New operators appointed on #ubuntu, #ubuntu-offtopic and #kubuntu

The IRC Council has chosen a number of new operators for the #ubuntu, #ubuntu-offtopic and #kubuntu channels. This is the result of our first round of the new operator recruitment process based on Launchpad teams. We are pleased to find that the process works smoothly. Great candidates showed up, and the Council were technically well enabled to do our part of the job.

  • The new members of the #ubuntu operator team will be Anthony Hook (h00k), Giovanni Chiazzese (IdleOne), Mackenzie Morgan (maco) and Nathan Handler (nhandler).
  • The new members of the #ubuntu-offtopic team will be Anthony Hook (h00k) and Matt Wheeler (funkyHat).
  • The new member of the #kubuntu team will be Ralph Janke (txwikinger).

Welcome, new members! Big thanks to all the applicants. we were forced to turn down a few good candidates, and wish they will apply again when more operators are needed.

The new members will be soon formally accepted through Launchpad. The new operators will now enter a probation period and assigned a mentor, as described on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/Probation . Mentors will soon contact the new operators and establish communication to ensure smooth entrance into the team and their new duties.

Thanks again to all who offered to help as operators!

[Discuss the New Operators on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-irc Mailing List by Juha Siltala on Fri Apr 16 11:49:09 BST 2010

Ubuntu Women World Play Day Competition!

Following the success of our International Women’s Day competition we have a new competition!

Firstly, some introductory reading for those who are not familiar with World Play Day: http://www.itla-toylibraries.org/wpdv.htm which is an initiative of http://www.itla-toylibraries.org

A pivotal issue within computing cultures of today is the overemphasis on boys and men as the primary consumers of technology. Children learn by example and since the majority of media images consist of boys playing computer type games and girls playing with stereotypical princess type dolls; this contributes to the lack of involvement in science and technology by our young women.

It hurts us all to have this subconscious of pigeonholing of our children, and to help counter this for Ubuntu’s community, we would love to have a collection of examples of young girls (toddlers through to 12 years old) playing with — and loving, and being encouraged to pursue — Ubuntu. This would allow parents of girls to demonstrate that it really is ok to be intrigued by the shiny screens, blinking lights, tappity-tap of keyboards, and faint whirs of computer fans.

The girls do not have to be alone in the photos, and photos taken prior to this announcement are eligible. We are not expecting any particular pose, but we would much prefer candid shots — they say SO much more. We do prefer that the images come at a large resolution, in a standard format (JPEG, PNG) and not embedded in documents. Please email your photos (or links to flickr, etc.) to ubuntuwomen.competition at gmail.com by UTC 23:59 14th of May 2010.

By submitting a photo, you acknowledge that it will be posted on the Ubuntu Women Website under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license, with special considerations for use within the Ubuntu Women and Ubuntu project (please see Photo/Model Release waiver). If you prefer that your photo to be posted under a less restrictive license such as Creative Commons Attribution or Public Domain, then feel free to let us know when you submit. As this competition involves visual depictions of people, we will require that a Photo/Model Release” waiver be signed for each person in the photo. A parent or guardian of minors must sign this waiver form for their children or charges.

There will be two (2) prizes up for grabs. One (1) prize will be given to the photo that the community feels sells the “girls love computers” line the best. One (1) prize will be given to a randomly drawn entrant. Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager will be drawing this entrant in a videocast, and announcing both winners to the world on May 28th.

We will celebrate World Play Day by announcing the two winners. The first of whom will be the popular voted Community Choice, and will receive a Dell Mini 10n (or equivalent net-book based on availability). The second winner chosen by random drawing will receive a Canonical Sponsored Ubuntu SWAG collection that includes: Mouse- pad, Silly putty, Recycled Ubuntu Notepad, Ubuntu pen, Ubuntu lanyard, Ubuntu pack of 3 pin-badges and 1 Organic Circle of Friends Ladies T-shirt.

Good Luck!

p.s: Please pass this along to as many Linux-using parents of young girls as possible — the more the merrier!

