Visibility of "how to contribute" (Was Re: diveintopython, and Dapper+1)

[Jordan Mantha]

> > When I told them they could
> > participate in making Ubuntu rock even more by contributing back to
> > the community, these people were amazed!  Haven't checked yet, but can
> > we make this information extremelly visible to the desktop user?
>
> It's on the browser frontpage, in the About Ubuntu document, in the Desktop
> Guide,  and on the front page of the website/wiki.
>
> Not a lot more we can do about that, except for getting the computer to
> reach
> out and shake the user by the scruff of the neck until he contributes.
>
> Matt
>
>
> --
> We also mention how to contribute in the Kubuntu Docs as well.  I agree that
> there isn't much more we can do to demonstrate people can contribute back
>
> JOnathn

Hmm, I wonder if the problem isn't so much the new users, as
old/advanced Linux and Ubuntu users. When I first came to Ubuntu I
would have never have thought to actually *look* at the documentation
("we all know Linux documentation sucks, right?" might go through my
head, unfortunately). Now, it seems to me like the problem is that the
advanced users are the ones giving advice/helping the new users (IRC,
ML, forums, etc.) and if they have not even seen the documentation we
ship they probably won't recommend it to new users. Worse yet, the
help that new users get can be inconsistent because there isn't a
"standard" response a lot of times. I think this should be (and is)
one of the goals of the documentation. There really should be one good
answer to each question, not 5 guys each giving their IMO and starting
an argument over the fine details. Inconsistency really confuses
people when they are trying to learn.

It seems to me like the documentation (and contribution) seems to be
well covered at places new users would go (Website, help.u.c, and our
docs) but I don't think it is as well understood in the more advanced
user community. I've seen statements going something like "I think
there is a doc team somewhere", and "WTF is the doc team doing? What
the heck is help.ubuntu.com and why do they have doc.ubuntu.com too?"
I think that new users might take a quick glance at the docs and then
find that no one references them so they never go back to them.

Perhaps we could do more fridge stuff. Perhaps be a little more
visable to the advanced users (I can try to help in -devel and -motu).
Not so much that they don't know that we exist, but I'm not really
sure they know what we have as far as documenation. I have rarely, if
ever, seen someone give a reference to any of our docs to a new user
and that is a real shame. People give references to the forums, to
other distro's websites, to ML emails, the wiki, blogs, basically
anything but the documentation that is sitting right there on the
user's computer. Maybe ubotu in #ubuntu (and #kubuntu ?) should be
taught about the user guides. When I get people wanting to learn to
package now, I quickly recommend the Ubuntu Packaging Guide at
doc.ubuntu.com. I hope this does 2 things, get the user to a doc they
can use, get people to doc.ubuntu.com so they can see other
documentation and get their friends there too.

Sorry if this seems like old news or totally way off base. This is
just my impression and I could be totaly wrong. Just my $.02

-Jordan