Lack of Connection Between Canonical and the Community

Mon Dec 8 07:28:00 UTC 2014

On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 10:29 PM, José Antonio Rey <jose at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> On 12/08/2014 01:23 AM, Benjamin Kerensa wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Jono Bacon <jono at jonobacon.org
> > <mailto:jono at jonobacon.org>> wrote:
> >
> >     On 7 December 2014 at 20:07, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com
> >     <mailto:bkerensa at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
> >     > That is right but one things that not been answered and I do not
> think there
> >     > is consensus on is how much control does the community possess
> over Ubuntu?
> >     > I think the control it has is very small.
> >     >
> >     > Good post on commercial interests in open source projects and
> community by
> >     > Automattic CEO Matt Mullenwag:
> >     > http://ma.tt/2010/09/wordpress-trademark/
> >     >
> >     > TL;DR Commercial interests will always trump community and open
> source
> >     > project ideals when the corporation has total control.
> >     >
> >     > Seriously though I say this to you all because I care... You all
> need to
> >     > start standing up for the community and its values and not let
> commercial
> >     > interests be the only thing Ubuntu is about anymore. You do have a
> voice and
> >     > we may not always agree but think about it and reflect back.
> >     >
> >     > We lost 31 Ubuntu Members in the last 12 months and UDS
> participation is
> >     > down over a few UDSes and LoCo's active are down over the last
> couple years.
> >     > Why do you think this is? Do you really think its lack of
> leadership? Lack
> >     > of innovation? I think it has nothing to do with those things.
> >
> >     I don't think you have this quite right, Ben.
> >
> >     There is no doubt that Canonical's stewardship and decision-making
> >     over Ubuntu has caused some people to leave, but the very same
> >     stewardship and decision-making in other cases has encouraged others
> >     to participate and be inspired to join the Ubuntu family.
> >
> >
> > I would say that is a fair assessment but overall there is a downtrend
> > so even if new contributors were attracted to Ubuntu Phone and Cloud
> > which I believe is indeed the case they have not outnumbered the amount
> > that have disappeared at least that's what Launchpad shows and what UDS
> > participation numbers show.
> >
> >
> >
> >     Like anything, there are many different factors that have caused us
> to
> >     get to the position we are in today. For us to say X is the problem
> >     and Y or Z are definitely not is probably naive: there are hundreds
> of
> >     factors in place here.
> >
> >
> >     The basic premise of my blog post, follow-up blog post, follow-up
> >     discussion, and participation in the CC meeting is that there is a
> >     huge amount of untapped potential in Ubuntu. I believe we should
> >     codify examples of that (my so called 'impact constitution' that I
> >     suggested), and work with our leaders in the community (whether
> >     formalized such as the CC and TB, or informal such as many of the
> >     folks on Planet Ubuntu) to inspire a new generation to participate in
> >     Ubuntu.
> >
> > That is well and all but I think just moving forward on those things
> > without trying to tackle some of the other factors and I do not just
> > mean decisions by Canonical which may have made some depart but lack of
> > things like recognition and preventing contributor fatigue... I think
> > absent addressing some of those other factors of contributor shedding
> > that the upward trend could happen but would only be temporary.
> >
> >
> >
> >     Sadly, in much of this discussion some people have merely wanted to
> >     keep harping on issues of the past as opposed to providing
> >     constructive learnings from those lessons and proposing new and fresh
> >     ideas. I believe this is a waste of time and destructive.
> >
> >     As such, I want to suggest a new rule for our discussions moving
> >     forward. :-)
> >
> >     Anyone who wants to cite problems of the past has to now (a) identify
> >     the pragmatic un-emotional lessons from those problems that we can
> >     learn from, and (b) propose fresh ideas for progress and improvements
> >     that learn from those lessons and make Ubuntu better.
> >
> >     Now, let's be practical. Canonical is not going. Physical UDSs are
> >     probably not coming back. Let's work within the understanding of our
> >     culture today and provide practical, realistic suggestions for
> >     improvements and refinements. If some of that feedback is focused on
> >     Canonical, that is great. I can 100% guarantee you that a practical,
> >     un-emotional, but frank suggestion directed at Canonical for an
> >     improvement in their stewardship of the project will be much better
> >     received than a ranty "you screwed this up in the past!!1!".
> >
> >
> >     I proposed five practical things we can do to help our community
> >     thrive. What five practical suggestions do you all have? I would love
> >     to hear them!
> >
> >     Thanks,
> >
> >
> >
> > Five Practical things to help Ubuntu thrive:
> > - Invest in Contributor Recognition
>
> Sustained and substantial contributions are already recognized with
> Ubuntu Membership, which offers you various perks as well as a
> certificate you can frame.
>
>
Right and one of the perks I arranged and the another I suggested but at
the same time when you give out perks in mass they do not have the same
value as more sporadic or random or personal forms of recognition.

There is not a one size fits all in recognition. I would invite anyone who
wants to learn more about Mozilla's research on this and bring some best
practices back to Ubuntu to join one of the Mozilla Recognition Work Group
calls (they are open to other projects).

> > - Reduce Contributor Churn through Community Building
>
> Could you please clarify?
>

Community Building is the art of building communities in practice this can
mean focusing on core areas of community building such as
(Pathways/Onboarding, Recognition, Education, Systems and Data (How do you
track the health of your community?), Research (How do you analyze your
current efforts and learn from lessons and improve in areas?)

>
> > - Revisit Physical Events (doesn't have to be UDS but if Debian can pull
> > off Debconf then Ubuntu can pull off something so seems practical)
>
> There are UbuCons around the world, happening all around the year, if
> that is what you are meaning.
>

I was meaning more of a event for the purpose of bringing contributors
together to solve problems or hack on things much like UDS used to serve as
one purpose but perhaps in smaller scale. At Mozilla we do regional meetups
usually annually where we have usually an entire continent or country meet
in a specific city and spend a few days working together and planning for
the next year.

Of Ubucon's I have seem them be more like miniature conferences with talks
about Ubuntu but not as a facility for contributors to actually do work
face to face.

>
> > - Ask Mark, Jane and other key people to offer weekly Community
> > Townhalls to discuss roadmap
>
> In the Classroom Team we try to get an Ask Mark! every Open Week. And
> Mark is always willing to do it as long as it fits his schedule. Last
> time we asked a bit late and didn't get to make it since he was going to
> be on a plane.
>

And that is great that there is that although I would suggest a more formal
all hands projects are most healthy when there is a high level of
transparency about what everyone is doing. The Open Week's are great but
not very frequent and with the pace of Ubuntu projects a lot happens
between then. I think having more frequent townhall like talks create
opportunity for internal happenings to be shared out to the community which
in turn creates opportunities for community to participate.

If you are not part of one of these teams doing side projects and its not
being communicated out how can you participate or know whats exciting?

>
> > - Create a Community Newsletter that specifically focuses on the Ubuntu
> > Community (see Mozilla's about:community newsletter)
>
> We have the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, which is released every Monday
> with the help of community members. And we consider The Planet our most
> important section, since it holds the essence of the community.
>
>
UWN is great but this is more like an aggregation of the Planet and
external blog posts as an example here about:community
https://blog.mozilla.org/community/

So what I was suggesting was more close to what Daniel Holbach used to with
his Dev News and Developer Interviews this was a really great way to
highlight people and recognize them (see recognition at the top) and I know
when I helped Daniel do those interviews/highlights most everyone we
reached out to felt really good about being highlighted.

>
> >
> > If any of these seem impractical I would simply ask someone to let me
> > know why.
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
>
>
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