/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/04/28/#ubuntu-classroom.txt

=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 2300 UTC: Ubuntu Community Learning Project || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
jcastrosorry everyone, I'm an idiot00:02
jcastrook cprofitt, take it away!00:02
cprofittalright... lets begin...00:02
cprofittWelcome everyone. I am Charles Profitt and the current lead of the Ubuntu Forums Beginners Team Education Focus Group. I am here today to shed some light on a new project just in the seedling phase.00:02
cprofittthe LP page is at - https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-learning00:02
cprofittWe would like to eventually build a site comparable to - http://tinyurl.com/dm6y8p - with people being able to come to the site for free 'courses' that help them learn how to use Ubuntu and the applications that come with Ubuntu. That teach them how to contribute to the community - wiki, doc team, translations, etc. That help them become developers that contribute to Ubuntu. To do this we will work with existing material as well as c00:03
cprofittreate new material. brainbench.com also has some examples of what I am talking about.00:03
cprofittI would like to take some time to explain what we are going to do to 'augment' the existing material.00:03
cprofittMoodle allows for courses to be built that have 'activities' including: quizzes, lessons, glossaries, surveys and other components that make it more similar to what you would have in an on-line course.00:03
cprofittMoodle is considered a Learning Management System00:04
cprofittand the team evaluated several options before choosing Moodle00:04
cprofittIf you would like to learn more about Moodle you can go to their site - http://moodle.org/00:04
cprofittFor an anology - existing material is like the text book. Moodle adds exercises that ask people to put the knowledge gained from the material in to practice. It also adds the ability for people to self-evaluate. Unlike school there are no grades planned. It also allows an 'instructor' to decide which material should be covered first through last; to make sure the student builds on material piece by piece.00:05
* cprofitt smiles00:05
cprofittThe plan is to provide self-paced courses that allow users to go through the material themselves and to provide instructor lead courses that will have scheduled meeting times (using #ubuntu-classroom) and an instructor that will host question and answer time.00:05
cprofittThere is a great deal of very valuable content that is 'out there' in the form of wiki how-tos, forum guides, help articles, etc...00:07
cprofittand this project aims to make use of those in 'building' a course.00:07
cprofittthe team includes pleia2 from the classroom project00:08
* pleia2 waves00:08
cprofittand we have also spoken to Canonical and gotten approval to use learn.ubuntu.com as the site URL00:08
st33medyay00:08
cprofittbodhi_zazen, will be hosting a server that the URL will be pointed at00:09
cprofittFrom our conversations with Billy Cina and dinda the sabdfl is aware of and excited about the project.00:09
cprofittpwnguin> QUESTION: will this be self-hosted, or be using the moodlerooms service?00:10
cprofittthis will be hosted by bodhi_zazen who has purchased the server with his own funds00:10
cprofitttxwikinger, we are looking for people who want to contribute... we have not determined the process for that yet00:11
cprofittWe still have to work through licensing discussions though we are in the realm of CC - its just a matter of which one00:11
bodhi_zazensetting up server now :)00:11
cprofittThere are two sets of goals00:12
cprofitt1)  Build a community based learning platform / set of courseware that will allow organizations to move forward with adoption Uubntu00:12
cprofitt2)  Assist individual motivate users to become contributors to the community00:13
cprofittzhurai> QUESTION: for:  " that will have scheduled meeting times (using #ubuntu-classroom) ", would those be logged too (just as this OpenWeek's #ubuntu-classroom logs are put into those pages)?00:13
cprofittYes, the instructor lead courses that use #ubuntu-classroom would be logged00:13
cprofittand the logs added to the course record00:13
cprofitt<dinda> QUESTION:  have you had any success in working with the doc team?  they are looking at ways to improve new member training/mentoring.00:14
cprofittfrom my understanding dinda we have... though I am not 100% on the level of involvement currently00:14
cprofittthe Doc team will be an integral part of the project... of that much I am sure00:14
cprofittgreg-g> cprofitt_monitor: if you have any questions regarding CC licensing, I can answer them for you.  I currently work for CC.00:14
dinda I see DougieRichardson is on your membership list - that is a good start00:14
* cprofitt writes down his greg-g's name00:15
greg-g:)00:15
cprofittThe issue with CC greg-g is we are unsure of what level of restriction we want...00:15
cprofittDo we want to limit a training center from charging for an on-site course using our material or not?00:16
cprofittCan a school district or company use the training material internally...00:16
greg-gall valid questions, and I can relate experiences from others who have done similar things.00:17
cprofitt<Yasumoto> cprofitt: Have you heard about the Mozilla Education (http://education.mozilla.org) or Teaching Open Source (http://teachingopensource.com/) projects? Although they're more focused on "Open Source as curriculum" I think that there is some overlap in the projects.00:17
cprofittI had not heard of those... so I will take a hard long look at them00:17
* cprofitt thanks for those resources00:17
cprofittst33med> QUESTION: Wouldn't it be better for the instructors to choose the licensing?00:18
cprofittI do not think so. I do not want there to be confusion over what courseware is offered through the project00:18
st33medProbably GNU compliant?00:18
cprofittI would think that having a sep. CC license for each course would cause confusion...00:19
cprofittwhile that may make some contributors shy away, I would hope not.00:19
thewrathone license (sp) for everything less confusion i beleive00:20
cprofittQUESTION:  where are the next meetings listed?  is there a wiki page for the group?00:21
cprofittThe wiki page will be created over the next few days...00:21
cprofittthere is a beginning on the page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning00:21
cprofitton the topic of the doc team Vantrax just told me the following00:22
cprofittVantrax> ive been speaking with dougie, most of the doc team isnt interested, but enough are to make it work00:22
cprofittthe next meeting is scheduled for May 2nd (this weekend)00:22
cprofittat 21:00 UTC I believe00:22
VantraxHi all, sorry I havent been around to give more info00:22
Vantraxcprofitt, yep00:24
cprofittYes, SCROM and LAMS are the two formats that Moodle uses other than Moodle itself.00:26
cprofittWe are currently only looking at SCORM to my knowledge00:26
VantraxSCORM is the standard being pushed by the US government as a standard but no decisions have been made at that level yet. Any informed opinions would be welcome.00:27
cprofittAny other questions?00:27
juan_marquezbuenas00:28
cprofittpwnguin> QUESTION: how do you get a reasonable cohort on a self-paced course?00:30
cprofittcohort... is not a word I am familiar with in this context... I only know Roman legion cohorts...00:30
cprofittcould you expand on that term?00:30
pwnguini think it means the student body00:30
pwnguinie your peers00:30
cprofittok...00:30
Vantraxits more a university term00:30
pwnguinpeople you can bounce ideas off of00:31
cprofittwith a self-paced you would not really have a concurrent group of students... you may or may not...00:31
cprofittthe instructor lead courses would have a defined start and end time for the course00:31
cprofittdinda> QUESTION:  can you post the link to the Forums  Beginners Team?00:32
VantraxAt this stage the plan is to have IRC time available either scheduled or as required depending on numbers for the self paced courses, basically as a Q&A time00:32
cprofitthttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam00:32
cprofittpwnguin> QUESTION: do i need to be active in the forums to participate?00:32
cprofittNo, there is no need to be active on the forums...00:33
cprofittwe may use material from some of the how-to guides posted there, but you will not need to be active00:33
cprofittunless an instructor wants to use the forums as an activity00:33
Vantraxany material used from how-to guides will be used only with the original author's permission00:34
cprofittpwnguin> question: will the service be able to host videos?00:36
cprofittI believe it can...00:37
cprofittMoodle can also host flash animations...00:37
cprofittthough I would like to find a FOSS alternative to flash00:37
cprofitt<dinda> QUESTIONS:  what about screencasts?  are you working with that team too?00:37
cprofittI am not aware of us doing that yet, but we certainly would want too.00:38
cprofittpwnguin> question: would a refresher course on new features every release be a reasonable project?00:40
cprofittI think we would focus on LTS courses...00:40
cprofittdoing courses every 6 months would be difficult00:41
cprofittwe would try to keep courses up-to-date if possible00:41
cprofittpwnguin> QUESTION: if you offer courseware via Creative Commons, aren't you basically required to disclose test and quiz answers to anyone who asks for them ahead of time?00:41
cprofittSure...00:41
cprofittjust like any workbook you buy the answers are in that section...00:41
cprofittbut if a person wants to get value out of it.. they likely will try to do the work00:42
cprofittsince there are no grades I am not sure why anyone would want to 'abuse' having the answers00:42
pwnguinimagine a community college course borrowing the courseware00:43
pwnguinfor an intro to UNIX course or some such00:43
Vantraxalso there is no certification, that is canonicals baby00:43
Vantraxpwnguin, that would be a good thing, long as its attributed00:43
cprofittNow...00:45
cprofittI am currently recruiting EDU curriculum writers to assist us with writing the first course...00:45
cprofittand the first course will be a course on - How to Build A Moodle Course -00:45
cprofittthat will help other contributors build solid courses00:46
cprofittif you know of an educator who has Moodle (or other LMS experience) we are interested in talking to them00:46
cprofittThank you for attending everyone...00:50
cprofitthave a good evening00:50
=== pleia2 changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Next session starts @ 15:00 UTC || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
* ausimage remarks all logs for today are up !!!00:53
pleia2hooray :)00:53
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AmanicAsorry14:28
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thegrievehehe14:31
thegrievesorry too14:31
thegrievethanks AmanicA for saving me having to open the wiki again tho :)14:31
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jcastronhandler: around?14:46
jcastro1 hour, 15 minutes until the Mark Shuttleworth Q+A session folks!14:46
* thegrieve cheers our SABDFL14:57
* artir thinks sabdfl isn't here yet14:58
knomethegrieve, one hour.14:58
* thegrieve is aware of the fact but likes to express himself15:05
* artir proposes thegrieve and everyone to say WELCOME MARK in capital letters when he enters the chat15:05
* thegrieve thinks that might create a somewhat creepy village-of-the-damned-esque atmosphere..... naturally he approves15:07
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=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 1500 UTC: Mark Shuttleworth Q+A || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
jcastrotesting15:37
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jcastroJust a few more minutes everyone!15:57
jcastroJust a quick reminder before mark gets here16:01
jcastroquestions go in #ubuntu-classroom-chat16:02
jcastroand I will paste them here16:02
jcastrowe always get a ton of questions, so if your question is easily google-able I'll probably skip it16:02
jcastroso try not asking when the next ubuntu comes out or something. :)16:02
sabdflhowdy all16:03
jcastroWelcome Mark!16:03
sabdflfingers all warmed up, let's get cracking16:03
jcastroThanks everyone for showing up, all 324 of you!16:03
jcastrostart with questions or do you have something to say first?16:04
sabdflwell16:04
sabdflonly thanks to everyone who helped  make 9.04 our BEST RELEASE EVER :-)16:04
sabdflon that note, fire away16:04
jcastro<effie_jayx> QUESTION: Issues with drivers tend to plague Ubuntu with with nasty bugs very close to release time, is there any reconsiderations with release schedules to give more time for beta testing?16:04
sabdfleffie_jayx: thorny problem, and not one that the release cycle itself can solve16:05
sabdflthe more time we spend on beta testing, the more new hardware is emerging that won't work with that release16:05
sabdflthere is a conversation ongoing about the LTS's16:05
sabdflwww.markshuttleworth.com needs comments, hint hint ;-)16:05
sabdflbut there's no strong movement to re-evaluate 6 month releases16:05
sabdflnext?16:06
jcastro<kwah> QUESTION: Recently a translation coordinator was appointed at Canonical, I am glad that this aspect of cooperation between Ubuntu and various upstream projects is in focus. Are there already plans and ideas on what should be improved, may be even there particular targets have been defined already?16:06
sabdflyou'd be best asking (David) ?16:06
jcastroHis session is 1500UTC on friday16:06
sabdflcoolio16:06
jcastro<RoAkSoAx> QUESTION: Does canonical provides Internships or Entry Level positions for sysadmins/developers?16:06
sabdflwe spent a lot of time building a translation framework that could coordinate between ubuntu and upstream16:06
sabdfland then realised we had nobody actually focused on that flow16:07
sabdflso hopefully this will be a big improvement16:07
sabdflRoAkSoAx: yes, we do, best to chat with someone on the canonical platform (ubuntu) team, or one of the sysadmins if that's your focus area16:07
sabdflnext?16:07
jcastro<oldman> QUESTION: Mark, are there plans to do more work with existing partners like IBM to increase official product  (WebSphere, Eclipse, TeamConcert etc.) support for Ubuntu Server as an enterprise platform? http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/ibm16:07
sabdfloldman: yes, very much so. we need to be able to demonstrate critical mass, i have no doubt we will get there16:08
sabdflkey thing is to demonstrate large organisations deploying ubuntu in production, underneath services which they expect to pay to keep healthy and innovative16:09
sabdflso, if you have case studies, or users, that will help16:09
sabdflas best i can tell, ubuntu is the #1 platform for evaluations, now16:09
sabdflneed to translate that into production deployments16:09
sabdflnext?16:09
jcastro<ikonia> QUESITON: What factors are you juding 9.04 as the best release ever from ?16:09
sabdflnice combination of desktop and server features, plus16:09
sabdflno major subsystem issues, plus16:10
sabdflsome unique features we are contributing to upstream, plus16:10
sabdfl105 release parties, plus16:10
sabdflit's named after a mythical horned rabbit.16:10
sabdflnext?16:10
jcastro<blfgomes> QUESTION: Recently, the idea of replacing Rhythmbox for Banshee in Karmic has resparked the Mono debate in the Ubuntu community. As the SABDFL, what is your view on Mono? Is it safe to build a distribution that depends on it?16:10
sabdflyes, i believe mono is a reasonable runtime to include in a distribution like ubuntu16:11
sabdfli don't expect microsoft to launch any IP assaults based on mono adoption, they have said they will not do that16:11
sabdflnext?16:11
jcastro<No`> QUESTION: Where do you think we are concerning the bug #1? do you see it being closed in the (more or less distant) future?16:11
sabdflinteresting times16:11
sabdfllinux (and to a certain extent ubuntu) is now a major force in the PC industry16:12
sabdflmicrosoft was able to do a diving catch to save market share in netbooks only by giving XP away at very, very low prices16:12
sabdfla product they wanted to kill 18 months ago16:12
sabdflnow, things will get more interesting16:12
sabdflwe will see Windows 7 Starter Edition in major western markets, which is new (it was designed for emerging markets to address piracy)16:13
sabdfland we'll see if that model works for users16:13
sabdfli think we can compete16:13
sabdflubuntu with full office capability competes nicely with uncrippled windows and office on price, stability and functionality16:13
sabdflso, game on16:13
sabdflwe will know a lot more in 18 months - can we actually carve out territory that is defensible?16:14
sabdflnext?16:14
jcastro<artir> QUESTION: what are the plans for GNOME3 and the LTS. Will you release 10.04 with it or defer it to 10.10?16:14
sabdflwe'll support GNOME3 in the best way we can16:14
sabdflit's too early to say what that will be - it depends on what our users want, what the development community wants, and what the code looks like16:15
sabdfli suspect it will be best to get GNOME3 onto as many *developer* desktops as possible as soon as possible16:15
sabdflbut that it will not be a good service to our users to suggest they upgrade direct to 3.0, perhaps more 3.216:15
sabdflthe experience with KDE was very useful16:15
sabdflif GNOME 3 is 2.30, then I expect we would make available packages in universe or a PPA with easy tools for people to get it in one click or one command16:16
sabdflwhile delivering an LTS based on more established code16:16
sabdflnext?16:17
jcastro<jsgotangco> QUESTION: Now that Ubuntu is diving into the "Cloud" space, how does Canonical see this evolution of Ubuntu server - does it involve  providing a server stack or more modular building blocks for enterprise apps?16:17
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sabdflthe Ubuntu server is already fantastic for highly virtualised and large-scale deployments, thanks to it's awesome heritage in Debian combined with the predictability of the Ubuntu cycle and service backup of Canonical16:18
sabdflthe debian way is highly modular, which is great for large deployments because you only install the bits you need, meaning you only have security updates for the bits you need16:18
sabdflit's also great for virtualisation, because you have leaner, more efficient images16:18
sabdflso far so good16:18
sabdflnext, i think the focus will shift to finding and deploying appliances rather than packages16:19
sabdflbut, your crystal ball is likely as good as mine :-)16:19
