March 8, 2010 - 1st Annual Ubuntu Women Project "How I discovered Ubuntu." International Women’s Day Competition

The Competition which was announced back in January, asked women and girls who use Ubuntu to submit their "How I discovered Ubuntu" stories. We as a Project acknowledge that there is no one definite answer to "How do you get women to use Ubuntu?", but wanted a way to highlight some of the various ways that women become Ubuntu users, contributors, and developers and at the same time not only have those stories as examples but also as a growing gift of encouragement and inspiration to women.

In order for events/competitions to be successful it takes community participation, and a heart felt thank you to all those who participated by submitting their personal "How I discovered Ubuntu." stories, those who took the time to vote, those who helped promote, and those who supported this initiative as well as offer encouragement to those might not have submitted their stories otherwise. I am grateful for everyone involved in the Ubuntu Women Project and greater Ubuntu Community as a whole who are continually helping to provide both the platform and encouragement for women to contribute to Ubuntu.

The winners of an awesome prize pack are: Elvira Martinez and Karen Y. Perez with honorable mention going to Jen Phillips as well. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Here are there stories:

***Elvira Martinez "tatica1" ***

Today my Honduran team mate Diego Turcios shared with me this link to Amber’s blog that excited me to finally write about how I met Ubuntu. I wanted to share this a while ago but I feel motivated about doing it through Ubuntu-women and not just for the sole interest in participating in the contest. I think it will be very interesting to hear how other women became interested in Ubuntu and others may be interested in my experience, specially considering that I am not the “computer girl” precisely.

After nearly 20 years after my high school graduation in Colombia Lycée Français Paul Valery, I found again one of my classmates through Facebook (I guess) Fabian Rodriguez known as MagicFab who after asking him what he was doing today, he mentioned Ubuntu as part of his activities. And I say activities, because Ubuntu is much more than an operating system.

I’ve always liked the world of computer science and unfortunately that was not what I studied, but I learned on my own how to manage, fix, clean my home machines. I could say that the world of computers is my passion and when Fabian told me about this, I knew it was no fluke.

I remember the first thing I said was: Ubuntu what?? How do you eat that?? And then after a brief speach about it and some information he sent to me to read on the subject, dropped his usual phrase, “If you want to install it, I can help you do it now”. Well, two days later, I was harrassing Fabian to help me install Ubuntu after a bunch of questions I had.

Some of my concerns were:

1. If I would be able to use MSN and Skype with camera and audio included.
2. My biggest question was if I could run iTunes on the computer (tool my daughters and my husband use).
3. If Windows had to be removed to use Ubuntu.
4. If I’ll have Office, PowerPoint or Excel with Ubuntu also and if so, would be so easy to use as those.
5. If I was going to be able to install Ubuntu alone, long distance with Fabian’s instructions.

Well, the day I gave a YES myself to Ubuntu, began with a phone call from Fabian from Canada. After downloading into my own computer some files, we start by checking whether they were good and then install it. I remember Fabian told me, don’t install it yet first test it. Then after his explanations that I could partition the computer and leave Windows intact but also have Ubuntu too I said “Let’s do it and install it now”. And so it was, on the phone, with his help, that I installed for the first time in one of my computers Hardy 8.04 and some months later in another Ubuntu 8.10.

When he finally said, “Take a last click and you’re done, finished,” I could not believe it!! First, I had allowed to risk to install another operating system on my computer and two, that I had done through instructions by telephone. That meant that it could be do so easily! That’s how my story began with Ubuntu in June 2008 : D

Months later I bought an Acer Aspire One that came with Linpus and my next challenge was to install Ubuntu on it. It was a laptop (and not a desktop) and needed a version for netbooks so I tried first to fight with LPIA platform with which I ended up frustrated because after installing it did not work and gave me error. Then it was new to me to download an ISO file to my laptop and also install it throught a USB. I think it was two weeks without my computer, sweating and suffering, but with some help of several friends of the Honduran community I finally had Ubuntu on my Acer. I remember I installed 8.10 version which gave me enough slow problems on my laptop, but when I upgraded to 9.10, I was sooo happy;)

From Ubuntu, I further research, looking and learning how to move in the Ubuntu world. As part of that and then again by MagicFab’s suggestions I learned how to participate via IRC in different communities, to tell my experiences with applications in Ubuntu, I dared to start my own blog for the first time telling my experience with the Ubuntu Desktop Course (elearning), learned to use my blog as a tool through which I can inform others about Ubuntu, participating in lists of the communities I belong and learned how to handle wiki, blueprint and documentation pages to share information to others.

Today I am part of the community and am in several team where I hope to be able to support as I learn from everyone’s experiences too. I am a member in the communities of Ubuntu Honduras, Colombia, Women, Guatemala and El Salvador. Almost daily I am present in IRC channels of Honduras, Colombia and Women getting feedback and contributing wherever I can. I still can not work actively participate in all these media but try to do when I feel more confident about the subject. English is my third language, so I am kind of shy in the ubuntu-women channel.

Today I know that there is Free Software and Ubuntu exists there with all its benefits over other systems. I also know that although I did not study computers, I can handle and learn thousands of things about it and help knowing others that will benefit too.

Today I belong and work hand by hand with others in the Honduras Ubuntu community, promoting Ubuntu in the country, mostly in San Pedro Sula where I currently reside. With the support Fabian gave me, I revived the group that was practically abandoned and we are trying again today to show people of Honduras that Ubuntu is the best choice when it comes to choosing an operating system. Every day I try to learn more and see how I can support other Ubuntu users here and elsewhere. I am very excited to be part of this team and I love to learn and collaborate with this good cause;)

Since I started being part of this community, I had the opportunity to share with others from other distros like Fedora or Debian. There is little that I have experienced them, but for now I’m only interested in Ubuntu.

My name is Elvira Martinez or tatica1 as I I’m known in the community and my main challenge is to convince my daughters and my husband that Ubuntu is the best choice when we talk about operating systems.

***Karen Y. Perez***

When I was a little girl i saw my dad studying computer science to eventually working on projects. Like most little girls I admire my dad more than anyone in the world and I always tried to be just like him. I read many books like him, I begged for my own laptop and fell in love with space. Since then my passion for science, math and technology developed. There were moments where I loved chemistry more than physics and times where math was better than astronomy. But, my passion for computers never faded once. Each year I pleaded my dad to teach me how to program because his code was like a puzzle i need to understand. So, every so often he would teach me bits and pieces but only enough to keep my curiosity afloat and have me do my own research. One day I stumbled across one of my dad’s Unix books in his library. I didn’t really understand much at the time so I tried my very best to read it and eventually I did some research on-line. While doing my research I read about Linux and I saw what the open source revolution was all about. I taught myself as much as I could and I decided to convert my laptop to Linux for the first time in ‘09. Ubuntu has helped me with my studies in computer science and helped me stay open to new things of course including technologies. The last thing a geek needs is to not want to explore outside of the box. I guess you can say I’m a self pro-claimed fem-geek and I couldn’t imagine life any other way. Although, I am no professional yet I do try to talk to other girls and show them how great of an experience using Linux Ubuntu is as well as many other great “geeky” technologies. I hope to one day show young girls that there is more to life than fashion. That you can be as “fashionable” as Barbie and yet be an astronaut.

