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Ubuntu Beginners Team Council 2010

There is no place like home. That is exactly what the Beginners Team is to me, my home in the Ubuntu Community. I think we have a very unique and special team. The team and its members have done some great things and I believe we are poised to do even greater. Being a stepping stone for peoples entry into the community is a valuable part of what we do. I know i was much less intimidated to ask for help about doc work or bug triage in a group that was expecting noob questions. I believe the cooperation and organization within our team allows for us to motivate one another and provide frameworks for getting tasks accomplished. Whether its a 'Summer of Documentation' or a 'Friendly 5-a-day Competition' I believe the Focus Groups can be an asset to Beginners as well as Experienced members. This ability to organize and support one another on a smaller more personal scale is something the larger 'ubuntu-doc' or 'ubuntu-bug' teams, for example, are not really set up to facilitate.

What are the BT most pressing concerns. Concerns I will make a top priority if elected.
1. A return to the friendly laid back environment of the past. I believe moving the administrative details of the team to the Council there will be less opportunity for the bickering and disagreement we all saw and hated so much.
2. I would like to see the Focus Groups brought to the forefront. The Focus Groups are the ones engaging in community work. Also a readjustment of the Focus Groups activities to fall more into line with the BT Mission of helping new users and educating the community and helping community members get involved in community work.
3. With the Council handling Team decisions I feel it is important for the Council to be held accountable.After giving this a lot of thought i think shortening the council terms to just a year will help with this. I thought about mechanisms such as a way for the community to reverse a council decision by collecting 2/3 of members support in opposition to the decision. However at the end of the day I believe less is more. I also think we all need to learn to be a little more agreeable with one another. The less opportunities for conflict and the creation of bad feelings towards one another the better.

I wanted to share a little bit of my outlook on the team and try and give members an idea of what direction I will guide the team, if elected to BT Council and/or Launchpad Focus Group. Regardless of how I personally feel when it comes to decisions affecting the team I will always listen to the members and weigh each opinion with the utmost consideration.
See Testimonials

Ubuntu Beginners Team Launchpad Focus Group Lead 2010

I have served as the Beginners Team Launchpad Focus Group Lead for the past 6 mo. I think this Focus Group is a very important aspect of the Beginners Team. As the Beginners Team helps community members get involved in the community there are not many tools that an Ubuntu contributor must now better than Launchpad. If I continue as the Launchpad Focus Group Lead I will continue to organize projects and activities that facilitate continuing contribution. I would like to see the LP Focus group contribute more to the Launchpad Documentation available. I have already started and nearly completed the first in a series of UCLP courses on Launchpad. I would also like to see the FG contribute to the Launchpad wiki as well as producing screencasts for the launchpad YouTube channel.
See Testimonials

Summary

Contact for the Ubuntu Beginners Team Launchpad Focus Group
Contact for the Oklahoma LoCo Team
Member of the Ubuntu LoCo Enthusiasts
Member of the Ubuntu Beginners Team
Member of the Ubuntu doc-team
Member of the Ubuntu Bug Squad
Member of the 5-a-day-participants
Member of the LaptopTestingTeam/HewlettPackard/HPG60-120us
Member of the Ubuntu Marketing Team
Member of the Ubuntu Artwork Team

Ubuntu Contributions

Local Community

Oklahoma Ubuntu Local Community Lead
As the team coordinator I am responsible for the well being of the Oklahoma LoCo. I welcome new members and get them acquainted with the tools our LoCo uses. This tools includes the usual wiki, Freenode channel, forum and mailing list. We also have a Google Apps account I created for our team to share documents and calendars. I work to keep up the momentum of the team by planning events and keeping a dialogue on the mailing list. I publish the OKlaLoCo Newsletter a monthly/bi-monthly newsletter about the team and the ubuntu community as a whole. The current goals of the LoCo are to increase member participation.

• OKlaLoCo Newsletter
  

• Oklahoma LoCo Activism and Advocacy Project
  

  • OKlahoma Ubuntu In Libraries Blueprint

Tulsa Monthly Meetup
Oklahoma Loco members who live in Tulsa are invited out for this informal get together where we share our ideas and experiences about Ubuntu. We set up a computer with Ubuntu for coffee house patrons to use. As the customers use the computer to surf the Internet we take the time to educate them on Ubuntu.

'09 Global Bug Jam
Organized the Oklahoma LOCos participation in the February '09 Bug Jam. Bug Jam statistics.

Launchpad

Beginners Team Launchpad Focus Group Lead
Upon taking over of the Launchpad FG I and developed a team strategy I call 'Educate & Participate'. The goals of the team are to Educate the Ubuntu Community about the different tools available on Launchpad and how they can be used. The Launchpad Focus Group members also Participate in Launchpad doing Bug Reports, Launchpad Answers, and Translations.

Bug Squad member
I actively triage bugs on Ubuntu. My most productive month was December 2008: duanedesign #9 in the last 30 days with 86 bugs
Examples:

• bug 301707
  

• bug 251558

Launchpad Answers - Another avenue i use to help Ubuntu users with any problems they might be having.
Examples:

• question 84538

• question 83942

• question 83508

• question 82694

Working towards MOTU

Patches

• bugzilla #11330

• LP: #343310

Debian Release Critical

• LP: #541446

Feature Freeze Exception

• LP :544122

Ubuntu Documentation

Maintain and develop "Best of Ubuntu Community Forum Tutorials" project
Boucft is an Ubuntu package of relevant tutorials I have taken from the Ubuntu Community Forum. These tutorials and how-to's are converted to DocBook format and centrally archived to give users another avenue to locate information produced on the Community Forum.

