Streamlining The ARB

[Jono Bacon]

Hi Everyone,

With the new ARB hopefully forming soon I wanted to begin a discussion
that can start here and continue at UDS about how we can empower the
ARB to best serve app developers who want to deliver their apps on
Ubuntu.

As some of you may be aware, we have been working on putting together
a process for streamlining the app submission process to remove the
need for human reviews while assuring security. The spec tracking this
work is at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AppDevUploadProcess - I welcome you
to check it out if you have not seen it yet.

To successfully deliver this spec there is a lot of work to be done in
the interim. This will include the security team building application
sand-boxing, some tooling improvements (the Foundations team are
working on modifying our tooling to easily package software in /opt),
and some improvements to MyApps (the Consumer Apps team are committing
to this work). The result of this specification will be a far more
streamlined and secure process in which app developers can deliver
their content to Ubuntu as well as less work for the ARB. We expect
most of this work to be completed by 13.10.

The ARB is naturally going to play an important role before and after
this spec is implemented. When this new functionality is implemented
we would like to work with the ARB to help encourage app developers to
use the process, handle cases of abuse, and otherwise help app devs
get their content in the Ubuntu Software Center quickly and easily. I
expect that we will have many discussions in six months at the UDS for
13.10 to to discuss the details of this work.

In the interim we have the challenge of how we review apps today in
the absence of this new process. Despite the wonderful efforts of the
current ARB, getting apps through the process in a timely manner has
been complex. Unfortunately this has resulted in some frustrated
experiences from app developers, and as different members of the ARB
have been busy with Real Life (TM) this has also caused delays. As
such, I think many would agree that the current ARB process is not
scalable for the level of demand from app devs to get their apps in
Ubuntu.

As such, I would love to discuss ways in which we can simplify the
process while still assuring safety. To guide this discussion I would
like to suggest we use the App Developer Showdown as a means in which
we can test proposed streamlined ARB changes. With the App Developer
Showdown we had an increased number of applications submitted and this
put pressure on the ARB but also resulted in a tremendous range of new
Ubuntu apps and a great experience for app devs in delivering their
ideas on Ubuntu. While exploring ways of streamlining the ARB process
I would like to suggest we always ask "will this result in a smoother
App Developer Showdown"?

To ensure that we can explore all options and devote the time we need
to this topic, I am asking Daniel Holbach, David Planella, and Michael
Hall on my team to contribute to these discussions, be open to
feedback and suggestions, and to help us find a great solution
together. I would also like to suggest that we coordinate some
sessions at UDS to discuss this topic - would someone on the ARB like
to coordinate these sessions?

Many thanks for your continued contributions to Ubuntu, and many
thanks for the forthcoming discussion.

Thanks!

   Jono

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