ubuntu-ca.org needs help!

George Standish george.standish at gmail.com
Fri May 7 04:18:42 UTC 2010


INTRO
I'd like to share "my" take on http://www.ubuntu-ca.org site and the
Canadian LoCo as a whole.

Please remember, "I'm new" and have only been around for a couple of
days.  My perceptions of certain things about the Canada LoCo may be
very incorrect or misinformed.

I've certainly received a variety of input from various Canadian LoCo
members over the last few days.  On a number of topics concerning the
Canadian LoCo.  It's been "interesting" for sure.

UBUNTU COMMUNITY
For me, attending the Karmic Release party here in Ottawa (organized
by John Gill), 6 months ago, demonstrated to me how beneficial
Ubuntu's ideals, especially that of "community", can be.  Although I
had spent quite a bit of time in the #ubuntu IRC channel helping out
over the last year-or-so  - computing has always been a
private/isolated activity for me.  A sense of "community" adds a whole
new dimension to the computing experience.  Even the name "Ubuntu",
demonstrates the desire for creating communities between people.

CANADIAN LoCo ROLE
Canada is a huge geographical land mass; thus smaller/local Sub-LoCo
groups only make sense.  There already appears to be several of these
Sub-LoCo groups in Canada - Quebec, Toronto, Kitchener/Waterloo and
Vancouver jump to mind.  Personally, I'm interested in adding an
Ottawa chapter to that list.

So what is the role for the Canadian LoCo?  I feel the Canadian LoCo
should act as "umbrella" group to the smaller regional groups.  I feel
Ubuntu-ca can help organize these geographically distant groups
together, provide services such as the mailing list, webpage, etc.
that perhaps the sub-LoCos couldn't provide, or warrant, for
themselves; based on size, membership or resources.  I also think
there is something to being Canadian, or living in Canada, that binds
us all together.

WEBSITE

http://www.ubuntu-ca.org is poor, there is little to no argument
there.  My attempts, as a non-web developer, to improve this situation
have largely been a failure (although I think "some" progress has been
made, by adding some new content to the main page).  I'd like to thank
those that has patiently worked with me in this regard.

There has been several suggestions about purchasing a VPS/Hosting
solution to move the web site onto.  While this is certainly an
option, I believe we should "try" to use the resources we have freely
available to us to their maximum potential.  Regarding the web site,
specifically - this may not extend much farther then its current
"crappy" state.  I have been trying to update the site with stories or
links that I receive either by email/IRC or on the mailing list
(although the later may be redundant), that pertain to activities in
any of the Canadian Sub-LoCos and will continue to do so (unless
requested to stop).

FORUMS
The idea of a Canadian forum has been suggested to me on more then one
occasion.  I'm not personally interested in a forum, more specifically
administering a forum - but a CA sub-forum on ubuntuforums.org could
certainly be created.  I researched the steps to creating one, and
they are not difficult.  One of the requirements was that the
individual named on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList needed to be
contacted to approve the forum (I am happy to see that Corey Burger
posted earlier in this thread, I had the impression from IRC that
Corey may have been MIA).

To quote Brian Burger:

"One of the things we've always used as a touchstone for any version
of the Ubuntu Canada website is "thou shalt not duplicate efforts and
dilute the community!" - thus, no forum (we have a mailing list), no
seperate wiki (Canonical already has TWO for Ubuntu projects to use),
links to existing lists of Canadian LUGs instead of starting our own,
etc"

I think Brian introduces some important points here.  Does a forum
dilute the support/community Canada LoCo has already created?  Does it
add anything?  The Quebec group already has http://qc.ubuntuforums.org
which has 38 moderators, and a single post.

The best argument I've heard for justifying a forum: Mailing Lists are
considered old-fashioned by newer Ubuntu users, who are very
comfortable with forums.

CONCLUSION
I'd like to see the Canadian LoCo Team grow and develop beyond where
it currently is.  My message to all the sub-groups would be to have a
hard look at what Vancouver is doing, and try and be more like them ;)

If there is anything I can personally contribute to growing and
improving the Canadian LoCo I'd like to offer my services!

George




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