Hiring Edubuntu Staff
David Groos
djgroos at gmail.com
Sun Jul 26 13:15:16 BST 2009
Got it! the invite to edit the page should be in your inbox. Let me know
if it doesn't work.
David
On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Ace Suares <ace at suares.an> wrote:
> Please share with acesuares at gmail.com
>
> thx!
>
> ace
>
> David Groos wrote:
> > Jordan, I really appreciate your focus on community and working on
> > growing it. As I believe Lns. once said, the thing special about
> > Edubuntu isn't the software but the community. I've learned a lot about
> > the history of Edubuntu and the community which uses it and has
> > developed it. To grow a community one must know the community and while
> > there may be a few people here who do know all, is there a page, a
> > single page, with an overview of the different categories of community
> > members, who they are, their needs, strengths and knowledge?
> >
> > I've watched these many dozens of e-mails these last few days, pondering
> > my role in it all. Still not sure but as a teacher one of my strengths
> > is organizing information, 'scaffolding' learning and growing
> > communities. So... I propose that we need to increase our arsenal of
> > supportive software. Really, the main collaborative tools of this
> > community are a wiki, list server, and launchpad, right? We need tools
> > with additional affordances. Googledocs is great with it's wysiwyg
> > editor, simultaneous editing, easy sharing and versioning. I recommend
> > we use this googledoc: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgschn8x_11gtf4ddgc
> > to create an easily editable page to provide an overview of the people
> > who make up the community. I'd like to 'share' this document so all
> > members of the edubuntu community can edit the document. If you would
> > like to edit it, e-mail me and I'll share it with the e-mail you give me.
> >
> > Yours in Education,
> >
> > David
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Jordan Mantha <laserjock at ubuntu.com
> > <mailto:laserjock at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 3:05 PM, R. Scott Belford<scott at hosef.org
> > <mailto:scott at hosef.org>> wrote:
> > > For what it is worth, it is now nearly a year since I tracked down
> > > every key Canonical employee I could find at Linuxworld 2008, both
> at
> > > the conference and at after-hours events, to communicate two
> > messages:
> > > the state of Edubuntu and its User community was having an
> *adverse*
> > > *impact* on the adoption of gnu/linux in education, particularly
> in
> > > thin-client environments,and that two people should be hired -
> Gavin
> > > and Asmo. As Ace observed, he actually thought Gavin worked for
> > > Canonical. I used to think so, too. Asmo has been instrumental
> at
> > > greeting and inspiring new users and help-seekers on this list,
> > and he
> > > likes Frank Zappa.
> >
> > Gavin and Asmo are both great guys and I would love to see people
> like
> > them employed to work on Edubuntu. However, Mark Shuttleworth has
> > indicated to me that Canonical will not be employing anybody to work
> > on Edubuntu for the foreseeable future so I think any paid developers
> > are going to have to come from some other source. Edubuntu hasn't had
> > a paid developer in over a year and it has shown.
> >
> > The state of Edubuntu for the last year or so hasn't been that great.
> > I don't think anybody involved with the project would disagree. The
> > problem has been that every attempt to get development rebooted has
> > not gone so well. I don't expect every Edubuntu user to be a bug
> > filer, doc writer, packager, etc. but *some* people in the community
> > needs to step up to make things happen. There are way more good ideas
> > than hands to implement them.
> >
> > There seems to be this eternal struggle between Edubuntu users and
> > developers. Edubuntu users are frustrated with how slow development
> > goes and how bugs/issues critical to them are not being addressed.
> > They feel like their voices are not being heard and that perhaps
> > developers just don't understand their situation. Perhaps they feel
> > that Edubuntu's full potential is not being realized, especially if
> > they've invested a lot of time, effort, and reputation in Edubuntu.
> >
> > In contrast, Edubuntu developers see day after day where Edubuntu
> > could be improved, where cracks are showing, and where new features
> > could be developed but feel powerless to actually do anything about
> > it. They are frustrated to see the same complaints time and time
> > again. They are demotivated when 19 out of 20 times when a user comes
> > to them it is to report a problem, complain about Edubuntu, or even
> > attack the quality of their work. They may feel that users
> > misunderstand that resources are the limiting factor, not a lack of
> > recognition of problem or the desire to fix them. And when they try
> to
> > inspire the user community to contribute towards fixing those
> problems
> > that they are bringing they are met with a lackluster response.
> >
> > So the question that has been racking my mind for the last two years
> > or so is, how do we take these two populations of people who have a
> > lot of negative perceptions towards each other and towards Edubuntu
> > and turn them into a fun, functional, and productive community that
> is
> > well-placed to be a dominate force for bringing the best open source
> > has to offer to the world-wide educational community?
> >
> > Obviously I don't have a good answer to this as I've spent countless
> > hours working on and in the Edubuntu community of the last few years
> > and it has not really improved. I do have a few thoughts about what
> > possible solutions might look like though. I think there are both
> > technical and social solutions that could be involved:
> >
> > * evaluation of the current state of Edubuntu, what are its current
> > strengths and weaknesses?
> > * finish the Edubuntu Strategy Document, but maybe trying to involve
> > the user community more.
> > * perhaps going further and develop a roadmap that outlines
> > specific, actionable steps for the next couple releases that
> > emphasizes regaining ground in terms of quality and community
> > development.
> > * analysis of the current development processes and especially the
> > barriers to entry for contribution. Some barrier will always exist
> but
> > we should try to remove unnecessary ones
> > * assess the user < -- > developer communication channels to see if
> > a big disconnect exists
> > * encourage a positive, respectful, and constructive community.
> > Basically, if all you say is negative you end up just being a grumpy
> > negative person. If users can learn to trust that developers do
> indeed
> > want to do the best by their users and if developers can take a step
> > back and put themselves in the user's shoes for a bit I think we'd
> all
> > be better off. It's not like we're all running around yelling at each
> > other 24x7 but I think we could maybe try to improve the tone on the
> > mailing lists and IRC.
> > * encourage leadership and taking ownership of Edubuntu tasks
> > * develop decent documentation and procedures for handling drive-by
> > contributions
> >
> > I'm sure there are many others but that's what came from the top of
> > my mind.
> >
> > > Some of the Canonical staff who received my message last year are
> on
> > > this list. I hope that someone is listening.
> >
> > They might be, but there's not a lot Canonical staff can really do at
> > this point.
> >
> > > Oh, and for the record, Most Schools Block IRC Making it an
> > Impossible
> > > Communication Venue for Teachers Needing Support.
> > >
> > > With Aloha and Respect and an Undying Passion for the Adoption of
> > FOSS
> > > in the the K12 Environment
> > >
> > > --scott
> > >
> > > --
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> > > edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> > <mailto:edubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
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> > >
> >
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