Spec for Edgy: Community Communication

[Daniel Robitaille]

On 6/1/06, john levin <john at technolalia.org> wrote:

> Example 1: The demise of Ubuntu Traffic; proliferation of random
> newsletters.
> Ubuntu Traffic just couldn't keep up with the growing number of posts,
> or even the number of mailing lists. It was, for a while, the best
> overview of the ubuntu-world, and did a very good job of it.

Something like the Debian Weekly News would be nice (but is a lot of
work but is doable by a group of people):
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/

> Example 2: Mailing list problems.
> The mailing lists are facing a number of problems. The main ubuntu-users
> is just such heavy traffic, that it's impossible to keep up. The same
> questions get asked over and over (especially: upgrading from Breezy to
> Dapper); sometimes questions don't get answered.

in the very early days of Ubuntu, when the traffic was still tolerable
and a lot less than now, I remember see a lot of Ubuntu developers
hagning around, answering questions.  I remember mdz replying to the
questions (the tought ones!) that were often left behind without an
reply from, the community.  Obviously the amount of traffic makes it
nearly impossible for developers to do that nowadays.  To keep that
list under control and increase its signal-to-noise ratio could be a
full-time job for someone:   answer the tought questions, direct
people to Malone for existing bug reports, or invitation to file new
ones, correct answers from the community that are wrong; remind people
of the Code of Conduct when conversations go bad.  The community does
a pretty good job at it, but having someone more official and part of
his/her job description could possibly help matters.  And that same
person could compile the good emails from the various mailing lists
into a weekly Ubuntu Traffic newsletter, version 2.


> Example 3: The Fridge.
> The Fridge just doesn't have much news, and entries made irregularly.
> Only three during May, 7 in April, and a poll that hasn't changed for
> months. I feel it lacks focus, and also maintainers (the ubuntu-traffic
> list is closed, so I don't know how many people are involved. The
> entries made are from just two people: jdub and jorge.)

jdub knows better  but to my best knowledge  these 2 are the only ones
with posting rights to the Fridge for news items.

> What the Fridge gets right: The meetings guide is really useful, and
> keeping these scheduled events in our conciousness is really important.

That's mostly me :)

Recently I have beeing keeping the calendar to nearly only Ubuntu
meeting and events.    (due to lack of personal time)  But if people
remember  in the early days, and before on the Wiki-Calendar, we had
more outside events and conferences (linux world, debconf, etc) on the
calendar.  It's something I want to improve during Edgy's cycle to
make the calendar more complete as a Ubuntu + Linux event calendar.

Daniel

-- 
Daniel Robitaille