***Jen Phillips***

Learning to Fly

Some years ago, I used to travel everywhere by bus. The company that ran it was called Microsoft, and I used the Number 3.1. It generally got me where I needed to be, but it took a bit of an odd route to get there, and it would often stop at seemingly random points. If I fancied a change, I could take my walkman, or a book. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it did ok, and I was used to it. After a while, the company decided to upgrade all their busses and change all the routes - and put the fares up. I went onto the Number 95, and everything looked nice and shiny, although I missed my stop a couple of times because I wasn’t used to the route. After a while I realised that although the route didn’t take the same detours, it took new ones, so I didn’t really get where I was going any faster. The busses all seemed to get a bit dingy after a while, too. Still, I had my CD walkman, and it became familiar again.

Eventually, I took the plunge, and got a car. I loved the freedom - I could go where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go. I wasn’t constrained by having to have the right money, and I didn’t have to stop for the sake of everyone else. It was a SuSE, and it was mine and I loved it. Except, any time anything went wrong I had to ask for help. When the radio stopped working, I had to get someone else to fix it. If i couldn’t find a particular stick or button, I had to get someone to show me where it was. It also wouldn’t play any of my old CDs. In short, it was frustrating. I tried a couple of other cars, but they weren’t any better. I took ages getting my Debian to even start, and somehow had a knack for stalling it before I got to the end of the street. Eventually, I gave up and went back to the bus - the XP route now had air conditioning and contoured seats, and I could cope with the delays (and occasional breakdowns) because it did tend to get me there in the end.

Then one day, something quite miraculous happened: someone gave me a pair of wings. In only a couple of lessons, I was flying! I no longer have to wait for the bus, and I don’t need a mechanic to come and rescue me any more. If I want different music, I can just pick up a media player and set it going. If I want to dye my wings a different colour, that’s easy too. I decide which route to take - I’m not even limited by roads any more. The best thing is that flying feels so natural - like walking only better. I call these wings “Ubuntu”.

These story submissions along with all the others are available on the Ubuntu Women Project wiki pages.

Without the efforts of Ubuntu Women Project team member, Melissa Draper, the competition may have never made it to the community, the time and talent she personally put into this competition by drafting the competition as well as writing the voting submission application was awesome! - Thanks Melissa!

It is also important to say thank you to the sponsors of this competition, Rikki Kite, Associate Publisher, Linux Pro and Ubuntu User Magazines, for donating Linux Pro or Ubuntu User Magazine subscriptions (choice of one per winner), to Canonical for donating the Ubuntu Backpacks, notebooks, pens, lanyards, pins and T-shirts, at last but not least to Jono Bacon for making the announcement of the winners as well as for copies of Art of Community.

Again, Congratulations to the winners of the prize packs as well as all those who submitted your person Ubuntu discovery stories. I can’t wait to read the submissions for the 2nd Annual Ubuntu Women Project “How I discovered Ubuntu.” International Women’s Day Competition, so mark your calendars and work on YOUR personal discovery of Ubuntu to help celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day.

REMINDER: If you or someone you know would like to find out more information about the Ubuntu Women Project there are several ways to do so - website, mailing list, IRC channel(s), and Ubuntu Women Forums

[Discuss the International Women’s Day Competition Winners on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list by Amber Graner on Tue Mar 9 04:46:28 GMT 2010

Amber Graner: Today we talk to Emma Jane Hogbin, Technical Author, HiCKTech creator, Drupal Guru, Ubuntu Member and the list goes on. Before I want to say thank you for taking the time to tell us about your journey into the Ubuntu Project. Emma can you tell us a little about when and how you got involved in FOSS? Also, How and when did you get involved with the Ubuntu Project?

Emma Jane Hogbin: When I first graduated from university I chatted with various companies to find out what kind of work I wanted to do. (My degree is in Environmental Science, but I took a job as a project manager for a Web design company that specialized in web sites for environmental groups.) One of the companies that I met with had an entire shelf of Adobe software boxes. I made a comment about warez sites, and the owner of the company responded by saying that carpenters don't steal their hammers. My father is a wood worker, so this hit home in exactly the right way for me. From that point on I started looking into free and open source tools.

I spent a year using only FOSS software on Windows before making the final switch to the Linux desktop (Debian). I immediately had problems with my laptop and had to patch and recompile my kernel. The Debian mailing list encouraged me to write up the steps I'd taken to fix my problem. Werner Heuser (tuxmobil.org) encouraged me to publish them with the Linux Documentation Project. From that point on I have been at least peripherally involved in the desktop communities for the distro that I use.

AG: Emma you are involved in so many wonderful projects; you took part in Ubuntu Open Week (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek) with a session on "Writing a Book" (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekKarmic/WriteBook). Can you tell us about your Drupal Book and other technical writings you have done.

EJH: Front End Drupal, my first book with a Real Publisher, has been a fantastic journey. I love teaching. It isn't so much about being the authority though. I love it when my students leap beyond what I've said and make their own predictions about how things work. Front End Drupal isn't your typical computer book. It has lots of little bits to keep the reader interested. From ponies, kittens, and ducks to pirates, orks and hobbits, Front End Drupal is actually a "readable" book.

I don't always inject my sense of humour into my technical writing though. When I'm contributing to a collected work (such as a documentation project) I tend to be more "straight" in my writing style. This makes it easier for other contributors, and also for the reader who may be jumping in and out of the documentation at various points. To date I've contributed documentation to a number of open source projects including Bazaar, Drupal, The Linux Documentation Project, and Ubuntu.

AG: Your HiCK Tech site is full of amazing classes? First what is HiCK Tech the conference? What is HiCK Tech the Company? How did you come up with the idea behind it? And What Classes are offered there.

EJH: HICK Tech the conference is a one-day rural technology forum that addresses How the Internet Connects Knowledge. The goal is to highlight the amazing achievements in rural technology (including bovine breeding, and linking remote hospitals to track disease); but also to share some of the innovative "high tech" things that happen in the big city. I live in a rural community and felt isolated from all of the conferences that were happening in big cities. Instead of being upset about what I didn't have, I decided to throw myself a conference that had all the elements that were important to me.

