The Community Council has recently implemented some changes to community governance processes which it believes reflect a significant improvement in one area of community governance: applications for Ubuntu membership.

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

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

Americas
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Asia / Oceania

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

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

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

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

Edubuntu at Technology In Education Conference
The Colorado Local Community Team manned a Canonical/Ubuntu booth at the Technology in Education Conference in Copper Mountain. The general consensus was that the Ubuntu session turned out to be “the cool session” amongst all of the conference attendees for that day, nearly one thousand classroom teachers, administrators and technology enthusiasts from around Colorado and surrounding states. Edubuntu was the main focus and was run on an HP server in a thin-client configuration.
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Do You Edubuntu?
Jeff Hastings test drives the open source suite
School Library Journal, 7/1/2007

Edubuntu, the Linux-based operating system and open-source educational software suite, is so startlingly good in so many ways that it’s difficult to know where to begin. So let’s start here: it’s free. That’s right, you can download Edubuntu from the Web site or request a copy or two on CD and they’ll ship it. All the way from Belgium. Free!

Full article.

Richard Weideman along with lead developer Oliver Grawert and the Edubuntu and Linux Terminal Server teams have announced the release of Edubuntu 6.10, code-named the Edgy Eft.

Edubuntu out now!

Edubuntu combines the power of the Ubuntu core system with the best software for the job from the GNOME and KDE worlds. For efficient, affordable computing, Edubuntu is designed to work out of the box across many Thin Client computers using the LTSP (Linux Terminal Services Project).

• KDEedu 3.5.5: software including KStars, KGeography and KTurtle
• Gcompris 7.4: around 50 activities, including Tangram, Mosic and memory games.
• Schooltool 0.11: The Shuttleworth Foundation sponsored management and adminstration support system, including the SchoolBell calendaring solution.
• Tux4kids: even more high quality, freely-usable education software.
• Firefox 2.0: safer and more secure browsing for everyone.
• Evolution 2.8.0: a familiar email interface on the power of Edubuntu, now with vertical panes for email viewing.
• Student Control Panel: unified, powerful teacher management tool for the Edubuntu and LTSP experience.
• Local device support: LTSP-5 support for transparently accessing local iPods, digital cameras, USB and CD-rom storage attached to an individual client computers, even when the software is running on a central server.

Edubuntu remains 100% Free Software, ensuring that everyone is free to use and share Edubuntu without costly licensing fees.

Download Edubuntu today and help everyone to learn.

Edubuntu, the educational derivative of Ubuntu is making waves across the world. So much so that the first Edubuntu book in Indonesia was written by Prihantoosa of the Ubuntu Indonesia LoCo team and Rusmanto (Editor in Chief for Info Linux Magazine in Indonesia). The title of the book in English is Edubuntu, Pratical Linux Guide for Education.

Prihantoosa is a seasoned veteren in Edubuntu land, and has already held Edubuntu Install Fests twice. See here and here for more details.

To get a firm idea of what the book is about, this is the foreword (translated to English):

“Meant for practical guideline, this book can be use for teachers and students who want to increase their skill in utilizing computer as a mean of education, from Kindergarten through High School, even College. The book discusses the use of Linux as an operating system, computer learning for kid, learning other subjects with the help of computer and Linux. Interrelated school subjects or college, such as mathematics, drawing, and natural science.

You can also have Linux Edubuntu CD’s, bundled with this book, which is one of the Ubuntu variants that is furnished with many tools for education. This book and CD is not only suitable to support formal education, but can also use as a non-formal and self-learning at home or office.

The first two chapters within this book, are introducing readers to Linux, how to make an installation and un-installation of Linux Edubuntu, adding and removing programs, and running all of the applications in it. Chapter three, discussing education application KDEdu to learn some branches of mathematics and natural science, language, typing, etc. Chapter four discusses special education application for kids, such as Gcompris which comprise of many subjects, TuxMath to learn how to count, and TuxTyping to learn how to type. Chapter five discussing the use of computer to learn how to draw, photo manipulation, creating photo album, coloring picture, or just as simple as showing some pictures.”

So, education fans, get out and get your hands on a copy!

Edubuntu - Ubuntu’s educationally slanted spin-off - has helped a British nursery to make use of two donated PCs.

“We’ve just installed these two donated computers in a community nursery and breakfast/after schol club in Lincolnshire, England. The machines are 600mhz/128mb/4.2gig and they took about three quarters of an hour to install and configure perfectly, and have cost the centre nothing!

The kids absolutely love them, most are from underpriviledged backgrounds and many of them have never used a computer before. As a result they will grow up computer literate. The nursery just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks for all of the effort and long hours that the community has put into creating this superb collection of software.

Keep up the good work!”

Congrats to the Edubuntu team!

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: http://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuWiki

Of particular interest to educators is the new Edubuntu distribution, which is a special version of Ubuntu Linux tailored for schools. The first Edubuntu release only represents a few months of work, so its goals are modest, particularly for the casual user.

Its big innovation is infra-structural: a significant re-working of the architecture of the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP), which is used to connect Linux thin clients to a server. A computer with Edubuntu installed is ready to act as a thin client server right out of the box.

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: http://www.edubuntu.org/

• Location: IRC channel #ubuntu-meeting
• Agenda: http://www.edubuntu.org/

Here are the meeting notes from this week’s Edubuntu meeting held on September 28th:

• Mauricio Hernandez has volunteered to get a design for Edubuntu 5.10 CDs sorted out. Idea is to use children in a ring image and logo etc. We need a CD label and a CD sleeve/cover. Note that as we have no LiveCD we will just have a single installer CD. Only Intel x86 CDs will be created for now.
• Oliver Grawert is working on the high priority xscreensaver changes for Mark Shuttleworth, these should be completed by the end of the week.
• Oliver Grawert will work on the remaining n3 Edubuntu issues after XSS, to be completed before October 13 for the release.
• Jonathan Carter is working on the html pages, will have first draft ready by the end of this week.
• Jerome Gotangco has worked on docs: About Edubuntu and Release Notes