[ubuntu-studio-devel] Call for contributors for 16.04 LTS (Testing, PR&Support, Artwork, Packaging, Documentation)

Kaj Ailomaa zequence at mousike.me
Mon Oct 26 14:29:41 UTC 2015


SHORT VERSION:

Another cycle begins. And, before we begin, I would like to know WHO
WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO OUR DIFFERENT AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT? Please
read through any section that seems interesting to you - or if you
already know what you would like to do, respond to this post telling us
what you would like to help out with. If we don't already know you, you
may also present yourself a little bit.

Developer documentation can be found at
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio. FYI, documentation is in larger
parts either unfinished, non existing, or inaccurate, and is likely to
change somewhat the coming weeks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LONG VERSION:

# LEAD POSITIONS

Each area of development would benefit of having someone in charge, so
if you feel up to it, you may nominate yourself or someone else for
taking the lead of any of the areas:
* Testing
* PR and Support
* Artwork
* Documentation 

Wait, what about packaging and development? - We don't really need leads
in this field. Read more at the end of this post.

I will decide who becomes lead of an area, based on who I judge most
suitable. And the most important factor for being suitable is just being
reliable and available, not having the best language or coding skills.

A lead may be responsible for certain things, but nothing overwhelming
usually. This would take some burden off of me. But, also, a lead will
have much freedom in shaping the work in their field. As long as the
work doesn't break or conflict with anything, there's no reason for a
core member like myself, or Oven to have any opinions.

# TESTING

We need to start doing application testing!

For this, we need to start writing test cases. The period best suited
for application testing is right after Debian Import Freeze, which
happens when the first Beta Release of Ubuntu Studio comes out, which
should be around February. So, we have about 4 months time to write a
bunch of test cases.
Testing applications thoroughly should produce more bug reports, and
clarify many problems with how applications are packaged or coded, so
this is actually very important work from a user point of view.

Testing lead would be responsible for making sure our ISOs are tested
and marked ready for release. This will happen at least three times next
cycle, February (Beta1), March(FinalBeta) and April(FinalRelease).
If application testing ever becomes successful, the lead would also be
responsible for documenting bugs and other problems, so that developers
may do something to correct them.

# PR AND SUPPORT

First off, we don't need to do stuff only in English. I know there are
people who speak other languages out there, and there's plenty that can
be done in other languages as well.

Currently what we do is report our releases, and a few people are
involved in helping users on different channels. This is not enough! We
should be more active in getting the word about Ubuntu Studio. And that
could be anything from writing articles, doing interviews, participating
in interviews, making videos, etc.

A lead for PR and support would be responsible for making sure stuff
gets published and in the right forums. Additionally, It would be great
if this person took steps to develop our media presence in some way,
like non-English contributions feel welcome.

# ARTWORK

This is kind of a special field. At the very least, we need a new
wallpaper for 16.04. But, we might also need work done on our desktop
look, or our website look. If you feel like you could do something here,
please let us know.

An artwork lead would be responsible for organization our artwork
(currently, not very organized - old, as well as new). Also, setting up
a wallpaper contest would be nice (we've had plans for it, but nothing
so far).

# DOCUMENTATION

This is a very neglected field of many projects. What we could use your
help on is user documentation. Both in the forms of text and video. We
have a format for doing videos, and it doesn't have to require speech,
so anyone could do this.

A lead for Documentation would primarily be responsible for user
documentation. There has been some discussion about this already.
I am doing developer documentation until I quit being project lead, but
I'm not shutting anyone out if someone has ideas or whatever.

# PACKAGING AND DEVELOPMENT

No lead positions for this one. And, this is a broad field. Working in
other areas will most likely lead you to learn at least a tiny amount of
Debian packaging, which is what most of our software development centers
around.

Things that we do work on:
* Fix bugs in packages (requires at least some knowledge in Debian
package)
* System tuning (kernel tuning and other system tuning)
* Application development (ubuntustudio-menu, ubuntustudio-controls,
ubuntustudio-installer)

------------------------------

Alright. I'll be reaching out to different forums in the coming weeks to
try get more people involved and referring to this thread. Hopefully we
can get something going this cycle, and make the next LTS a really great
one!



More information about the ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list