sabdflin 9.10, i think we'll show progress in how you design and build collections of virtual appliances for deployment on a UEC (Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud) substrate16:19
sabdflnext?16:19
jcastro<ronaldh> QUESTION: Mark, How do you see the Oracle-Sun deal, do you think it is going to affect Open source projects like Java, OpenOffice, etc? Is it going to affect in some way ubuntu?16:19
sabdflit will definitely affect them, but it's too soon to know for sure how16:20
sabdflwe'll have to see whether Oracle makes any big initial moves (selling off or shutting down any projects)16:20
sabdflthen we'll need to see if the people who were engaged there are changed16:20
sabdfland then we'll need to see how the dust settles16:20
sabdflthat will take three months, a year, three years respectively16:20
sabdflthe code is still free software, that cannot be taken back16:21
sabdflif you're passionate about those projects the best thing to do is to participate, imo16:21
sabdfli'm not worried about any of those16:21
sabdflnext?16:21
jcastro<artir> QUESTION: Can you give us more intel on Ubuntuone, please? ( /sad kitten face=1)16:21
sabdflubuntu one is a framework for building online services that plug right into the desktop16:22
sabdflso, you can build a service which has data in the cloud and a front-end on the desktop16:22
sabdflCanonical provides some of the core infrastructure you can hook into16:22
sabdflbut your service is your business16:22
sabdflnext?16:22
jcastro<ongolaBoy> QUESTION:considering a recently map on open source activity worldwide, what do you think could help african people to use more open source products ?16:22
sabdflongolaBoy: it takes a lot of confidence to deploy open source16:23
sabdflso, how can we build the IT skills confidence in the continent?16:23
sabdflbetter education, better experience with open source16:23
sabdfli think it's up to the IT leaders in countries, government and private sector, to decide which way they want to go16:24
sabdfli'm pretty sure africa will be a major beneficiary, but i'm not sure africa will be an effective leader of the move to open source16:24
sabdflnext?16:24
jcastro<Milos_SD> QUESTION: Will we finaly have a promised "New look" in next release, and is it gonna be something good, something different or something like Human-Clearlooks. :)16:24
sabdflMilos_SD: it has taken a long, long time to pull together a design team16:25
sabdfli had hoped to have that team in place six months ago, but it's still forming16:25
sabdfli think we will make good progress in the next cycle16:25
sabdflyou can already see a few things that have borne fruit from that team16:25
sabdflnotifications, time zone selector in installer, etc16:25
sabdflbut it's fragmentary16:25
sabdfli'm pretty darn confident we'll have a new look for 10.0416:26
sabdflbut i think only pieces of that will emerge for 9.1016:26
sabdflnext?16:26
jcastro<aquarius> QUESTION: Canonical have a design ethic that's (IMO) ahead of the rest of the free software community, and I'd love to buy hardware with that design ethic; any chance of Canonical making that happen somehow?16:26
jcastrosome other questions about canonical getting into hardware as well16:26
sabdflaquarius: appreciate the compliment - for the moment i think we have to focus our efforts on the software piece and work with a diversity of hardware partners to help you get the device you need and want!16:27
sabdflnext?16:27
jcastro<emmajane> QUESTION: brick and mortar stores rely on the sales of software along with PCs. Many local-to-me shops refuse to carry free OS computers because they lose the related software sales. Do you have suggestions on how we can support our local shops AND Ubuntu?16:27
sabdflit's a great question16:27
sabdflessentially - is industry addicted to software margins, and can we safely treat the addiction?16:27
sabdflone answer is that computers will increasingly be sold in non-specialised stores16:28
sabdflboth online and offline16:28
sabdflTesco's, and Amazon16:28
sabdflor Dell.com16:28
sabdflthat's not a great answer for your local-to-you specialised store, though16:28
sabdfli don't have better ideas other than that, if we continue to improve the experience, usefulness, robustness and capabilities of the free software alternative16:29
sabdflindustry will reconfigure itself around that16:29
sabdflnext?16:29
jcastro<cprofitt> QUESTION: Do you see value in assisting LoCo groups who want to advocate for Ubuntu at computer shows such as the annual NYSCATE show (http://www.nyscate.org/) where Microsoft and Apple have dominated mind share in US schools16:29
sabdfli do, but i also know the difficulty of engaging with thousands of such initiatives16:30
sabdflwe have programs like shipit, where we have specific processes to identify and support those sorts of events16:30
sabdflbut we are a small team spread thin worldwide16:30
sabdfldo you have a specific request or suggestion?16:30
sabdflif so, please mail jorge, and feel free to cc me16:30
sabdflnext?16:30
jcastro<rabbit251> QUESTION: If suddenly the majority of computer users were on Ubuntu machines instead of Windows, do you think Ubuntu would be ready? Are there any key developments that need to be made before Ubuntu could be an excellent mainstream product? (Is it even desirable to be so mainstream?)16:31
sabdflgreat question16:31
sabdflyes, it's desireable, and yes, there would be issues16:31
sabdfli think we will grow into the role16:31
sabdflthere's a LOT going on at the hardware level, as we engage with the PC industry to work out how to enable them best on linux generally and Ubuntu specifically16:31
sabdflif the world suddenly wanted Ubuntu everywhere tomorrow, we'd blow a fuse16:32
sabdflbut over time it could be done16:32
sabdfland i think we shouldn't shy away from a mainstream role16:32
sabdflfolks spending weekends making X better, or GiMP better, or Abiword better, or OO.o better, will have more satisfaction if they know that work will reach 100m people rather than 10m people16:33
sabdflnext?16:33
jcastro<jarens> Question : regarding the computer distribution, I ofen been told linux is for geeks/specialists only, my ubuntu experiences shows me the inverse, how can we change the way stores sales man see linux ?16:33
sabdfljarens: only with patience, time, and commitment to making it even better every six months16:34
sabdflthank you for the compliments though :-)16:34
sabdflnext?16:34
jcastro<doctormo> QUESTION: I hear your in support of the new Ubuntu Learning group, do you think it's important for LoCo groups to be involved in Education Events, classes and so on?16:34
sabdflyes, very much so16:34
sabdflin part to help jarens with those salesmen :-)16:34
sabdflwe have very precious knowledge, those of us who are early on the free software adoption curve16:34
sabdfland finding effective ways to share it is essential16:34
sabdflso, kudos and thanks to all who are involved in that effort16:35
sabdflnext?16:35
jcastro<koolhead17> Question:am from India and i can see real participation coming from all corners of the society for ubuntu but  they need real volunteers/certifications/motivation.what is the roadmap for that?16:35
sabdflkoolhead17: participating is a social process16:35
sabdflso one thing is to make sure that those who join are made welcome and find constructive things to do16:35
sabdflit's also professional, so we have been working for some time on qualifications that certify one's skills16:36
sabdflthe most important thing, imo, is convincing Indian companies to deploy free software, and hire people who know how to make it work16:36
sabdfli saw news today about India buying 250k OLPC's, which is great16:36
sabdflI also saw news about Indian IT companies letting their employees spend time on open source software during the recession, also brilliant16:37
sabdflbecause it will let them build their reputation and skills for the post-recession time16:37
sabdflnext?16:37
jcastroTheOpenSourcerer: QUESTION: A *good while* ago announcements were made regarding the packaging of Alfresco and Zimbra in the repos.  Where are they?16:37
sabdfli don't know, offhand, i'm afraid16:37
sabdflbest would be to email john.pugh@canonical.com16:38
sabdflnext?16:38
jcastro<theron> QUESTION: with Canonical settling on virtualization support around KVM, is there going to be development of a Ubuntu KVM baremetal install similar to what Redhat is working on?16:38
sabdflyou mean, a thins hypervisor layer?16:38
jcastroyes16:38
sabdflif so, we are already much thinner in a default install than Redhat16:39
sabdflso it's less of a priority16:39
sabdflnext?16:39
jcastro<carthik> QUESTION: As a maintainer of Ubuntu systems, I find it disappointing when many (non-security) bugs are closed with a comment saying "this is fixed for the $current-version-in-dev". Can LTS-es please start getting more meaningful long term support, ie, not just security fixes?16:39
sabdflcarthik: every update carries risk16:39
sabdflif we fixed a bug for one user, but broke thousands of systems, we would be abusing our responsibilities16:40
sabdflso, we are conservative in that regard16:40
sabdflthe SRU process is there specifically to ensure we maintain predictability for users16:40
sabdflsometimes the bug you know is better than the fix you don't16:41
sabdflif you think it can be done better i would encourage you to join the team that evaluates SRU's16:41
sabdflput more fixed packages in PPA's16:41
sabdflnext?16:41
jcastroSome ayatana questions! <oldman> QUESTION: Mark, as part of project ayatana, will we see Canonical's design team raising usability bugs and feeding suggested improvements into key desktop apps bug trackers for Karmic? https://launchpad.net/ayatana16:41
sabdflyes16:41
jcastro(also: <JayBee> QUESTION: What will come next in the Ayatana project? What part of the experience will you try to enhance next?)16:42
sabdflAyatana is an initiative that spans desktop environments (there are folks there from KDE and GNOME at least, possibly XFCE et al)16:42
sabdfland I expect us to engage directly with individual upstreams as well as the broader DE's16:42
sabdflnotifications will see an evolutionary improvement in 9.10 that is under discussion on the Ayatana list16:43
sabdflas will the messaging menu16:43
sabdflthose discussions are all public so please join in16:43
sabdflthere are some other new features that we are working on for partners, they will be open source when they release and go into the next version of ubuntu16:43
sabdflmore on those in the announcements in due course :-)16:43
sabdflnext?16:43
jcastro<WebMaven> QUESTION: What heuristic do you use to determine which parts of Launchpad will be open sourced, and which will remain proprietary?16:43
sabdfllaunchpad.net is a front end, all of that code is being released16:44
sabdflthere are a variety of other services and things that talk to it16:44
sabdfland we'll release some of those16:44
sabdflin some cases, licensing of components may preclude release16:45
sabdflin others, i may want to create competitive advantage for canonical16:45
sabdflbut everything that an upstream uses through the web will be released16:45
sabdflnext?16:45
jcastro<yuriy_jirov> QUESTION: dear mister Mark. What kind of poems do you like? Flight to space what rhyme gives?16:45
sabdflPoems that distract from crashy landings :-)16:46
sabdflit's a long time since i read poetry, but thanks for the reminder i'll go dig some up!16:47
sabdflsaw Oliver recently, was a lot of fun, i was the Artful Dodger in a school performance of it years ago16:47
sabdflnext?16:47
jcastro<Shock> QUESTION: Why does Canonical refuse to provide a 32bit desktop kernel that supports more than 4GB of RAM?16:47
sabdflShock: because it's not worth the performance, stability and complexity tradeoffs for 10m users16:47
sabdflnext?16:47
jcastro<Shane_Fagan> QUESTION: Have you seen gnome-shell what do you think?16:48
sabdfli was there when it was being designed in Boston16:48
sabdfli think there are cool ideas, and it will evolve into something fantastic given time16:48
sabdflnext?16:48
jcastro<doctormo> QUESTION: Are there any plans to develop Beta/RC specific packages which are able to test hardware configurations and report more possible failures?16:48
sabdflthe whole arena of QA is coming on in leaps and bounds16:49
sabdflwe *nearly* go kerneloops integrated in 9.04, but it slipped16:49
sabdflapport has come along hugely16:49
sabdflall the bug reporting tools are improved16:49
sabdflwe are now at about 50% of bugs reported being done with tools rather than the web, which is great16:50
sabdflwe get much clearer data from tools, of course16:50
sabdflfor more, i would suggest you chat to henrik omma16:50
sabdflnext?16:50
jcastro<MagicFab> QUESTION: Mark, what is your all-time favorite comfort food ?16:50
sabdflpeanut butter and jam on toast16:50
sabdflnext?16:50
jcastro<miles2> QUESTION: Has there been any dialog with Apple on bringing official iTunes/iPod support to Linux?  This has been another stumbling block to linux adoption...16:51
sabdfl(i also have a killer weakness for by-weight sweets at the movies)16:51
sabdflmiles2: none of which i'm aware16:51
sabdflnext?16:51
jcastro<A4Tech1> QUESTION: In Ubuntu 9.04 there is a new system notifications (notify-osd) When the ability to customize them? If so, what emerges more than two messages?16:51
sabdflA4Tech1: serialising the messages is by design behaviour for notify-osd16:51
sabdflin other words, if three different apps send you messages, you see them one at a time16:52
sabdflthat lets us bound the area devoted to this on the screen16:52
sabdflwe also created the ability for apps to append to existing messages16:52
sabdflwhich is useful for sequential messages from the same app, often16:52
sabdfllike, messages from a friend on IM16:52
sabdflpidgin supports that, and a few others do too16:52
sabdflwe have no immediate plans for theming16:53
sabdflnexct?16:53
jcastro<vensign> QUESTION: What do you think is the importance of FOSS gaming for the adoption of Ubuntu?16:53
sabdflvensign: i don't have any good ideas for how to drive FOSS gaming forward16:53
sabdflpersonally, i game on a PS3 now, so it's less important for me16:53
sabdflnext?16:53
jcastro<JayBee> QUESTION: We have great support for printer drivers now, are there plans to make it easy like that to download and install scanner firmware aswell? For example, there is a website (http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/gt68xx-backend/) with some firmware files, Ubuntu _only_ needs to provide a mechanism to automatically fetch them and put them in the right folder?16:54
sabdflit's a good suggestion16:54
sabdflcome to UDS and lead the discussion there :-)16:54
sabdfli don't know of any such plans, but it sounds like a reasonable suggestion16:54
sabdflall you need to find is the Till Kampeter of scanners16:54
sabdflnext?16:54
jcastro<DKcross> jcastro,  QUESTION: Until now you have lead a great project based on the unity of the community; I'm part of the El Salvador Team and we are in desperate need of support. We understand that this is a world wide effort but... with due respect... is there any plan to improve support and response times to the community?16:54
sabdflDKcross: we can't provide direct financial support16:55
sabdflwe do try to provide common infrastructure solutions16:55
jcastrohe means RT response time16:55
sabdflbut, in a community effort, we each contribute what we can16:55
jcastroI have noted it down to look into it16:55
sabdfldoing more there would mean doing less elsewhere, unless you can inspire more people to participate and contribute16:56
sabdflnext?16:56
jcastro<homer> QUESTION: What's the chances of Canonical convincing Adobe to port Creative Suite?16:56
sabdflhomer: it is possible if we can show that enough people will buy it to make it worthwhile for them16:56
sabdflnext?16:56
sabdflphew, fingers now more than warm :-)16:57
sabdfljcastro: is that a wrap? we have a little more time16:57
jcastrosabdfl: it's a 2 hour session16:57
sabdflok cool16:57
jcastrobut we can take 5 for everyone's fingers to cool off?16:58
sabdflokdokey16:58
jcastrook everyone, take 5 and we'll be back with more questions!16:58
jcastroPlease hold your questions until we start, and then if I haven't gotten to it please be patient and repeat it, thanks!16:59
sabdflok17:01
jcastrook, welcome back everyone17:03
sabdflfire awa17:03
sabdfly17:03
jcastro<gtomy> QUESTION: Mark, what is your recipe for financial, and business success? What is the key of succes in your opinion?17:03
sabdfldoing the things you are passionate about17:04
sabdfli was reading in new scientist about training and sports17:04
sabdflbasically, they were saying that the people who are successful are the people who love to train17:04
sabdflmakes sense17:04
sabdfli think that's true of everything17:04
sabdflif it feels like PLAY to you, you'll do it a lot, and then you are training17:04
sabdflnobody can tell you what the Next Big Thing is17:04
sabdflif you're interested in that, don't listen to the headlines, they are too late by far17:05
sabdfljust find the thing you are most interested in17:05
sabdfland find a way to make a life out of that17:05
sabdflyou will do better at it, measuring better by "mastery and fulfillment"17:05
sabdflthen don't read adverts that tell you better is anything else17:06
sabdflnext?17:06
jcastro<sirderigo> QUESTION: what do you think about developing a web-base configuration tool for both desktop and server?17:06
sabdfli think there are quite a few efforts to achieve that17:06
sabdfle-box?17:06
sabdflit's not an area i would invest in17:06
sabdflbut if you're interested in it, go for it!17:06
sabdflnext?17:06
jcastro<drw_> QUESTION: Are there any plans to incorporate GNOME-Do into the desktop?17:06
sabdflisn't it already there?17:07
sabdfli saw it on a fresh UNR install recently, so thought it was there by default17:07
sabdflit's great work, the project leader is now on the design team working on Ayatana17:07
sabdflso, expect more good stuff17:07
sabdflnext?17:07
jcastro<LaserJock> QUESTION: How important is it that Ubuntu has a quality education offering? Are schools, students, and children the way to gain mainstream adoption of Ubuntu?17:07
sabdflyes, i think education is important17:08
sabdfli wish we saw more participation in edubuntu, and adoption of it directly17:08
sabdflthere are many enormous deployments of ubuntu for education, but they tend to use vanilla ubuntu and then customise it themselves17:08
sabdflperhaps this is an area that will open up again in future as more governments get serious about free software17:09
sabdflnext?17:09
jcastro<camahuetos> QUESTION: What are the consecuenses for Canonical and Ubuntu ofthe agreement between Microsoft and Garmin about Fat32 thinking about the one thing everybody is talking about: Mono and Microsoft patents over some core technologies behind it?17:09
