Ubuntu ZATeam Re-Approval scheduled for Tuesday, 18 December 2012 at 22:00 SAST
Ubuntu-za (aka Ubuntu South Africa) has been an approved Loco since July 2005. We work with the local LUGs to support the Ubuntu community. There are some factors that make activity in the South African communities unique. We are distributed over large areas and our bandwidth is expensive. It is important for us to spread Ubuntu in the form of install DVDs and repositories to people so they can avoid downloading.
To this end we have Global Jams and Release parties and we take part in Software Freedom days. We have also built a distribution network in South Africa to get CDs to regional contacts.
We now have 4 ubuntu members on our team. We have a sub team in Stellenbosch. We connect with CLUG, LEG, TLUG, FLUG, UCT Algorithm Circle, SULUG, GLUG, LEAD
This document was a team effort.
From our long term goals at our previous ReApproval in 2010 we made progress on the following items:
- More events outside of Cape Town / Stellenbosch
- More Ubuntu Hours
- More non-geeky users at events
We have made good progress this last year in involving different members of the community to take tasks such as chairing meetings, writing monthly reports and organising events. This is great because the load is spread among people and also it means that the community does not implode if a key figure becomes busy.
Key Details
Date - November 2012
Team Contact - Maia Grotepass <maiatoday-a-t-ubuntu.com>
Membership - 115 active members as of 22 November 2012 see ~ubuntu-za
Website - http://ubuntu-za.org/
Mailing List - ubuntu-za on lists.ubuntu.com - ?? subscribed as of ?? November 2012
IRC - #ubuntu-za or #ubuntu-afr (for our Afrikaans users) on freenode - ±20 active participants as of November 2012
Roadmap
Immediate future
- Continue to have events
- Continue to distribute DVDs
- Continue to provide support on the mailing list and in IRC
Long term
- Involve more people so that we have a better presence in more areas in South Africa and that we increase the diversity of our Ubuntu community.
Experience
Online Activities
IRC support
We provide support in #ubuntu-za on freenode and we also have our monthly meetings in this channel.
Mailing list
The mailing list continues as one of our backbone communication methods. We have ?? subscribers.
We have started an ubuntu-za twitter stream. We have 34 followers.
We have been using ubuntu-za facebook page to notify people of events. We have 216 members.
Forum
The forum activity has declined.
Website
Between 1 December 2011 and 1 December 2012, 3,217 people visited the site.
- Visits: 6,609
- Unique Visitors: 3,217
- Pageviews: 29,051
- Pages / Visit: 4.40
IRL Activities
Jams
- WSep 2011 Cape Town
- Aug 2010 Cape Town
Release Parties
- 12.10 Durban and Pretoria-Jo'burg
- 12.04 Pretoria and Cape Town
- 11.10 Cape Town
- 11.04 Cape Town
- 10.10 Cape Town/Stellenbosch
Ubuntu Hour
- Aug 2012 Durban
- March 2012 Stellenbosh
- Feb 2012 Cape Town
- Aug 2011 Joburg
- April 2011 Stellenbosch
- March 2011 Stellenbosch
- Dec 2010 Durban
- Nov 2010 Stellenbosch
- Nov 2010 Pretoria
CD distribution
We have built up a list of regional contacts from the mailing list. CDs are sent from Stellenbosch to the regional contacts. Regional contacts fill in their detail on ubuntu-za.org so that people can contact them for a CD/DVD. Regional contacts also organise Ubuntu Hours in the area. We sent CDs for Natty, Precise and Quantal.
Other
- Geeknic Nov 2010
Photos
Stats
Website Traffic
LPMembership
IRC
Testimonials
The community email list really helped smooth over the rough edges of joining a platform I had no experience in. Learning from others problems/queries improves my knowledge but also has enabled me to help others. The list together with the regular launch parties and distribution of launch cd's has made for an active and friendly Ubuntu LoCo. There are so many projects to pick from such as Ubuntu Hours, fortnightly meetings, IRC etc etc that there's actually too much to do. Which is great - space for everyone to find their niche. Ubuntu ZA LoCo helped turn and keep me on as an Ubuntu user.
