The Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) is the most important event in the Ubuntu calendar. It is where we get together to discuss, design, and plan the next version of Ubuntu; in this case the Ubuntu 11.10 release.

The next UDS takes place at Corinthia Grand Hotel, Budapest, Hungary from the 9th – 13th May 2011. You can find out more about why UDS is interesting from the perspective of a member of the community, an upstream contributor, and a vendor. We also welcome everyone to participate remotely if you can’t attend the event in person. More more details on how to get there, see this page.

At the heart of a great UDS is a diverse group of attendees who can bring their experience and expertise to the discussions. You don’t have to be technical, or be a programmer or packager to attend – UDS is open to everyone (including non-Ubuntu folks) and free to attend. We encourage everyone with an interest in Ubuntu to attend.

Sponsorship

For every UDS Canonical sponsors the hotel and accommodation of a set of community members to ensure they are free to contribute and bring value to the discussions. We have a limited budget so we can’t sponsor everyone, but we are always keen to have a capable and diverse group to sponsor:

• We strive to support community members who are actively involved in Ubuntu and who are providing significant and sustained contributions to the Ubuntu project.
• We always welcome Upstream contributors who are bring value to Ubuntu indirectly via active participation in their upstream project, but who are keen to see quality support for that upstream in Ubuntu.
• Contributors are willing to actively participate not only throughout the full Ubuntu Developer Summit week, but also following with active contributions throughout the release cycle.
• We are always keen to welcome members of the community who have never been to UDS before and are keen to participate and experience the event.
• You don’t have to provide technical contributions to apply – if you have participated in the areas of advocacy, documentation, testing, art, design etc, you are encouraged to apply.
• UDS is an event that encourages diversity – we welcome everyone to apply for sponsorship, irrespective of gender, race, impairment, technical expertise, or other factors.

If you are participating in the Ubuntu community, we would love you to apply for sponsorship. This is how it works:

1. You can apply for sponsorship by following these instructions. Apologies for the different forms you need to fill in – we are going to consolidate these forms at the next UDS. The deadline for submissions is 29th March 2011 so be sure to get yours in!
2. When the deadline is reached we will assess the applications and finalize who we will be able to sponsor.
3. You will then receive an email outlining whether we can sponsor you or not.

Simple! I look forward to seeing your applications, and seeing many of you in Budapest!

Building A Diverse Ubuntu Developer Summit

For the this UDS we have set out with a goal to promote an even more diverse and welcoming environment. We have been working with the Ubuntu Women and Ubuntu Accessibility teams to optimize UDS as a great example of diversity done right at an event.

As part of this, the Ubuntu Women team are engaging in an outreach campaign to encourage more women to apply for sponsorship at UDS. We would like to see a greater attendance and participation of women at UDS (not only sponsored, but local attendees too), and the Ubuntu Women team will be reaching out to encourage women to apply for sponsorship and attend.

As part of this work, the Ubuntu Women team are providing mentoring, help and assistance for women who want to apply for sponsorship and ensure they submit the best sponsorship application that they can. To find out more how to use this service, click here.

Thanks also to the Ubuntu Accessibility team for helping us to ensure accessibility needs are factored into the many different elements of the event.

Originally posted here by Jono Bacon on February 23, 2011.

Our next interviewee should be well known to pretty much anyone who has anything to do with Ubuntu.   Jane Silber has been the CEO of Canonical since March 2010.  I will say no more and let you read on…

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.

I’m Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical.  I live in London and hold dual American/British citizenship.   I spell like a Brit,  speak like an American, and wave my hands about like an Italian.  I grew up In Springfield, Illinois and have lived in Washington DC, Nashville, and Yokohama, Japan.  I moved to the UK in 2002. My background includes jobs in start-ups and large companies,  in domains ranging from health risk appraisal to artificial intelligence to military command and control.  I hold degrees in Math/Computer Science from Haverford College, Management of Technology from Vanderbilt University, and an MBA from Oxford University.  Outside of work I enjoy holiday travel, live performances, engrossing books, good food, witty people, and new experiences.

2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?

I first became interested in computers in high school, and studied computer science in much more depth in college. At the risk of sounding ancient, I first learned programming in Pascal and FORTRAN, and worked for many years as a C and C++ developer. I became aware of Linux through Unix while working in Japan, and found my way to Ubuntu when I joined Canonical in 2004 (back in the no-name-yet.com days!).

3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?

My first involvement with forums was before they existed! Ryan Troy took the initiative to contact me with a proposal for the Ubuntu Forums, and we discussed how to set them up, what it would mean to make them “official”, etc.  I continue to be astounded by and appreciative of the effort that the Forum staff and users put into the site.

4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?

No answer supplied.

5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?

All Ubuntu all the time! I probably spend most of my time in Thunderbird, but one of my favourite apps is the Ubuntu Software Centre. As I answer these questions, my open apps are Thunderbird, Firefox, OpenOffice, Gwibber and Pidgin. I don’t really have a least favourite application, other than the games in Ubuntu that on occasion lure me into wasting many hours!  For example, I have a long-standing backgammon battle against my laptop in GNU Backgammon.

6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?

I have so many fond memories  it is impossible to pick.  My repeating highlight is probably each Ubuntu Developer Summit.  It’s so exciting to catch up with other Canonical folks, as well as the familiar names from the community. And there is a real sense of excitement and adrenalin at each UDS as new faces join the community, new companies who are using or shipping Ubuntu come to participate, and the next version of Ubuntu begins to emerge from the collaboration.

Outside of UDS, I love hearing the personal stories of random Ubuntu sightings – e.g.,  airport screeners recognising Ubuntu stickers on laptops, taxi drivers recognising Ubuntu t-shirts, the thank you notes we receive from all over the world, etc.  Those stories remind me of how large an impact the project has, beyond my day to day focus of making Ubuntu and Canonical successful.

7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?

I think I’ve had quite a bit . Some of that is direct advocacy amongst family and friends, just like so many of you do.  Amongst my many activities at Canonical,  I  ran the ShipIt programme for quite a long time, and I think that has had a big impact on introducing new users to Ubuntu!

8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?

I’d like to see Linux  be the standard platform underlying people’s computing experiences. It already achieves that in many behind the scenes ways, and one of the reasons we focused on the desktop initially was to bring the goodness of Linux and open source in the limelight for a larger number of users.  I think that in order to achieve that, the Linux and open source community writ large need to avoid the temptation to tear each other down, but rather realise that a big tent approach strengthens us all.

9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

Tell others!  We want Ubuntu to be fantastic for those in the Ubuntu and open source community, but also for those who simply want a great experience. Each Ubuntu user becomes a member of an ever-widening circle, and each can help that circle grow.

Originally Posted here on 2011-02-23