sabdfli think Linux was not the main focus of that dispute17:09
sabdflso, we have yet to see how it would work out in court, or what's important to Microsoft17:10
sabdfli don't see any benefit to Microsoft in launching an IP assault17:10
sabdflthey are far more vulnerable to an IP war than most companies17:10
sabdflnext?17:11
jcastro<oldman> QUESTION: are there any plans to offer landscape as a service that can be deployed internally in the enterprise? (rather than requiring external access to canonical) https://landscape.canonical.com/17:11
sabdflyes, there are three beta sites for that17:11
sabdflcontact ken.drachnik@canonical.com if you want to know more17:12
sabdflnext?17:12
jcastro<lukeen1> QUESTION: what about a seperated LTS version? so normal users have the latest software while LTS-users get more stability.17:12
sabdfllukeen1: by separated, you mean, a different timing?17:12
jcastroI think so17:12
sabdflsomething released outside the normal 6-month cycle?17:12
sabdflwe already do many things differently in an LTS cycle17:13
sabdflthey are subtle but important17:13
sabdfland I am hoping that we will see broad community interest in the idea of LTS releases, especially upstream17:13
sabdflhence http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/28817:13
sabdfli would encourage you to discuss that with key upstreams you are interested in, to see if THEY are willing to converge around an LTS cycle17:14
sabdflthat's the only way to address this, properly17:14
sabdflnext?17:14
jcastro<zoopster> QUESTION: How do you see the new Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud competing in the enterprise against the likes of 3Tera and Abiquo?17:14
sabdfli think many management infrastructures (rightscale etc) can work with UEC17:15
sabdflI assume 3Tera and Abiquo could do the same17:15
sabdflnext?17:15
jcastro<tgm4883> QUESTION: What are your thoughts on adding a media center app (xbmc, elisa, boxee, etc) to the live CD.  Is the problem a space issue or something else?17:15
sabdfli haven't been part of any discussions about that, so am not well briefed :-)17:15
sabdfli don't know what the constraints are. has there been a UDS discussion about that before?17:16
jcastroI don't think so17:16
jcastrothere are a bunch of media center things17:16
* jcastro notes it down17:16
sabdflif not, I would suggest proposing it for UDS-Barcelona and leading the discussion17:16
sabdflnext?17:16
jcastro<drw_> QUESTION: What do you think is the biggest weakness of 9.04?17:16
sabdflnext?17:16
jcastro<zoopster> QUESTION: Are their plans on integrating Opennebula with Eucalyptus? or doing more with Opennebula?17:16
sabdflerk17:17
sabdflmissed the previous q17:17
sabdflbiggest weakness of 9.04?17:17
sabdflsome graphics driver glitches, and the fact that we never got kerneloops in17:17
sabdflbut nothing major17:17
sabdfl9.10 will be a little crazy, with graphical boot and big changes to X17:18
sabdflso i'm glad 9.04 is so solid17:18
sabdflopennebula...17:18
sabdfli know the server team is looking at it in detail17:18
sabdflit would be important to have great collaboration between eucalyptus and opennebula if we decided to do that17:18
sabdflUDS will be the place for detailed discussion and decisions on that front17:19
sabdflnext?17:19
jcastroQUESTION: Mark, you can send the disk with Ubuntu 9.10, or 10.04 with his autograph to me? Please17:19
jcastro:)17:19
sabdflcome to UDS and I'll happily autograph a CD there :-)17:19
sabdflnext?17:19
jcastro<tgm4883> QUESTION:  Is there work being done with companies (I'm looking at you Dell) to offer Ubuntu at the same time as Windows?  I still can't get a mini 10 with ubuntu on it.17:19
sabdflyes, that is coming17:19
sabdflbut it's a huge effort17:19
sabdflyou can, however, get a version of Ubuntu that is not a complete resource hog, or 6 years old :-)17:20
sabdflnext?17:20
jcastro<boredandblogging> QUESTION: where do you see the netbook market headed? are there vendors expected to roll out UNR?17:20
sabdflboredandblogging: a few more vendors will announce UNR devices, that i'm aware of17:20
sabdflwhich is great17:20
sabdflit's turned out to be very popular with people who have bought devices that had various custom versions of linux on it17:21
sabdflwe are actively developing it, and adding features which will be unique to the vendors when they ship, but which will then migrate into the subsequent Ubuntu releases17:21
sabdflnext?17:21
jcastro<zaidka> QUESTION: As software gets bigger and bigger, when do you think Ubuntu will ditch the live CD and go for a live DVD17:21
sabdflzaidka: the discipline of the CD has served us well17:22
sabdfli think USB sticks are more interesting than DVD's, personally17:22
sabdflif we could put everything on, we would not have such interesting choices to make :-)17:22
sabdflnext?17:22
jcastro<rabbit251> jcastro: QUESTION: Do you see Wine (and Windows-compatibilty in general) or native Linux ports as the more important ingredient in the success of Ubuntu, or do they each play an important role?17:22
sabdflthey both play an important role17:23
sabdflbut fundamentally, the free software ecosystem needs to thrive on its own rules17:23
sabdflit is *different* to the proprietary software universe17:23
sabdflwe need to make a success of our own platform on our own terms17:23
sabdflif Linux is just another way to run Windows apps, we can't win17:23
sabdflOS/2 tried that17:24
sabdflnext?17:24
jcastro<nixternal> jcastro: QUESTION: Do you think Kubuntu is a blue headed step child that every seems to think it is? If not, can you put the rumours to rest, with possibly a song or a lovely poem letting everyone know just how much you really love us over in the Kubuntu community?17:24
sabdfloh dea17:24
sabdflr17:24
sabdflthis question makes me rather sad, because i don't know what else i could do17:24
sabdfli worked out the other day that i personally spend more than $2m a year supporting Kubuntu and KDE17:25
sabdfland yet those communities think it's cool to act unloved17:25
sabdfli think the Kubuntu community's work is amazing, and they should be proud of it17:25
sabdflthere's no need to make out like it's against the forces of corporate indifference17:25
sabdflwhen in fact I and many others bend a long way to make it possible17:26
sabdflthat's about enough on the subject17:26
sabdflnext?17:26
jcastro<rrnwexec> QUESTION: What would you say is the biggest barrier to widespread Ubuntu adoption? (By widespread, I mean a market share >30%)17:26
sabdfldelivering an amazing end user experience17:26
sabdflubuntu is good enough for those of us who choose it, as it gets better, more will choose it17:27
sabdflour weakest points are the basic user experience (it feels fragmented and disjointed sometimes)17:27
sabdflmultimedia because of patents17:27
sabdfland hardware support17:27
sabdfli'm working on user experience with the Ayatana team17:28
sabdfland hardware support is improving steadily as industry learns to love linux17:28
sabdflnext?17:28
jcastro<thegrieve_> jcastro: QUESTION: If for some crazy and unimaginable  reason, the use of the words ubuntu and canonical  (and all associated branding) was no longer  possible, what would you like to rename the company/distro17:28
sabdflWonderful and Wonderful, Inc17:28
sabdflnext?17:28
jcastro<dantalizing> jcastro: QUESTION: Are there plans for Ubuntu Server certifications, or to expand the existing Ubuntu Certified Professional program?17:28
sabdflyup17:28
sabdflthe server is the focus of a set of new training programs17:29
sabdflvirtual training courses are available17:29
sabdflhttp://shop.canonical.com/index.php?cPath=2117:29
sabdflnext?17:30
jcastro<snap-l> QUESTION: A lot of Ubuntu developers are on identi.ca. Do you have an account, and if not, would you create one and start using it?17:30
sabdfli have one but i forgot the password17:30
sabdfli tweet, rarely, as sabdfl17:30
sabdflnext?17:30
jcastro<drw_> QUESTION: Will Ubuntu only truly begin to compete with the likes of Apple when the project can dictate hardware specs to manufacturers?  Is catering for so many different forms of hardware a realistic approach long-term?17:30
sabdflyes, i think we need to work with the full range of hardware, not narrow the focus to a subset as Apple does17:30
sabdflit works well for them, don't think it would work for us17:31
sabdflnext?17:31
jcastroQUESTION: In the USA, the power of the Lobbyist in the government is very strong.  Do you know of any equal organizations that use Lobbyist to influence politics to a Open Source direction?17:31
sabdflamber, is that you?17:31
jcastroI don't think it is17:31
sabdflkoinkidink17:31
sabdflit's true that government policy is largely driven by established interest groups17:32
sabdflthat's true all over the world, as a rule17:32
sabdflunfortunately, those who have been successful in the past are better positioned to try to defend that, than those who might be successful in the future are positioned to keep the playing field level17:32
sabdflso, patents get extended, copyright gets extended, open source gets pushed back17:33
sabdflbut a good idea can't be kept down indefinitely17:33
sabdflso, we just need to focus on delivering incrementally better releases17:33
sabdflnext?17:33
jcastro Does Canonical have plans for Kubuntu QA, similar to the work that Ara is doing now?17:34
sabdflif we had a partner wanting to do a Kubuntu-based device, then we would17:34
sabdfli believe the the process is open, and hope community members would step up for Kubuntu if it were important to them17:35
sabdflnext?17:35
jcastro<T0m4rn0ld> QUESTION: What is your favorite FOSS game?17:35
sabdflnethack! never ascended.17:35
sabdflnext?17:35
jcastrowe're down to a few more17:35
jcastro <homer> QUESTION: Vim or Emacs?17:35
sabdflvim!17:35
sabdflnext?17:35
jcastro<leviathan_> QUESTION: I'm working in a lot of projects, for exemple Debian, Gentoo, OpenMoko, etc. and they have all one problem: they loose their developers to Ubuntu and his community. This community is more an more sponsered by commercial enterprises like IBM and SUN. Is it possible that the whole OpenSourceCommunity around linux could get commercialized trough Ubuntu?17:35
sabdfli'm not sure i understand the question17:36
jcastroI will ask a rephrase17:36
jcastro<boredandblogging> QUESTION: whats going to be the next big thing after the cloud?17:36
sabdfl(05:04:55 PM) sabdfl: nobody can tell you what the Next Big Thing is17:37
sabdflnot even me :-)17:37
sabdflnext?17:37
jcastroheh17:37
jcastro<BUGabundo> QUESTION: once on google, you said Canonical planed to drop support to Ubuntu from 90% to 10%. how is that going? Are there more companies and Communities behind it now then there where 3 years ago?17:37
sabdflif you mean, that Canonical would be a smaller part of the Ubuntu ecosystem, yes, there are now more companies that participate17:38
sabdflbut Canonical remains by far the biggest17:38
sabdflthere are many more companies USING ubuntu now, but few providing dedicated developers or contributors in other areas17:38
sabdflwe'll have to see how that unfolds17:38
sabdflnext?17:39
jcastro<aquarius> QUESTION: deals with big companies (Dell, Toshiba, etc) to sell machines with Ubuntu on are great; is there anything the community can do to help with that (other than "make Ubuntu fantastic!") or does it need to be all conference room discussions between partners and Canonical?17:39
sabdflbuy the machines and encourage others to do the same. nothing will accelerate it more than commercial success for the hardware companies who do take the Ubuntu plunge.17:39
sabdflnext?17:39
jcastro<homer> QUESTION: Do you plan to ever go public with Canonical17:39
sabdflthat's one option, yes, but it's not in any way a focus for me now17:40
sabdflnext?17:40
jcastro<popey> QUESTION: Recent surveys indicate that of those switching from XP but _not_ to Windows 7, 27% would go to OSX and 25% would go to Ubuntu, with Red Hat, Suse, and others below. What do we need to do to overtake OSX?17:40
sabdfl2%?17:40
sabdfl;-)17:40
sabdfli thought that was an AMAZING result, btw17:40
sabdflcredit to the whole community for that17:40
sabdflmostly, i think we need to stand up and be proud17:41
sabdflencourage all of our family and friends to make the switch to free software and promise to stand by them throughout17:41
sabdflsince WE are mostly the people who support them, anyhow :-)17:41
sabdflwe do need to deliver classy, tight, useful software17:41
sabdflso bring the lessons of Web 2.0 to the desktop17:41
sabdfllean, mean, fast and easy to use17:41
sabdfland we will do well17:41
sabdflnext?17:41
jcastro<greg-g> QUESTION: I think it is a good thing that Canonical Inc. doesn't inject its services into the community very much (keeping the corporate out of the community, at least visibly, is good), but that means that some IT managers, out of ignorance, don't use Ubuntu because there is no commercial support contracts.  How do we harmonize the two?17:42
sabdflgreg-g: if anyone says they would be more interested in ubuntu if there was support, point them at http://www.canonical.com/services/support17:42
sabdflwe are reworking the Canonical web site, and then will get to the Ubuntu web site, and yes, we could make this supported element clearer17:43
sabdflwe have to do that without compromising the community involvement in Ubuntu - it's not just a Canonical effort17:43
sabdflnext?17:43
jcastrowaiting for a question ...17:43
jcastro<dinda> QUESTION:  Kindle sales jumped through the roof when selected as one of Oprah's favorite things - when will we see you promoting Ubuntu on the Oprah TV show?  can we send her a Netbook with UNR?17:44
sabdflanything more from leviathan_?17:44
sabdflwhat a great idea :-)17:44
sabdflgo for it!17:44
jcastro<leviathan_> QUESTION: in the debian community were creating packaged, which get taken by ubuntu. visversa we get packeges back, but with a low quality. don't you think its on the time to get some standarts into ubuntu?17:44
sabdflleviathan_: spelling standards?17:45
sabdfli think your question is based on the assumption that ubuntu == bad17:45
sabdflif you see the world through a filter, you will only see things that agree with that filter17:45
sabdflin your previous question, I *think* you were saying that "ubuntu is bad because lots of developers are moving to ubuntu from other projects"17:46
sabdflso, i don't know how to engage with you17:46
sabdfli feel ubuntu provides a fantastic service to the free software community as a whole17:46
sabdflas Tridge said, hundreds of thousands of free software developers get to work on their software without ever having to think about the OS, because Ubuntu makes it easy17:47
sabdfli think that's valuable, and i'm proud of it17:47
sabdflas for quality, well, I know the team cares enormously about quality, and work insanely hard to achieve that17:47
sabdflthe QA processes in Ubuntu make me proud, the QA team are fantastic, the bugsquad are unstoppable, the Bug Days and Hug Days are what make this project a pleasure to be part of17:48
sabdflif you've decided that it suits your view of the world to say that "Ubuntu is bad", then so be it17:48
sabdflbut, if that's not true then you are doing yourself a disservice17:49
sabdflthis would be a more interesting discussion if you could speak in this channel i just realised :-)17:49
sabdflso, feel free to privmsg me and we can talk further17:50
sabdflbut, in summary, this community cares about free software and about quality17:50
sabdfland i would encourage you to look for real evidence if people say otherwise17:50
sabdflnext?17:50
jcastro<akgraner> QUESTION:  Would Canonical ever consider employing upstream developers for the areas that Ubuntu considers key like wireless or graphics?17:50
jcastroa few more so we have time to reset the channel for Docs Day!17:50
sabdflyes, we have done so in the past and have job offers out for additional posts too17:51
sabdflnext?17:51
jcastro<txwikinger_work> Question: How do you think more and more FLOSS developer can be able to do what they are passionate about while also provide for their families. Do you think there are more opportunities employed and as entrepreneurs for this?17:51
jcastroone more after this ...17:51
sabdfli think y ou can get paid more if you advertise Linux skills than if you advertise Windows skills17:51
sabdflit's certainly a premium offering17:52
sabdflif you are passionate about FLOSS, then i would definitely urge you to work on, or with, free software in your day job17:52
sabdflnext?17:52
jcastro<Froad_> QUESTION: A new announcement by Microsoft says there will be Open Office support in Office 2007, do you think that one way to gain users is to make Microsoft Adapt to us?17:52
sabdflFroad_: i'm glad that they will do this, but i hear the support is terrible17:53
sabdfli think we should rather push harder for open document standards17:53
sabdflthe ISO standards process was embarrassing last year17:53
sabdflwe have this amazing thing - the web - built entirely on an open format17:53
sabdfland yet .doc lives in the dark ages17:54
sabdflpurely because governments and companies chickened out of demanding that openness17:54
sabdflif we demand openness, then we'll get a better long term result17:54
sabdflnext?17:54
jcastrothat's all we have time for17:54
jcastroany last comments?17:54
sabdflphew17:54
sabdflthis was fun17:55
sabdflthanks everyone!17:55
jcastro(the brutal 2 hour assault is over)17:55
sabdflbest wishes to everyone17:55
Ireyongreat session ;)17:55
jcastrothanks everyone!17:55
JFothanks sabdfl17:55
jermschat logs available anywhere ?17:55
* carthik hugs sabdfl17:55
sirdiegothanks mark (=17:55
kusanagithanks sabdfl17:55
czajkowskisabdfl: nice session17:55
thegrievethanks mark17:55
zaidkathanks jcastro, sabdfl17:55
jussi01whats up next?17:55
Shane_FaganThanks mark17:55
koolhead17hmm17:55
TheOpenSourcererThanks sabdfl17:55
charlie-tcaA big thanks to sabdfl and jcastro17:55
artirthanks mark17:55
thegrievethanks jcastro for moderating17:55
jcastrojerms: they will be available soon on the page in the topic17:55
Akallabeththanks Mark17:55
ccc_dustinThanks Mark!17:55
miles2mark - thanks for everything!17:55
snap-lThank you, sabdfl17:55
jussi01Thanks sabdfl!17:55
khensthothThanks!17:55
sirdiegohatlog here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekJaunty/AskMark17:55
sirdiegoc17:55
camahuetosthanks17:55
rabbit251Thanks, Mark!17:55
BUGabundothanks sabdfl  and jcastro17:55
* RainCT hugs sabdfl :)17:56
JayBeethanks sabdfl17:56
riorioyeah, keep rocking sabdfl17:56
sea-gullthank you, Mark!17:56
pdragonthanks!17:56
txwikinger_workthanks sabdfl17:56
