Getting started wiki page (was: Hello there)

[Kjeldgaard Morten]

Hi,

>> I volunteer to draft a new GettingStarted page, and I will collect  
>> with
>> gratitude any contributions from this list or otherwise.
>
> Excellent.
> I'm happy to review, improve and discuss. The only thing I'd like
> MOTU/GettingStarted to be is
> - a concise landing page
> - that links to all the important pages (so we have one good answer  
> and
> the new contributor one page to bookmark)
> - and gets people a sense of direction


I have now produced a draft page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GettingStartedDraft 
  , incorporating all ideas contributed to me (the number is zero ;-)).

The main idea is to give a gentle introduction suited for the people  
we meet on the mailing lists or IRC asking "Hi, I'm interested in  
Ubuntu, how can I help out?".

The current introduction aims at steering people directly towards a  
MOTU career, but I have adopted a completely different strategy in the  
draft document. With this approach newcomers are taught:

* Launchpad
* Bug work and triaging
* The workflow of packages in Ubuntu
* How Ubuntu development is organized in the various teams
* The Ubuntu release model (not yet written)

The document includes practical exercises that gets people started  
with various tasks that most of us use every day. People are invited  
to join mailing lists and IRC, show up and ask questions, examine  
various Launchpad pages etc.

It is always difficult to arrive at the right level of a training  
document. However, even the most experienced developer does not  
(necessarily) know how Ubuntu's bug flow works, and will benefit from  
an introduction.

The document is a draft, with a lot of shortcomings and lacking  
features, but it does outline an alternative educational approach that  
I think could be useful and productive. Please feel free to add and/or  
correct the Wiki document, so we as quickly as possible can start a  
systematic and fruitful education of new Ubuntu enthusiasts with a  
desire to help out!

> Agreed, though I'm not sure this should be in the MOTU namespace -  
> what
> do you think?


Yes. I think the MOTU namespace should only contain material that is  
strictly relevant to the MOTU team. We need a "howto become MOTU"  
page; the current MOTU/GettingStarted perhaps needs some revision  
based on the more granular training we now have with the new  Ubuntu  
Contributor team.

Cheers,
Morten

-- 
Morten Kjeldgaard <mok0 at ubuntu.com>
Ubuntu MOTU Developer
GPG Key ID: 404825E7