[Ubuntu Chicago] Regular Jams

[Nathan Handler]

On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 12:29 AM, Jim Campbell <jwcampbell at gmail.com> wrote:
> This sounds great, and I would definitely be up for this. I would be most
> interested in packaging and documentation jams, but other jams would be ok,
> too. I would be a participant in a packaging jam, but would be willing to
> lead or help lead a documentation jam.  A GPG key signing party would be a
> good idea, too. Perhaps we could have one of those (a bit less formal . . .
> ) to kick things off.  We could use that a social event / planning session.

That is a good idea. Meeting in person would allow us to really get
some serious planning done.

> Sundays would work well for me, and once or twice a month would be fine,
> too. If we do packaging jams (which I think would be good at this point in
> the current release cycle), I would recommend having them 2x per month so
> that we can build knowledge from one session to the next without losing much
> momentum. We tried to do one of these before, though, and it didn't go off
> very well, I think primarily because there are so many different facets to
> packaging . . . we would just need to plan things out very well.  (I would
> rather have us take longer to plan something like that so that we do it
> right, and people can learn a lot from it.)

I disagree. There is no way that we would be able to teach everything
there is to know about packaging. Instead, what I was thinking was
that we would begin each jam with a very brief demonstration on a
projector. These would be similar in nature to the weekly packaging
training sessions [1] that we have been holding on IRC. Then, everyone
would try the skill on their own. If they need help, the leaders will
provide assistance.

Also, some packaging jams will not even focus on packaging new
applications. Instead, they might cover how to merge a package from
Debian, things to look at when reviewing a patch/package, how to
prepare an update for a package, etc.

I would honestly prefer not to cover the same packaging concept two
sessions in a row. Instead, I think it would be better to expose
people to as many different skills as possible. They can then read up
on the ones that interest them. If we do this, we would not need to
have the packaging jams right after each other; we could separate them
with a bug or doc jam.

Nathan

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Packaging/Training