An Open Letter to the Ubuntu-au Members

[Steven Tucker]

Hi all,
Just another opinion to throw into the hat.
I really dont care about whether the Ubuntu Australia team is just a 
bunch of people who have a common interest, or an organised registered 
legal entity. I dont care who owns the domain, or if it was 
au.Ubuntu.dyndns.org hosted at someone's home. What I do care about, is 
what it does. If it needs to be a legal entity to achieve something, 
then sure, go ahead, but I can tell you, that  from the outside looking 
in, this "discussion" makes the Ubuntu Australia team seem like just a 
another group that chats vigorously and passionately about the finer 
points of what the group "should be, embody, represent" and never really 
achieve anything useful at all (again an observation from the outside, 
not necessarily the case).

I will tell you my experience so far...
Found out the team exists, put my name and lug on the wiki, visited the 
chat room.
Decided to take action, loosely organised to visit a school where I had 
the go ahead to give a demo and lecture to about 10 teachers.
Went back to chat room (and maybe mail list, cant really remember, but 
spoke to members anyhow), and asked what support the Loco Team had in 
place for such events, the response was basically none! No records of 
past presentations, no guide lines, no one to talk to for advise!
Come on, really. If it fails at this most basic level, why is this 
discussion even an issue?
After finding out that the team is really just a mailing list and a wiki 
I was very disappointed  but thought, its only new, I cant expect too 
much, maybe I should start the ball rolling and offer up some sort of 
assistance in creating such a guideline or direct contact for support, 
to those who embark on presentations and the like. Again going back to 
the "team", the response was basically,"yeah go for it, and send us a 
pdf when you are done". No, "yeah that's sounds good, lets see who wants 
to join in", or "how can I help?".

I am asking myself very seriously,"What is the LoCo team, and what is it 
good for?". Please someone tell me so that I can see what it is you guys 
are arguing over anyway.

You may not realise this but I am now 28 years old! When life expectancy 
is about 75 or something along those lines, it seems that more than a 
third of my life is already gone! I cant waste any more of it on these 
types of emails, I almost did not bother with this one, except it would 
be a sad thing to lose the hope of a loco team that does stuff.

Just complaining about an issue does nothing, so here is my offer.
I will happily help with documentation and organisation, to create some 
sort of "LoCo approved" set of guidelines for

1/ school presentations
2/ Business presentations
3/ Event representations - such as an Ubuntu LoCo stand at an 
installfest etc..
4/ Cold calling,- how to make contact with schools etc, finding the "hot 
buttons" so that they will want you to see them (yes I do have a sales 
background btw)

etc etc.

Who wants to help??

This is the acid test, if we are not organised enough to  cover our 
basic mission,

<insert quote from website>
The Australian team focuses on distributing, advertising and 
demonstrating Ubuntu within Australia. Through the development of our 
projects we focus on the areas of schools, business and home users.
</unquote>

then you can all stop arguing about going any further, cause it aint 
gunna happen anyway.

Perhaps I am completely wrong, maybe because I haven't had much to do 
with the team since first finding them, maybe all these things have 
since happened, please prove me wrong, I would love for someone to send 
me a link to the, "how to do an Ubuntu presentation the Australian Loco 
way" site. Or "ten things to say when approaching a school about Ubuntu" 
or even better, "contact our school presentations co ordinator 
johndoe at ourisp.com.au for an Aussie loco presentation pack.

For those in the "Become registered" camp, the best way to get that 
outcome is through first making the team useful in as much as providing 
something tangible, like real community support and even organisation. 
Then you will have something to build on.

For those in the "lets keep it social" camp, what is it you Do want? No 
better yet, dont tell me what you want, show me! The best thing you can 
do is start something real, and get us all interested and involved. 
Further discussion without action is just a load of hot air. Remember I 
am 28!!!!

I have been using computers for just over 3 years, and used Linux for 
just under 3.
I have organised 2 installfests,
a lug which meets fortnightly,
converted 2 businesses totally over to Ubuntu
and have a wife, a child and full time job that has nothing to do with 
computers (the job AND the wife and child, neither are interested)
Im not suggesting that I contribute more or less than anyone else, my 
point is that I do get involved and take action.
I would love to be an active member of this team, but I want to see some 
action first.

Well that's all I have to say.
Please tell me I am a moron and that all this stuff is available, and 
all the support is already in place. If you do, my only question is 
then, why was it so cleverly hidden, that I could not find it?
A list of objectives mean nothing if there is no substance behind them 
btw, its just a list, nothing more.

My 2c (and then some)

Tuxta