From the one-day conference an entire consulting company has emerged (HICK Tech the company). The things that I deal with as a small business in rural Canada are not unique. Open source software can solve nearly all of the problems that are presented to me by my clients. HICK Tech tries to figure out how to pool resources to make technology even more affordable. I've given several talks on my 100 Mile Client Roster and have started to collect this information at www.100mileclientroster.com in an attempt to help other small businesses earn a living in their communities.

The classes that HICK Tech offers all help small businesses get more from technology. The students are small business owners who need to learn specific skills to keep their own Web presence up-to-date. I've also had interest from designers who want to learn open source tools; and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to launch their own Web design business.

AG: The first time I spoke with you was in the Ubuntu Women IRC Channel on Freenode, so I know you are involved in this Project, can you tell us about your involvement with this Project and also are there any other teams/groups/projects that focus on Women in Open Source you are involved in or could recommend.

EJH: My initial involvements with the UW project were focused on moving beyond a gendered social space. While I think these spaces are incredibly important, we are at risk of never moving beyond them to participation in the broader community. Within the UW project I have mostly worked on community advocacy. I encourage other women to step up to their passions and take part in the larger FOSS community. I have actively encouraged women to present at conferences, and to apply for sponsorship to events. I help squash the "I'm not good enough" bug and empower women to feel confident about their abilities, and to ask questions when they need help.

Women should feel welcome in any community they want to be a part of. The reality is that not every community welcomes newcomers with grace. Every contributor to open source projects needs to be able to feel their time and opinions are going to matter. Sometimes it can take a couple of attempts to find someone in a project who will be a good mentor. I encourage everyone to be persistent when they are passionate; but to move on when the fit doesn't feel good.

AG: Are there any other FOSS projects, such as your documentation work, that you are involved in that you would like to take the time to share with everyone?

EJH: I'm really excited about all of the great work that's been happening in the world of documentation. This year I hosted what I believe is the first ever open source documentation conference. We had contributors from many different open source projects and participants from four different countries. Usability is getting a lot of attention these days, and I think it's only a matter of time before people realize how important user help and documentation are to the user experience. The conference will be running again in 2010. People who are passionate about user help and documentation are encouraged to create an account at www.writingopensource.com.

AG: When I read about how you released the pattern for you one of your knitting projects a bell went off for me anyway: GPL can be used for many things only one of which is Operation Systems and Code. I have seen first hand the brilliant and complex knitting projects you work on, and I have seen pictures of the now famous Drupal Socks you have knitted as well. Any plans for some Ubuntu socks, other items? Can you tell us about the GPL license you released the pattern for the socks under?

EJH: Not all community contributions have to be made in front of a computer. It's true, I did knit the Drupal socks. A friend of mine had given me countless hours of free tech support to help me with some Drupal problems I was having. As thanks, I knit him a pair of Drupal socks.

Druplicon, the mascot, is licensed under the GPL. I felt it was only fair to release my "code" back into the commons under the same license that made it legally possible for me to knit the socks. The pattern is available from http://www.emmajane.net/craft/drupal. It has been featured at many DrupalCon conferences as well as in CRAFTzine (http://craftzine.com/). I don't have any plans to knit other logo items, and if I did it would only have to be an open source image that I was replicating. Crafters who are interested in creating logoed items may find knitPro (http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/) useful. This software was definitely part of my toolkit when I first created the sock pattern.

Crazy things like socks are a great way to show people that it's not just the code that matters, the part that really matters is the passion to volunteering in whatever way suits you best. Knitting the socks has given the Drupal project far more exposure than if I'd contributed the same amount of time in code patches. We need to embrace all positive contributions—no matter how wacky they seem.

AG: Also can you tell folks about the award you created and the process in creating the award.

EJH: This fall I created a tech award at my local high school. It was remarkably easy. This year's recipient, Sadie Hewgill, is now enrolled in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She was granted the award for demonstrating creative use of technology. I created the award because I wanted a simple way to make one girl feel proud of her technology-related accomplishments. The only way to affect real change is when each person you reach out to feels personally connected to the change you are seeking.

The award I created isn't about having the best marks or winning buckets of cash. It's about being excited about technology; creating award winning technologists; and about having an entire gymnasium of people clap because you did something special. On my blog I wrote up the steps I took to create the award (www.emmajane.net/howto/create-award). I hope it will inspire others to find creative ways to encourage even more girls to stay interested in the skilled trades and IT.

AG: FOSS contributor, Author, Conference Planner, Mentor, Savvy Businesswoman, to Community Contributor both in your hometown and the FOSS communities, is there anything I have left off of forgotten to mention that you would like to tell people about?

EJH: I think you've covered everything. As always, you've asked great questions. Thanks, Amber!

AG: Emma thank you so much for taking the time to wear yet another hat in the roll of interviewee and spend some time sharing a little about you and your adventures in, and around the Ubuntu and FOSS Communities. I always walk away having learned something from every conversation we have. It is my hope that others will be inspired by the things that you do and are involved in, just as I continue to be. Thank you for all you do and thank you again for your time with this interview series.

[Discuss Emma Jane Hogbin’s Interview on the Forum]

Originally posted by Amber Graner in Full Circle Magazine Issue #32 on January 1, 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #183 for the week February 28th - March 6th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Mark Shuttleworth: “Light” the new look of Ubuntu
* Announcing the 10.10 Ubuntu Developer Summit
* UI Freeze in place for Lucid
* Developer Membership Board meeting
* International Women’s Day Vote
* Ubuntu Stats
* Getting Patches Upstream
* The Grand App Writing Challenge Submissions!
* Server Bug Zapping results
* Ubuntu Classroom Team presents “ClassBot”
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* February 2010 Team Reports
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Amber Graner
* Liraz Siri
* Nathan Handler
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Ubuntu has seen a tremendous amount of growth and change since it was conceived in 2004. Back then it was a small project with strong ambitions and a handful of developers passionate about delivering a world class Linux Operating System that can compete on every level with Microsoft and Apple. We adopted a style based on the tagline “Linux for Human Beings”, and called it “Human”. Six years on we have made incredible progress. Ubuntu is a global phenomenon: we have carved out a pervasive culture of quality and design, thoughtful usability and great technology all fused together in a project that maintains the same commitment to community and collaborative development that we embraced back in 2004.

In 2009, a small team lead by Mark Shuttleworth, conducted a review of our key brand values and identity. Based on that work, a set of visual treatments were produced, and shared with key members of the Ubuntu Art community, spanning the core distributions, derivatives, and aligned efforts like the Forums. Representatives from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, SpreadUbuntu and more came to London and worked with the Canonical design team to refine the designs and work together. The results of that work are presented here.

