Really the most significant thing to happen in this release cycle is the development of the Ubuntu Manual Project (“ubuntu-manual”), which is essentially a competitor to ubuntu-doc with different processes, different tools, but identical aims. That development, and our failure to convince ubuntu-manual to work with ubuntu-doc’s tools and processes, to take existing material and reuse it, and then contribute new and amended material back to ubuntu-doc, is the most abiding memory of the release cycle for me. ubuntu-manual has shown great enthusiasm, has attracted a serious number of new contributors to documentation writing, which can only be positive. I feel that it’s a great shame that we weren’t able to help channel those contributors towards a unified effort at producing documentation which reused existing material, tools, processes, and websites and which prevented reinvention of the wheel.

Having said that there have been some positives to come out of this release cycle. We’ve developed a new document (New to Ubuntu). We’ve fixed a fairly vast number of bugs (almost entirely thanks to the awesome work done by Connor Imes). Adam Sommer has continued to do a great job of maintaining the serverguide. Phil Bull and Milo Casagrande have continued to lead the development of Gnome documentation towards what is looking like a very exciting transition into Gnome 3.0 for user documentation.

The focus of the next release cycle is going to be very interesting. With a complete overhaul of user documentation at Gnome, with a much faster help viewer, a markup that is easier for writers and which encourages more topic based help that is easier for users to read, understand and find, this is a very exciting time in user documentation. I suspect that the focus of ubuntu-doc will be to contribute upstream as much as possible in the first instance, and that work is already underway. That means that this is an opportunity for ubuntu-doc to shape the direction of user help in Gnome and Ubuntu alike, and that means that it is a good time to get involved in documentation. More to come on that.

One of the focuses in terms of team management for the next release has to be on new contributors. We need to focus on ensuring that new contributors have an easy way to dive in to documentation, can see quickly what tasks need work, and aren’t blocked on contributing by anything. ubuntu-doc needs to promote itself better around the Ubuntu community, and I’m convinced that we can do that over the coming 6 months. Documentation is a great way for newcomers to the Ubuntu community to contribute if they are not interested in developing software, and I would encourage anyone interested to visit our wiki page and get in touch.

Yesterday a further report was broadcast about the release of Ubuntu 9.10. This time Flavia Weisghizzi was interviewed about the new release, and did a great job: thanks Flavia!

You can watch the YouTube recording here.

One interesting thing about the report is how heavily they focus on the Koala as the mascot of the release. Ubuntu generally takes the view that its release mascots are used only during the development phase, and that the final version when released should be referred to by its version number (Ubuntu 9.10, in this case). However the way that the programme focused on the image of the Koala demonstrates that people will find it easy to associate with such mascots.

So this is just a quick note to say that I’m not around so much on IRC these days. Unfortunately my server provider dreamhost, while excellent in many other ways, has cracked down on the use of IRC programs such as irssi on their servers and I’m no longer able to use it to connect to IRC. Previously I had been connected around the clock, but now that I’m going to have to use my home connection to connect,I won’t be connected around the clock because my home connection is extremely unreliable, due in part (I think) to a dodgy router and in part to a flaky connection. Until that’s sorted out, I’m likely to be disconnected from IRC for long periods of time.

So, if you need to contact me and don’t see me on IRC, please use email.

[EDIT] Following my post I had three offers of free hosting for connecting to IRC. I’m really grateful to those people for their generosity which took me by surprise, and I’ve taken up Alan Pope’s offer. So I’m now back on reliable IRC! Thank to Alan and the others who offered their help.

The fundraising effort is going well – we have now raised over £3000 towards our target of £4000 for Water Aid! However we need more support, so please donate if you can.

I’ll try and report progress with the Challenge here! Meanwhile if anyone has any last minute tips for avoiding blisters and generally staying in one piece, post here!

