Please share with [email protected] thx!
ace David Groos wrote: > Jordan, I really appreciate your focus on community and working on > growing it. As I believe Lns. once said, the thing special about > Edubuntu isn't the software but the community. I've learned a lot about > the history of Edubuntu and the community which uses it and has > developed it. To grow a community one must know the community and while > there may be a few people here who do know all, is there a page, a > single page, with an overview of the different categories of community > members, who they are, their needs, strengths and knowledge? > > I've watched these many dozens of e-mails these last few days, pondering > my role in it all. Still not sure but as a teacher one of my strengths > is organizing information, 'scaffolding' learning and growing > communities. So... I propose that we need to increase our arsenal of > supportive software. Really, the main collaborative tools of this > community are a wiki, list server, and launchpad, right? We need tools > with additional affordances. Googledocs is great with it's wysiwyg > editor, simultaneous editing, easy sharing and versioning. I recommend > we use this googledoc: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgschn8x_11gtf4ddgc > to create an easily editable page to provide an overview of the people > who make up the community. I'd like to 'share' this document so all > members of the edubuntu community can edit the document. If you would > like to edit it, e-mail me and I'll share it with the e-mail you give me. > > Yours in Education, > > David > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Jordan Mantha <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 3:05 PM, R. Scott Belford<[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > For what it is worth, it is now nearly a year since I tracked down > > every key Canonical employee I could find at Linuxworld 2008, both at > > the conference and at after-hours events, to communicate two > messages: > > the state of Edubuntu and its User community was having an *adverse* > > *impact* on the adoption of gnu/linux in education, particularly in > > thin-client environments,and that two people should be hired - Gavin > > and Asmo. As Ace observed, he actually thought Gavin worked for > > Canonical. I used to think so, too. Asmo has been instrumental at > > greeting and inspiring new users and help-seekers on this list, > and he > > likes Frank Zappa. > > Gavin and Asmo are both great guys and I would love to see people like > them employed to work on Edubuntu. However, Mark Shuttleworth has > indicated to me that Canonical will not be employing anybody to work > on Edubuntu for the foreseeable future so I think any paid developers > are going to have to come from some other source. Edubuntu hasn't had > a paid developer in over a year and it has shown. > > The state of Edubuntu for the last year or so hasn't been that great. > I don't think anybody involved with the project would disagree. The > problem has been that every attempt to get development rebooted has > not gone so well. I don't expect every Edubuntu user to be a bug > filer, doc writer, packager, etc. but *some* people in the community > needs to step up to make things happen. There are way more good ideas > than hands to implement them. > > There seems to be this eternal struggle between Edubuntu users and > developers. Edubuntu users are frustrated with how slow development > goes and how bugs/issues critical to them are not being addressed. > They feel like their voices are not being heard and that perhaps > developers just don't understand their situation. Perhaps they feel > that Edubuntu's full potential is not being realized, especially if > they've invested a lot of time, effort, and reputation in Edubuntu. > > In contrast, Edubuntu developers see day after day where Edubuntu > could be improved, where cracks are showing, and where new features > could be developed but feel powerless to actually do anything about > it. They are frustrated to see the same complaints time and time > again. They are demotivated when 19 out of 20 times when a user comes > to them it is to report a problem, complain about Edubuntu, or even > attack the quality of their work. They may feel that users > misunderstand that resources are the limiting factor, not a lack of > recognition of problem or the desire to fix them. And when they try to > inspire the user community to contribute towards fixing those problems > that they are bringing they are met with a lackluster response. > > So the question that has been racking my mind for the last two years > or so is, how do we take these two populations of people who have a > lot of negative perceptions towards each other and towards Edubuntu > and turn them into a fun, functional, and productive community that is > well-placed to be a dominate force for bringing the best open source > has to offer to the world-wide educational community? > > Obviously I don't have a good answer to this as I've spent countless > hours working on and in the Edubuntu community of the last few years > and it has not really improved. I do have a few thoughts about what > possible solutions might look like though. I think there are both > technical and social solutions that could be involved: > > * evaluation of the current state of Edubuntu, what are its current > strengths and weaknesses? > * finish the Edubuntu Strategy Document, but maybe trying to involve > the user community more. > * perhaps going further and develop a roadmap that outlines > specific, actionable steps for the next couple releases that > emphasizes regaining ground in terms of quality and community > development. > * analysis of the current development processes and especially the > barriers to entry for contribution. Some barrier will always exist but > we should try to remove unnecessary ones > * assess the user < -- > developer communication channels to see if > a big disconnect exists > * encourage a positive, respectful, and constructive community. > Basically, if all you say is negative you end up just being a grumpy > negative person. If users can learn to trust that developers do indeed > want to do the best by their users and if developers can take a step > back and put themselves in the user's shoes for a bit I think we'd all > be better off. It's not like we're all running around yelling at each > other 24x7 but I think we could maybe try to improve the tone on the > mailing lists and IRC. > * encourage leadership and taking ownership of Edubuntu tasks > * develop decent documentation and procedures for handling drive-by > contributions > > I'm sure there are many others but that's what came from the top of > my mind. > > > Some of the Canonical staff who received my message last year are on > > this list. I hope that someone is listening. > > They might be, but there's not a lot Canonical staff can really do at > this point. > > > Oh, and for the record, Most Schools Block IRC Making it an > Impossible > > Communication Venue for Teachers Needing Support. > > > > With Aloha and Respect and an Undying Passion for the Adoption of > FOSS > > in the the K12 Environment > > > > --scott > > > > -- > > edubuntu-users mailing list > > [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users > > > > -- > edubuntu-users mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users > > -- edubuntu-users mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