This collection of community representatives worked with the design team and created some great work. Some examples:

In addition to this we also worked with our key governance boards: the Community Council, Technical Board, Forums Council, LoCo Council and others around this work to ensure that our community can use it to it’s best advantage.

The key values we believe are reflected in the Ubuntu project are:

• Precision. We ship high quality software, and we ship it exactly on schedule. Our Debian heritage means that the individual components of our platform are tightly defined and neatly arranged. There is no excess, no fat, and no waste in Ubuntu. We are a community that thrives on delivery.

• Reliability. We are building Ubuntu for serious use. Whether it is being deployed on the desktop or in the cloud, we care that Ubuntu is secure, reliable and predictable. We deliver updates to Ubuntu that are rigorously tested. When we make a mistake, we learn from it and put in place good processes to ensure that it does not happen again.

• Collaboration. Ubuntu is the result of collaborative work between thousands of people, and it is both the beneficiary and the public face of the collaborative work of tens of thousands of free software developers who build individual upstream components, or aggregate them in Debian. We go to great lengths to ensure that anybody, anywhere, who is passionate about Ubuntu and competent to participate, can do so. We enable virtual participation in our physical Ubuntu Developer Summits, we use mailing lists and IRC in preference to over-the-cubicle-wall communications, and we welcome contributions from both companies and individuals. Our governance bodies reflect the diversity of that participation, and leadership or permissions are based on proven merit, not corporate employment.

• Freedom. We strive to deliver the very best free software platform. Our highest mission is to accelerate the adoption and spread of free software, to make it the de facto standard way that people build and consume software. We celebrate the work of other groups committed to collaborative content development, and open content licensing. While we are pragmatic about this (we ship proprietary drivers when we believe they are a requirement to get free software working well on PC’s) we expressly do not include any proprietary applications in the default installation of Ubuntu. We want people to love and appreciate free software, and even though we work to make sure that Ubuntu is compatible with, certified with and iteroperable with popular proprietary software, we do so to facilitate the adoption of free alternatives to proprietary solutions.

While the branding has changed, the freedoms and rights have not: our global community will still maintain access to the resources needed to construct logos that use the branding. We will be providing the new font, images, colour specs, and a set of recommendations for creating branding for websites, t-shirts and the other needs of our community. As before we will protect the integrity of the Ubuntu brand with the Ubuntu Trademark Policy.

The new style in Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of “Light”.

We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed. Ubuntu represents a break with the bloatware of proprietary operating systems and an opportunity to delight to those who use computers for work and play. More and more of our communications are powered by light, and in future, our processing power will depend on our ability to work with light, too.

Visually, light is beautiful, light is ethereal, light brings clarity and comfort.

Historical perspective: From 2004-2010, the theme in Ubuntu was “Human”. Our tagline was “Linux for Human Beings” and we used a palette reflective of the full range of humanity. Our focus as a project was bringing Linux from the data center into the lives of our friends and global family.

Go and see the full details of the brand refresh here, with more images.

Back in January some of the Ubuntu Women members launched a competition to gather stories about women and girls discovering Ubuntu. The aim of the competition was to counteract the invisibility of women and girls in the community and demonstrate that their path is really no different than any other.

Entries for this competition closed last week, and the voting has now opened on the 15 wonderful entries received. Everyone can have their say in which are their favourite stories; so please take a moment to read these tales of discovery and cast your votes.

The Community Manager, Jono Bacon, will announce the most popular story winner and draw a random winner on March 8th, 2010 to celebrate International Women’s Day, 2010.

[Discuss the International Ubuntu Women’s Day Vote on the Forum]

I am tickled pink to announce the details of the next Ubuntu Developer Summit taking place at Dolce La Hulpe Hotel and Resort in Brussels, Belgium from the 10 – 14 May 2010.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit one of the most important events in the Ubuntu calendar and at it we discuss, debate and design the next version of Ubuntu. We bring together the entire Canonical development team and sponsor a large number of community members across the wide range of areas in which people contribute to Ubuntu. This includes packaging, translations, documentation, testing, LoCo teams and more. UDS is an incredible experience, filled with smart and enthusiastic people, fast paced and exhausting, but incredibly gratifying to be part of the process that builds the next Ubuntu.

It is important to note that UDS is not a conference. It is absolutely a participatory discussion-based summit in which we work together as a team to define what our next release will look like. If you are planning on attending or planning on applying for sponsorship, you should be prepared to participate in the sessions actively.

For every UDS, Canonical sponsors a number of community members to attend the event. We are looking for those who want to bring some real insight and expertise in their area of Ubuntu, be it development or community governance. If you feel you could offer this but can’t afford to cover your expenses of attending, you should apply for sponsorship.
How To Request Sponsorship

Luckily, requesting your sponsorship is pretty simple, and we a simple system to handle sponsorship requests. To apply for sponsorship, just follow these simple steps:

* Go to http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-m/ and log in with OpenID. When you have logged in, click the Request Sponsorship link.
* On the first page, add your location and use the About yourself box to tell us why you should be sponsored and tell us about your work on Ubuntu – here you should tell us your vital stats – tell us your any 5-A-Day numbers, any work on the sponsorship queue, what you have uploaded, which teams you are in, your LoCo involvement, documentation you have written, any translation work and other work that you have been involved in. When you have done this, click the Next button.
* On the final page, answer the questions and then click Finish to finish your sponsorship request.

More details on requesting sponsorship are here.

PLEASE NOTE: we have a re-direction bug at the end of this process that affects some people. Don’t worry though, your application is still saved to the system. We are currently in the process of fixing this bug.

All done.

Everyone should get their sponsorship requests in by Fri 26th March 2010 to be considered. Good luck!

(Posted for Jono Bacon, 2010-3-2 at 20:18 UTC)

Melissa Draper: I am Australian. I have lived my entire life in NSW, but I was born in Victoria.

Once upon a time I wanted to be an environmental scientist, but during one of the projects for a related course, I ended up with the task to create a website. I learned HTML one weekend, and realized I preferred computers to trees.

PS: How did you get involved with Ubuntu and free software in general?

MD: Whilst doing a web development diploma, a teacher, a BSD fanatic and probably the most influential teacher I ever had, was in the habit of interpreting syllabi modules such as "install an operating system" fairly openly. He taught his students how to install Linux and BSD as well as Windows (amusing aside: he also taught my mother to do the same!) and so began my obsession with Linux. I played around with live distributions for a while then installed Ubuntu on an old computer. I soon found I did not need XP any more.