[Discuss the Ubuntu Women World Play Day Competition on the Forum]

Originally sent to the Ubuntu Women Mailing List by Melissa Draper on Tue Apr 13 16:58:21 BST 2010

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #188

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #188 for the week April 4th – April 10th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 2 released
* Countdown Banner is live, help spread the word
* Regional Membership Boards: Restaffing
* Call for New Operators in the #ubuntu, #kubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic channels
* Patch Day, May 5th 2010
* Next Ubuntu Hug Day! – April 15
* Ubuntu Stats
* Launchpad News
* Being passionate about some things
* Website Localization Project Meeting
* Reviving the Ubuntu Accessibility Team
* Ubuntu One contact phone sync opened again
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Canonical Upgrading GNOME Bugzilla and Commercial Sponsorship
* Ubuntu’s News Web Office Integration
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Amber Graner
* Chris Johnston
* Liraz Siri
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

New Chief Editor for the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter

Changes are taking place at the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter and I wanted to give everyone the heads up.

After over 2 1/2 years, and 140 issues of the UWN, I am stepping down as chief editor of the publication. I am not running off, but moving into more of a supervisory role.

Our new chief editor will need no introduction to a lot of you in the Ubuntu Community. She’s Amber Graner, and I know she’ll expand and improve our publication just as all the previous editors of the UWN have tried to do. Since joining the Ubuntu Community Amber has tirelessly worked and volunteered on many teams and projects. She has a great feel for the community, and I know she’ll do a great job with the UWN.

As our Ubuntu Community has grown, so has the UWN. The available news items, blog articles, and community team news has increase dramatically since I started working on the publication. This of course is a great thing.

This growth has it’s drawbacks too. Within our own community, as teams grow, as teams change leaders, and as teams branch off from each other, it’s makes it harder for our team to gather the community news. So, I want to take a moment to remind everyone that the best way to report your team news is to send an email to the Ubuntu News Team Mailing List.

It has been my great pleasure to work on the UWN, and with our wonderful team of volunteers. Each week they tirelessly endeavour to bring you the Ubuntu news. Very few Ubuntu teams put out a finished product each and every week. It’s one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.

Coming up in July of this year is our 200th issue of the UWN. Amber, myself, and the rest of the UWN team are already in the planning stages for this milestone issue. We will be in contact with many of our community leaders and teams for interviews, comments, and input for the issue. We hope to make it an “Issue To Remember” just like the 100th issue was.

I know the Ubuntu Community will stand behind, and assist Amber in her new adventure as chief editor of the UWN. I know I will be!!!

Regional Membership Boards: Restaffing

On 2010-05-05 the following members of the Regional Membership Boards
will expire:

  • Americas: Cody A.W. Somerville, Elizabeth Krumbach, Mike Basinger, Pedro Villavivencio, Richard Johnson
  • Asia/Oceania: Andi Darmawan, Emmet Hikory, Luke Yelavich, Melissa Draper, Robert Collins, Zak B. Elep, ??????? (amachu)
  • EMEA: Alan Pope, Dennis Kaarsemaker, Mark Van den Borre, Matthew Helmke, Stéphane Graber, Szilvester Farkas

We are looking for nominations for the boards. You can either nominate yourself or somebody else. Please add some information about yourself to the mail. (Expiring members can be re-nominated too.)

We have the following requirements for nominees:

  • be an Ubuntu member
  • be confident that you can judge contributions to various parts of our community
  • be available during typical meeting times of the board in question
  • insight into the culture(s) and typical activities within a geographic region covered by the board is a plus

Here a slightly longer version that explains a bit better what kind of community members we are looking for: Those sitting on membership boards are people who are insightful. They are current Ubuntu Members with a proven track record of activity in the community. They have shown themselves over time to be able to work well with others and display the positive aspects of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. They should be people who can discern character and judge contribution quality without emotion while engaging in an interview/discussion that communicates interest, a welcoming atmosphere, and which is marked by humanity, gentleness, and kindness. Even when they must deny applications, they should do so in such a way that applicants walk away with a sense of hopefulness and a desire to return with a more complete application rather than feeling discouraged or hurt.

To nominate yourself or somebody else, please send a mail to the board you are nominating yourself for (ubuntu-membership-board-emea, ubuntu-membership-board-asia-oceania or ubuntu-membership-board-americas at lists.ubuntu.com). Try to explain your nomination. There is still time for nominations until Fri 23rd April 2010 12 UTC. All nominations will be forwarded to the Community Council who will make the final decision.

Thanks in advance to you and thanks a lot also to the dedication everybody put into their jobs as board members.

[Discuss the Regional Membership Boards Restaffing on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-news-team mailing list by Daniel Holbach on Thu Apr 8 16:28:03 BST 2010