Offering help / introducing myself

Thu Nov 4 06:01:54 UTC 2004

On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 00:28:08 +0100, Christoph Haas
<email at christoph-haas.de> wrote:
> Dear fellow communists...
> 
> Everyone who is is not interested in yet another self-portrayal please
> skip this posting. :)
> 
> I am quite new to Ubuntu Linux. But considering the age of the
> distribution - who isn't. Let's say I fell in love with the ease of
> Ubuntu Linux after hassles with any other distribution. For the last two
> years I have been a Debian addict and have been contributing to the
> project. Mostly because technically it is a great distribution. Some
> other aspects however often appeared not just that great to me. I
> already had some contact with Ubuntu developers on IRC and found the
> people very friendly and open-minded.
> 
> So who am I? I'm a 31 year old graduate living in Hamburg/Germany with
> my wife and my son. I am devoting most of my spare time to open-source
> software in general. Some projects that are relevant here:
> 
> - Hosting/running/developing mentors.debian.net
>         (an all new developed repository system for new maintainers, presented in a
>         speech at the LinuxTag 2003, gave me a lot of understanding of the package
>         format and how uploading to repositories work)
> - Maintaining 5 Debian packages currently (I'm living in the NM queue)
> - Writing tutorials (most famous: Postfix tutorials on workaround.org)
> - User support on #postfix, #squid and #debian-mentors
> - Maintaining a company-wide Debian mirror
> - Held Debian workshops at work
> 
> For a more complete description please see http://workaround.org/ubuntu/
> (also linked from the MaintainerCandidates Wiki page).
> 
> After trying out Ubuntu Linux and following the mailing lists and IRC
> channels I decided I would like to contribute. Unfortunately the project
> does not offer a "Which button do I need to press if I want to help" page.
> So I thought I'd just propose a few topics that I would enjoy working on
> and see what you say. Please bear with me if the ideas sound mad...
> 
> - Mentors/New-Maintainer's corner
> 
>   I have some experience with the new maintainer's process in Debian
>   from the new-maintainer's point of view. Some aspects of the new
>   maintainer's guide have already bothered me. I even thought about
>   writing an additional guide about how to build multi-binary packages
>   because that's an FAQ in #debian-mentors. My experience that I gained
>   in running mentors.debian.net also helped me understand the upload
>   process. So this proposal either veers towards the doc project or a
>   completely new corner. What about having a contribution repository for
>   packages from non-maintainers so that Ubuntu developers/sponsors/mentors
>   may do some QA and use the package?
>   Relevant links to former mailing list postings:
>   http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2004-October/000634.html
>   http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2004-November/000941.html
> 
> - Server Maintenance
> 
>   For my living I'm working in the network security team at a large
>   mail order business. I am maintaining a dozen Debian servers there.
>   My background spans Perl, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Bind, Apache, Squid, iptables,
>   Postfix and Mailman. So if anyone in the project feels they could use a
>   helping hand in running the infrastructure let me know.
> 
> - Mirror
> 
>   I could possibly arrange for sponsored rack space at my local ISPs.
>   My first thought was to offer additional mirrors.
> 
> - Documentation / Translation
> 
>   I like to write documentation. I have been writing larger documents in
>   Docbook-XML and am quite familiar with Wikis. I could support the
>   documentation team (perhaps even with developer-centric articles and
>   documentation). Or I would help to improve the l10n of programs.
> 
> - Doing package maintenance
> 
>   Although I'm probably not the greatest package maintainer of the world
>   I have already done a few .deb packages. I could imagine that Ubuntu
>   may need distribution-specific packages. Or I would offer help as a
>   mentor for new maintainers.
> 
> - Managing mailing lists
> 
>   Ubuntu still has already a few mailing lists to offer. Often enough people
>   are too dumb to properly unsubscribe or need general help. If there is
>   need for mailing list admins or moderators...
> 
> - Ubuntu Magazine
> 
>   I have already seen a number of very well done FAQs/tutorials on the
>   web page. What would you think of an online magazine? A mixture of
>   Debian-Weekly, Slashdot and the FAQs? Like a biweekly/monthly issue on
>   certain user-centric topics? Why that? Well, I'm maintaining an online
>   magazine for PDAs since 1997 and liked writing. Possible headlines: "Moving
>   from Debian to Ubuntu" or "Deploying Ubuntu in your company". Perhaps
>   that makes users look more frequently at the web page or feel more
>   "at home" if they feel they can learn new things. (On the other hand
>   the web site could need some cleaning up. The Wiki is nice but some
>   information is hard to find without using the 'Search' feature.)
> 
> - Web site programming
> 
>   Debian has a lot of information online on the web sites. What about
>   packages.debian.org or db.debian.org in Ubuntu? I love to develop
>   user interfaces. More transparency couldn't hurt. Wishes?
> 
> - QA
> 
>   As Ubuntu releases quite often there needs to be people that do QA before
>   a release. I didn't find such a 'Team' on the web page. If I don't find
>   errors in desktop applications my mother-in-law probably will. :)
> 
> I could go on and on. But some of you have probably already fallen
> asleep. So if anyone feels that I could help the project in general or
> wants my help in their team I would love to see a followup or an email.
> I am employed so I could not work full-time but I'd be willing to devote
> about 5-10 hours per week to the project.
> 
> Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to comments.
> 
> Cheers
>  Christoph
> 
> P.S.: On the freenode.net IRC network you may /msg me as 'ChrisH'.

Hi Chris, 

we could use help in the doc team, so if you are interested subscribe
to ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com and we'll get you up to par in no time.

Wherever you'll be contributing, welcome to Ubunu!

greetings, Alexander Poslavsky Ubuntu Documentation Team