Another teacher was was supposed to teach us ASP.net as per the whole web development thing, but was unable to teach for peanuts. Essentially the entire class taught ourselves PHP instead of ASP.net, and following the lead of the OS teacher argued that it was still valid under "dynamic websites". In the end I don't think I even got around to buying the ASP software. Free software is accessible like that, and php.net as a resource is awesome.

PS: Why Ubuntu?

MD: When I decided I wanted to use Linux I asked around. A friend had been using Ubuntu since Warty so I installed Hoary on an old computer. I've tried other distros, and despite using Fedora or CentOS for work, I've been with Ubuntu ever since.

PS: You've been around for several years in the Ubuntu community, what projects are you involved with or have you been involved with in the past?

MD: I was quite active on the marketing team for a while, writing for UWN etc. I also did a lot of coordination in laying the foundations for the LoCo ecosystem we have now. Now I do IRC management and Membership Board for Asia/Oceania.

PS: You've worked hard with Ubuntu Women, including applying for Ubuntu Women leadership. What would you like to see from the project?

MD: I'm hoping to have more visible initiatives to balance out the current focus on commentary. Commenting on bad behavior is a critical part of the aim and I'd rather not have the attitudes against it continue. I'd like to see folks within the team engaging more with aspects like enhancing the wiki pages and conference materials and contributing the attributes they do want from the team rather than dragging down the stuff that others put time and effort in to making happen.

PS: Are you involved in other activities outside Ubuntu relating to women in open source or computing?

MD: I'm involved in LinuxChix and used to organize the local chapter's pre-LUG meet-ups. I'm also my LUG's secretary. I was also on the Linux Australia Council (the group that oversees the organization of linux.conf.au every year and helps FOSS-based groups with grants etc) for 2 years, but I chose to not run for a third consecutive year as I felt I needed to take a break from that. I'm also running a Linux retail and web shop in Sydney, Australia called Everything Linux.

PS: Where do you see yourself going from here with Ubuntu and free software? What are your goals both personal and for Ubuntu/free software in general?

MD: There's some odd politics going on and I've been pushed away from a few things within Ubuntu lately. It's a complicated matter and I feel like I'm left holding loose ends. I'm still trying to figure how where I stand with things. At this point, I intend to continue with Ubuntu Women as it's an important part of the community, regardless of what others think.

Ideally I'd like to see the Free Software community in general set the tone for how online communities can be run.

PS; Do you have any other interests or activities you'd like to tell us about?

MD: Currently I'm rather infatuated with fountain pens and good paper. I think the act of hand-writing actual paper letters is something we ought to try keep relevant.

[Discuss Melissa Draper’s Interview on the Forum]

Originally posted by Penelope Stowe in Full Circle Magazine Issue #34 on February 27, 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #182 for the week February 21st - February 27th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Lucid Alpha 3 Released
* Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop
* Can you hear the Music?
* New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair
* Help localization testing with the ISO tracker
* Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey
* Attention Encrypted Home Users
* Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation
* Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Full Circle Magazine #34
* Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Amber Graner
* Liraz Siri
* Scott Gwin
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Here are the notes on yesterday’s Ubuntu Translations meeting. These minutes, along with the full log, are available here.

• Review of the Ubuntu Translations policies and best practices

• DavidPlanella (dpm)
• AdiRoiban (adiroiban)
• GaborKelemen (kelemengabor)
• VuDoQuynh (vdquynh)
• trijntje (trijntje)
• Sianis (sianis)

The meeting focused on discussing the new set of policies, as the Guidelines section still requires some work.

The idea behind these policies is to provide more structure to Ubuntu Translations as a project as outlined in the spec, and the aim is to keep the policies short and concise to cover the basic requirements, but at the same time to keep the entry barrier low and not to make the translations process more difficult.

Feedback:

• Adi expressed the concern about having too much documentation, which might put new teams off. We agreed on using the existing StartingTeam page as the resource to point out to new teams. This document should be visible in the main Translations page, and the policies used as a reference in the Knowledge Base, which should be a source of reference for existing teams
• David agreed to rework the front page at Translations to address these concerns
• On the point of team communication, we all agreed on the requirement for all teams to have a communication channel, regardless of type.
• We also agreed to add a section on each team’s page in Launchpad listing their resources for communication, and eventually deleting Tems contact page when all teams have added that information.

The general consensus was that the documented policies are useful in their current form, with the additional feedback given at the meeting.

The rest of the agenda items were postponed for the next meeting or for discussion at the mailing list.

From Jono Bacon’s blog :

Yesterday I gave my talk on opportunistic developers on ustream.tv (which I plan on repeating next week). In that session I floated the idea of having a fun challenge next week when Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week happens. The idea was pretty popular, so I wanted to share it here.

The idea is simple:

Think of a fun program to write, and see how much you can get completed by the end of the week, Fri 5th March 2010. On Friday I will write a blog entry that showcases screenshots of your progress and (if possible) a PPA where people can download a package to try.

Getting started with this is simple. First think of something that would be fun to write. This could be a GUI front-end to a command line tool, a simple app that does something useful for you that will improve your life, a game or anything else. Pick something that isn’t too hard: something that is a good first step to dip your feet into development. Folks, do share ideas for apps in the comments here so those people who can’t think of something have a pool of ideas available. :-)

When you have idea you can create your app really easily with Quickly. You can first install Quickly from the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center and search for quickly.

When it is installed, just run:

quickly create ubuntu-project

As an example:

quickly create ubuntu-project mycoolapp

Now run:

quickly tutorial

This will explain how to get started working on your application. If you have questions related to using quickly, you can join #quickly on freenode. If you have general software development questions, you can join #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode.

When you have something you would like me to blog, send an email no later than the end of the day Pacific time on Thu 4th March 2010 to me at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and include:

• The name of your program and a brief description of what it does.
• A link to a screenshot online that shows your new app running.
• If available, tell me the name of the Launchpad project where it is hosted and the PPA with the package. This is a great way for people to try your program and possibly join the project and contribute to it!

I will send a t-shirt out to the three app authors who made the most interesting apps with the most progress. :-)

Start your engines folks, let’s see what we can do! I can’t wait to see how you folks get on! :-)

Starting a new local comunity group requires a mixture of dedication, enthusiastic people and the will to make things happen. And having fun at it. The folks at the Ubuntu Libyan LoCo seem to have all the ingredients for the recipe to success and are showing them off on their way to becoming an approved LoCo team.

Ubuntu is the most used distro in Libya, and the team was born with the lofty goal of supporting the Ubuntu users in the country. Since they first joined the Ubuntu family in Karmic, a lot new members have joined in. They’ve participated in a great deal of workshops, meetings and discussions, which allowed them to shape the team’s plans and goals.