unimatrix9keep up the spirit and the good work, we enjoy it daily!17:56
=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 1700 UTC: Creating LoCo Resources || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
rufongty sabdfl17:56
indSpikeThanks sabdfl17:56
jcastrook guys, 5 minute break until the next session17:56
JackWat|LapThanks sabdfl17:56
* goshawk hugs sabdfl17:56
indSpikeThanks sabdfl17:56
kusanagiwhen will be upload sirdiego?17:57
sabdflyo guys all rock17:57
goshawkthanks sabdfl17:57
sabdflthanks jcastro for chairing a great session17:57
jussi01jcastro: do you need a rest? I can take over as questioner if needed?17:57
koolhead17so is that everytime happens?17:57
sirdiegokusanagi: i dont know, the logs from yesterday are all on atm17:57
doctormoYes, yes, we all rock :-) thanks everyone for some good questions, I loved reading the answers to them.17:57
kusanagikeep it up sabdfl ;)17:57
jcastrojussi01: I'll likely step out for lunch in a minute after Adi takes over17:57
jcastrojussi01: if he needs help then sure!17:57
jussi01jcastro: ok :)17:58
bencrisford1nice one sabdfl :)17:58
kusanagijcastro, when will be the log up in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/openweekJaunty/AskMark?17:58
jcastroadiroiban: you can +m the channel if you want, but everyone was well behaved yesterday and we didn't think it was necessary, up to you17:58
jussi01adiroiban: Im around to assist if needed.17:59
ccc_dustingood work jcastro17:59
jcastrokusanagi: ausimage has been doing the logs nearly-realtime, he's probably pasting right now. :D17:59
bigbrovarjcastro: where can i obtain the log files for the session?17:59
adiroibanok17:59
jcastrook guys, please move discussion to -chat17:59
jcastrotake it away adiroiban!17:59
adiroibanok. Hi guys and girls and welcome to the next session18:00
adiroibanMy name is Adi Roiban and I am coordinating the Romanian LoCo team.18:00
adiroibanhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/AdiRoiban18:00
A4Tech1thanks sabdfl!18:00
adiroibanDuring the next minutes I will try to touch some of the aspect of creating some resources for your LoCo team.18:01
adiroibanFirst of all, let's make sure everyone know what is a LoCo Team.18:01
A4Tech1sabdfl: I hope when someone come to you at the summit :)18:01
adiroibanLoCo Team are Ubuntu Local Communities Team.  Their coverage can vary from a city local communities to country wide local communities.18:02
adiroibanLike I said above, this session is dedicate to LoCo team, but even if you are not the LoCo contact, or you are not yet a member of LoCo team, you should find a lot of useful information in this session.18:02
adiroibanAlso if you are planning to start a new LoCo team this session should help you do the first steps.18:02
adiroibanif you don't know what I LoCo is, feel free to ask on the -chat channel18:03
adiroibanI will continue, assuming everyone knows what Ubuntu Local Communities are18:04
Kangarooo  Docs Day - Working on the Help Wiki - MatthewEast / Rocket2DMn  right now yes? :)18:04
doctormono Kangarooo, 1 hour18:05
Kangaroooyes I know im shure many loco leaders/contact persons are her :)18:05
Kangaroooso now  Docs Day - Translating Documentation - MatthewEast / AdiRoiban  ?18:05
adiroibanKangarooo: please use the chat channel18:06
charlie-tcaKangarooo: ask questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat18:06
adiroibanand check https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek18:06
Kangaroooyes I came here from that link18:06
adiroibanSecond, let's see what do I (we) mean by LoCo resources.18:06
tgm4883adiroiban, jcastro set +m  ?18:06
adiroibanThey consist of all kind of things that can you your LoCo do it's job or achieve a specific goal.18:07
adiroibanLoCo resources can consist of people, computers, printers, web presence, friends ... don't think only at material things like a server or a printer. As you will find out, friends are invaluable resources for your LoCo.18:07
adiroibanI will try to touch some of the main resources for your LoCo and after that I hope we will have time for running a questions and answers session.18:07
adiroibanAlso if you are already running a LoCo team, feel free to share best practices with the rest of us :) We'll be very happy to hear from you and this session will have a part dedicate to this.18:08
adiroibanOK. So let's start. Number 1. People.18:08
adiroibanAny LoCo should start it's activity by finding people willing to help with various LoCo actions. People are one of the most hard to find resources and you should never stop looking after great people to join your LoCo.18:08
adiroibanWhen you are starting, or restarting a LoCo, don't be disappointed if nobody will answer to your first call.18:09
adiroiban Try to keep the LoCo active, and people will join you on the road.18:09
adiroibanEven if you are only one or two persons try to fix some goals according to your capabilities.18:09
adiroibanDon't set the goals to high18:09
adiroibanand start with baby steps :)18:09
adiroibanAlso be prepare to lead by examples, most people will be reluctant at first, but once they will see that things get moving you will gain their trust and will start helping the LoCo.18:10
adiroibanonce your team gets some people you shoud start building a web presence18:11
adiroibanif at first nobody will join you18:11
adiroibandon't despair and start some activities18:11
adiroibanand start working at the web presence18:12
mfitzhugh /LOG OPEN -targets #ubuntu-classroom ~/irclogs/ubuntu-classroom-%Y-%m-%d18:12
mfitzhughoops! sorry18:12
adiroibanQUESTION: what is the purpose and duties of LoCo teams?18:12
adiroibanLoCo teams should help promove Ubuntu into your local comunity18:13
adiroibanyou can do release parties,18:13
adiroibaninstall parties18:13
adiroibanmake radio or tv shows18:13
adiroibandedicated to Ubuntu and free software18:13
adiroibanthere is not a specific set of actions of duties18:14
adiroibaneach team is free to do what it consider is the best way they can help Ubuntu18:14
adiroibanok. I will continue with information about creating a web presence for your team18:14
adiroiban Building your LoCo web presence.18:15
adiroibann many cases, creating a web presence should be the first thing to do for your LoCo.18:15
adiroibanYou can chose a static or a dynamic website. On the Ubuntu Wiki you can find some template that can help you with building the website: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Templates18:15
adiroibanWhile creating your LoCo website , always check the legal part of using Ubuntu logo and trademark.18:15
adiroibanDon't forget to mention that your loco is not affiliated with Canonical.18:16
adiroibanAlso, if you will create a logo for your LoCo, please check with the Canonical Trademark Policy.18:16
adiroibanhttp://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/trademarkpolicy18:16
adiroibanPlease consult the Trademark Policy and make sure you are not breaking are law :D18:17
adiroibanThere were a lot of discussion about trademark and I will like to stress out this part18:17
dohkogto/18:18
adiroibanIf you chose to use drupal for building your website take a look at the Ubuntu LoCo Drupal Theme18:18
adiroibanhttps://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu-drupal-theme .18:18
adiroibanThere is also a dedicated channel #ubuntu-drupal18:18
adiroibandohkogt: please use the -chat channel18:18
adiroibanThe main goal for creating a loco website should be to create a web presence for your team.18:18
adiroibanUbuntu and Canonical already have a strong web presence so dedicated huge sections of you website to Canonical and Ubuntu will not be of much help.18:19
adiroibanI'm not saying that you should not mention Ubuntu and Canonical, not at all, but try to focus on your LoCo.18:19
adiroibanDescribe the team, create a webpage listing current  activities and goals, a page dedicated to past activites, a page listing past and current members.18:19
adiroibanThe most important part of the website should be the one describing you other people can contact and interact with the team.18:20
adiroibanDon't forget to put some pictures from your past activities. People love them and a picture is worth thousand words :)18:20
adiroibanfeel free to ask questions about the loco website and trademark and legalese stuff18:21
adiroibanzaidka: adiroiban, QUESTION: Maintaining a LoCo team sounds like it needs a lot of money. Does Ubuntu support that? If not, what's the benefit for the LoCo teams to financially support it?18:21
adiroibanYou can see working in a LoCo team as a way to give back something to Ubuntu18:22
adiroibanThe web presence should not cost a lot18:23
adiroibanyou can ask for hosting from the Ubuntu Community18:23
adiroibanbut I suggest to try finding a locol hosting company, willing to sponsor with the hosting of your website18:23
adiroibanakgraner: QUESTION:  While reviewing the trademark and other legal issues once a LoCo thinks they have all their ducks in a row is there a person who can look over it to make sure it's good to go before a LoCo goes live with a website?18:24
adiroibanYou can ask the opinion of some Canonical stuff18:25
adiroibanbut this is a time consuming job18:25
adiroibantry to compli with the policy according to your understanding18:25
adiroibanif something is not ok, someone will warn you18:25
adiroibandon't worry, you will not get into jail or receive a fine18:25
adiroibanor something like that18:25
adiroibanthe website should be a static part of your loco activities18:27
adiroibandon't limit your loco action18:27
adiroibanthe loco website should be a way to help your loco activities18:28
adiroibannot an activity by itself18:28
adiroibanKeeping people in touch should be a main concern while running the team.18:28
adiroibanYou should consider both online and offline communication.18:28
adiroibanOnline communication could help you if the community is a covering a wide geographic area.18:28
adiroibanI will start with the online communication channels18:29
adiroibanas they are one of the easiest to obtain18:29
adiroibantradition communication channels include mailing lists and IRC channels18:29
adiroibanhttps://lists.ubuntu.com/18:30
adiroibanhere you can see a list of other loco mailing list18:30
adiroibanand info about how to get your list18:30
adiroibanfor the irc channel, try starting a channel named #ubuntu-CC (country/city code)18:31
adiroiban"moder" communication channels include twiter and blogs18:31
jonnor /j #ubuntu-no18:32
adiroibanalso there is a good idea to hang in your country ubuntu channel18:32
adiroibanrather than the global #ubuntu18:33
adiroibanalso consider using identi.ca and join the ubuntu channel from identi.ca :)18:33
adiroibaneven if online communication is easy to achive18:34
adiroibanyou and your loco should try to create mean for offline meetings and communitions18:35
adiroibanfor example meet in a town18:35
adiroibanat a conference18:35
adiroibanof other events18:35
adiroibanhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuAtConferences18:36
adiroibanif you plan to do an event at a confernce, don't forget about the above webpage18:36
adiroibanalso your LoCo can request a special CD pack from here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingCds18:37
adiroibanIn case you are running a city or small area community , then creating offline meeting will be a lot easier.18:37
adiroibanOthere wise I suggest to "hijack" other event for creating loco meetings18:37
adiroibanLike I said, conferences or lan parties should be great events for meeting people18:38
adiroibanand exchanging ideas18:38
adiroibanIf your team grows big you can consider creating a dedicated planet for member of your loco team or your local community.18:38
adiroibanHere  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Templates you can find an Ubuntu template for PlanetPlanet.18:39
adiroibanon the same https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Templates you will find some thems for forums or discussion board18:39
adiroibanboards18:39
adiroibanlast but not least , friends are one of the most valuable resource for you and your team18:40
adiroibanThere is not to much I can share with you regarding this, but don't forget that friend are invaluable resources for you and for your LoCo :)18:40
adiroibanFor example a local radio dj can help you with some advertising for your Ubuntu Release Party. A friend at the local copy/print shop can help you with some posters/stickers... etc18:41
adiroibanOK. Like you could read above, I tried to share with you some of the best practices I gather while running the Romanian LoCo team.18:41
adiroibanrrnwexec: QUESTION: What would you consider "best practices" for marketing a LoCo?18:42
adiroibanTry to make your LoCo team useful for your community18:42
adiroibanfor example create a useful support forum18:42
adiroibanthen everyone will talk about it18:43
adiroibanand will know it is runned by the LoCo team18:43
adiroibanalso be part of all major free software events in your area18:43
adiroibanthis will help your loco being know in the area18:43
adiroibanbut in my opinion the best "marketing" strategy for your LoCo is by doing useful things for your community18:44
adiroibanfor example the Romanial Loco has translated a big part of the Ubuntu and GNOMe documentation and Ubuntu Training Course18:45
adiroibanand people start using those materials in schools18:45
adiroibanin this way, young people find about our loco team18:45
adiroiban rrnwexec: QUESTION: Any thoughts about how best to harmonize/partner with local Linux User Groups who aren't necessarily interested in Ubuntu, but are interested in GNU/Linux and freedom?18:46
adiroibangood question18:46
adiroibanyou should first have a physical talk with the leaders of those communities18:46
adiroibanand exchange some idea about what you can do18:47
adiroibanIt's not always easy as people are proud about their own community18:47
adiroibanso you should have a wise chat and explain them that a colloboration will help both communities18:48
adiroibanI think that for collaborating with other groups/lugs18:48
adiroibanyou should first meet those people18:49
adiroibanas the online chat is so cold18:49
adiroibanother than that I don't know what to say18:49
adiroibanthis is what I done in Romania18:49
adiroibanafter meeting people from other communities we start working togheer18:50
adiroibanbefore that there were only flame wars :D18:50
adiroibanthe collaboration should be bases on trust18:50
adiroibanso you must assure that your Loco is trusted by other communities18:51
adiroibanIs there anyone willing to share some best practices withing his/her LoCo team?18:51
adiroibanQUESTION: How proficient should I be before I consider starting a LoCo? Can a LoCo be a "learn as we go" project, or should it have at least one wildly skilled member?18:51
adiroibanyou should learn as you go18:52
adiroibanwe learn something new everyday18:52
adiroibanif you have a skilled member it will help a lot18:52
adiroibanbut this does not mean that an unskiles person can do a great job and improve it's skils over time18:53
adiroibanif you don't have experience try to set some small goals18:53
adiroibanand ask for help from other teams18:53
adiroibanwe have the #ubuntu-locoteams18:53
adiroibanand the mailing loco contact mailinglist18:54
adiroibanfeel free to join and ask for help18:54
adiroibanas there are a lot of knowledgable persons there18:54
adiroibanrrnwexec: ADVICE: Best practice in Vancouver... treat all members equally. Don't get all hung up on organization and bureaucracy. The best ideas usually come from the new members.18:55
adiroiban rrnwexec: ADVICE: Best practice in Vancouver... Constantly look for ways to keep long-time members energized. This helps prevent the attrition issue that has fallen on other Linux communities.18:55
adiroibanlukeen: QUESTION: how many people should a loco have? is there a minimum? whats average? what makes sense?18:55
adiroibandepending of your community18:55
adiroibanthere are small or big communities18:56
adiroibanbut don't judge a loco by it's number18:56
adiroibanjonnor: QUESTION: Communities usually centers around something. Apart from FOSS/Ubuntu, what does LoCos usually center around?18:56
adiroibanyes. People18:56
adiroibanlike I said , the FOSS/Ubuntu should be a way to help people from your local community18:57
adiroibanthis is what local communities are all about18:57
adiroibanit's like helping your neighbour18:57
adiroibanok.18:58
adiroibanthank you very much for your presence and attention18:58
koolhead17?18:58
* goshawk hugs adiroiban18:58
adiroibanI think we whould end this session18:58
adiroibanand let's prepare for the wonderful Ubuntu Doc Day18:59
JPohlmannadiroiban: Well done :)18:59
adiroibanwhich is about to start18:59
akgranerThanks adiroiban!18:59
* Mean-Machine shakes adiroiban's hand 18:59
Mean-Machinenice one18:59
DougieRichardsonHi everyone and welcome to Docs Day19:01
DougieRichardsonWe've got five slots today and hope to cover most everything that the Documentation Team does19:02
DougieRichardsonI'll start by introducing myself19:02
DougieRichardsonI'm Dougie and up until I joined the Doc's team I'd had no experience at all with writing documentation or using DocBook19:03
DougieRichardsonI maintain the Internet and Networking sections of the System Help but help out in other areas too19:04
mib_0oi9gtis the q and a with mark over?19:04
DougieRichardsonThere are five sessions tonight - an intro19:04
DougieRichardsonTranslations19:04
DougieRichardsonA session on adding and working with the community help wiki19:05
DougieRichardsonGetting the docs and using Bzr19:05
DougieRichardsonand lastly working with DocBook19:05
DougieRichardsonDocBook is an XML markup language that is used not only in Ubuntu's help but upstream too19:05
DougieRichardsonDocumentation in Ubuntu is split into two main areas19:06
DougieRichardsonThe system help, which you access through Yelp19:06
DougieRichardsonAnd the community contributed documentation which is available at http://help.ubuntu.com/community19:06
DougieRichardsonThere are two types because we want to offer a full range of help to everyone, which is where the wiki is useful19:07
DougieRichardsonand having more commonly asked tasks available without an internet connection19:07
DougieRichardsonSubjects such as connecting to the internet is obviously needed offline!19:08
DougieRichardsonThe system help is split into sections and is available for different flavours of Ubuntu19:09
DougieRichardsonit is written using DocBook XML, which is a markup language.19:09
DougieRichardsonWe are often asked why we use this but there are advantages to it - it can be easily processed into other formats19:10
DougieRichardsonSuch as HTML and PDF19:10
