <jcastro> Our main mission is to "Help people Rock."
  17 [22:03] <jcastro> so we go around different parts of our diverse community gathering things together, picking best practices, and enabling other people to do great work
  18 [22:04] <jcastro> ubuntu has a group of developers who actually make the distro
  19 [22:04] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDSKarmic
  20 [22:04] <jcastro> here's a picture!
  21 [22:05] <jcastro> but as large as that group is, without the tons and tons of people out there who contribute to Ubuntu it would be difficult to make something like Ubuntu work.
  22 [22:05] <jcastro> That's where ubuntu teams come into play
  23 [22:05] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Teams
  24 [22:05] <jcastro> one of the fundamental things in how ubuntu is organized is that we're very team based
  25 [22:06] <jcastro> one person isn't in charge of "the installer", or "the kernel", it's a group of people
  26 [22:06] <jcastro> that wiki page there shows a list of teams in ubuntu
  27 [22:06] <jcastro> so when people want to get involved they come up to me and say
  28 [22:06] <jcastro> "what can I do for ubuntu?"
  29 [22:06] <jcastro> and I usually answer with "well, what do you like to do? What pumps you up?"
  30 [22:06] <jcastro> and sometimes here's where people get discouraged
  31 [22:07] <jcastro> "well, I don't program, I don't  like to write docs, so I guess not much."
  32 [22:07] <jcastro> but as it ends up, you don't have to be a hacker or anything to contribute
  33 [22:07] <jcastro> because there's so many things we do as a collective group that it involves all sorts of things
  34 [22:07] <jcastro> so like marketing, organizing, you name it!
  35 [22:07] <jcastro> any questions about the teams or anything like that?
  36 [22:08] <Pendulum> < dm-madmod> QUESTION:  I tried to get involved with bug triaging and got lost in the maze of flow.  The flow chart while interesting wasn't useful.
  37 [22:08] <jcastro> ah, great question
  38 [22:08] <jcastro> so, as it happens, some of us work on Ubuntu a lot.
  39 [22:09] <jcastro> and we come up with really awesome things to do figure out the  most effective way to get something done
  40 [22:09] <jcastro> the problem sometimes is that we get knee deep in how we do things
  41 [22:09] <jcastro> so it's easy to lose perspective on what something that is "easy to understand"
  42 [22:09] <Pendulum> < ddecator> QUESTION: much like dm-madmod, i'm not entirely sure how to get involved with the BugSquad...I requested a mentor, but haven't hear back
  43 [22:10] <jcastro> So for someone like me, this page looks very easy to use and understand! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/
  44 [22:10] <jcastro> couldn't get any easier, right?
  45 [22:10] <jcastro> this comes down to one of those things that we're constantly evaluating
  46 [22:11] <jcastro> and when it comes to certain things there's only so much you can break it down to be easy.
  47 [22:11] <jcastro> after that it really just becomes a matter of experience
  48 [22:11] <jcastro> so yeah, it's hard to keep the maze in check, we always try to make it easier
  49 [22:11] <jcastro> if it makes you feel better I've been doing this for /years/ and to this day I need to ask someone on occassion what to do with a bug.
  50 [22:12] <jcastro> the key point here is that a) it's ok that you don't know anything
  51 [22:12] <jcastro> b) we have a culture where getting help from someone is low barrier and fun to do
  52 [22:12] <jcastro> and c) that we continually look for ways to make things easier
  53 [22:12] <jcastro> for the mentor question, yeah, it's hard, we have way more requests than we have mentors
  54 [22:13] <jcastro> so you're going to have to be patient there
  55 [22:13] <jcastro> (note: being persistant and annoying can help sometimes there, heh)
  56 [22:13] <jcastro> you might just want to dig in to something small too
  57 [22:13] <jcastro> when I first started with something I found something small to work on
  58 [22:14] <jcastro> "ok, I really like this mp3 player, I'm going to be the guy who helps people with this."
  59 [22:14] <jcastro> and then just jump into launchpad answers or bugs.
