Newsletter for November 29th, 2009
Hey Team!
Sorry for this! My fault! I totally blanked ( the whole family thing )
on getting the newsletter out!
Not much is going on this week, so I’ll just give a shout out to
another new IRC ideler, freelook! Welcome!
That’s #ubuntu-us-oh for all of you watching at home
Ubuntu Hour in Columbus ( as seen on the Calender ) this Wednesday!
LoCOhio ROCKS!
Cheers, and happy first snow!
Filed under Wisdom on Ubuntu | Comment (1)Weekly Newsletter, Nov 21
Hey All! Happy weekend!
So, our ReLoCo ( REALLY Local Community ) leads are all in place and
kick’en some serious ass!
Here are some intros on some of them, in no particular order
John ( tnseditor )
I found Ubuntu after looking through (and trying) several
distributions in about November 2005. I continued to use Ubuntu on and
off until December 2006. In January 2007 I installed Ubuntu 7.04
Feisty Fawn (Herd 2) and since then use Ubuntu full-time. I am
currently using Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). In addition to computers
and The News Source, a newsletter I started in 2001, I also garden,
bike ride, and lots of other things. I am also involved with our
church’s youth and youth leadership team. I currently attend Rhodes
State College and will switch to Rhodes and OSU soon for middle
childhood education.
Brian Freytag ( MaskedDriver )
Brian “MaskedDriver” Freytag is a born and raised Buckeye. He graduated
from *THE* Ohio State University in 2009 with a B.S. in Agribusiness and
Applied Economics and currently works as a Web Developer for the College
of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences at OSU. Brian has been
an Ubuntu user since 2007, using it for desktop as well as server
processes.
Joe Begnoche ( jwb1275 )
I moved to Ohio in 2007. I grew up in upstate New York. Did my
undergrad at SUNY Binghamton in Electrical Engineering. I graduated
from Penn State in 2005 with a MS in EE focused in Remote Sensing and
Lidar Systems. Now I work in Akron and I moved to Copley in 2008. I
have toyed around with Linux since 2002, but I only got serious in
2008 when I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and I have been using Ubuntu ever
since.
Jason Chandler ( canthus13 )
I’m Jason, a technical support specialist for a local ISP in Toledo,
OH. I spend a lot of my spare time on IRC in #ubuntu,
#ubuntu-offtopic, #ubuntu-us-oh, #ubuntu-beginners, and
#ubuntu-beginners-help. I’m (slowly) working towards ubuntu
membership, and hope to have it sometime in the next five years or so.
Paul Tagliamonte ( paultag )
I’m Paul, and I grew up in Boston, MA. I moved to Ohio to study at
Uni. I love working on code, hacking the lowest level stuff I can
find. I enjoy working on long-term projects, and have used Ubuntu
since 2007, Linux since 2003. I’m an Ubuntu Member, contributing every
day to the Ubuntu Beginners Team. I am in more IRC channels then would
be kosher to post ( I hit the max without batting an eye ). I’m now
the Ohio Team Contact, and all that jazz.
WELCOME guys!!!!! Awesome to have you onboard! ( Except me, that would
be silly for me to thank myself :P )
==== Now, for the REAL news ;) ====
* Ubuntu Hour Columbus was a HUGE success. Great turnout, awesome
times, and really done right. Congrats to MaskedDriver, that is the
first Non-Cleveland Ubuntu Hour to happen!
* Ubuntu Hour Cleveland coming up Friday
* Ubuntu Hour Columbus coming up Wednesday
New IRC members!!!
Welcome to jeffschuler, cstudent, jshriver, tingaling — I know you
will find a home in IRC! Keep on keep’en on :)
==== Related plug: =====
#ubuntu-us-oh on irc.freenode.net for all of you still reading this
but not active over IRC! We’re not creepy, just socially awkward, I swear!
Weekly Newsletter, Nov 14
Hey LoCoHio ( really LoCOhio, but it just looks odd, dunno ) !
Hope the week has gone well!
So, some updates for the team:
* Ubuntu Hour has been a success, we had our second hour up here in Cleveland yesterday. Had some great chats about PHP, Ubuntu, and life :)
* ReLoCos have been working away, and we now have events planned for Columbus! Awesome! Great work MaskedDriver!!!
The IRC room has been a veritable hub of activity, it’s AMAZING. Thank you to everyone who hangs around! It’s rare we can go an hour without having someone start up something new. Outstanding work — BIG shout out to some of the new ‘uns to the channel — gilbert, deejoe, TheErk, john-l, GreyFox, and Delvien!
#ubuntu-us-oh on irc.freenode.net for all of you still reading this but not active over IRC!
Filed under Wisdom on Ubuntu | Comment (0)Weekly Newsletter Nov 7th
Hey Team!
Hope all is well!
Lots and lots of news today!
Check out our new board of Administrators!
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-us-ohio-buckeyes
Any ReLoCo leads, Ubuntu members or Canonical guys, please email me, and request to be added! The buckeyes make all the “big” team decisions — fight for your right to vote!