DougieRichardsonWhich allows us to generate the same information for access on the internet19:10
DougieRichardsonUpstream also uses the same format, so we can share our documentation upstream too.19:11
DougieRichardsonThe community documentation wiki is editable by anyone with a Launchpad account19:12
DougieRichardsonThe wiki is seperate to http:/wiki.ubuntu.com which is only for team use19:12
DougieRichardsonIts an ideal place for new contributers to start, because it is very accessible and the syntax is simpler than XML19:13
DougieRichardsonThe documentation team is organised into three teams19:14
DougieRichardsonUbuntu documentation contributers19:14
DougieRichardsonWho can: edit wiki pages, traige and report bugs, contribute patches and participate in the teams discussions19:15
DougieRichardsonwe particularly welcome discussion from new contributers so we can produce the sort of documentation that is actually asked for19:15
DougieRichardsonWe have Ubuntu documentation commiters, which are much the same as contributers except they have displayed understanding of the tool chain and have access to the ubuntu-docs package, so can commit changes.19:16
DougieRichardsonLastly, we have Ubuntu documentation wiki admins who again do the same as contributers but have displayed a strong understanding of the wiki (in particualr deletion and the effects of renaming pages) and have access to delete and rename pages.19:17
DougieRichardsonJoining the team is easy - just apply on Launchpad and introduce yourself on the mailing list19:18
DougieRichardsonhttps://launchpad.net/ubuntu-doc19:18
DougieRichardsonand the ML is https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc19:18
DougieRichardsonThe team has members from all over the world so with difference in time zones tends to do most of its discussion via the mailing list.19:19
DougieRichardsonWe do hold meetings though whenever possible and anyon is welcome to join us on IRC #ubuntu-doc on this very server19:20
DougieRichardsonSo where do you get started?19:20
DougieRichardsonThe best place to start is by checking out current bugs19:21
DougieRichardsonThere are four pages used, one for each Ubuntu19:21
DougieRichardsonhttp://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-docs19:21
DougieRichardson      http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-docs19:21
DougieRichardson      http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-docs19:21
DougieRichardson      http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/edubuntu-docs19:21
DougieRichardsonPick a bug, assign it to yourself and get fixing!19:22
DougieRichardsonThere are several guides available on our team site and there is the newly produced Playbook19:22
DougieRichardson(I'll cover this more later)19:22
DougieRichardsonFixing bugs is fairly straightforward, most bugs are simply typos or corrections for new versions19:23
DougieRichardsonOnce you have the source (which Matthew will cover at 2100 UTC)19:24
DougieRichardsonYou can look over the docs and change the errant strings.19:24
DougieRichardsonWhat if you're more interested in the wiki?19:24
DougieRichardsonThere are a list of areas that need work in the Wiki19:24
DougieRichardsonhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Tasks19:25
DougieRichardsonSorry, wrong: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Wiki/Tasks19:25
DougieRichardsonThe wiki has a lot of pages that need cleaned up19:26
DougieRichardsonThere is a lot of information that should be moved from the team wiki to the help wiki19:26
DougieRichardsonArticles that need expanding19:26
DougieRichardsonAnd we're always keen to integrate some of the fantastic howtos and guides that are available on the Ubuntu Forums into the help wiki19:27
DougieRichardsonThis release cycle, we have three new initiatives to announce too.19:28
DougieRichardsonFirst, we are producing a series of "Playbooks", single A4 PDF covering our tool chain and processes19:29
DougieRichardsonThe first is available and has already been used by new members to submit patches!19:29
DougieRichardsonIts available from my personal web site at the moment and once the others are available will be moved onto Launchpad and linked from the team site: http://www.lynxworks.eu/files/BugsPlaybook.pdf19:30
DougieRichardsonI'd love it if this was passed around as much as possible, even better if it was printed out and distributed at LoCo events, or your work/college wherever.19:31
DougieRichardsonWe are now accepting submissions for larger articles as plain text without markup.19:31
DougieRichardsonAn Ubuntu Documentation Commiter will wrap it in XML and push it to the branch.19:32
DougieRichardsonWe appreciate that not everyone has the time or interest to learn XML so we're happy to offer this for large submissions.19:32
DougieRichardsonWe are running a series of IRC lessons19:33
DougieRichardsonThe first of which will be announced soon on our mailing list and on the Planet.19:33
DougieRichardsonI'll be taking a bug on Launchpad and go through all the steps to fix it in slow time, providing a recap sheet at the end.19:34
DougieRichardsonThese lessons will be staggered so that different time zones can benefit too.19:34
DougieRichardsonLastly we are introducing "Doc Days" - much likethe QA team has done, we will nominate an area, particularly of the wiki and try and achieve as much community participation as possible in that area on a single day.19:35
DougieRichardsonAgain this will be announced soon via the mailing list and via the Planet19:36
DougieRichardsonThere is also a large push towards revamping the current switching from windows guide to a new installation guide19:37
DougieRichardsonAny contributions to this effort will be very much appreciated, where we intend to try and gather the most common installation problems19:38
DougieRichardsonand cover them - so we need as many installation problems as possible reported!19:38
DougieRichardsonSubmit any problems you've found to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Specs/KarmicInstallationGuide#Common%20problems%20for%20the%20Troubleshooting%20section19:39
DougieRichardsonSo that pretty much wraps up the introduction to Docs Day but before I take any questions, I'd like to recap on contacting us:19:40
DougieRichardsonWiki Page    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam19:40
DougieRichardsonLaunchpad    https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-doc19:40
DougieRichardsonMailing list https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc19:40
DougieRichardsonList archive https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-doc/19:40
DougieRichardsonIRC          #ubuntu-doc on irc.freenode.net19:40
DougieRichardsonand that we are going to be running IRC lessons, Playbooks, Doc Days and a new installation guide.19:41
DougieRichardsonLastly, please, please grab a copy of the playbook19:41
DougieRichardsonhttp://www.lynxworks.eu/files/BugsPlaybook.pdf19:41
DougieRichardsonWe're always glas to accept new contributers and contributions, no matter how small - there is a very good chance that someone is looking for the information you have!19:42
DougieRichardsonSo I'll move on to Q&A - please, ask away!19:42
DougieRichardsonQuestion: Hi Dinda, hopefully, given our new initiatives thats a yes but I think we need to integrate these ideas fully19:44
dindaQUESTION: The "Getting Involved" section of ubuntu.com points non-technical users who wan to contribute to the docs team.  Do you really think this is the right first place for new non-technical contributors?19:45
dindarepeating for the logs19:45
dindaQUESTION: Could you point us to the place to apply for membership in the doc team on Launchpad?19:46
DougieRichardsonAnswer: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-doc19:47
mfitzhughNot to be dumb, but I'm at that page and don't see a "join" link19:48
dindaQUESTION:  Can you explain the difference between the Core group and students group?19:48
DougieRichardsonApologies, it should have been https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc19:49
DougieRichardsonThe team name for new contributers is still "students"19:50
DougieRichardsonhttps://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc-students19:50
dindadinda: QUESTION:  How many new contributors would you like to see coming on board each month?  release cycle?19:52
DougieRichardsonAnswer: I'd like to see as many as possible!19:53
DougieRichardsonAnswer: It depends in which area people would like to help.19:53
DougieRichardsonQUESTION:  Is there a better time to jump into documentation?  i.e. the days before a release are prolly not the best19:54
dindadinda: QUESTION:  Is there a better time to jump into documentation?  i.e. the days before a release are prolly not the best19:54
DougieRichardsonAnswer: Anytime is fine, as there's always bugs to fix but you're right - the start of the new development cycle is the ideal place because it allows more time to complete IRC training and improving our tool chain19:55
mdkeso *now* is the ideal time!19:56
DougieRichardsonBut at the end of the release cycle we need as many eyes on as possible to check over the docs19:56
DougieRichardsonYes, like I said - please grab a playbook, join the team and we'll be happy to help19:56
DougieRichardsonQUESTION: so, as I see students involved in bug-hunt process mostly?19:58
DougieRichardsonAnswer: No, we want to see students involved in fixing bugs, asking questions and making patches!19:59
DougieRichardsonBug hunting is very important - especially end of cycle but with six months in hand we've can cover our tool chain and bring students up to speed.20:00
DougieRichardsonOK, I'm eating into mdke and adiroiban's time now so I'll finish off the Q&A20:00
mdkegreat job DougieRichardson20:01
DougieRichardsonIf anyone has any other question, you can contact the team or mail me direct through Launchpad.20:01
dindaThanks Dougie - great job!20:01
DougieRichardsonI'll finish with one link though: http://www.lynxworks.eu/files/BugsPlaybook.pdf20:01
adiroibangreat session :)20:02
adiroibannext session will be about Translating Ubuntu Docs20:02
DougieRichardsonThanks very much everyone20:02
bencrisford1cheers dougie20:02
adiroibandon't forget about #ubuntu-doc channel :)20:03
adiroibanok20:04
adiroibanMy name is Adi Roiban, and I am here as a member of Ubuntu Translation Community.20:04
adiroibanhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/AdiRoiban20:04
adiroibanI will do this session together with Matthew East (mdke), who is coordinating Ubuntu Docs.20:04
mdkehi everyone20:04
adiroibanWe will start with a short presentation, followed by a question and answer session.20:05
adiroibanBeside this session, feel free to contact us for any question related to Ubuntu Docs Translation Process.20:05
adiroibanIn the following session, when I mention Ubuntu Docs I will refer to all Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Edubuntu Docs20:05
adiroibanFirst off all I will do a short introduction to Ubuntu Localization Teams and Translation process, as you can not translate the Ubuntu Docs without being aware of these things.20:05
adiroibanUbuntu Documentation is translated using the Launchpad Translations web tools20:06
adiroibanRosetta is the codename for Launchpad Translations20:06
adiroibanYou can find out more about using Launchpad Translations by reading the Launchpad help pages:20:06
adiroibanhttps://help.launchpad.net/Translations20:06
=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 1900 UTC: Translating Documentation || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
adiroibanEveryone is free to help translating Ubuntu and Ubuntu Docs into his/her language.20:07
adiroibanYou can start translating Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Edubuntu docs by following one of these links :20:07
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/ubuntu-docs20:07
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/kubuntu-docs20:07
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/xubuntu-docs20:07
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/edubuntu-docs20:07
adiroibanWhen I said that everyone is free to help translating Ubuntu and Ubuntu Docs into his/her language, I mean that everyone can add suggestion / possible translations for an original text20:07
adiroibanIn Ubuntu, we have Ubuntu Localization teams, that act as Translation Quality Assurance Team.20:08
adiroibanThey will review and approve suggestions.20:08
adiroibanIf you are an active translator and you are doing a great translation job you can request to join the Ubuntu .20:08
adiroibanIn the following list, you can find the group appointed for your language:20:09
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/+groups/ubuntu-translators20:09
adiroibanFor any questions related to the translations of Ubuntu docs into your language, please contact the team appointed to your language,20:09
adiroibanAlso freel free to join the general Ubuntu Translation mailinglist https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-translators20:10
adiroibanand #ubuntu-translators and #ubuntu-doc channel20:10
adiroibanLike I said, please consult the Launchpad Translations help pages, to find out how you can use it20:11
adiroibanhttps://help.launchpad.net/Translations20:11
adiroibanNow let's go back to things specific to translating Ubuntu Docs.20:12
adiroibanFirst of all you should know that Ubuntu-Docs are developed using the DocBook format (an xml based format).20:12
adiroibanWe have a script for converting from XML to PO files.20:12
adiroibanwe do this, because Launchpad Translation does not support direct translations of XML files20:12
adiroibanAfter generating the POT files, they are imported in Launchpad Translations20:13
adiroibanby doing that, they will be available to translation20:13
adiroibanand people from around the word will be translating Ubuntu Docs into their language.20:14
adiroibanFrom time to time, someone , manualy export those translations from Rosetta and run another script for converting from PO back to XML.20:14
adiroibanNow from each POT file, we will have a new XML file for each language.20:14
adiroibanIn Launchpad Translation, POT files are called "templates"20:15
adiroibanhttps://translations.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/xubuntu-docs/+pots/about-xubuntu20:15
adiroibanthis would be the about-xubuntu template in Launchpad20:16
adiroibanalso when translating Ubuntu Docs in Launchpad you will have to check the version20:16
adiroibanof the ubuntu-docs20:16
adiroibanin the example above the about-xubuntu template, is translated for Jaunty20:16
adiroibaneach Ubuntu version , has a new set of Ubuntu Docs20:17
adiroibanFrom time to time, someone , manualy export those translations from Rosetta and run another script for converting from PO back to XML. Now we will have a new XML file for each language.20:17
adiroibanWhen we have the XML files, Matt (mdke) use them for creating an update to the ubuntu-docs packages.20:18
adiroibanThey are then pushed to the Ubuntu repositories and users will be able to install into their computers.20:18
adiroibanWhile translating Ubuntu Docs you will need to take care of various things, specific to translating xml files.20:19
adiroibanI tried to create a Guide for helping you with translating Ubuntu Docs. You can find it here: https://help.launchpad.net/Translations/Guide20:19
adiroibanBefore you start translating Ubuntu Docs, please read this guide.20:19
adiroibanWhile translating Ubuntu Docs, there is a great chance of making mistakes that will generate in a bad xml file.20:20
adiroibanLaunchpad Translations is not able to detect the translations errors from XML files20:20
adiroibanTo help validate the Ubuntu Docs translations I'm maintaining a webpage dedicated to Ubuntu Docs errors.20:21
adiroibanFrom time to time I'm exporting the translations from Launchpad and generated the XML files in order to find errors.20:21
adiroibanI'm announcing the updated on the Ubuntu Translators Mailinglist20:21
adiroibanhttps://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-translators20:21
adiroibanFor example this is the Ubuntu Docs Jaunty report page:20:21
adiroibanhttp://l10n.ubuntu.tla.ro/ubuntu-docs-jaunty/20:21
adiroibanWhile translating Ubuntu Docs you may find errors in the original text.20:22
adiroibanPlease report those errors here:20:22
adiroibanhttp://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-docs20:22
adiroibanhttp://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-docs20:22
adiroibanhttp://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-docs20:22
adiroibanhttp://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/edubuntu-docs20:22
adiroibanPlease remember that the Launchpad Translation Guide is your friend20:23
adiroibanhttps://help.launchpad.net/Translations/Guide20:23
adiroiban:)20:23
adiroibanBeside generating XML files, you can use translation for creating HTML files. You can use the HTML file for providing a translated version of http://help.ubuntu.com20:24
adiroibanThere is a dedicated Wiki page talking about how to work with the Ubuntu Docs translations:20:24
adiroibanhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Translation20:24
adiroibanThere you can find all steps for generating Ubuntu docs on your computer and how you can customize Ubuntu Docs for your needs.20:25
adiroibanBeside the Ubuntu Documentation, you can consider translating Ubuntu Desktop Course intro your language.20:25
adiroibanUnfortunately the translation of Ubuntu Desktop Course is not yet available using Launchpad Translations.20:25
adiroibanYou can find out more about the Ubuntu Desktop Course by visiting the dedicated wiki page:20:26
adiroibanhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training20:26
adiroibanI am working at making Ubuntu Training text available using Rosetta and you can contact me or talk to the other translators via the Ubuntu Translators Mailinglist.20:26
adiroibanUbuntu Desktop Course is part of Ubuntu Training20:27
adiroibanand it's also based on XML files20:27
adiroibanso translating them is similar with Ubuntu Docs20:27
adiroibanalso you can contact dinda for questions regarding Ubuntu Training20:28
adiroibanWhen translating Ubuntu Docs, sometimes you will have to translated documentation for user interfaces that are not translated yet20:29
adiroibanmy advise is to translate firs the user interface20:29
adiroibanand where you are done, come back and continue with translating the documentation20:30
adiroibanso, alway translate the user interface first20:30
adiroibanand while translating the documentation, always check the way user interface is translated20:30