  60 [22:15] <jcastro> ok
  61 [22:15] <jcastro> so, you basically pick a team, and decide what you want to do
  62 [22:15] <jcastro> at this point, don't get scared, you're not asking to marry someone or anything like that
  63 [22:15] <jcastro> some people like to go all over the place in the distro
  64 [22:15] <jcastro> which is fine, you want to have your hands in little pies
  65 [22:16] <jcastro> some people like to do one part of the distro and that's all they do, which is fine too
  66 [22:16] <jcastro> whatever is interesting to you
  67 [22:16] <jcastro> remember too that after a while you will get bored and probably look at something else to do it you end up not liking it
  68 [22:16] <jcastro> so since everyone is asking about bugs let's pretend I want to get involved in bugs
  69 [22:17] <jcastro> and then you can just apply that to whatever
  70 [22:17] <jcastro> So, I read through the thorough documentation on the bugs page
  71 [22:17] <jcastro> it's important not to get intimidated when you see such large pages in the wiki
  72 [22:18] <jcastro> wikis tend to be very "dumpgroundish" and crufty. They can contain lots of information
  73 [22:18] <jcastro> but they can get confusing, but as long as you know that already then they don't scare you right. :)
  74 [22:19] <jcastro> the first things that you can do to get how things work is find out where the team "hangs out"
  75 [22:19] <jcastro> so most teams in ubuntu have an irc channel
  76 [22:19] <jcastro> and a mailing list
  77 [22:19] <jcastro> and many teams will hold regular meetings in IRC where they discuss things
  78 [22:19] <jcastro> the mailing lists can be particularly helpful because you can read a bunch of things before you even talk to anyone
  79 [22:19] <jcastro> that way I don't feel too dumb when I ask a question. ;)
  80 [22:20] <jcastro> and for IRC meetings and such many teams publish the logs and results of their meetings on the IRC list.
  81 [22:20] <jcastro> reading these are is good because they let you see what people are working on
  82 [22:20] <jcastro> and what they need help with!
  83 [22:20] <jcastro> it could be as easy as "Joe Smith- I worked on updating this program foo, needs testing though."
  84 [22:21] <jcastro> aha! I could help with that! (or not, depending on what you can do)
  85 [22:21] <jcastro> most teams also keep a Todo around
  86 [22:21] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/TODO
  87 [22:21] <jcastro> like that ^^
  88 [22:21] <jcastro> some teams even break down things for beginners
  89 [22:22] <jcastro> so that when you show up they've already got a list of things to do!
  90 [22:22] <jcastro> anyone have any questions on where to find help on teams? or how to get involved initially?
  91 [22:23] <jcastro> ok, before I move on; it's important to know that a bunch of things in the ubuntu community are "just do it"
  92 [22:23] <jcastro> for example, I run ubuntu openweek, which is like today, except we do it for a week.
  93 [22:23] <jcastro> and we have developerweek
  94 [22:23] <jcastro> which has a different goal, but similar concept.
  95 [22:24] <jcastro> the people who put together today didn't have to ask anyone "is it ok if we had a day of sessions for users?"
  96 [22:24] <jcastro> someone just went and did it
  97 [22:24] <jcastro> started a wiki page, started gathering people, picked a date, made a schedule <<<---- note, these are things you can do without knowing how to program.
  98 [22:24] <jcastro> at that point people who have been around for a while came out of the woodwork to help
  99 [22:25] <jcastro> "have you reserved ubuntu-classroom yet? you should do that."
 100 [22:25] <jcastro> "hey, someone should have a survey at the end like we did last time, so we know if people liked the sessions so we can make them better"
 101 [22:25] <jcastro> "hey did someone make the calendar?"
 102 [22:25] <jcastro> and because we're team-based it's easier to ask someone from a team to just jump in for a session and talk about their area of interest
 103 [22:26] <jcastro> as a general rule I recommend to people that if they have a good idea to run with it, throw it up on the wiki, and roll with it.
 104 [22:26] <jcastro> but be proactive about asking around for help, tips, etc.
 105 [22:26] <jcastro> when I first started doing this I had a bunch of ideas
 106 [22:27] <jcastro> that never went anywhere because I was either to scared to ask for help or wasn't organized enough to do it
 107 [22:27] <jcastro> (ok ok, some of the ideas were just plain bad)
 108 [22:27] <jcastro> ok, so you've picked your team and now you know where to hang out
 109 [22:27] <jcastro> teams usually have events
 110 [22:27] <jcastro> in the case of the bug squad, they have bug days
 111 [22:28] <jcastro> these are times when a bunch of them get together and work on bugs
 112 [22:28] <jcastro> participating in events is a good way to get experience learning things
 113 [22:28] <jcastro> (and also a great place to find a mentor)
 114 [22:28] <jcastro> it can be motivational to mark your first bug confirmed (or whatever), but also having guys like qense around when you think you're going to mess up to answer your questions
 115 [22:29] <jcastro> unfortunately sometimes things like bug days and stuff might be too time consuming or something, and that's totally ok
 116 [22:29] <jcastro> remember that even if you do a little bit that when you have tons of people it all adds up.
