ltsp local apps + nat + ....

[Ace Suares]

Gavin McCullagh wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, 23 Jul 2009, Scott Balneaves wrote:
> 
>> https://edge.launchpad.net/~edubuntu-members/+members#active
> 
>> Heck: Gavin, who answers more questions on this list than anyone, isn't even a
>> member!  Gavin!  What's up with that, dude? :)
> 
> I don't mean to be smart, but what is the real significance of that list?
> I can join it if that helps anything but it's not clear to me what that
> would change.
> 
> Gavin
> 
> 

Gavin,

Thank you for your interesting observation.

The 'teams' take an important role in the wiki. Lots of explanation how 
a team works, how it is linked to the greater Ubuntu Community, how to 
join, and so on. For a new contributor it seems that teams are very 
important.

Some experiences.

I applied to join the Edubuntu Team but nothing happened - not even a 
mail saying: 'We will consider your application and next Tuesday we have 
a meeting and we will let you know by then.' or something of the like.

So the wiki is full of JOIN THIS TEAM JOIN THIS TEAM while in fact 
joining a team does not seem to be easy and it also seems to have very 
few benefits. Having some good talks on IRC gets you much deeper into 
Edubuntu then requesting to join a team.

Also, there is a list of 4 active members - and 78 waiting for approval. 
So that looks terrible - it says to the new contributer: well you can 
apply all you want but we probably won't let you in. There's already 78 
heads on stakes just out our main gates so be warned :-P

Different experience: the Edubuntu Website team. It has three members 
and none waiting. Within two days I got a mail from Philipp (the leader 
of that team) and he welcomed me into the team AND he offered me a 
password to the website. (www.edubuntu.org). I am *very* happy with this 
swift action, but maybe that's just a bit... hasty. Maybe 'we' are 
attracting crazies again, like someone on IRC said today :-(. And you 
don't want to put the password for a drupal site in crazies hands.

It's not clear to me how the Edubuntu Team (a meritocracy I was assured) 
relates to the Website team. Do they function independently? Are the 
members of the website team also members of the Edubuntu Team?

All this has to somehow be made VERY clear on the Wiki. If you want to 
attract and keep new contributors, then there should be a minimum of 
confusion about the teams, governance and the meritocracy or ad-hocracy 
that rules the projects.

And I don't think that following twenty different links that lead to 
crappy and non-informative webpages is a good way to explain the 
structure. https://wiki.edubuntu.org/Edubuntu/Launchpad/Teams

Just look at the Edubuntu Team page: https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu
Do you *really* think I, or *any* contributor can relate to that page?
The first and most important  *action* on that page is to set someone 
elses location on a map!

Also it says *mentoring available*. I guess the mentoring is what I have 
been saying this last week: cut up tasks in small pieces and give them 
to people so they can contribute. I thought it was my original idea but 
I see that it's already a LP feature. Good! Now click on the link.

https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu/+mentoring

*Nobody has yet offered to mentor work for Edubuntu.*


So, what is the funtion of the teams? Which teams really work well and 
which not? Do the teams have real procedure in place to welcome and 
invite new contributors?

If there are criteria, are they well defined and near objective? or is 
it just random if A likes you you're in but if B doesn't like you you 
can do all you want you never get in?

What are the benefits of joining a team?


BTW The wiki sometimes calls a group OPEN while in fact it's moderated.


Cheers, let's keep talking,

ace