Ubuntu Documentation Contributors Member
As a member of the Ubuntu Beginners Team Wiki Focus Group I got into wiki editing over the summer participating in a project we call 'Summer of Documentation'

Listing of pages I have done more than minor work on

• BOINC

• GnuCash

• GnuCashHowTo

• NetworkConfigurationCommandLine

• Pastebin

• Glossary

Documentation bugs I am working on

Bug #368021 /etc/modprobe.d/options Obsolete. Updating mentions to reflect the options file is no longer used and the new preference of using .conf for files in /modprobe.d/ .

Ubuntu Forums

Ubuntu Community Forum Staff
I am proud to be a part of the Forum Staff as Moderator. The forums were a vitally important source of information for me when I first started using Ubuntu, and it continues to be one of my favourite resources. I work hard to maintain the friendly and productive environment we have all grown so fond of
Examples:

• Configuring isight on Jaunty *without* having OSX partition?

• No Sound

• Change GRUB Boot Order

• Any Recommendation Of Free Games For Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit?

IRC

#ubuntu-beginners is the Beginners Team channel where I spend lots of time giving support.
Ubuntu User Days
User Days was created to be a set of courses offered during a one day period to teach the beginning or intermediate Ubuntu user the basics to get them started with Ubuntu. At the last minute the organizers needed a replacement for a presenter who had fallen ill. I was more than happy to help, I did a session on Partitioning 101.

Misc

Ubuntu blog: okiebuntu
I maintain a blog that i update regularly with support solutions that come up in #ubuntu-beginners-help. Additionally I post a lot of how-to and tutorials to help add to the impressive body of online Ubuntu support.

CLI Companion
This is a python based program with an ncurses interface that will help beginners unlock the potential of the Terminal. This program will have an exaustive list of commands available to the user along with a short description of what they do. Thce user will then enter the number for the command they wish to execute. The result will be a display showing the output from the command along with a note 'iwconfig completed successfully.' By having the command echo iin the output will provide an opportunity for the user to learn all the commands that make the Terminal such a powerful tool. I would like to add the option for the user to add commands as they install new packages. This turns the program into not only a tool for beginners to use the Terminal, but also command dictionary.
See cheatsheet for command storing capability.

BOUCFT - Best of Ubunntu Community Forum Tutorials
This project will provide tutorials from the Ubuntu Community Forums readable in the Yelp browser. The eventual goal is to provide a package in Universe for users to have access to all the best how-to and tutorials from the community forums. This will also be a good tool for those that don't always have a Internet connection. This package will supplement the Ubuntu System documentation.

Goals

Make the Oklahoma Loco one of the most active in the States.
Continue to help the Beginners Team grow and prosper. Using my position on the team to educate the community, provide support, and make quality contributions to Ubuntu.
Start setting goals that will put me on the path to one day joining MOTU.
Work more with Ubuntu Artwork Team. Making icons and themes

Testimonials

Testimonials for Beginners Team Council

leoquant Duanedesign has shown to have a passion for the Ubuntu Beginners Team, has idea's and is dedicated to support and help new members. So I very much support his application for the Beginners Team Council.

PabloRubianes I support Duane's nomination for BT council. The first thing I thought when I heard about the council nominations was "He Should run for it!" as He is a great member of the Team but on top of that He's a great person, and I think we need great people running a team full of great people!. Hope he get into the council because he will be a great contributor!

Testimonials Ubuntu Membership

I think that Duane has been making a significant effort to boost our LoCo participation and coordinate meetings, events and functions.
I really haven't heard from our Team staff members so I'd like to nominate Duane Hinnen to be (minimum) our Team Coordinator and recognized for efforts he's made to motivate and coordinate our team.
Great job. We really appreciate the work you've done Duane.
Regards,
Travis Northrup

I second that.
wisd0m

I support Duane's application for Ubuntu Membership totally and unequivocally. Duane's passion and dedication to Ubuntu is not only wholly obvious to anyone fortunate enough to work with him, but has shown sustained and unending commitment. His time in the Ubuntu Forum Beginners Team has already made an impact in these short months. My short time with Duane has been nothing but positive, and I look forward to working together in the future. I am honored to say that I support his induction as an Ubuntu Member.
Paul Tagliamonte

I met Duane when he offered me his time to be my mentor and help me enter the Ubuntu Beginners team. Since that day i found a very collaborative person who is always willing to help and teach others everything he knows, which is a lot. He encourages people to become better and join different areas of Ubuntu. For all the work he has done and all the stuff he will do I support his application for Ubuntu Membership.
Pablo Rubianes

BodhiZazen I am frankly disappointed with Duane's application, it is long overdue and, if not for the many contributions Duane has made to the community I would imagine Duane was procrastinating. Seriously, it has been a pleasure getting to know Duane and I fully support his application. This wiki page speaks for itself in terms of contributions and accomplishments. What is missing from this page is the fact that Duane is a natural leader and respected by many within the community. Although he will never admit it, Duane is quite knowledgeable and he helps people almost constantly on IRC. Yea Duane !!!

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