Fwd: DVD news

Fri Apr 5 20:39:02 UTC 2013

On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 02:07:40PM -0400, Darcy Casselman wrote:
> No DVDs for 13.04 (even if we did bother to get re-approved).
> 
> Darcy.
> 

Well, does this really matter?

and now the tl;dr version of it ;-)

I think we need to come back to why we were willing to start this community
in the first place. When I started to contribute to *buntu, this community
did not have the presense it has today nor the expectation that are placed 
today.

Please keep in mind nothing what I say is to be taken as criticism, but
it is more a reflection of the long time I have spend in the *buntu community.

Any relationship needs work, and any relationship is based on negotiation. Over
the time things change, and people's situations and goals change. This is true
in different levels for any relationship, with a spouse or partner, but also
in employer/employee relationships, between colleagues and even in a parent/child
relationship. Similarly, in the core we have to see any community as a form
of relationship (or relationships).

In any relationship, there is on fundamental truth. If it is supposed to be 
long-lasting and functional (some people seem to like disfunctional ;-) ) 
it needs to be based on a win-win. (More techniques how to make this happen
can be read in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits series of books). In order to find
win-win solutions, negotiations are essential, and it is not easy, because
most of the time it is not the compromise that is the solution, but something
better than that for all parties (Covey says a compromise is like a bit of losing
for everbody, and not really a win for anybody). However, this aside, it also
must be understood what the different expectations are, and that those expectations
will inevitable will change.

I think, Mark said very clearly in his blog post http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1228 
that he is not interested to meet the expectation of everybody in the community (As a sidenote,
it sounds very pretentious for a multi-millionaire to call others the 1337 crowd -- I think
the non-1337 crowed are people who worry about paying their bills and saying for being
able to send their kids to college, but again, everything is a matter of perspective.)

And I even agree with the fundamental principle stated in this post, even I would phrase
it differently. Mark has changed his goals during the journey that the *buntu community
has taken (even some of my friends in the Kubuntu community might say, it was always like
this --- but I do not want to restart old wounds.) While at the beginning it was imperative 
to build a community in order to get the traction, maybe this is not the first thing on the
mind when Mark looks at what he is doing. On the other hand, if Mark's goal would be achievable
just with the number of people he can pay out of wealth, or future revenue, he could decide
to do this too. I do not know if this is realistic or not, and I do not want to speculate
about it, nor do I want to speculate what exact weight Mark is putting on the value
of the *buntu community (outside Canonical) or the LoCos. The only thing I am saying is,
every businessman will re-evaluate a new situation. And as I said above, re-evaluation
is important for any relationship, be it one-on-one or in a group, in any case. 

I do not think, I have ever made a secret of my own feelings, that I do not like a
unifying environment (I talk about desktop and mobile devices) only because of the
sake of "unity" (not sure if the pun is intended or not -- I will think about it :-D .)

However, I have similar disagreements with the direction of KDE in a lot of ways. So. 
I guess I am indiscriminatory in finding groups or people to disagree with :-). However,
there I stop. It does not stop me to contribute what I contribute even I do not agree
even with the majority of things going on. Synergies can always be found, and relationship
can always be re-negotiated, as the intensity of contributions.

So.. this is not in any way a farewell to *buntu.. sorry you have to let me annoy y'all 
a little bit longer. However, I rather would put out the challenge for everybody, as
well as the Canadian LoCo and the KW chapter of it, as well as everybody individually,
to reflect a little and start the re-negoatiation process.

We are all volunteers. It is upon us, what we do and what we don't do. DVDs or whatever
promotional items is not the reason why we have ever joined the *buntu community... hence
my lead in: does this really matter?

Let's think about what works for us and what works for our local community. Let's think
how we can help and inspire each other with what our own goals are. A lot of this will 
never be in any way detrimental to the *buntu community at large. Hence, it is fine, to
figure out what will be the win-win in it. If we want to do a release party, lets have
one.. some people might even want to have rolling release parties.. more power to you if
you think this :-D

If we want to have global jams, fine, if we don't.. not a big deal either. That is the all
part of the re-negotiation process. There do not need to be tantrum, there do not need to
be people leaving in rage. There do not need to be any heated discussions, flamewars or
any other nonsense that is a waste of time. We can just say.. this is want we or I are 
willing to do, and well I think it also means there is nothing wrong with having a little
bit broader discussion about what our groups mean. I never understood a LoCo or the *buntu
community being a group of people drinking the Kool-Aid of one person or one board.

So instead of starting the discussion (which I unfortunately did above) about DVDs or such
things, I think we should start the discussion of what we want to do. What are our interests?
Does it makes sense to maybe share some more technical things than we have in KWLUG? Do we 
find some projects we all would like to work on together, maybe teaching each other better
Agile techniques or the latest TDD/BDD stuff? I don't know... but let's just start from 
scratch and brainstorm. There are lots of ways to contribute to the *buntu community... let's
do the things that we like to do, and let's not get to hung up on changes that we
cannot control (Oh.. another shot at a book recommendation.. Who moved my cheese?)

So let's get this discussion rolling.... ;-) 

Just my 2 Candian cents .. minted or not minted .. hopefully still valuable :-D

Ralph

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Laura Czajkowski <laura at lczajkowski.com>
> Date: Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 1:22 PM
> Subject: DVD news
> To: "Ubuntu local community team (LoCo) contacts" <
> loco-contacts at lists.ubuntu.com>
> 
> 
>  Aloha folks,
> 
> A number of people have been asking for an update on the 13.04 DVD
> allocation, the LoCo Council contacted Canonical to see what was
> happening this cycle.
> Below is the mail we were asked to share with people from Canonical.
> 
> ============================================================================================================
> Hi all,
> 
> This is just to let you know that going forward, Canonical will not be
> producing DVDs for standard releases.We understand that to
> convert interested experimenters to Ubuntu users we need to provide
> and outstanding initial user-experience, and the ability for the user
> to
> explore and learn in safety with a supporting network of experts
> around them. The LoCo teams are a key to that second part as you
> provide a personal experience that's local to the user.
> 
> While we love users to be on the latest version of Ubuntu, the key
> thing for new users is a known, stable and supported environment. So
> to make sure we
> provide that we'll be shipping you the LTS release CDs rather than the
> latest standard release.
> 
> Therefore, there won't be DVDs for 13.04 as going forward our focus
> will be on LTS releases. The next production of DVDs will be 14.04. To
> bridge the gap till 14.04,we will continue to supply 12.04 DVDs for
> events. You can request DVDs for events through Shipit as
> normal.[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuAtConferences]
> 
> Thank you for your continued and valuable support in making Ubuntu great.
> 
> Michelle
> 
> ===============================================================================================================
> 
> Laura
> 
> -- 
> Laura Czajkowski https://wiki.ubuntu.com/czajkowski
> LoCo Council Member
> Community Council Member
> 
> 
> --
> loco-contacts mailing list
> loco-contacts at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts

> -- 
> ubuntu-ca mailing list
> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca