The Grand App Writing Challenge

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-02-25

From Jono Bacon’s blog :

Yesterday I gave my talk on opportunistic developers on ustream.tv (which I plan on repeating next week). In that session I floated the idea of having a fun challenge next week when Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week happens. The idea was pretty popular, so I wanted to share it here.

The idea is simple:

Think of a fun program to write, and see how much you can get completed by the end of the week, Fri 5th March 2010. On Friday I will write a blog entry that showcases screenshots of your progress and (if possible) a PPA where people can download a package to try.

Getting Started

Getting started with this is simple. First think of something that would be fun to write. This could be a GUI front-end to a command line tool, a simple app that does something useful for you that will improve your life, a game or anything else. Pick something that isn’t too hard: something that is a good first step to dip your feet into development. Folks, do share ideas for apps in the comments here so those people who can’t think of something have a pool of ideas available. 🙂

When you have idea you can create your app really easily with Quickly. You can first install Quickly from the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center and search for quickly.

When it is installed, just run:

quickly create ubuntu-project

As an example:

quickly create ubuntu-project mycoolapp

Now run:

quickly tutorial

This will explain how to get started working on your application. If you have questions related to using quickly, you can join #quickly on freenode. If you have general software development questions, you can join #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode.

Sharing Your Progress

When you have something you would like me to blog, send an email no later than the end of the day Pacific time on Thu 4th March 2010 to me at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and include:

  • The name of your program and a brief description of what it does.
  • A link to a screenshot online that shows your new app running.
  • If available, tell me the name of the Launchpad project where it is hosted and the PPA with the package. This is a great way for people to try your program and possibly join the project and contribute to it!

I will send a t-shirt out to the three app authors who made the most interesting apps with the most progress. 🙂

Start your engines folks, let’s see what we can do! I can’t wait to see how you folks get on! 🙂

LoCo Stories: the Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-02-24

Starting a new local comunity group requires a mixture of dedication, enthusiastic people and the will to make things happen. And having fun at it. The folks at the Ubuntu Libyan LoCo seem to have all the ingredients for the recipe to success and are showing them off on their way to becoming an approved LoCo team.

Ubuntu is the most used distro in Libya, and the team was born with the lofty goal of supporting the Ubuntu users in the country. Since they first joined the Ubuntu family in Karmic, a lot new members have joined in. They've participated in a great deal of workshops, meetings and discussions, which allowed them to shape the team's plans and goals.

While doing that, they've also participated in educational events organized by local universities and private educational institutes, and we're going to focus in one of them.

As part of its activities and ongoing strive to increase the knowledge of GNU/Linux and Open Source Software, the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam participated in the Technology & Science Fair, organized by The Libyan Information Technology Group during the week of Dec 6th-12th 2009 and hosted by the Al-Fateh University in Tripoli, Libya.

The Libyan Information Technology Group kindly provided a dedicated booth for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam, with an elegant and attractive black and orange Ubuntu theme that clearly stood out in the Fair.

During the period of the Fair, the Libya LoCoTeam distributed 500 ubuntu Karmic CDs to visiting students, IT specialists, Instructors and IT consultants. An Ubuntu installation workshop was also organized by the team after an introductory presentation about Ubuntu.

Many visitors were interested to know more about Ubuntu and Open Source Software and this event was a great opportunity for the Ubuntu Libya LoCoTeam to spread their knowledge and enthusiasm.

Their next event is going to be Libya's first installfest, for which they've set themselves a target of 1000 attendees.

Amazing.

Links

With special thanks to Mohamed Ayad for providing and translating the content from Arabic

Do you have an interesting LoCo story to tell? If you have organized an event, performed some work/advocacy in your local community, have built some resources, performed meetings or installfests, please email David (david.planella AT ubuntu DOT com) or check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoStories. Do remember to send a picture to accompany the story!

