Hey Team,<div><br></div><div>I just wanted to clarify up front I am not a programmer, I am an accountant, but I love Ubuntu! I enjoy getting updates from the Ubuntu-Utah team, but as a non-programmer I'm not really sure what I can do if anything for the team. So I haven't really contributed much, not because I don't want to, simply because I don't know what to do. I spread the word of how much I love Ubuntu, and I have had a few conversions, but thats about it. Anyway I just wanted to say I like the direction this is taking and I hope it continues. I would love to become more involved and do my part as well. If anything I can be an example that you don't have to be a programmer to install and run Ubuntu. Thanks for your contributions, I look forward to doing my part for the Ubuntu-Utah team.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Ryan Jones<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 10:00 PM, Rob Oakes <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lyx-devel@oak-tree.us">lyx-devel@oak-tree.us</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Hi Aaron,<br>
<br>
+1 to everything you say. I had a couple of additional thoughts.<br>
<br>
As a new member to the team, I would love to get involved in activities or larger projects. Particularly since a local group means that you can meet other Ubuntu users in real life instead of solely over IRC and email (which is wonderful, don't get me wrong).<br>
<br>
But with that said, it hasn't really been clear about how contribute to Ubuntu-Utah. There isn't much structure, nor is there a way to suggest ideas. And I don't have any experience with the LoCo structure. If it's anything like traditional open source projects, sometimes the best option is to lurk for a while, learn the culture and then become involved. But other than join the mailing list and volunteer to speak at the Utah Open Source Conference, I wasn't aware that there are other opportunities. Does the group meet regularly? If so, is there a calendar of activities?<br>
<br>
Because there aren't any clear initiatives, I've never been sure what types of projects the team might be interested in tackling. Based on the information on the Wiki, it seems like a lot of the group's previous activities have been aimed at Ubuntu promotion (writing articles, handing out CDs, etc).<br>
<br>
Have you done other things? Might there be an interest in tackling a coding or design related project related to Ubuntu? Right now, I've been interested in tackling problems associated with open source publishing technologies. Does the group have any similar large scale interests?<br>
<br>
(As a specific project example, I've long been frustrated by the lack of high quality templates for Scribus, OpenOffice and AbiWord. Are there any design minded individuals who would be interested in packaging ten to twenty templates/design assets that could be donated upstream?)<br>
<br>
(In the aforementioned push for templates, I got myself started but haven't had time to return to it, <a href="http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/08/21/modern-templates" target="_blank">http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/08/21/modern-templates</a>)<br>
<br>
In addition to the wiki, maybe a good next step would also be to organize regular meetings and talk about the scope of activities that the group would like to sponsor?<br>
<br>
That would allow for people to meet and get to know one another, which might make it easier to find potential collaborators. It would also be nice to learn who are the active members and to find out what their interests are. It might even be good to take an informal poll and see if there are specific topics that people are interested in. That could help for meetings to be more specific to the needs of the group and more useful. I know that I would be much more likely to attend or contribute if the project/meeting was tailored more closely to my interests.<br>
<br>
Like the previous comment, just my two cents, though.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Rob Oakes<br>
<font color="#888888">--<br>
ubuntu-us-ut mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:ubuntu-us-ut@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-us-ut@lists.ubuntu.com</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ut" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ut</a><br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div>