adiroibanin this way you can improve the consistency20:31
adiroibanand will avoid the situation when documentation is translated using some words20:31
adiroibanand the user interface using other words20:31
adiroibannovice user, the one who need the translation and documentation, are always confused20:31
adiroibaneven of a small invariance20:32
adiroibanok20:32
adiroibanthat were my tips for translationg Ubuntu Docs20:32
adiroibanwe can continue with the questions and answers part20:32
adiroibanmdke ?20:33
adiroibanit this ok?20:33
adiroibanis this ok?20:33
mdkeabsolutely, I was thinking that I would like to chip in with some comments, but you have been absolutely exhaustive! Thanks adiroiban20:33
mdkelet's take some questions now20:33
mdkeyeager> QUESTION: when will it be possible to list and submit translated screenshots for ubuntu-docs?20:34
mdkeANSWER: the ubuntu-docs project doesn't currently use screenshots. Translation of screenshots is generally done manually in documentation, as far as I know, but fortunately we haven't had to deal with that issue!20:34
mdke< dinda> QUESTION:  Do you have any tips for making the Desktop course easier to translate?20:35
mdkeI'm not really familiar with the format of the course, but adiroiban may know more20:35
adiroibanWe should try to find ways of including Desktop course in Rosetta20:35
mdkeI'd recommend the use of the xml2po program over other similar toolchains though, in my experience it works the best20:35
adiroibandinda: we should see some improvement in Rosetta that will help us improve the way we do translations20:36
mdkedinda: you may find some tips on the process we use here though: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Translation20:36
adiroibanafter the next relase of Launchpad I will contact you for enabling the translations of Ubuntu Training materials20:37
adiroibanQUESTION: adiroiban do you have the Desktop course in PO format?20:38
adiroibanyes. but it's not updated.20:38
adiroibanin the next days I will update them and announce them via the ubuntu-translators mailing list20:38
adiroibanand planet.ubuntu.com :)20:38
adiroibantpfennig: QUESTION: How well is cooperation working with upstream projects like GNOME? Any plans to work together more tightly?20:39
adiroibanubuntu-docs are only covering ubuntu specific things20:40
adiroibanand gnome-user-docs is part of ubuntu-docs20:40
mdkewe reuse entirely upstream translations for gnome-user-docs, but it's up to Ubuntu translators to send translations upstream if they work on them in Launchpad20:40
adiroibani don't know if there are plans to work more tightly, from my point of view both team are doing a great job20:41
adiroibanand ubuntu-docs are integrated nicely with gnome-docs20:41
adiroibanmy advice is to do gnome translations upstream: http://l10n.gnome.org/module/gnome-user-docs/20:42
adiroibanok. any other questions ?20:43
adiroibanok. thank you very much for your attention20:44
adiroibanyou can always get in touch with us via the #ubuntu-doc  IRC channel20:44
adiroibanand ubuntu-doc mailing list20:45
jcastroeveryone take a break for a bit, and we'll be back in 11 for the next session!20:49
mdkeok, I think perhaps we can get started with the next session21:00
mdkeMy name is Matthew East and I work with the Ubuntu Documentation Team21:02
mdkeI'm going to be running this session with Connor Imes, Rocket2DMn, who works on the same team21:02
mdkeThe session is about the UBUNTU HELP WIKI21:02
mdkeAs those who have followed previous sessions know, we have five sessions today dealing with Ubuntu documentation. Two have already finished: an intro to the project, and translating documentation.21:03
mdkeThis session concentrates on one of the two main projects of the Ubuntu documentation team, the Ubuntu help wiki.21:03
mdkeThe last two sessions deal with the other main project, Ubuntu system documentation, which is the documentation that comes together with your Ubuntu desktop.21:03
=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 2000 UTC: Working on the help wiki || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
mdkeThe last two sessions, which emmajane will be running, deal with the other main project of the team, Ubuntu system documentation, which is the documentation that comes together with your Ubuntu desktop.21:04
mdkeBoth the system documentation and the help wiki are found in two sections of the same website: help.ubuntu.com21:04
mdkeThe system documentation is found at https://help.ubuntu.com/21:04
mdkeThe help wiki can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/21:05
Rocket2DMnThe help wiki is also known as the Community Docs21:05
mdkeBy the way, feel free to shout my nick in #ubuntu-classroom-chat if I am going too fast21:05
mdkeI'm going to use some dashes to separate different sections of the talk, so that it should be easier to read for those reviewing the log of the session21:05
mdke---21:06
mdkeI'll start by explaining what a "wiki" is.21:06
mdkeA wiki is a website which anyone can edit.21:06
mdkeIt's a collaborative website that seeks to collect the knowledge of a large group of people.21:06
mdkeThe most famous example of course is wikipedia.21:06
mdkeThe Ubuntu community has several wikis. Among those are the team wiki (wiki.ubuntu.com) and the help wiki (help.ubuntu.com/community).21:06
mdkeThe difference is that the team wiki is used for coordination of the different teams in the Ubuntu community, while the help wiki is for users looking for documentation.21:07
mdke---21:07
mdkeBecause anyone can edit the help wiki, quite a lot of attention is needed by volunteers to keep the wiki tidy, and to test the accuracy of material that is submitted.21:07
mdkeIt means that the wiki is a much more free-flowing resource than the system documentation, which go through a more rigorous process of quality control.21:07
mdkeThe wiki also has no limitations about how many subjects it can deal with, so we have much more information there than in the system documentation.21:08
mdkeThat can mean that it is less reliable, but it also means that it is an excellent resource for searching for the answers to more difficult problems.21:08
mdkeIt also means that it is a great place to start contributing - you don't need any special privileges to jump in and help out21:08
mdkeInformation produced on the wiki can also be road tested there so that it is later introduced into the system documentation.21:09
mdke---21:09
mdkeOk, now I'm going to cover how to contribute to the help wiki.21:09
mdkeWe have a basic reference page which covers all the issues needed to contribute, which is https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide - everyone contributing should have a look at that page.21:09
mdkeLet me be very clear about one thing straight away - if you would like to contribute, and can't find the information you are curious about on that page - feel free to ask the Documentation team.21:10
mdkeI'll give out the contact details towards the end of the session21:10
mdkeRight, the first step is registering. It's necessary to have a Launchpad account in order to edit the wiki. This is to protect against automatic spam on the wiki.21:10
mdkeHaving a Launchpad account is pretty much a prerequisite for contributing in any way to the Ubuntu community, so you should definitely get one if you haven't already!21:10
mdkeYou can register for Launchpad here: https://launchpad.net (see the top right hand corner)21:11
mdkeOnce registered, you can log into the help wiki by visiting the wiki (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/) and clicking the "Login to Edit" text in the top right hand corner. This takes you to Launchpad, and you then enter your details and click "Continue".21:11
mdke---21:12
mdkeOnce logged in, you can edit the page that you are viewing. The edit toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen when you click "Show editing options" in the bottom right.21:12
mdkeTo edit a page, click "Edit" in the toolbar. That shows you the "markup", or "raw text" that forms part of the wiki.21:12
mdkeThe markup is there to permit you to use formatting on the page. It's very similar to the wikipedia markup, but with some differences (we use different software to wikipedia)21:13
mdkeDon't be scared by it, it's very simple and easy to learn. A simple edit to a page doesn't require any knowledge of markup, because you can just scroll to the relevant paragraph, and amend it, but I'll deal quickly with some basics now.21:13
mdkeTo create a title, we use this format:21:14
mdke= This is a heading =21:14
mdkeYou can also create sub-headings, by increasing the number of = signs, like this:21:14
mdke== This is a sub-heading ==21:14
mdkeParagraphs are very simple - you just leave a white line in between different paragraphs, like this:21:14
mdkeThis is the first paragraph21:15
mdkeThis is the second paragraph21:15
mdke(imagine we have a white line between the above two lines, I can't do it on irc)21:15
Rocket2DMnlike this:21:15
Rocket2DMnparagraph 121:15
Rocket2DMn 21:15
Rocket2DMnparagraph 221:15
mdkenice! Thanks Rocket2DMn21:15
mdkeTo use text in italics, you put two inverted commas around the text in italics, like this:21:16
mdkeThis is a ''very good'' sentence.21:16
Rocket2DMn(apostrophes)21:16
mdkeIn that example, the words "very good" will appear in italics21:16
mdkesorry, apostrophes, yep21:17
mdkeTo use text in bold, you put three inverted commas around the text in bold, like this:21:17
mdkesorry again, apostrophes21:17
mdkeThis is a '''very good''' sentence.21:17
mdkeYou get the idea, I hope :)21:17
mdkeBulleted lists can be created by using the star sign:21:18
mdke * Point 1 on the list21:18
mdke * Point 2 on the list21:18
mdkeNumbered lists can be created by using the number 1:21:18
mdke 1. Number 1 on the list21:18
mdke 1. Number 2 on the list21:18
Rocket2DMnNote the space at the beginning of the line.  This is required.21:19
mdkeThat looks a bit confusing, but it enables the wiki to ensure that the numbering is automatically updated if you add a line in the middle21:19
mdkeYou can do the same with letters:21:19
mdke a. Letter a on the list21:19
mdke a. Letter b on the list21:19
mdkeand so on.21:19
mdkeLinks can be created quite simply too. You use this format:21:20
mdke[[http://www.ubuntu.com|Ubuntu website]]21:20
mdkeIn that example, the link text is "Ubuntu website" and the link target is www.ubuntu.com21:20
mdkeThat's really all you need to know to contribute whole pages to the wiki!21:20
Rocket2DMnThe separator in the middle splits the link and the link text.21:20
Rocket2DMnThe character is a pipe, above the Enter key on most keyboards21:20
mdkeunless you are from the UK, in which case it's down in the bottom left above \21:21
mdke:)21:21
=== jorge_ is now known as jcastro
mdkeSee https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide/Formatting for more detailed instructions about formatting on the wiki21:21
mdkeI'd like to emphasise that you can contribute with very little experience of the markup at all, you should pick it up straight away and you can use the above page as a reference21:21
mdkeWe also have some writing style guidelines here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide/WritingGuide21:22
mdkeThese give you some tips about the style which we'd like to be used on the wiki21:22
mdkeOk, I'll deal briefly with creating a whole new page21:22
mdkeThe easiest way to create a new page is simply to enter it's address in the address bar of your browser21:23
mdkeso if you'd like to create the page called "LetsPractice", visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LetsPractice21:23
mdkeI should say first that we use a specific naming convention on the wiki, which is to use CamelCase spellings for the title - this is like Title Case, but without the space between the words21:24
mdkeSee https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide/PageCreation for more information about choosing a name21:24
mdkeBack to our example - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LetsPractice21:24
mdkeIf you visit that page, you'll see that the wiki is telling you that it doesn't exist yet21:25
mdkeTo create a new page, we have two options21:25
mdkeThe first is to create a blank page, which you do by clicking "Create new empty page"21:25
mdkeThe second is to create a page based on a template.21:25
mdkeWe use the "DocumentationTemplate" that you see on the left hand side. Clicking that will give you a new page with some suggested structure that you can use for a documentation page21:26
mdkeok, that's all for creating a page21:26
mdkefor more information, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide/PageCreation21:26
mdke---21:27
mdkeOther than writing, once you have got used to the structure and guidelines of the wiki, you can also help a lot by helping to keep the wiki tidy.21:27
mdkeWe use "Tags" to keep the wiki tidy, and identify pages which need work in a particular area.21:27
mdkeSee https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tag for more info21:27
mdkeFor an example of a tag in use, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VMware/Workstation21:28
mdkethere you see a sign that the page deals with an unsupported version of Ubuntu21:28
mdkeTagging pages and cleaning up pages which already have tags is an amazingly useful way to contribute21:28
mdkeI'd encourage people to have a read of the Tag page for more information21:29
mdkeUsers do not have permission on this wiki to delete or rename pages. Doing so can sometimes cause accidental, yet major, problems. This includes, but is not limited to, breaking links within the wiki itself and on the internet, as well as people's bookmarks. However, once you are familiar with the wiki, if you'd like to help out with its upkeep by deleting or renaming stray pages, you can apply to do so with the Ubuntu documentation team.21:29
mdkeAgain, I'll give out the contact details shortly21:29
mdke---21:30
mdkeKey tasks. The team has some particular key tasks to deal with. These are set out at this page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Wiki/Tasks21:30
mdkeI'm very conscious that this page is not as clear or structured as it should be, so it's fundamental that if you have any questions about where to contribute - please ask21:31
mdkeOver the next few days and weeks we'll be working a lot on focusing the team's efforts on specific tasks, so watch this space!21:31
mdkeOne particular task I'd mention which is a good place to help out, is by replacing the out of date "Categories" on the wiki with our new Tag system21:32
mdkeThat's detailed here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiToDo/Tags21:32
mdkeAnother great task is to visit the pages which are marked for cleanup, and to tidy them up!21:32
mdkeThat's a never ending process...21:32
mdkeRocket2DMn: perhaps you could explain your "Summer of Documentation" initiative at this stage21:33
Rocket2DMnSure21:33
Rocket2DMnLast summer we had a little effort to help get the help wiki up to date, and it became known as the Summer of Documentation21:34
Rocket2DMnIt was initaited by the Beginners Team by members who also work with the doc team.  You can read about last year's here - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BeginnersTeam/FocusGroups/Wiki/SoD200821:34
Rocket2DMnWe will be doing it again this year, but it is not limited to Beginners Team members, it is for the whole community.21:35
Rocket2DMnIt will be focused on Tasks that the ubuntu doc team has set forward, like making use of tags and cleaning up outdated pages21:35
Rocket2DMnThe idea is to get users who otherwise may not know how to contribute involved21:36
Rocket2DMnLet the doc team know if you are interested21:36
mdke---21:36
mdkeLast, but not least - communication21:37
mdkeTo get in touch with the Documentation Team, you can contact us via the mailing list or on irc chat21:37
mdkethe mailing list is ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com, you can sign up here - http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc21:37
mdkethe irc channel in #ubuntu-doc on this network - feel free to join and hang around and ask questions21:37
mdkethe channel is sometimes pretty quiet, depending on the time of day and the week, so don't be discouraged if you don't get a reply straight away - either hang around or send us an email21:38
mdkeFull details about contacting the team are here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Contact21:38
mdke---21:38
mdkeThat's the end of the presentation part of the session, feel free to ask any questions now in #ubuntu-classroom-chat or by private message to me21:38
mdkeWe'll do our best to answer21:39
mdkeQUESTION: is there any separate group for "Summer of Documentation"?21:40
Rocket2DMnANSWER: No, there is no separate listing of members.  The Beginners Team Wiki Focus Group who hosts the Summer of Documentation does not keep a separate listing of involved members.  This helps keep us working as tightly with the doc team as possible21:41
Rocket2DMnIt's all one effort.21:41
mdkeQUESTION: actually just working on our wiki, and nobody seems to know how to add photos into a post?21:45
ebelczajkowski: *ping*21:45
mdkeadding photos or screenshots to a wiki page is quite easy21:45
mdkeyou add them as an attachment using the "Attachments" button on the edit toolbar21:45
mdkeSome detailed step by step instructions are here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide/Screenshots21:46
mdkeQUESTION: Is submitting fixes for documentation bugs the same as other packages?21:47
mdkeANSWER: in the case of bugs affecting the help wiki, it's a different process. You can simply log into the wiki and edit the page directly to fix the bug21:47
mdkein the case of bugs affecting the system documentation, we have a process which emmajane is going to describe for you in the next session :)21:47
mdkeok, that seems to be the end of the questions, so we'll take a short break of 5 minutes or so before we come back for the next session21:52
mdkefeel free to contact the team if you have any questions about contributing21:52
emmajaneXX:57 by my clock. We'll get started in a couple of minutes. Bio break now for those who need it!21:57
=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 2100-2300 UTC: Getting and Working with System Docs || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
emmajaneHi everyone!22:01
emmajaneIn this next session I'm going to walk you through the very basics of using Bazaar to work with the Ubuntu System Documentation. Who's up for a little bit of version control?! :)22:01
emmajanecrickets. :)22:02
emmajanemore excitment over in the -chat channel, please22:02
emmajanewho's ready for version control!? WOO!22:02