This is a challenge to visit the summits of the highest peaks in each of the six regions of the British Isles, all within 72 hours: Snaefell (Isle of Man), Snowdon (Wales), Scafell Pike (England), Ben Nevis (Scotland), Slieve Donard (Ulster) and Corran Tuathail (Republic of Ireland). The walking amounts to a total of 50 miles with climbs of 20,000 feet, two sea crossings, not to mention 1,000 miles of driving in our trusty camper van. In 72 hours…

Our team is made up of 6 walkers and 2 drivers.

The challenge is in aid of a very worthy charity, Water Aid, and we have undertaken to raise the very significant sum of £4000.

We would be very glad of your support, which can be given at our Just Giving website page.

The more donations we receive, the more inspired we will be in our training! Please also feel free to pass these details directly onto any family, friends, colleagues or total strangers who you think may be interested in supporting us in this challenge.

The Ubuntu project is rapidly expanding and the previous process for approval of new Ubuntu members has been struggling to keep up with the increased participation. The list of pending membership applications was so long that the Community Council cannot focus on other issues. Also, it is often difficult or impossible for potential new members to attend Community Council meetings which do not coincide with their availability in a particular timezone.

As a result three regional membership boards have been created to consider applications from contributors to the project for Ubuntu membership. The boards are:

• Americas
• Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Asia / Oceania

These boards will meet each week at staggered times and days, to ensure that as many candidates as possible have a chance to attend a meeting which fits their schedules. If necessary, candidates from one region may attend a meeting of a board for a different region, if this suits their schedule better.

The Community Council will continue to oversee the process for the first few months of its operation. New members will be reported in the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

For more information, and if you are interested in applying for Ubuntu membership, please visit the membership wiki page.

The change will leave the Community Council free to take a more active role in its review of other aspects of the community. The Community Council now meets according to a fixed timetable every two weeks.

Ubuntu appeared on Italian terrestrial television yesterday, by way of a short piece on the program “Neapolis”, broadcast by RAI 3. RAI 3 is a state run television channel in Italy, and is popular for having plenty of interesting programs on culture and current events.

Congratulations to the members of the Italian local community team who made this possible: Fabio Marzocca (who appears in the clip), Milo Casagrande and Flavia Weisghizzi.

Watch the clip here (Italian language).

I’ve posted the details of the problem to the Ubuntu forums.

If anyone reading this can help I’d be much obliged!

It’s worth explaining just a little further how Canonical and volunteers fit into the Ubuntu ecosystem. Although the show’s hosts were kind of looking at the Ubuntu project as “Canonical’s project”, that’s only true to an extent. Although Canonical provides the majority of resources that drive the Ubuntu project and keep it healthy (so, the engine of the project), the Ubuntu project’s governance processes (the design of the project) are independent and community based. This allows volunteers to work alongside Canonical employees with equality.

So how does that work? Each person contributing to Ubuntu packages goes through a rigorous process in order to get access to the core packages. The first step is to contribute to the Masters of the Universe team (“MOTU”), who take care of the “universe” component in Ubuntu, when the non-core packages are kept. This is a hugely important team in the Ubuntu community, and is almost exclusively volunteer based. When the team is satisfied that the quality of a person’s contribution is consistently good, commit access to the “universe” component is granted (and a person joins the ubuntu-motu team – currently 76 members). The strength of the processes and the individuals involved is so good that the MOTU team (through the MOTU Council) now takes that decision on its own. So this process is basically handled exclusively by volunteers. To gain access to the core packages, in the “main” component, a further period of contribution is required, during which existing Ubuntu developers can assess the quality of the work being put in. If appropriate, the Technical Board (which is again a community body, although it is currently made up of 3/4 Canonical employees) will take the decision of whether to grant commit access to the main component (and a person joins the ubuntu-core-dev team – currently 46 members).

Each Canonical employee goes through the same process that a volunteer contributor goes through.

This process (and the others which make up the Ubuntu community) is what makes Ubuntu a special project, and is in part the secret of its success.

More information is available at the Ubuntu Developers wiki page and for more information about the Ubuntu project’s community governance processes, see the processes page on the website.