Hello list, hello Jono, My name is Mark Van den Borre [1][2]. I'm a classical guitarist and I coordinate ubuntu-be.org. Our main successes to date are bootstrapping a network of over 150 Ubuntu volunteers in our small country [3][4], and getting quite a bit of mainstream press coverage for the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS launch (example: [5]).
You asked [6] for input on the community/foundation/Canonical relation. I'll start by describing a successful ubuntu-be.org project and end with a suggestion. A SUCCESS.... http://map.ubuntu-be.org is a network of local Ubuntu volunteers (160 and growing!) offering their help to would-be Ubuntu users. Since the start in June 2006, about 150 requests have been handled. I see that as a big success for a simple idea. Volunteers know what they are in for. They know their job: distribution of CD's, demonstration to new users and/or first installation help to new users. They commit themselves for a limited period: six months or a year, renewable. They know the volunteer ubuntu-be.org admins take privacy very seriously. Most importantly, it's really easy for a volunteer to step in. To the user, too, map.ubuntu-be.org is easy and transparent. Every >50k city in Belgium has at least one enthousiastic volunteer reachable in a simple klick. ... BUT NOT WITHOUT ISSUES ... The process isn't running as smoothly as it could though. Two very urgent problems to solve are: * volunteer management. The admin having to manually edit the volunteers mysql db is a bottleneck, to say the least. * tracking requests. The system mails request to the volunteer, with an archival adress in cc. No idea of which requests were successfully handled. Besides that, lots of improvement ideas are floating around. Some ideas, schematicly: * a map of volunteers, commercial offerings, events * local places to buy Ubuntu friendly hardware: laptops without OS/ubuntu preinstalled, open specced scanners, webcams, 3d accellerated video, wifi, ... . The volunteer infrastructure can serve as a way to maintain this. * integration of the volunteer map with a ticketing system and questions tree/knowledge base * an easy, viral way to convert enthousiastic users into volunteers * statistics (google analytics,...) * followup in x months: "Are you using Ubuntu now? If not, what made you decide to go back to $PREVIOUS_PLATFORM?" WE NEED HELP Bootstrapping the technical side of a locoteam tool is hard for ubuntu-be.org alone. Development is progressing slowly but steadily. Maybe web developers from your locoteam could help us? If enough locoteams show their interest, I'm sure Canonical will see the importance of helping us. After all, this is about us locoteams developing tools we need to prosper. And what's good for locoteams is good for Canonical... Sincerely, Mark Van den Borre ubuntu-be.org [1] https://launchpad.net/people/mark-markvdb [2] http://markvdb.be [3] http://map.ubuntu-be.org/nl [4] http://map.ubuntu-be.org/fr [5] http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=GI6T3PF2 [6] http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=738 and other places -- Mark Van den Borre Noormannenstraat 113 3000 Leuven, België +32 486 961726 -- loco-contacts mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