emmajanethat's better. :)22:02
emmajaneThis session has several parts: (1) A little bit about Bazaar, (2) Installing Bazaar, (3) Using Bazaar for regular files (4) Downloading the system documentation, (5) Submitting your changes to the docs project and (6) Resources.22:02
emmajaneI have the notes typed out if you are interested in reading ahead, please keep your questions to the topic at hand though, thanks. (just grabbing the pastebin URL)22:03
emmajanehttp://pastebin.ubuntu.com/160234/22:03
emmajanemdke is going to start us off with some "high level" talk about the tools we're using for system documentation.22:04
emmajanetake it away, mdke22:04
mdkethanks22:04
mdkeI just wanted to explain briefly what we mean by "System Documentation"22:04
mdkein case anyone missed Dougie's Introduction session22:04
mdkebasically what we mean is the documentation that Ubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu) include in their desktops22:05
mdkeso in the case of Ubuntu, it's at System -> Help and Support22:05
mdkeThis documentation is "offline" so that any user of ubuntu can read it without going to the internet22:05
mdkeIt's also included online at https://help.ubuntu.com in identical form, in the case of Ubuntu22:06
mdkeGiven that the documentation is included in Ubuntu, we use some quality control processes to ensure that the material is carefully checked22:06
mdkea group of "committers" have access to add new material directly22:06
mdkeand new contributors make requests for their changes to be approved22:07
mdkethe system we use to manage this is called Bazaar, and it's what Emma will be concentrating on in this session22:07
mdkeThe documents themselves are written in a markup language called "Docbook", which is a bit like HTML22:07
mdkethat's what Emma will talk about in the following session22:08
emmajaneok, thanks mdke22:08
emmajaneBazaar is "just" the storage tool for the system documentation. This talk applies to documentation and also anyone that wants to work with Ubuntu "code."22:09
emmajaneTopic 1/6: A little bit about Bazaar22:09
emmajaneBazaar is a distributed version control system that Just Works. Bazaar adapts to the workflows you want to use, and it takes only a few minutes to try it out.22:09
emmajaneBazaar is used by all kinds of project teams to maintain all the changes that are made to the underlying code by each developer. In fact the code for the data base MySQL is stored in Bazaar! And Ubuntu is working towards putting 15,000 packages into Bazaar! These are HUGE projects!22:10
emmajaneIt can be used by real people too though. I like to think of myself as more of a "real person" than a "hardcore ninja developer." I use Bazaar because it's really good, but also because the support community is AMAZING. People have answered questions at all hours of the day in the IRC channel #bzr.22:10
emmajaneWhether you're a hardcore ninja developer, or a real person, you can take advantage of version control for your work.22:10
emmajane(Apparently ninjas are real people too though.) ;)22:10
emmajaneIt can be useful to put all kinds of files under version control. For example: your configuration files, your resume, or any other kind of file that you might want to see a "historical" snapshot of.22:11
emmajaneFor example: I'm a freelance Web developer. I'm doing work on a client site and all of a sudden I get brand new files from the graphic designer that change everything. I could start a new folder, but that leaves a lot of junk lying around on my computer.22:11
emmajaneInstead I use all the new files in my project (overwriting the old ones), but with Bazaar there is a secret "history" folder that allows me to go back and look at the old versions of the file whenever I want.22:11
emmajaneI like to think of Bazaar as the biggest, baddest UNDO button my computer has ever known.22:11
emmajaneI'm going to pause here and collect questions from #ubuntu-classroom-chat22:12
emmajane<jtholmes> Question: i take it bazaar can also run on a personal computer with little setup effort?22:13
emmajaneAbsolutely! In fact we're going to set it up in the very next part of this talk.22:13
emmajane<dinda> QUESTION: Can Bzr be used for text-based files?  or just html/xml?22:13
emmajaneBazaar can be used to create versions of any files. It is most effective with plain text files (like HTML, XML and configuration files), but it can also be used to store images too!22:14
emmajane<TaNgO> Question: I'm using SVN at the moment... It's first time I heard about Bazaar. Why should I switch to it?22:14
emmajaneTaNgO, Great question! If you like SVN, you should keep using it. If, however, you want to be able to work directly with the system documentation, having a rudimentary understanding of the basic bzr commands will make it a lot easier.22:15
emmajaneTaNgO, there's also cool plugins that make Bazaar work with SVN.22:15
emmajane<zaidka> QUESTION: Why using Bazaar instead of a wiki?22:16
emmajaneBazaar has a more sophisticated versioning system than you can get in a Wiki. On top of that it's only recently that Wikis have been able to convert text into different formats. In some ways working with Bazaar and DocBook is a legacy system, but it also allows a greater degree of control on how the documents look in their final stage (e.g. PDF or HTML).22:17
mdkethe tools to convert wiki material into docbook are a little bit incomplete at the moment22:17
mdkeand as emmajane says, Bazaar allows more finely grained version control tools22:18
mdkebut in the future, we will definitely keep looking at using a wiki for system documentation - I hope one day it will be possible22:18
emmajaneTopic 2/6: Installing Bazaar22:19
emmajaneI'm going to assume that everyone is already using Ubuntu?22:19
emmajaneIs anyone on something OTHER than Ubuntu right now though? I know you might be secretly connected at work right now where you're forced to use something else...22:19
emmajaneWe will be working from the command line for most of this session. I am very comfortable at the command line so if I go too quickly, please jump up and down and tell me! I have used the convention of $ to mean start typing a command. If you look at your command line you will see that it ends with a $. Mine looks like this:22:20
emmajaneemmajane@hum:~$22:20
emmajaneIf you are using GNOME you can open a new terminal window by navigating to:22:20
emmajaneApplications (top left of your screen) -> Accessories -> Terminal.22:20
emmajane(GNOME is the default for Ubuntu)22:20
emmajaneIf you are using KDE you can open a new terminal window by navigating to:22:20
emmajaneSystem -> Terminal Program (Konsole)22:20
emmajaneIf you are using a different desktop environment you are probably already a super 1337 haX0r that knows how to find a terminal window, but please let me know if you need more help!22:21
emmajaneLet me know if you can't find a terminal window....22:21
emmajaneNow that you are at the terminal window you will see something similar to my command line that I displayed above. We are now going to install Bazaar. I chose to do this from the command because that's where we'll be running the commands. You could also use the Synaptic Package Manager to do this installation.22:22
emmajaneTo install Bazaar we are going to use a package manager called apt-get. It install a package it uses the structure: apt-get install PACKAGENAME. You must be the super user of your system to run this program we will use the "sudo" command instead because it's faster and because this comic is funnier if you know about sudo:  http://xkcd.com/149/22:22
emmajane$ sudo apt-get install bzr22:23
emmajaneYou will be prompted for your password. This is your password.22:24
emmajane(Assuming you are the only "user" on your workstation)22:24
emmajane<dinda> how do i know if i have the latest version of bzr installed?22:25
emmajaneIf you run that command Ubuntu will check to see if your version is already the latest for your version of Ubuntu.22:26
emmajaneAssuming you have automatic updates turned on (yes by default) you are probably already running the latest version for your flavour of Ubuntu.22:26
emmajaneAssuming that worked you should now have Bazaar installed on your system. You can test this with the following command:22:28
emmajane$ bzr22:28
emmajaneYou should get a list of Bazaar commands. Note: Bazaar is the name of the application and bzr is the actual command that you run.22:28
emmajaneThe first command we're going to run "in" Bazaar is to tell it who you are. This will put your name next to any work that you do with the system documentation.22:29
emmajane$ bzr whoami "Your name <youremail@ubuntu.com>"22:29
emmajaneYou should replace "Your name" with your actual name. The email address is optional.22:29
emmajaneSee how bzr is a command line utility?22:30
emmajaneYou type in "bzr" and the command you want to give it. In this case it's bzr whoami22:30
emmajaneIf you want to have a pointy-clicky browser to make these changes you can also install "Olive." This program has the package name: bzr-gtk. You can install it with the following command:22:30
emmajane$ sudo apt-get install bzr-gtk22:30
emmajaneI'll be honest though, the command line version of the tool is a lot more robust.22:31
emmajaneThere are also tools for Windows and OSX too.22:31
emmajaneA few months ago I prepared a screen cast for the Desktop Training Course, although the package that you download for the system documentation is different, many of the concepts are the same. You can watch the video here:22:31
emmajanehttp://showmedo.com/videotutorials/video?name=3670000&fromSeriesID=36722:31
emmajaneYou can watch that screen cast later...22:31
emmajaneHow's everyone doing so far? Ready to start taking snapshots of your files?22:31
emmajane<zaidka> QUESTION: is bazaar a distributed version control system? or centralized like subversion?22:32
emmajaneBazaar is a distributed version control system. It's like Git or Mercurial.22:32
emmajaneIt can behave like a centralized system as well (like CVS or Subversion).22:32
emmajanehttp://bazaar-vcs.org/Workflows <-- those are a few of the ways you can set up Bazaar.22:33
emmajanethe documentation team uses Bazaar with a "centralized" model meaning that everyone checks their files into Launchpad.22:33
emmajaneTopic 3/6: Using Bazaar for regular files22:34
emmajaneFor the next part I want you to choose a directory that has files you *know* you should be keeping in better order. This might be an application that you've been hacking away on, or your resume folder, or whatever!22:34
emmajaneWe could also invent some files if you wanted to, but I think it's nice to work with files you know.22:34
emmajaneChange directory to the folder that has the files you want to put under revision control. I am going to work in the folder that contains the files for the Web site bzrvsgit.com. I use the following command to move to that directory:22:34
emmajane$ cd websites/bzrvsgit.com22:34
emmajaneRemember that you can use the tab button to finish typing each of the words. Type the first letter of the file name and then press the tab key. It will type the rest of the word for you. Of course if there are more than one files that start with the same letter you will need to type a few more letters before hitting tab again.22:35
emmajaneOnce you have changed to your working directory you can create a new "repository" of your files. A repository is a place where data are stored and maintained. This folder will no longer be a simple set of files. It will be an uber awesome time machine that lets you travel back in time to see old versions of your files.22:35
emmajaneTo start the time machine, I mean initialize the repository, use the following command:22:36
emmajane$ bzr init22:36
emmajaneIt's sort of like a magic trick because you won't see anything happen. This command creates a hidden time machine in your current directory.22:36
emmajaneYou can confirm it is there with the following command:22:37
emmajane$ ls -al22:37
emmajaneDo you see the .bzr folder? That's your time machine!22:37
emmajaneHas everyone got their time machine?22:37
emmajaneI mean .bzr folder?22:37
emmajane<dinda> so this is all happening locally and not interacting with anything on the web right?22:38
emmajaneCorrect!22:38
emmajaneRight now you're like a little pod inside a space ship waiting to get launched.22:38
emmajane<jtholmes> QUESTION: did canonical folks write bazaar22:39
emmajaneSort of. They sponsor the project currently and have re-written nearly the entire code base, but they didn't start the project initially.22:39
emmajaneI did a quick google for the history of the project, but I'm not seeing it. If anyone wants to paste it into -chat I'll put the URL here later on.22:40
emmajaneI'm going to move onto the next step...22:40
emmajaneFor the next step you need to add all your files into the time machine. This command tells Bazaar there are new files being added to the repository. It doesn't save any changes, it just tells Bazaar which files it ought to be monitoring. To add files to the repository, use the following command:22:40
emmajane$ bzr add22:40
emmajaneHistory of the Bazaar project at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software)#History (thanks mdke!)22:41
emmajaneBazaar will tell you that it has added the files to the time machine. Next you will need to lock and load the time machine. This allows you to jump back to this point in history. In Bazaar-speak this is referred to as "committing your changes."22:41
emmajaneYou must add a little message each time you commit your files. This lets you know what happened at this point in history (and makes it easier to jump back in time to exactly the right point). Be descriptive in your commit message. Use the following command:22:41
emmajane$ bzr commit -m "Adding files to the time machine for the very first time."22:41
emmajane<jtholmes> QUESTION: if you add a new file to the directory does bazaar know the others have already been added22:42
emmajaneNot automatically. You have to tell it about any new files that you create or copy into that folder by using the same command (bzr add).22:42
emmajaneJust a little side note: please do not send me Private Messages with your questions. Please join the channel: #ubuntu-classroom-chat22:43
emmajaneThanks!!22:43
emmajane<Wess> Question: Do we have to add the files one by one or can we use wild card *22:44
emmajaneAll of the files in the directory will automatically be added. You don't need to worry about using a wild card.22:44
emmajaneOnce you've got the files "added" try doing your first commit.22:44
emmajaneThen try editing one of the files and "committing" again.22:45
emmajane<amigo_rich> QUESTION: Can I change the editor from nano to something else?22:46
emmajaneIf you use the -m parameter you can completely bypass the editor.22:46
mdkeYou can change the editor that you system uses automatically with the command: $ update-alternatives --config editor22:47
emmajaneNow that you've seen how easy it is to issue commands to Bazaar, we're going to download the Ubuntu system documentation. On my "fast" connection this took about 5 minutes.22:47
emmajaneTopic 4/6: Downloading the system documentation22:48
emmajaneThis time we're going to issue a command to Bazaar to tell it to go and get the system documentation from the hosting platform, Launchpad.22:48
emmajanehere's the command:22:48
emmajane$ bzr branch lp:ubuntu-doc22:48
emmajanelet's take a look at it:22:49
emmajanebzr <--- you know that part. You've already used it a couple of times.22:49
emmajanebranch <--- this is telling Launchpad that you'd like to grab a new copy of the system documentation.22:49
emmajanelp:ubuntu-doc <--- this part actually says which bits to download.22:49
emmajanebranch means "new copy"22:50
emmajaneWAIT THOUGH22:50
emmajanethis is going to download to wherever you currently are!22:50
emmajaneyou may want to change directories first!22:50
emmajaneIf it has already started downloading, simply use: control-c to "cancel" the download.22:51
emmajaneso if you want to put the files into your home directory, use the following:22:51
emmajane$ cd22:51
emmajane$ bzr branch lp:ubuntu-doc22:51
emmajaneYou will see the following error message:22:52
emmajaneYou have not informed bzr of your Launchpad ID, and you must do this to write to Launchpad or access private data.  See "bzr help launchpad-login".22:52
emmajaneBecause you do not have "write" access, you can safely ignore this message for now. If you want to register yourself with launchpad you will need to follow the instructions at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Repository#Generating%20SSH%20keys22:52
emmajaneIn the pastebin for this talk I have more advanced instructions for more complicated setups. I won't have time to cover them, but you can ask me about them later!22:53
emmajane<zaidka> FOLLOWUP QUESTION: Then how does bazaar know which server to grab the data from?22:54
emmajanezaidka, LP means "from launchpad" which is the centralized server we use.22:54
emmajaneYou should now be in the process of downloading the Ubuntu system documentation source files!22:54
emmajaneWhile you download those files, let's take a look at what you'll find once they're downloaded.22:56
emmajaneThe documents that can be edited appear in the top level of the branch. Documents use the structure documentname/C/documentname.xml. The C directory represents the default language of the system (in our case, English). Translations of each document are found in the documentname/po directory.22:56
emmajaneThere are some directories there which do not correspond to documents. These are briefly explained as follows:22:56
emmajane    * build/ - this is where HTML versions of the documents are put when generated as explained on the Building Documentation page.22:56
emmajane    * debian/ - this contains the files used to generate an Ubuntu package from the branch. For more information on packaging, see the PackagingGuide page.22:56
emmajane    * libs/ - this contains the files used to generate HTML and PDF from the documents.22:56
emmajane    * scripts/ - this contains specific scripts which are used by the team for various tasks, especially translation.22:56
emmajaneI'm going to motor through the last little bit as you're downloading the files.22:57
emmajaneTopic 5/6: Submitting your changes22:57
emmajaneThere are several ways to submit your requested changes for system documentation. I will cover two here: bzr bundle (submitted via the Launchpad Web interface); and bzr push.22:57
emmajaneBazaar bundles are text files that allow the reviewer to "merge" your changes into the main branch for the documentation. They are similar to a "diff" file, but contain additional information. They are simple to create. Once you have made all of your changes (and committed them), use the following steps:22:57