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #181

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-02-21

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #181 for the week February 14th – February 20th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Debian Import Freeze in effect
* Feature Freeze in place – Alpha 3 freeze ahead
* New MOTU
* Ubuntu single sign on service launched
* Ubuntu Stats
* Meet Jelmer Vernooij
* Sikuli — scripting your use of GUIs
* The Planet: Daniel, Dustin, Jono, Alan, David, & Robert
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Mark Shuttleworth to give keynote at PyCon 2010
* Ubuntu UK podcast returns
* Ubuntu torrents are now IPv6 enabled
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

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

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* 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

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #180

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-02-14

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #180 for the week February 7th – February 13th, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation!
* Interview With Jono by Joe Barker
* Interview with Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Core Developer about encryption in Ubuntu
* Ubuntu Stats
* Upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam and your Loco Team
* Ubuntu Honduras Loco Team at the T3 conference
* The Planet: Jono Bacon & David Planella
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

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

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* Liraz Siri
* Amber Graner
* 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

Ubuntu Global Jam – 26 March – 28 March 2010

By boredandblogging | Published: 2010-02-12

Hopefully by now you have heard of the Ubuntu Global Jam coming up in March. The dates for the Global Jam this cycle are the 26th through the 28th of March 2010. We are hoping to make this Global Jam extremely successful, and we need your help in doing it. We are wanting to have events in as many places as possible not only to help to improve Ubuntu, but also to help promote Ubuntu.

What is the Global Jam?

The Ubuntu Global Jam is an online and in person event that takes place all across the world. People get together with the interest of making Ubuntu better, while having a good time socializing with other people near you who have the same interest and passion about Ubuntu as you do.

What can your LoCo do?

The Ubuntu Global Jam has many different events that for users to participate in, just pick what you and your members like, and make it happen. You can pick from one or more of the following events:

Bug Jam – During a bug jam users would work on finding, triaging and fixing bugs.

Testing Jam – Lucid is due out the end of April and we need help testing it out prior to its release.

Upgrade Jam – Upgrade systems that are currently running older versions of Ubuntu and report your experience.

Documentation Jam – Write documentation about using Ubuntu, or joining the Ubuntu community, or work on making the existing documentation better.

Translations Jam – Help to make Ubuntu available to everyone. Help translate Ubuntu into your language.

Packaging Jam – Help out with improving packages in Ubuntu.

Other – If your team has some other aspect of helping out the Ubuntu Community, feel free to participate in that for the Global Jam.

You can find out more information about the different types of Jams on the Ubuntu Global Jams wiki page.

How do we run a Jam?

If you have never run a Global Jam event before, or if you have, but would like some fresh ideas, we have three training sessions scheduled between now and the Global Jam event. The training sessions will be held by JorgeCastro and will be held in #ubuntu-locoteams on freenode. The training sessions will take place on:

17 February 2010 at 18:00 UTC

26 February 2010 at 21:00 UTC

10 March 2010 at 21:00 UTC

All three training sessions will contain tips, tricks, pointers and advice on how to run a Jam. You can also find out more information at the Running An Event page on the Ubuntu Wiki.

What is needed to run a Jam?

In order to effectively run a Jam, each event will need a place to meet that has a decent internet connection, as well as some computers, and an area that users can work in. Suggested places are Universities, schools, and neighborhood centers.

Don’t forget after you find a place to run your Jam and have decided what your LoCo wants to do during the Jam, you need to get the word out about your Jam! Blog about it, post it on Twitter and Identi.ca, place it on the Ubuntu Global Jam Events page, send emails to your LoCo’s mailing lists, and anything else that you can think of. The more people that participate, the more fun that you will have, and the more help that can be provided to improve Ubuntu.

Need more help?

Read about what other LoCo’s have done at their Global Jam events for more thoughts and ideas and if you are still in need of more help, or have questions that aren’t covered anywhere, feel free to contact myself via email or on IRC, or attend one of the training sessions listed above.

Reference links:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Stories

[Discuss the Ubuntu Global Jam on the Forum]

Originally posted by Chris Johnston here on 12 February 2010