 117 [22:29] <jcastro> I like to think of it this way (since I'm working on things that aren't bug related this cycle)
 118 [22:30] <jcastro> "ok, I only triaged this one bug, but it's one less bug Bryce has to deal with so he can concentrate on making X work better" or whatever it is
 119 [22:30] <jcastro> some people get discouraged because they can't commit the time they want to make ubuntu better
 120 [22:30] <jcastro> and that's totally fine.
 121 [22:31] <jcastro> if you go into a bug day thinking you're going to fix a million bugs you'll just set yourself up to be disappointed, so instead concentrate on working towards the team goal
 122 [22:32] <jcastro> any questions while we wait for the spam attack to die off? ;)
 123 [22:33] <jcastro> One thing I also wanted to mention
 124 [22:33] <jcastro> is that you can do things that aren't on that list of teams
 125 [22:34] <jcastro> for example, the people in the ubuntu-ohio Local team run the booth at ohio linuxfest,
 126 [22:34] <jcastro> some of those people might not be doing bug triage, or writing code, or working on ubuntu itself, but for that day they make sure that booth is rocking with CDs, answering people's questions, and spreading the love
 127 [22:35] <jcastro> contributions like this are hard to measure like things in launchpad or whatever
 128 [22:35] <jcastro> but remember that they can be just as important.
 129 [22:36] <jcastro> so remember that doing a little part in something can work, don't worry about things like karma or whatever.
 130 [22:36] <jcastro> ok, so, idally you are participating in team events in something that interests you
 131 [22:37] <jcastro> I've not yet run into an ubuntu team that is "finished" or doesn't have anything to do, so I don't think finding a place to chip in is a problem
 132 [22:37] <jcastro> however I would like to hear your experiences about trying to get started in a team have been, so we can make that process suck less.
 133 [22:38] <pleia2> < RPG_Master_> Does a LoCo count as a team?
 134 [22:38] <jcastro> yes, absolutely!
 135 [22:38] <jcastro> in fact LoCo's are our bread and butter.
 136 [22:39] <jcastro> at our loco we try to do a "bug jam" at least once per cycle
 137 [22:39] <jcastro> and a release party.
 138 [22:39] <pleia2> < RPG_Master_> QUESTION : What should I do if my LoCo is completely unactive?
 139 [22:39] <jcastro> however some loco's are just social groups, some run huge events (google for the french local teams release parties)
 140 [22:39] <jcastro> that's an excellent question
 141 [22:39] <jcastro> my first loco meeting was me and one other guy
 142 [22:39] <jcastro> and no one showed up, so we just drank beer.
 143 [22:40] <jcastro> some people would consider that a successful meeting. :p
 144 [22:40] <jcastro> one thing I tried to do was find other ubuntu users at local linux user groups
 145 [22:40] <jcastro> and get them interested
 146 [22:40] <jcastro> we would also run an installfest in cooperation with other linux groups in an area
 147 [22:41] <jcastro> but I think for our loco the one bug jam and release party per cycle is our "comfort zone". We tried to do too much one cycle and everyone was sick of it, but you don't want to be boring.
 148 [22:41] <jcastro> remember people have lives so trying to have weekly loco meetings can get brutal on people.
 149 [22:41] <pleia2> might be slightly off-topic, but since upstream collaboration is a recent project of yours... < strycore> QUESTION : if I send a patch to Ubuntu , do I also have to send it to Debian ?
 150 [22:42] <jcastro> these days we chat in our irc channel and try to make our two events per cycle the most bang-for-the-buck we can
 151 [22:42] <jcastro> yeah, I like all the questions
 152 [22:42] <jcastro> generally speaking, you don't /have to/, but it's a very strong encouragement.
 153 [22:42] <jcastro> some sponsors won't take your patch until you've at least submitted it to debian
 154 [22:43] <jcastro> sending our fixes back to debian is a crucial part of the ecosystem
 155 [22:43] <jcastro> think of it as a professional courtesy.
 156 [22:43] <jcastro> where appropriate of course
 157 [22:43] <jcastro> if your patch is ubuntu specific then probably not, if you're not sure the sponsor who is reviewing your patch can answer that question
 158 [22:44] <jcastro> if you do not know how to send a patch to debian the sponsor can point you in the right direction
 159 [22:44] <pleia2> < mick__> QUESTION?? Do I have to be a C programer?