What’s a ReLoCo you say?
Of course! We have some new Leads, in a town near you!
canthus13 — leading the charge into the West with TOLEDO Ohio!
tnseditor — Keeping it real with LIMA Ohio!
Jordan — coming out of DAYTON!
MaskedDriver — our brand new COLUMBUS contact! OH!
Get in touch with the lead nearest you!
We had our first Ubuntu Hour, raging success. Photos next time, I promise.
#ubuntu-us-oh on irc.freenode.net! C’mon over — It’s getting active again!
* The next “big” event will be hosted by LeRoy Miller, down in Middletown, Nov 28, 2009 10am till 5pm, Let’s see a great turn out! Anyone in the area is encouraged to show up!
Filed under Wisdom on Ubuntu | Comment (0)Details on the One-Year Ohio Team Plan
I am now starting what I call the “One Year Ohio Team Plan”. My goal is by this time next year to have hit every objective I laid out in my last post. As part of this, let me go into detail on my plan, and start working on the radical transparency aspect.
Let’s get to it.
Team Restructuring
We have some systemic issues with the team structure. It’s a rabid free-for-all of inactivity. This is due to plenty of ( valid! ) reasons, and something I am going to fix A.S.A.P.
Change to a decentralized architecture
First-off, I am moving how the LoCo is organized by moving some administrative tasks to the members. I am going to create subteams inside the LoCo, and run by local members. They will all be part of the Ohio LoCo, but local activities, and basic day-to-day functions will be run by them, and not by the Ohio LoCo contact ( me ). This is, in part, because I can not travel to far outside of Cleveland, and it would be unfair to only host events in Cleveland. On my list so far are teams that support North East Ohio, Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
I also expect local integration — the N.E.O. team should be in touch with West PA, as should Toledo with Michigan, and Cincinnati with Indiana. Cross LoCo team work is great, people! The more locations the better! It’s sometimes more convenient to go to events on the Ohio border if you are not in Ohio if the main event is farther away. We have seen this a bit with West PA ( although I have yet to see any of them at our events, yes I’m talking to you western PA-er ).
Change of LoCo governance
From now on, I would like to see every Ubuntu Member, Canonical Employee, and LoLoCo Lead have a vote on any team decisions.
Oh, stop booing! If you are a lay member of the LoCo, get involved! The more active you are, the better chance you have of making a extended, sustained contribution to Ubuntu, and then become part of the team leadership.
That being said, I am going to keep any votes public. All issues will be discussed with the team first, and then voted on by the Administration. 2/3 majority to pass, with the LoCo lead having a final say on critical decisions. That last clause should almost NEVER be used. The “Big Red Button” is only there for issues that divide the LoCo.
Increased Transparency in the Team.
This is a big one, folks. This is a Mission-critical objective. Following is my outline of how to achieve this ( critical ) task.
Weekly Mailings
Every week, the LoCo lead will write a newsletter to keep everyone aware of the day-to-day changes being made, or upcoming events. This newsletter should be publicly available, and sent to the Mailing List. Excerpts will be ( eventually ) be posted to Identi.ca, and Twitter, keeping subscribed members up to date with a clear and concise update. Monthly team reports will be written and also published in a public fashion, and should include the last few weeks worth of news, and any current news. If applicable, a summery should be added to it ( how the event went, photos ).
Management Software
As some of you know, I am a programmer. I am going to start writing new code to help more effectively communicate and manage the team. All ( 100% ) of the software done for the Ohio LoCo will be published under the GNU GPLv3, and free ( as in price ). All documents submitted to the Ohio LoCo’s interface will be freely available under the FDL ( Free Document License ).
Team Involvement
Every LoCo suffers from members dropping off. It happens. It’s part of having a volunteer based community.
Virtual Presence
We are a bunch of nerds. Let’s accept it. So let’s do it digitally. This will involve an all-out-assault on every social network. My ( still in progress ) LoCo bot will be able to span identi.ca, twitter, facebook, email, IRC and SMS. All of these will be mashed up into one large macro-network network. Members will be able to get the message out about that next install-fest, or release party. It should be effortless to communicate with the team. It’s amazing to look at other LoCos, such as Pennsylvania, demonstrate such an amazingly active community over IRC. Unlike the Ohio IRC channel, I have never once seen more then four or five join / part messages in a row, and no, it’s not because of a lack of members :). I would like to achieve that by this time next year.
Regular Events
I received a dent from the ( great ) Jorge Castro about the Ubuntu Hour. I am adopting this in Cleveland, and I hope that the other LoLoCo leads will follow suit. Release parties, and Bug Jams will become regular, and well supported.
Giving back to Ohio
I iz in yer state helping yer public services.
Let’s get involved with libraries, schools and give back. It’s all about Humanity to Others. Nothing is too little. This is a lower-priority item, as it was done before, and failed due to a lack of funding. I’d rather get other items set, and then work to the community once the team as a whole is stable.