Loco Council, or an alternative idea of what it could be :)

Thu Sep 27 15:42:23 BST 2007

On 9/27/07, Yann <yann.hamon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Teams,
>
> Well, I guess a LoCo Council would be better than having Jono doing all
> the locowork alone... But there has been another project in the mind of a
> couple of locoteam contacts for quite a long time now, and maybe this is a
> right time to share it with  you :)
> This project is the result of a lot of different issues, problems
> encountered, things some of us did not like too much (you won't probably
> agree with all of them but here they are)

Funny how this Issues did not make it to the LoCo teams meetings I attended.
probably got stuck in one on one talks with key people? That's what loCo
team meetings are for. to talk things over. share methodology on ubuntu
promotion.

> - Canonical hosting sucks. You have the choice between poor dedicated
> servers or being in canonical's datacenter and stick to 3 or 4 apps.

I don't believe it sucks.  It serves its purpose. I do not need a power app
to show information about my loCo team. and host a mailing list. In my
country (LoCo team diversity here), There are no companies that provide good
python powered servers. and most datacenters are in the USA. so for the loCo
team in my country. It works.

- Canonical won't let you build a not-for-profit. Believe me or not, but at
> some point in the growth of your loco, money will be needed. Ubuntu-fr and
> Ubuntu-de managed to get a "LoCoTeam Agreement" 2 years ago, which allowed
> us to use the name "Ubuntu-fr" and "Ubuntu-de" to start our organisations.
> This was for us, I think juliux can  confirm this, a huge step forward. We
> can now fund a powerful and reliable hosting solution, organise events with
> more money involved, sponsor events with shirts, flyers, stickers,  .... and
> buy some for other locos :)

The only reason I would see this as a problem is that sometimes if big
companies want to make a donation for an event. they need to have an
organization as te recipient, not a person. Our LoCo team has worked around
it by not receiving the money but rather recieve the service donated.
example: We needed 7 video beams rented for an event. we went and talked to
the company and made arrangements for them to pay our Video Beam expenses.
but each loCo can run it as they see fit.

- Some companies want to help Ubuntu and the loco project but don't want to
> give money to a company. Some of them turned to Ubuntu-fr, willing to give
> money, and asking us to use it not only for ubuntufr but also for other
> locos - ubuntufr can do it, but technically speaking ubuntufr is more about
> french speaking countries :)

That's great you do get help. for being a loCo team. you don't have to go
and sell ads on your loCo site to get around...

- As canonical is a company, it works like a "blackbox". The Ubuntu
> Foundation was announced two years ago because "It's important for us to
> distinguish the philanthropic and non-commercial work that is at the heart
> of the Ubuntu project, from the commercial support and certification
> programs that are the focus of Canonical Ltd.", said Mark Shuttleworth.
> Sadly, this never happened, and I got told over and over I misunderstood
> what the foundation was about. I was at the linuxtag in germany in 2006, you
> had a Canonical both called "Ubuntu" and a "Ubuntu Community" booth held by
> the locos. Anyway, if people want to fund Ubuntu, how can they now if the
> money the give to canonical is going to be used for ubuntu, or to help
> improve the support company that canonical is? Nothing says that money given
> to canonical will be used for Ubuntu development or Locoteam sponsorship.

canonical is the sponsor of the ubuntu project. and the Founder of the
ubutun project just happens to be the head of canonical. but things are
pretty much run as a community. (maybe I am a bit naive in my role as a LoCo
contact) I am not interested in how canonical works its investments as long
as there is some sort of support for loCo teams. I haven't seen the
development of ubuntu being slowed down.

- Ubuntu owns Ubuntu trademarks and copyrights, and therefore uses it to
> build exclusivity contracts for mechandising, for example. Which in theory
> would mean loco would not be able to do ubuntu-related merchandising. As it
> is one of our primary income modes, I find this a bit sad. (to be confirmed,
> though).

Yes they do... and they idea is to protect the name from being used in
rather tasteless ubuntu related stuff. You could ast the marketing team how
things are run. But I have bought the always famous Highway posters from a
loCo team member. not through canonical. and I myself produced som caps with
the ubuntu logo, People in Colombia even print CD's . it is all to the
Ubuntu projects benefit as long as it follows the CoC. everything should be
fine.

- It is hard to get Cds, it is hard to get these "event boxes". And nobody
> knows who gets them and how this is decided

Totally agree... and jono does mention some talk on BOTTLE NECKS,  I am keen
on seeing this bottlenecks laid out for us

- black box system.

I have seen black box and this is NOTHING like it. it's my opinion anyway

The only thing we know is they are needed, and if canonical don't produce
> them anymore, someone else has too... and if we have to do it ourselves, it
> is a lot cheaper to produce a lot and then distribute among locos :)

this is very true, but I have seen also abuse in the usage of resources and
that is what we should study as well. (how doesn't remember the famous
youtube video with lot's of Ubuntu CD's being smashed)

Anyway, there are a couple of issues I am not too happy with (and from what
> I heard some other people share some of my views). You won't probably agree
> with all of these but, well,  I am speaking really only for myself here :)

and I for one appreciate you being sincere and maybe we could further
discuss things in a loCo meeting.

In the end, what is this mail for? Well, Ubuntufr and Ubuntude have quite
> some money now, and a hosting which is reliable.

the loCo team I am a member of has pretty reliable hosting too.

and being further improved to accept more locos. In some time (let's say a
> couple of months) we will probably buy *stuff* (stickers, flyers, posters,
> shirts, polos, banners, [put here whatever you want, it all still need to be
> discussed], like  more than we would need for our own locos, and find a way
> (logistic company? someone with a lot of time? a company supporting ubuntu?)
> to get them distributed among locos, along a yet-to-define process.

sounds like an Ubuntu Marketing Team v2... and my view towards this is
"Unity is always number 1"

In a medium to far future we may ask canonical for the right to build
> another not-for-profit organisation with ubuntu in its name to separate the
> money dedicated to this project from the money belonging directly to
> ubuntu-fr and ubuntu-de. If we don't get it, well, we may build a not for
> profit without ubuntu in its name :( But with that kind of organisation,
> companies who want to support ubuntu but don't want to give the money to
> another company would finally have someone to give the money to. And
> depending on how much money we get, who knows how many things we could do :)
>

that might take a while. why not exploring the possibility of doing this
trough the marketing team.

So basically, this mail is to inform you that this project will be done
> soon, and that you are all invited to participate :)  Ubuntufr and Ubuntude
> can probably help your loco, but I believe the more locos would join the
> project the more we could do.

I would have to see a well laid out plan before I join anything that
involves money and community... very dangerous path...

If at some point Canonical wants to join

, or if the Council wants to be part of the head of that project, I would be
> really happy about this, as in fact I am just trying to push toward the
> creation (and use) of that Ubuntu foundation and more transparency.

Good luck on you endevour.

Locoteamly yours,
>
> Yann

Efrain Valles

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