Streamlining The ARB

[Bhavani Shankar R]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 3:03 AM, Jono Bacon <jono at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,

Hey Jono

>
> 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.
>

Will have another look and comment this weekend.

> 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.
>

Sure! using a process like app showdown might be good platform to
showcase the new process but having said that we need to have
infrastructure scaled up to handle incoming apps.

> 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.
>

Unfortunate enough as I personally didnt expect such a overwhelming
response for this app showdown and I felt we were short of time and
resources to push everything into USC (Though we and the app review
contributors were awesome). Hope to run through the queue again at
UDS.

> 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"?
>

Yes (but with concerns as explained above)

> 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?
>

Count me in :)

> Many thanks for your continued contributions to Ubuntu, and many
> thanks for the forthcoming discussion.
>
> Thanks!
>
>    Jono
>

Thanks a lot for your continued support Jono!

Regards,

-- 
Bhavani Shankar
Ubuntu Developer       |  www.ubuntu.com
https://launchpad.net/~bhavi