 160 [22:44] <jcastro> we have a neat tool called "submittodebian" in the archive that you might want to check out
 161 [22:44] <jcastro> nope, you don't even have to be a programmer
 162 [22:45] <pleia2> < dm-madmod> QUESTION:  Is there a simple way to understand filing bugs upstream?  I'm confused by the upstream terminology.
 163 [22:45] <jcastro> if you're a python programmer (for example) you can work on that if you want
 164 [22:45] <jcastro> another good question!
 165 [22:45] <jcastro> let me get you an example bug
 166 [22:46] <jcastro> (one sec) smoke if you got em
 167 [22:46] <pleia2> oh, 15 minutes left btw
 168 [22:47] <jcastro> right
 169 [22:47] <Pendulum> < mick__> QUESTION:  I notice a lovely app I use is not in universe/multiverse, how do i get help about packaging etc?
 170 [22:47] <jcastro> ok, I can't find the bug, but I'll get back to that
 171 [22:47] <jcastro> dm-madmod: generally speaking, I try to first make sure that a bug is an upstream problem, and not a bug we introduced
 172 [22:48] <jcastro> which can be hard sometimes
 173 [22:48] <jcastro> generally if something is broken I try to reproduce it in upstreams code (I check it out of git or whatever) and then see if it's there
 174 [22:48] <jcastro> and then if it is I file it upstream in their bug tracker
 175 [22:48] <jcastro> generally speaking feature requests are always nearly an upstream thing, so I file those directly there
 176 [22:49] <jcastro> however I will sometimes check launchpad because someone at somepoint probably thought of the same idea, and then I link those
 177 [22:49] <jcastro> you can do that by setting a watch on a bug
 178 [22:49] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Watches
 179 [22:49] <jcastro> which is out of scope for this session, but that gives you the general idea
 180 [22:49] <jcastro> mick__: you are in luck!
 181 [22:49] <jcastro> I just was working on the documentation for that this week
 182 [22:50] <jcastro> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Upstream
 183 [22:50] <jcastro> I have been working on documentation for upstreams that want to get into ubuntu
 184 [22:50] <jcastro> so people like you and me can help them
 185 [22:50] <jcastro> specifically you're looking for: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages
 186 [22:50] <jcastro> more questions?
 187 [22:51] <pleia2> < zehrique> QUESTION As a translator, how can I fix a string I found on a .po package and submit the changes to the repository?
 188 [22:51] <jcastro> ah, a translations question.
 189 [22:52] <jcastro> we have a person on the community team who handles translations, unfortunately I don't have the expertise to handle this, however if you contact david planella he can help you: https://edge.launchpad.net/~dpm
 190 [22:52] <jcastro> (pro tip: find the translator team page and ask in their channel or list)
 191 [22:52] <jcastro> that way everyone can see your question and it can be available to other people on the internet when they run into the same problem
 192 [22:53] <jcastro> 5 more minutes left, more questions!
 193 [22:54] <jcastro> no one is going to ask when firefox 3.6 is coming to ubuntu? :)
 194 [22:54] <jcastro> (the ubuntu mozillateam is working on it now, I learned that by hanging out in the team channel)
 195 [22:54] <pleia2> here we go! < RPG_Master_> QUESTION : Whens FF3.6 coming to Ubuntu?
 196 [22:55] <jcastro> soon!
 197 [22:55] <jcastro> more questions?
 198 [22:55] <jcastro> ok well, I appreciate you taking your time on a saturday to learn how to get involved in ubuntu
 199 [22:55] <jcastro> remember, don't be afraid to ask questions
 200 [22:55] <jcastro> we're all in this together, you shouldn't suffer silently if you're lost or confused
 201 [22:56] <pleia2> < nulled> are all ubuntu projects on launchpad?
 202 [22:56] <jcastro> usually
 203 [22:56] <jcastro> sometimes a loco might have a mailing list hosted someplace else or something like that
 204 [22:56] <jcastro> one of the nice things about launchpad is it's designed around the idea of teams, so it's a natural fit to do ubuntu team work
 205 [22:57] <jcastro> ok, everyone have a good day
 206 [22:57] <pleia2> thanks jcastro!
 207 [22:57] <jcastro> and don't be afraid to  hop into #ubuntu-community-team
 208 [22:57] <jcastro> if you need help organizing something
 209 [22:57] <jcastro> thanks!