[ubuntu-us] Ubuntu LoCo Advocacy - Do we have an organized approach?

[Matthew Craig]

Well hello - my first post to the US list - my thought is - for your
reaction - is I wonder how many top-level initiatives are provided by
the Ubuntu LoCo groups or Ubuntu online-community at large.  Certainly
there are the initiatives such as "fix bugs", "write documentation",
and the typically technical canon found in all distros.  But when it
comes to community advocacy, the goal of the LoCo groups, I suppose I
expected to find more initiatives in-place, since the LiveCD
distribution was so well orchestrated by Canonical.  Having
information at a top-level about community advocacy would be helpful
for all LoCos.

One major factor that made me want to take a close look at
participating in the Ubuntu LoCo advocacy efforts was the marked
improvement to existing "LUG" teams.  I saw how the LoCo teams at
least communicated with each other and formed shared repositories of
information, in contrast to the stand-alone LUG teams.

Now that I have had much exposure to the Ubuntu teams, I am seeing
there are not many top-down initiatives where the LoCos are encouraged
to pursue specific advocacy projects.  It is very much "come up with
whatever you want and share your successes".  Sharing successes is
certainly a one step improvement to the LUG teams, but I think we all
know that the challenges faced by one team are shared by all teams.

Each LoCo similarly asks around their community to find the same
challenges to Ubuntu adoption, then asks around the Ubuntu groups for
the solutions others have found effective.  What would be more
effective is a list of challenges all LoCos will face: (a) Schools,
(b) State and local governments, (c) Home users, (d) Small businesses,
(e) Churches, (f) Re-provisioned used computers, (g) Retirement homes,
(h) Libraries / Internet cafes, etc.  Resources, from DIY Marketing
and Screencasts for example, could be mentioned in the same space.
Additionally, LoCos could be informed about timely, nationwide
initiatives that could be beneficial to their advocacy efforts, rather
than having each hunt for those resources on their own.  Examples of
timely initiatives would be the NO OOXML program from the FSF or the
nation-wide sale of the $200 gOS PC from Walmart.

An effort to inform all LoCos of the present challenges they face
would be effective for enabling the teams to take action on those
challenges.  I am somewhat hopeful someone will correct me and inform
me of the existing initiatives that I was unable to unearth in the
Ubuntu online-communities.  Otherwise, I leave it as an open idea to
consider.


Happy holiday and best of fortunes with your own LoCo initiatives,
Matthew Craig