- - Lionthinker
To whom it may concern - I am an older, semi-disabled person, an ex-diesel mechanic and farmer, with little computer knowledge or background. I tried Windows 98, Millenium and XP, but the virus threats made me look for another OS and by chance I came upon Ubuntu. I was given an Ubuntu 9.04 CD and a new world opened up for me, with help of course from the Ubuntu-ZA LoCo mailing lists and #ubuntu-za on IRC. Without the understanding and support from the community there I could never have learned how to use Linux/Ubuntu. Through every release apart from 11.10 I have been helped with CD's and support to sort out things I didn't understand, and the odd bug here and there. Today I can do my own installations and most of what is needed to keep me going online, and #ubuntu-za is like a second home to me. I get great pleasure out of being able to help the odd newbie with basic things, knowing that the rest of the guys will help me out where I go wrong. Kudos #ubuntu-za for the vast amount of knowledge you all share so freely and the friendly manner in which you accepted me into the fold. Thank you so much.
- - Miles Sharpe (Kilos)
- I have been an Ubuntu-za member since 2010. This community is filled with great people that help both newbies and advanced users alike. They have helped me solve so many problems that I have been struggling with. Ubuntu-za is more that just a place for support , it's a place for people , where everyone is welcomed and helped. The community is also very active in distributing Ubuntu discs and spreading the use of Ubuntu as well as holding Ubuntu events. Ubuntu-za is a great community where I come everyday and my Ubuntu experience will be much less enjoyable without Ubuntu-za and it's awesome members.
- - Wikus Van Dyk (mazal)
- I first became interested in using Ubuntu when I started my own Internet Cafe. I kept running into enormous problems with malware finding its way onto the shop computers and networks, causing a loss of productivity with the following clean up, and sometimes complete re-installation. I first made the break in 2009, and have not looked back since. To say that I was a Linux noob would be understating things. I found a lot of information on the Ubuntu wiki and the various blogs and websites, but IRC and the Ubuntu-za channel quickly became my go to source for quick, friendly help, often with some free tutoring in the process. With out the support of this community I would not have some as far as I have. This, in my experience, is one of the friendliest, most active communities on the Internet, one which I can say that I am very proud to be a part of.
- - Greg Eames (magespawn)
I discovered ubuntu-za in search for an Afrikaans channel on freenode. I was already in ubuntu-nl-offtopic, lubuntu and ubuntu-nl channels. It goes even further, as a Wikipedian I joined freenode and set up an IRC account with ChatZilla. Since then, I learned to read and speak Afrikaans. I do like the people in ubuntu-za, because they talk to you and are curious to know more about you. I've become a daily member of the ubuntu-za channel. Thank you guys!
- - Geoffrey De Belie (smile)
The Ubuntu-ZA LoCo still seems to be in good shape. Personally, I have been a lot less involved, recently, and I'm glad to see that things have continued well without me. The IRC channel and lists are pretty active, and events have been happening around the country. I hope we'll have some more events in Cape Town again, next year. I'll try and organise something
-- stefanor 2012-12-03 20:05:22
It doesn't matter what your preferred method of getting assistance is, it can be the intimacy of a face to face real life meeting, or the quickness of IRC, the true and tried method of a mailing list, but getting your answer, your sense of belonging, sense of sharing something bigger, what ever it is you are after in a friendly manner; you will find it in the Ubuntu-ZA LoCo. Being part of this group of people is a privilege and a pleasure and I am sure the LoCo will do well on this re-application, and continue to do a great service for our country and Ubuntu (and open source in general).
- I experienced a warm fuzzy feeling while reading the testimonials. We have become more active in the quiet areas in the region, especially here on the north coast. The last couple of months the physical meetings we had increased and that's a sure sign of progress as a sub-loco. Chairing a couple of IRC meetings lately exposed me to a new part in the community and I had to learn how to do that properly. Catching up on events and activities during these times is a pleasure as I can't be around in the channel as much as I used to.
As LoCo contact I thought I shouldn't write a testimonial as it wouldn't be an unbiased opinion. However in the past year I have not been as active. What makes this community so great is that people stepped up and helped where they could. As a result different people picked up all the threads I couldn't hold anymore. We now have different people chairing meetings and more people organising events. We have new initiatives too such as the twitter feed. We also have events and meetups in more places in the country. For me this means we are a real community, an active group with shared interests. A group of people who create a core where the responsibilities are shared so that individuals can add energy when they have time and the group does not crumble if an active member becomes busy. Thank you to everyone who helped out no matter how small or large.
- As a member of ubuntu-za since 2006 I still enjoy being part of the community as much as when I joined while I am not as active as I would like to be. I try to restrict most of my activity to helping where I can on the irc channel when I can. With all the evidence above (just a taste of it) we definitely have a very vibrant community with a lot of potential and it is always fun to be involved and to learn something new from others all the time.
- Add your testimonial here ubuntu-za member