emmajane$ cd ~/ubuntu-doc (or wherever the root directory is for your changed branch)22:58
emmajane$ bzr bundle > ~/Desktop/my-documentation-changes.patch22:58
emmajaneNow you have a patch file that can be submitted back to the team. At this point the most effective way of having that change seen is to submit a new bug report in Launchpad and attach the file.22:58
emmajaneThe bugs page for the team is available at:22:58
emmajanehttps://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu-doc22:58
emmajaneA few months ago I prepared a screen cast which explains the second method to "push" your changes back to Launchpad. The file names are relevant to the Desktop course, but the concepts are the same. You can watch the video here:22:59
emmajanehttp://showmedo.com/videotutorials/video?name=3680000&fromSeriesID=36822:59
emmajaneWe can go into more detail as part of the DocBook session (if you're sticking around).22:59
emmajaneFinally I want to end with some Bazaar resources.23:00
emmajaneTopic 6/6: Resources23:00
emmajaneThere are lots of resources to learn more about Bazaar if you want to use it for more than just Ubuntu system documentation.23:00
emmajaneThe built-in documentation is really good. You can check the "man" pages with:23:00
emmajane$ man bzr23:00
emmajaneOR get a list of all the commands in bzr with:23:00
emmajane$ bzr --help commands23:00
emmajaneOR list the table of contents for the help files with:23:00
emmajane$ bzr help topics23:00
emmajaneOR you can join the IRC channel or the bazaar mailing list!23:00
emmajaneIRC: #bzr23:00
emmajanemailing list: bazaar@lists.canonical.com23:00
emmajaneThere were some AMAZING questions today, thanks everyone.23:00
mdkegreat job at answering them all!23:01
emmajaneI'm going to take a short break, but then roll into the DocBook talk which explains what to do with those files you're currently downloading.23:01
emmajaneHopefully everyone can stick around for the second part!23:01
emmajaneQuick bio break for everyone and then back at XX:0723:03
emmajaneok. I'll start up in one more minute with the DocBook content!23:07
emmajaneaight!23:09
emmajanelet's get started with the awesomeness of DocBook!23:09
emmajanewoo!23:09
emmajanelet's hear some noise in #ubuntu-classroom-chat!23:09
emmajaneYAY DocBOOK!23:09
* emmajane notes the chat channel is waning.23:10
emmajanealrighty!23:10
emmajaneThe notes for this talk are at: http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/160267/23:11
emmajaneplease feel free to read ahead, but try to keep questions "on topic." Thanks!23:11
emmajaneOh wait. jcastro can you do a topic change?23:11
emmajaneI don't know how to do fancy IRC things. :/23:11
* emmajane proceeds.23:12
emmajaneNext up we're going to look at the format of the source files for the Ubuntu system documentation files. I've been working with DocBook and talking about it for over five years. My first exposure to DocBook was through The Linux Documentation Project (www.tldp.org) where I was an author and later a coordinator.23:12
emmajaneThis talk has several parts:23:12
emmajane1. Choosing a markup language23:12
emmajane2. Looking at DocBook files23:12
emmajane3. DocBook editors23:12
emmajane4. Common DocBook tags23:12
emmajane5. Transformations23:12
=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to Open Week || Session: 2100-2300 UTC: Working with System Docs - Docbook || https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek || All questions to #ubuntu-classroom-chat
emmajaneThis talk is significantly less reading and a lot more poking around with files. Let's get started...23:13
emmajaneTopic 1: Choosing a Markup Language.23:13
emmajaneThere are three parts to a published document (whether in-print or on-line):23:13
emmajane1. The Content23:13
emmajane2. The Markup (Semantics)23:13
emmajane3. The Transformation (Style)23:13
emmajaneLet's take a look at each one briefly:23:13
emmajaneContent is the most important thing you'll ever do (when it comes to technical documentation)!!23:13
emmajaneThe markup language, such as DocBook, is used to describe the content. Adding meaningful tags to your document helps keep consistent formatting.23:13
emmajaneThe transformation is what converts the document into a human-readable format. The final file might be rendered by a browser, or output from a printer.23:14
emmajaneThere are a lot of converters available which allow you to switch from one markup language to another. This means you can write your documentation in just about any format you'd like. Even if it's just plain text, that's fine!23:14
emmajaneOf course if you want to submit system documentation to the Ubuntu project it will need to use the markup language DocBook.23:14
emmajaneFor more information read: The Secret Life of Markup by Steven Champeon http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/42/index4a.html23:14
emmajaneAs you can see Markup is just *part* of what it takes to write good documentation.23:15
emmajaneBut in this session we're going to focus on only that one slice: the markup.23:16
emmajaneTopic 2: Looking at DocBook files23:16
emmajaneLet's take a look at a DocBook file. In a Web browser, please pull up the following page. It's a sample document from the ubuntu documentation project. Please have your browser window open next to the IRC window as I'm going to be referencing this file.23:16
emmajanehttp://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-doc/ubuntu-doc/ubuntu-karmic/annotate/head%3A/about-ubuntu/C/about-ubuntu.xml23:16
emmajaneIf you've finished downloading the system files, you can also peek inside: ubuntu-doc/about-ubuntu/C/about-ubuntu.xml23:17
emmajaneNow that you've got that file open, let's take a look.... actually first off: is anyone here colour blind? It makes life a little more tricky if you are...23:17
emmajaneThere are a few different kinds of things that I'd like you to see. First of all: DocBook is a tag-based markup language. Anything inside of a green <tag> is a little piece of DocBook.23:18
emmajanePlease scroll down to line 48. Take a look at that line.. it's real text! DocBook merely provides the structure to a bunch of plain text words.23:18
emmajaneNow scroll back up to line 29. Do you see the word that is bold and in reddish-brown? &distro-rev; This is an entity--it refers to another file somewhere else and allows the documentation team to place identical content into various parts of the documentation.23:19
emmajaneWant to see what the value is for that entity? Take a look at the "rendered" version of that XML file. On your desktop, navigate to System -> About Ubuntu. it's the same content, but rendered for human consumption! (I think transformations are cool, but I might be sort of weird.)23:20
emmajaneStep away from the scary DocBook file and take a look at the rendered text in the System menu....23:20
emmajane<dinda> Why do some lines wrap and others don't?23:21
emmajanegood question! This is "simply" to do with the settings that each of the authors used.23:21
emmajaneWhite space is ignored.23:21
emmajaneHas everyone taken a look at System, About Ubuntu?23:22
emmajaneGo take a peek!23:22
emmajaneYou can see how the words that were &something; have been converted into real text that is relevant to your system.23:23
emmajanefor example: mine says 9.04. But if you're running LTS it'll say 8.0423:23
emmajanecool, eh?23:23
emmajaneok....Let's take a look at what else is in this file....ah right, the stuff at the top in light blue. These are the instructions that talk about what version of DocBook the document is using (4.1.2), where the files are that contain the entities (.ent files).23:23
emmajane(back in the Web browser)23:23
emmajane<dinda> QUESTION: Why can't we just use a wysiwyg editor for docbook?23:23
emmajaneWe'll take a look at possible editors in the next section. Good news: you can use a WYSIWYG editor...sometimes.23:24
emmajaneWe can also see that this is an "article." You can also make "books" and "slides" using DocBook.23:24
emmajaneWithout going into the tags themselves, are there any other questions about what a DocBook file is?23:24
emmajaneWe've taken a look at the "code" and the output.... but what other questions do you have?23:25
emmajane<jtholmes> looks a lot like XML always has ending tags23:26
emmajaneAbsolutely!23:26
emmajanethat's exactly what DocBook is. :)23:26
emmajanesee up at the top of the web page there's a long URI that ends in .DTD? That's exactly the same as other XML files except this time it's DocBook XML23:27
emmajaneTopic 3: DocBook editors23:27
emmajaneFortunately you can use just about any kind of text editor for DocBook. You may want to use a fancy XML editor, or a graphical editor (like OpenOffice.org), or just a regular text editor (like gedit).23:27
emmajane(sad news)23:27
emmajaneNote: right now I'm getting Java errors in Jaunty when I try to open an XML file in OOo. I know that you can edit DocBook in OpenOffice.org v3, but I'm not sure which package is not provided in Jaunty by default. I'll post something in the transcript of this session when I know more....23:27
emmajaneWhat text editors are you using right now? Let's take a look at whether or not you are already equipped to edit a DocBook file.23:28
emmajaneHow many people use vim?23:28
emmajaneHow many people use gedit or the KDE editor?23:28
emmajaneHow many people use Emacs?23:28
emmajaneHow many people use OpenOffice.org?23:28
emmajaneOr something else entirely!23:28
* emmajane collates responses from -chat: jEdit, Vim23:29
emmajaneThe hardest part about editing the system documentation is finding the right file to edit. Take a look in your Web browser again.23:29
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xray7224i use vim :P23:29
emmajaneSee the link at the top to "download file"? Go ahead and click it now... Save the file to your desktop. Next open up your favourite text editor. If you don't have a favourite, use gEdit which is available under Applications, Accessories, Text Editor.23:29
* emmajane adds bluefish to the list of editors.23:30
emmajane(this is in your Web browser again)23:30
emmajaneOnce again, that Web page is at: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-doc/ubuntu-doc/ubuntu-karmic/annotate/head%3A/about-ubuntu/C/about-ubuntu.xml23:30
emmajaneOnce you've downloaded the file, make sure you open it up in a text editor.23:31
emmajaneIt's all scary and voodoo in there, but it's also "just" a plain text file that you can open with any text editor. (Yes, even Notepad on windows.)23:32
emmajaneYou can see that even though DocBook looks like "code" it's a simple text file that can be edited "by hand."23:32
emmajaneNow that we have file open, let's look even closer...23:33
emmajaneTopic 4: Common DocBook tags23:33
emmajaneThe tags in DocBook are a way of adding meaning to plain text content. There is a really great online reference book at http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/docbook.html which explains what all of that tags are. There are HUNDREDS and that can be a little bit overwhelming.23:33
emmajaneRemember though: when you looked at the System Documentation (About ubuntu) all of those tags were hidden and instead you were seeing nicely formatted text.23:33
emmajaneOne way to get a feel for DocBook is to look through an existing file to see which tags have been used.23:34
emmajaneIf you are using a GUI editor, like OpenOffice.org you would never need to see these tags.23:34
emmajaneUnfortunately, because there are so many tags (over 300) it's hard for graphical editors to implement the *entire* set.23:35
=== drostie is now known as drostie|dreams
emmajaneThis is why it's taken so long for OOo and other graphical editors to get on board.23:35
emmajaneHere are some common tags in a comparison table that shows HTML and DocBook:23:35
emmajanehttp://web.archive.org/web/20041024082240/xtrinsic.com/lsm/docbook/foil14.html23:35
emmajaneYes, that's sort of a horrible URL to use... it's from a talk I gave in 2004 about DocBook as found in archive.org. This also shows you that unlike a lot of stuff, DocBook rarely changes. ;)23:36
emmajaneOnce you get the hang of it, you're golden!23:36
emmajaneAnd here are some tags that are very common in the Ubuntu system documentation:23:36
emmajanehttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/DocbookTags23:36
emmajaneAnd also a great summary of the whole process (including common DocBook tags) at: http://www.lynxworks.eu/files/BugsPlaybook.pdf23:36
emmajaneHTML has about 1/3 the number of tags, so it feels "easier" to people who are new to markup language.23:37
emmajanerealistically though, *nobody* uses them all. ;)23:37
emmajane<dinda> QUESTION: are their any known 'problem' tags?  ones to avoid using23:38
emmajaneProblem tags will depend on your transformation toolkit.23:38
emmajaneSometimes things like graphics get a little bit dicey.23:38
emmajaneGenerally though, if you can figure out the tags, someone else will have figured out how to do the transformations. :)23:39
emmajaneDoes anyone have questions about the tags they're seeing in their text editor?23:39
emmajaneIt's a fairly straight forward set of tags. Nothing TOO fancy.23:40
emmajaneIf you've downloaded the source files from the previous session as well, you can go poke around in those files to see if there are other tags that are "intriguing."23:41
emmajane<jtholmes> QUESTION: does intentation leading white space matter23:41
emmajaneJust like all XML: white space is ignored.23:41
emmajane<dinda> QUESTION: Lines 42, 43  and others have what look like old line numbers - are those part of the revision history?23:42
emmajaneClick them and see what happens. :)23:42
emmajaneIndeed it is part of the revision history. Loggerhead (the graphical viewer) automatically links them to the "older" version of the file.23:43
emmajaneWhere there are numbers, like line 16, it has to do with merged branches.23:43
emmajane<mfitzhugh> What do status attributes refer to?23:44
emmajaneThose are internal flags for the documentation team to say whether or not the material as been reviewed.23:44
emmajaneDougieRichardson, are you still up?23:45
emmajaneDougieRichardson, can you speak to those?23:45
DougieRichardsonemmajane: sorry wasn't paying attention - what was the question23:45
DougieRichardsonAh status?23:45
emmajanelook up three lines. ;)23:45
emmajanee.g.  <sect1 id="about-ubuntu-name" status="review">23:46
DougieRichardsonWe use them within the team to control where we're at with them23:46
emmajaneWhat are the other options?23:46
DougieRichardsonreview - needs review23:46
emmajanei.e. what other "status" can a section have?23:46
DougieRichardsonit can be anything23:46
DougieRichardsonbut writing23:46
DougieRichardsonreview23:46
DougieRichardsonand complete are the most common23:47
emmajaneexcellent, thanks. :)23:47
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DougieRichardsonwe don't use them as much as we could do though23:47
DougieRichardsonso I wouldn't worry too much23:47
emmajaneok, last topic! :)23:48
emmajaneTopic 5: Transformations23:48
emmajaneAnd finally there are transformations. This is the part of the process that allows you to convert DocBook into one of the many formats that we use as part of the documentation team. For example: the Web based version of the system documentation.23:48
emmajaneFortunately you don't really need to worry about transformations when you are contributing to the system documentation as this is handled by a set of tools on the server side.23:48
emmajaneBut what if you want to read the documentation that you're working on? It's sort of hard to "see" what you're writing about if you're working in DocBook.23:48
emmajaneYou'll need to "transform" your DocBook into something that you can read!23:49
emmajaneOne of the best little tools for this is a command line utility called xmlto. You can install it using Synaptic or at the command line. If you are working at the command line use the following:23:49
emmajane$ sudo apt-get install xmlto23:49
emmajaneOnce installed you can convert your xml files to PDFs using the following command:23:49
emmajane$ xmlto pdf yourdocbookfile.xml23:49
emmajaneIf you're just reading the files yourself, this is probably more than enough. There are more complicated setups, of course. But I like to keep things simple where I can!23:50
emmajaneFor example: this tool won't be enough if you also need to embed fonts and do any kind of crazy customizations to your files, but it will be "good enough" to read the files you're writing in DocBook.23:50
emmajaneAnd that, in a 40 minute nutshell, is DocBook! We covered:23:51
emmajane1. Choosing a markup language23:51
emmajane2. Looking at DocBook files23:51
emmajane3. DocBook editors23:51
emmajane4. Common DocBook tags23:51
emmajane5. Transformations23:51
emmajaneWe've still got another 10 minutes and then it's an open slot after this. Please feel free to hammer the -chat channel with questions!!23:52
emmajaneWe'll start off with a recap of what an entity is...23:52
emmajaneAn "entity" is a short form that allows you to refer to text elsewhere.23:53
emmajaneYou can think of this as a portal.23:53
emmajaneLike a black hole portal. They take you to another dimension.23:53
emmajaneIf we go back to the Web-based file you saw a number of black hole portals (entities).23:54
emmajanethey always start with & and end with ;23:54
emmajane<dinda> like a time portal or black hole portal?23:54
emmajane<dinda> ah, like a worm hole ;)23:54
emmajaneI have to paste that clarification because I'm a Luddite when it comes to sci fi references. :)23:54
emmajaneWhen a document is rendered into something its new form, all of the entities are expanded and the little worlds of text that were contained on the other end of the worm hole "appear" in the full document.23:55
emmajaneIn the Web URL that we looked at the version of Ubuntu was expanded from &distro-rev; to 9.0423:56
emmajaneThis means we don't have to search and replace 9.04 when it's time for 9.10. We just update the other end of the worm hole to have the new value.23:56
emmajaneat the other end of the worm hole it looks like this:23:57
emmajane<!ENTITY language "en">23:57
emmajaneIf I wanted to put "en" somewhere I would use &language;23:57
emmajanethis is especially relevant for HTML pages.23:58
emmajane<dinda> How do I reuse entities in another set of files?23:58
emmajaneagain we can refer to that Web file.23:58
emmajane<!ENTITY % gnome-menus-C SYSTEM "../../libs/gnome-menus-C.ent">23:59
emmajanein this case the value of the entity is stored in an external file, libs/gnome-menus-C.ent23:59

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