While doing that, they’ve also participated in educational events organized by local universities and private educational institutes, and we’re going to focus in one of them.

As part of its activities and ongoing strive to increase the knowledge of GNU/Linux and Open Source Software, the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam participated in the Technology & Science Fair, organized by The Libyan Information Technology Group during the week of Dec 6th-12th 2009 and hosted by the Al-Fateh University in Tripoli, Libya.

The Libyan Information Technology Group kindly provided a dedicated booth for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam, with an elegant and attractive black and orange Ubuntu theme that clearly stood out in the Fair.

During the period of the Fair, the Libya LoCoTeam distributed 500 ubuntu Karmic CDs to visiting students, IT specialists, Instructors and IT consultants. An Ubuntu installation workshop was also organized by the team after an introductory presentation about Ubuntu.

Many visitors were interested to know more about Ubuntu and Open Source Software and this event was a great opportunity for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam to spread their knowledge and enthusiasm.

Their next event is going to be Libya’s first installfest, for which they’ve set themselves a target of 1000 attendees.

Amazing.

Links

• Libyan Team wiki
• Libyan LoCo website
• Libyan LoCo forum
• IRC channel at #ubuntu-ly on Freenode
• LoCo contact: Mohamed Ayad

With special thanks to Mohamed Ayad for providing and translating the content from Arabic

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #181 for the week February 14th - February 20th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Debian Import Freeze in effect
* Feature Freeze in place - Alpha 3 freeze ahead
* New MOTU
* Ubuntu single sign on service launched
* Ubuntu Stats
* Meet Jelmer Vernooij
* Sikuli — scripting your use of GUIs
* The Planet: Daniel, Dustin, Jono, Alan, David, & Robert
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Mark Shuttleworth to give keynote at PyCon 2010
* Ubuntu UK podcast returns
* Ubuntu torrents are now IPv6 enabled
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #180 for the week February 7th - February 13th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation!
* Interview With Jono by Joe Barker
* Interview with Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Core Developer about encryption in Ubuntu
* Ubuntu Stats
* Upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam and your Loco Team
* Ubuntu Honduras Loco Team at the T3 conference
* The Planet: Jono Bacon & David Planella
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* Liraz Siri
* Amber Graner
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Hopefully by now you have heard of the Ubuntu Global Jam coming up in March. The dates for the Global Jam this cycle are the 26th through the 28th of March 2010. We are hoping to make this Global Jam extremely successful, and we need your help in doing it. We are wanting to have events in as many places as possible not only to help to improve Ubuntu, but also to help promote Ubuntu.

What is the Global Jam?

The Ubuntu Global Jam is an online and in person event that takes place all across the world. People get together with the interest of making Ubuntu better, while having a good time socializing with other people near you who have the same interest and passion about Ubuntu as you do.

What can your LoCo do?

The Ubuntu Global Jam has many different events that for users to participate in, just pick what you and your members like, and make it happen. You can pick from one or more of the following events:

Bug Jam – During a bug jam users would work on finding, triaging and fixing bugs.

Testing Jam – Lucid is due out the end of April and we need help testing it out prior to its release.

Upgrade Jam – Upgrade systems that are currently running older versions of Ubuntu and report your experience.

Documentation Jam – Write documentation about using Ubuntu, or joining the Ubuntu community, or work on making the existing documentation better.

Translations Jam – Help to make Ubuntu available to everyone. Help translate Ubuntu into your language.

Packaging Jam – Help out with improving packages in Ubuntu.

Other – If your team has some other aspect of helping out the Ubuntu Community, feel free to participate in that for the Global Jam.

You can find out more information about the different types of Jams on the Ubuntu Global Jams wiki page.

How do we run a Jam?

If you have never run a Global Jam event before, or if you have, but would like some fresh ideas, we have three training sessions scheduled between now and the Global Jam event. The training sessions will be held by JorgeCastro and will be held in #ubuntu-locoteams on freenode. The training sessions will take place on:

17 February 2010 at 18:00 UTC

26 February 2010 at 21:00 UTC

10 March 2010 at 21:00 UTC

All three training sessions will contain tips, tricks, pointers and advice on how to run a Jam. You can also find out more information at the Running An Event page on the Ubuntu Wiki.

What is needed to run a Jam?

In order to effectively run a Jam, each event will need a place to meet that has a decent internet connection, as well as some computers, and an area that users can work in. Suggested places are Universities, schools, and neighborhood centers.

Don’t forget after you find a place to run your Jam and have decided what your LoCo wants to do during the Jam, you need to get the word out about your Jam! Blog about it, post it on Twitter and Identi.ca, place it on the Ubuntu Global Jam Events page, send emails to your LoCo’s mailing lists, and anything else that you can think of. The more people that participate, the more fun that you will have, and the more help that can be provided to improve Ubuntu.

Need more help?

Read about what other LoCo’s have done at their Global Jam events for more thoughts and ideas and if you are still in need of more help, or have questions that aren’t covered anywhere, feel free to contact myself via email or on IRC, or attend one of the training sessions listed above.

Reference links:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Stories

[Discuss the Ubuntu Global Jam on the Forum]

Originally posted by Chris Johnston here on 12 February 2010

I’m about 100% sure that the next person to be interviewed needs no introduction – everybody will have heard of Jono at some point, whether it be from his role within the community, his activity on identi.ca & twitter, or maybe even from Lernid…Either way, I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.

I am Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager working at Canonical for three years now, I am 30 years young and an Englishman living in the Bay Area, California with my wife, Erica. My parents live in Northern England and I have a brother living in Northern England and another brother living in the Isle Of Man. I was born in the north of England in North Yorkshire, raised in the south in Bedfordshire and and studied at Wolverhampton University in in the Midlands, graduating with a 2:1 in Interactive Multimedia Communication, going on to become a a journalist writing for a number of Open Source magazines and websites and writing a few books. I then became an Open Source consultant for the UK government-funded OpenAdvantage before moving to Canonical to become the Ubuntu Community Manager. My hobbies include writing, recording and producing music, videogames, movies, writing, travel and relaxing with friends.

2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?

I got interested in computers when I was a kid playing with a Commodore 64. I used to play games on it and try to write simple little programs in BASIC. Computers fascinated me, and my interest in video games (I was an epic Sega dork) got me into first learning BASIC and then learning C.

When I was 14, complete with bowl haircut, jack ups and large white socks, I went to night school to learn C and got more and more interested in the technology behind how software works, despite largely sucking at C. Shortly before I left for University my brother Simon came to stay for a few weeks and got me interested in Linux, specifically Slackware 96. Although it was ultra-technical, what really fascinated me was the concept of a global community of passionate contributors working together to build an Operating System that we could all share. I went to University and immediately formed a Linux User Group in my new home and progressively got more and more interested in Linux, starting to contribute to projects and then starting to write for magazines. I heard about Ubuntu when it was known as No Name Yet and it really captivated me: it really represented something I had been dreaming about – the fantastic technical foundation of Debian, but a different focus on integration, usability and ease of use.

