Areas Of Focus

[Jono Bacon]

Hi All,

As you know, recently I asked Daniel and David to spend some time
supporting the ARB to help you good peeps in how you review
applications. Firstly, thanks for contributing your time and efforts
to this work - apps are a key distinction in how we can make Ubuntu
successful and bring Free Software to more people.

>From my discussions with the team and observing the work going on
here, I can see the following areas that I think we can direct our
efforts:

 * Getting the apps reviewed - I have been talking with Daniel about
how he can support you all with a regular cadence for app reviews. We
had a similar challenge in the past with the sponsorship queue and
Daniel did a wonderful job getting that back in shape. I have asked
Daniel to work with you all to continue the implementation of a
piloting programme to help with this.
 * Getting responses from submitters - I have seen that one concern is
getting responses back from submitters regarding a query (e.g. a
copyright clarification). I made a suggestion at UDS that we put a cap
on this and I would like to continue to discuss this. I believe we
should require a response from an app submitter within a week or two
and if they don't respond, their app is rejection. This may seem a
strong requirement, but I think we need to do this to encourage
responsiveness and consequences if there is no responsiveness. I think
two weeks is more than enough for this (I can't see people submitting
apps before they go on vacation).
 * Getting apps packaged - I understand this is a core challenge for
us right now. I agree with the premise of opening the queue up so
other people can view it and package apps and submit them to the ARB,
and I also discussed with Daniel about coordinating some ARB packaging
days in the community. I have asked David to continue to ensure this
queue is public and serves this purpose.
 * Metrics - I have always been a believer in if "you need to keep
score to do great work" so I have been asking David to work with ISD
to get some graphs that reflect the work of the ARB. I am confident
that this will help us to see progress and identify problematic spots.
This work should be completed before the holidays.

I just wanted to-re-iterate that David, Daniel, and I are here to help
and we are supportive of the work you folks are doing. I am confident
if we can improvements in the above areas we can open up Ubuntu to a
world of app developers. Thanks, everyone!

   Jono

-- 
Jono Bacon
Ubuntu Community Manager
www.ubuntu.com / www.jonobacon.org
www.identi.ca/jonobacon www.twitter.com/jonobacon