Getting involved in ubuntu (was Re: metapackages)

[Taryn East]

* Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> spake thus:
> On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 11:54:02AM +1000, Taryn East wrote:
> The MOTU team is intended to provide a starting point for people who are
> asking this question.  You can get in contact with them via this
> mailing list, or #ubuntu-motu on IRC.

<grin> well, I'm here, I've asked
are you out there MOTU? ;)

I've chatted with some people through CommunityCode(.org), who may be
able to help - but if anybody else is willing/able, please do offer :)

> > but to become a member... you have to have contributed to projects
> > right?
> 
> To become a member, you must have made some substantial contribution to the
> Ubuntu project.

absolutely, which is why I know that I do not qualify. I am even pretty
sure that I don't qualify for maintainer... but the doco about what to
do if you still wish to contribute isn't as clear as it could have been
(at least from my perspective)

> > which means you need to become a maintainer...
> 
> Certainly not.  First, there are many ways to contribute which don't
> involve software at all, 

yes, true but I was attempting to talk about the software ways
specifically - see my further comments below. :)

> and second, if you wish to contribute code but
> aren't a maintainer yet, an existing maintainer can act as a mentor and
> commit your changes for you (this also gives you a chance to get feedback on
> your work and learn the tools and processes).  This is a common pattern in
> open source projects.

This is exactly what I am after - I guess I was bemoaning the fact that
this process of finding an existing maintainer to mentor is hinted at
in the wiki, but doesn't seem to have any specific instructions on how
to go about doing it. The most it has is "you should seek out the
Masters of the Universe" with a link to their wiki page (but hte wiki
page does not then mention it at all).

> > [who really isn't criticising the doco on this, just pointing out that
> > it seemed unclear to me...]
> 
> Documentation contributions qualify for the membership guidelines...;-)

true, but I'm less interested in doing that - I'm more interested in
getting my hands dirtyi in the code.

Besides, I'd feel strange doing doco *just* to get a membership when
what I really want to *do* with it is to hack code.

Kinda feels like getting an MBA to be allowed to go do programming...

I'd much rather actually contribute code - however I am aware that I
need a bit of mentoring. If only because it's actually quite difficult
to find somewhere to start. 




To summarise:

  the wiki hints at being able to become a member by contributing, it
  even mentions that you can be mentored through this process and
  suggest you "seek out the MOTU" - but the MOTU pages (including the
  candidate and recruitment pages) only talk about becoming a
  member/maintainer...

Sure thing I will get in touch with the MOTU and ask... but I guess I
feel that what's on the wiki is a bit off-putting as once you go to the
MOTU pages it only talks about maintainers/members (or becoming one
without any earlier period of contributing through a mentoring process).

<grin> obviously it hasn't completely put me off - though it did confuse
me for a while, and in the interests of improving the way for any others
who might try to follow the same path my suggestion would be to link the
pages a little better, or provide some follow-through information. even
something so simple as to repeat the phrase "If you are relatively
inexperienced with maintaining distribution packages, then..." on the
MOTU pages (especially the recruitment one)


Would this be possible?
is it reasonable or have I misunderstood something in the way this all
works?


Cheers,
Taryn
[who is really just trying to nut it all out]


 
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