3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?

My primary involvement in Ubuntu at the beginning was getting to the know the community, contributing bug reports and feedback and co-writing The Official Ubuntu Book. At the time I was spending most of my spare time knee-deep in the GNOME project and working with local Linux communities in the West Midlands, and my interest in Ubuntu grew from there.

4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?

I am an Ubuntu Member, and proud to be one! I contribute in a range of areas. I lead a team at Canonical that is tasked with helping to produce a rocking community to participate in and we work on a wide range of projects as part of that role. My contributions include team management, governance, software development, some translations, bug triage, raising awareness of Ubuntu and creating new initiatives to get people involved.

Outside of Ubuntu I like to develop community best practice with The Art Of Community and the annual Community Leadership Summit, do some podcasting with Shot Of Jaq and FLOSSWeekly, videocasts with At Home With Jono Bacon and Severed Fifth: Live In The Studio, record Creative Commons metal with Severed Fifth and work on some software projects such as Lernid, Acire, Python Snippets and some other projects.

5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?

I naturally use Ubuntu as my Operating System, both on my desktop as well as on the server that hosts my site and a range of other sites I run. I have so many fave applications – I love Empathy, OpenOffice.org, The GIMP, TomBoy, Scribus, Thunderbird, Docky, Network Manager, Gwibber, Quickly, Glade, and many more. As for least fave, I am not really sure I have a least fave – there are so many programs I haven’t got to yet.

6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?

Fondest memory is a kid who emailed me telling me how he walked five hours from his village in Africa to an Internet cafe to to work on Ubuntu for an hour and then walked back. He emailed me telling me it was worth the effort and that he loved Ubuntu.

7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?

Fairly well, I think. Basically anyone who is not an Ubuntu user gets the advocacy pitch from me about how Ubuntu would rock their world. Many have tried it, which is what I consider a win, and a bunch have switched. Some don’t, which is fine, but my first goal is to have people take a sip of Ubuntu before they drink the rest of the bottle.

8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?

I want to see free software, delivered via Ubuntu, become the most ubiquitous platform in the world for users and developers, available to all, respecting local languages and culture, and inspiring innovation and sharing.

9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

Welcome to the Ubuntu community and welcome to the start of awesome journey in which we can all put a brick in the wall to create an incredible free software platform. I look forward to meeting you all!

[Discuss Jono’s Interview on the Forum]

Originally posted by Joe Barker here on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

In the continued interests of helping to make Ubuntu rock as a platform for scratching itches and making awesome apps, I am putting together a new online learning event: Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week, happening online between 1st – 6th March 2010.

The week will be just like our previous online learning events such as Ubuntu Developer Week and Ubuntu Open Week, but instead providing a week jam packed with awesome sessions about writing applications that scratch your itch, and predominantly focusing on Python tools and frameworks, Bazaar, Launchpad and infrastructure. The goal for the week is give attendees a head start on a given technology useful for applications.

So, I am looking for volunteers. If you feel you could give a tutorial about a given Python module or associated technology (e.g. Glade, Launchpad, Bazaar etc), please drop me an email at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and I will liaise with you to get it scheduled. I am also look for some showcase sessions: stories about how you put together an application, how it scratched your itch and what tools you used. Thanks to everyone who contributes to leading a session!

The week has already been added as a Lernid event and I am going to encourage session leaders to create slides for their sessions. As each session is confirmed it will appear in Lernid and on the wiki page. Rocking!

[Discuss Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week on the Forum]

Originally posted by Jono Bacon here on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 6:53 am

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #179 for the week January 31st - February 6th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Open source industry veteran Matt Asay joins Canonical as COO
* Lucid Translations now open
* Ubuntu Developer Week Re-Cap
* Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS Maintenance release
* Lucid Ubuntu Global Jam Announced
* Project Awesome Opportunity
* New Ubuntu Review Team: Reviewing bug with patches
* Jane Silber Interview
* Dustin Kirkland Interview: Encryption in Ubuntu
* Ubuntu Stats
* Nicaraguan LoCo Team’s Third Anniversary
* Report on Launchpad down-time of 4th Feb 2010
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* January Team Meeting Reports
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Liraz Siri
* Amber Graner
* J. Scott Gwin
* Nathan Handler
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Amber Graner: This Ubuntu Women interview in the Women of Ubuntu Series is with Jane Silber, the current Canonical COO, but as of March 1st, 2010, she will be taking the reins of Canonical as the CEO. More about this announcement and Jane’s history with Canonical can be found here (http://blog.canonical.com/?p=307). First I want to welcome you Jane, and thank you for taking part in this interview series.

Jane Silber: Thanks very much. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to support the Ubuntu Women initiative.

AG: After reading the announcement that you would be taking the reins as CEO for Canonical I couldn’t help but be excited for you personally, for Canonical, the Ubuntu Community and by extension Women in Open Source. I noticed in the announcement made on Dec 17th, on the Canonical Blog, when asked about “How will this impact Mark’s role on the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu Technical Board?” you stated, “One thing this move will bring about is a clearer separation of the role of CEO of Canonical and the leader of the Ubuntu community. It will be two different people now, which I think will be helpful in both achieving their joint and individual goals more quickly.” Can you elaborate on what those joint goals of Canonical and Ubuntu are and what the individual goals are besides the obvious commercial differences?

JS: Canonical and Ubuntu have many common goals. First among those is to make Ubuntu the most widely adopted free software platform, and Canonical invests heavily in the development and marketing of Ubuntu to make that happen. Elsewhere, the goals diverge in places where something is of less interest or less suited to one than the other, rather than the goals being in conflict. For example, Canonical has a large team that works with OEMs to get emerging, pre-production hardware enabled for Ubuntu. The contractual and liability requirements for such work simply aren’t well suited to community work. In contrast, local advocacy (e.g., installfests, local events, etc) is much better suited to the LoCo teams in the Ubuntu community than to Canonical. There are areas where the we are exploring how Canonical and Ubuntu relate to each other, and breaking some new ground in the models. The Ubuntu One services are a good example of that. Fundamentally however, Canonical and Ubuntu have a symbiotic relationship in which both benefit from the other.

AG: Since you mention that the role of CEO and leader of the Ubuntu Community will now be separate and Mark stated that he will be able, thanks to you, to concentrate on product design and development and talking to partners and gathering feedback, does this mean Canonical now has and R&D team lead by Mark, being developed under your guidance?

