<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 2:13 AM, Brendan Perrine <<a href="mailto:walterorlin@gmail.com" target="_blank">walterorlin@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">On Wed, 16 Mar 2016 19:30:20 +0100 David Planella <<a href="mailto:david.planella@ubuntu.com">david.planella@ubuntu.com</a>> wrote: > Hi all, > > Apologies for the delay, which was on my end. We've been discussing the > topic on our team call and we'd like to propose a meeting with the docs > team. While the original e-mail covers the issue in great detail, and we've > got some ideas, we'd like to get the doc's team views and come up together > with a plan moving forward. > > I'd like to propose some dates for a meeting, to be reviewed around the end > of the week to pick a date. If you are a member of the docs team or if you > are interested to help, please choose the date(s) that work for you. If you > are willing to attend and the timezones are an issue, please let me know as > well, and I can add an extra choice: > <a href="http://doodle.com/poll/dqsryhnkfwgantb2" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://doodle.com/poll/dqsryhnkfwgantb2</a> > > And an initial agenda (feel free to edit): > <a href="http://pad.ubuntu.com/doc-team" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://pad.ubuntu.com/doc-team</a> > > Cheers, > David. > > On Fri, Mar 4, 2016 at 12:03 AM, Elizabeth K. Joseph <<a href="mailto:lyz@ubuntu.com">lyz@ubuntu.com</a>> wrote: > > > Hello community team, > > > > We are approaching you on behalf of the Ubuntu Documentation team to > > ask for assistance with the issues the team is undergoing. > > > > The Ubuntu Documentation team maintains the following documentation: > > – The desktop documentation at <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://help.ubuntu.com/</a> > > – The serverguide at <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://help.ubuntu.com/</a> > > – The community help wiki at <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/</a> > > > > We maintain documentation for how this documentation is maintained at > > <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam</a> > > > > The team is loosely organized in three subteams, each team taking care > > of one of the components mentioned above. In each team we have only a > > few people that can be considered active; some of those only barely. > > The state of all of the components can be described to be more or less > > stalled and in desperate the need of more contributors. With the > > string freeze for Documentation just a couple weeks away (March 17), > > at this point we risk not having updated documentation for 16.04, > > particularly for the Desktop. > > > > In the case of the community help wiki, the situation is even worse; > > not only has it encountered spam attacks lately (which only mean more > > work for the admins, who have been manually applying documentation > > "patches" that contributors send to the ubuntu-doc mailing list), it > > also has a lot of content that is completely outdated, useless and > > unstructured. Due to the spam attacks, most community members can't > > currently take any action to improve the situation. > > > > Following a meeting with the Community Council[0], we have begun to > > identify what we feel the team needs, both in the short and long term. > > > > We believe one of the major underlying issues to this situation is the > > teams inability to make decisions. The active and not so active team > > members all have their own opinion on which tasks are sensible to take > > on a certain component. This is especially problematic as sometimes we > > have had volunteers signed up to do the work, but the team has wanted > > to consider the issue further, ultimately stalling the process. When > > most efforts to improve the situation seem to be in vain, it is no > > wonder the team is not attracting new contributors either. > > > > As the Documentation team does not have a leader to steer the overall > > direction, there is no way to easily resolve the problem. > > Additionally, for various reasons, nobody from the current > > contributors is willing to step up and take the leadership position. > > > > Our request and recommendation for the community team at Canonical is > > to bring some leadership to the team from outside of the team. > > Ideally, the person would be a Canonical employee who would have part > > of their paid work assigned to working with the Documentation team. We > > think the request is fair considering the documentation is important > > and useful to many Ubuntu users and thus valuable to Canonical. > > > > We believe that a stable, fresh and adequately objective leadership > > could help the team resolve the underlying issues and ultimately, > > start growing the contributor base again. As part of and in addition > > to leading and guiding the team, the leader could take on the > > following tasks: > > – Work as a mediator with the members to resolve disagreements, be > > able to reach a consensus and get along with the work > > – Work with other Canonical employees, encouraging them to take part > > more in writing documentation, especially with the components they are > > working with themself > > – Work with the Canonical IS team to resolve technical difficulties > > the community help wiki is experiencing > > > > We feel their role as a leader on this team would not be because they > > work for Canonical, but because they are able to do the organizational > > work that is needed. Anyone able and willing to do this would be > > welcomed by us and the rest of the Documentation team. It's simply > > come to a point on the team today where we are not able to fill this > > role with a volunteer contributor. > > > > We do not think that the recommended arrangement has to be permanent > > unconditionally. Building up a team and getting it working by itself > > sometimes takes only time. We hope that with the leadership, the team > > can build up the contributor base and ultimately, find a new leader > > from within. If a leader is nominated, we will happily schedule a > > checkup meeting to see how things are going, if there are other > > actions that should be taken to grow and build up the team and if the > > outside leadership is required any more. > > > > Finally, we'd be happy to chat with anyone wishing to take on this > > role about the history of the team to give them some context for how > > we got to where we are. The Documentation team has always been quite > > small and has struggled to get contributors, but it was with this LTS > > release that we have finally hit a breaking point. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Elizabeth K. Joseph (pleia2) and Pasi Lallinaho (knome) > > > > [0] <a href="http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2016/03/03/%23ubuntu-meeting.html#t17:00" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2016/03/03/%23ubuntu-meeting.html#t17:00</a> > > > > -- > > Ubuntu-community-team mailing list > > <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-community-team@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-community-team@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > > <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-community-team" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-community-team</a> > > </div></div>I think time zones are not an issue for me but more the unpredicatabilty of my schedule caused for needing to care for my father but the varience of when I will be freely available means I will probably not be able to attend but I wish I could. Belive me not knowing my own schedule is tough. </blockquote><div> </div><div>Thanks Brendan, and sorry to hear that :(. We'll make sure we share the summary for those who couldn't make it</div><div> </div><div>Cheers,</div><div>David. </div></div> </div></div>