JS: There isn’t a new R&D team being stood up, but we do continue to have a good amount of R&D work happening throughout Canonical. In some cases this is concentrated in a specific team, such as our Design and Desktop Experience teams, which are responsible for things like the notification infrastructure, the Ubuntu Netbook Edition launcher, and the revamped Software Center. In other cases this R&D-type work happens organically throughout the company, including the Ubuntu team itself. Prime examples of this are Scott James Remnant’s work on Upstart (http://upstart.ubuntu.com/) and Rick Spencer’s work on Quickly (https://edge.launchpad.net/quickly). So this move doesn’t signal a dramatic shift into the R&D world - we plan to continue what we’ve been doing. But rather than having product design and strategy receive a portion of Mark’s attention, my new role will allow him to dedicate nearly all of his attention in that area.

AG: When surveying what the transition of COO to CEO entails what do you see as the biggest challenge?

JS: My history at Canonical and close collaboration with Mark and the rest of the senior team over the years gives me a solid foundation on which to build. But there are clearly challenges ahead for Canonical and for me personally. My focus over the last couple years has been largely internal, and naturally the CEO role will add a more external, outward facing element. Additionally, while my current operations focus will remain, the CEO role will require a strategic leadership and decision-making capacity, where I have been in more of an strategic advisory role to date. The changes may seem subtle, but I think they will require something of a mind shift on my part.

AG: Just from some cursory searches on the web in referencing women CEO’s for OSVs (operating system vendors) I could not find a long or readily available list of women, it would seem you are blazing a trail and raising the bar, how does that feel?

JS: I am proud of my contributions to Canonical and Ubuntu to date, and look forward to the continuing to help make them successful. But I am by no means the trailblazer for women in open source or women in IT. You may be right about OSVs in particular, but in the open source world, Mitchell Baker (Mozilla) springs to mind and there are many examples in IT in general. The phrase “on the shoulders of giants” often gets used in the open source world, and I think it’s applicable here too. I’m proud to be part of the group of women executives, but I certainly am not the first.

AG: Speaking of blazing a trail, the news of you becoming the CEO of Canonical spread like wildfire throughout the community, especially the Ubuntu Women Community, do you see yourself as a role model for other women not only in the Ubuntu Project but in Open Source as a whole?

JS: I think that only an individual can decide who she or he thinks of as a role model, and the reasons for it. I.e., it doesn’t matter if you think of yourself as a role model or not - you are a role model only to the people who find that quality in you. If my new role as CEO provides a positive example or inspiration for someone, then that’s great. But for me personally, role models are people who have qualities that I aspire to or that I have to work at (as opposed to achievements or career successes). I am very aware of the impact of positive examples as role models and as learning opportunities, and I try to always be conscious of the impact of my actions and words. That’s true whether I am coming from the perspective of a woman in open source, or a manager, or a co-worker or friend.

AG: As a strong leader and role model within the Ubuntu Community do you now or have you ever participated in FOSS projects or groups specifically created to encourage women? If so can you tell us a little about them? If not can you elaborate on why?

JS: I joined the Ubuntu Women mailing list around the time it was created. And while I have followed the ups and downs of that group with interest, I haven’t taken an active role in the group. I recognise that due to my role at Canonical, my experience in the community as a woman is very different than others, and I thought it was important to provide the space for other women in the community to understand and articulate the issues from their perspective. I recognise the value of sharing experiences and having the support of people in a similar position, and I relied on women’s groups early in my career. In particular, when I was working as a software developer/researcher in Japan, I joined the Systers email community (started by Anita Borg, and now part of the Anita Borg Institute, http://www.anitaborg.org/initiatives/systers/). At a time when I felt I was an isolated minority (by gender, exacerbated by culture), the Systers list gave me real support. Knowing that I could find people with similar experiences and even solutions at times, was a real boon for me. I hope that the Ubuntu Women’s group can provide similar support within the Ubuntu community.

AG: As the transition to CEO should be complete by March 1st , 2010, does this mean you will be announcing the -M name or will that still come from Mark? You will be opening UDS-M as the new CEO, have you thought about how you will inspire and encourage and keep the excitement and energy levels from undulating and remain steady and constant during UDS?

JS: Good question! Mark and I haven’t discussed the -M name yet… maybe I’ll sneak that privilege into my new job description ;). With respect to UDS, I am always amazed at the excitement and energy levels on display there. But I think that is clearly due to the Ubuntu community - LoCo teams, developers, translators, documentation writers, advocates, etc. It’s my job to ensure that Canonical can
continue to provide the forum and infrastructure and opportunity for the UDS magic to happen, but it is the collection of people who participate in UDS, whether in person or remotely, that provide that energy.

AG: At UDS-L I had the opportunity to interview Mark about Canonical’s enterprise strategy, what is your strategy? I asked him specially when he named 10.04, Lucid Lynx, referring to a clear-minded, thoughtful, predator, I know wonder if that describes you and your plan of execution in taking on the enterprise market with this LTS release?

JS: Don’t expect a dramatic change in strategy as I take on this new role. Mark and I have had a very close partnership and are in agreement about our current strategy. We have different styles and experiences and this will inevitably result in different decisions, but the starting point for my tenure as CEO is building on Canonical’s successes and strategies to date, not cleaning house or changing direction.

AG: Jane, thank you again for taking time for the interview and congratulations on your new role as Canonical CEO.

[Discuss Jane Silber’s Interview on the Forum]

Originally posted by Amber Graner in Full Circle Magazine Issue #33 on January 30, 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #178 for the week January 24th - January 30th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Contribute with Ubuntu One Bug Day
* Lucid changes to Firefox default search provider
* Announcement: Ubuntu Server update for Lucid Alpha3
* Interview With Ubuntu Manual Project Leader Ben Humphrey
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu Honduras
* Back up old sources from PPA’s
* Improved Bug Patch Notifications
* Getting your code into Launchpad
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* NZ school ditches Microsoft and goes totally open source
* Full Circle Magazine
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* Amber Graner
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #177 for the week January 17th - January 23rd, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Developer Membership Board election results
* Ubuntu User Days A Big Success
* Bugs and hugs
* Ubuntu Developer Week: January 25th – January 29th, 2010
* Canonical Blog: ISV support for Ubuntu Server Edition widens
* January 20th America’s Membership Review Board Meeting
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu LoCo Re-Approval Process
* LoCo Stories: the Ubuntu Honduras School Tour
* Launchpad 10.1 roll-out 09.00-11.30 27th January 2010
* Anonymous Access to the Launchpad Web Service API
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Introducing Ubuntu Electronics Remix 9.10
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* Amber Graner
* And many others
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License