Making Ubuntu More Accessible
Today I had a great call Penelope Stowe who has been leading some excellent efforts with the [Ubuntu Accessibility Team](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility) in conjunction with the (quite literally) always rocking Luke ‘The Muso’ Yelavich.
The reason for the call was simple: I felt like I didn’t have enough knowledge or visibility of the Ubuntu Accessibility Team and accessibility in general, and when Ubuntu was started, the project made a firm commitment to the core aspects of freedom such as freedom of access to the technology, the freedom to have Ubuntu in your language, and the freedom to experience Ubuntu in an accessible way. Penelope, Luke and others are passionate about bringing the focus back to accessibility more, and I wanted to echo this important ambition here.
Penelope, with some input from Alan Bell, articulated the goals of the project perfectly:
> At the heart of Ubuntu’s philosophy is the belief that computing is for everyone, whatever your circumstances. Ubuntu was certainly hailed as one of the most accessible operating systems when it was launched however different approaches to accessibility APIs in the upstream projects have lead to some areas needing renewed attention to maintain a high standard of accessibility. The Ubuntu Accessibility team has existed from the start, providing support to those requiring assistive technology to operate the Ubuntu desktop. This year an effort started to bring the team together to take up a more active role than providing support. This led to a more defined leadership being selected at UDS-M. Penelope Stowe now heads the documentation and
community engagement activities of the team and Luke Yelavich leads the development activities.
Penelope goes on to share what kind of work the team is focusing on:
> Alongside the regular support activities we are working on updating documentation including the team wiki pages and information on how to use Ubuntu with assistive technology and we are running a project to create design personas that can be given to developers and user interface designers to bring to life the accessibility requirements of our users. This project is [starting with a survey](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Personas/Survey) of a wide range of people who use assistive technology with computers (not just Ubuntu users) and we will use the results of the survey to create realistic but fictional characters who need Ubuntu to be better so they can use it.
the *Ubuntu Accessibility Team* are doing valuable and important work and I know they (a) want better awareness of the team (hence this blog entry as one such effort), and (b) they are keen to get more volunteers involved. Here is where you can find them:
* **Mailing List** – `ubuntu-accessibility AT lists.ubuntu.com` ([subscribe](https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-accessibility)) and `ubuntu-accessibility-devel AT lists.ubuntu.com` ([subscribe](https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-accessibility-devel))
* **IRC** – `#ubuntu-accessibility` on [freenode](https://freenode.net/)
* **Wiki**: [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility)
* **Forum** [https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=145](https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=145)
Keep up the awesome work Penelope, Luke, and co, and folks, if this interests you, do get involved!
Request For Candidates: Application Review Board
In Belgium at the last Ubuntu Developer Summit, we had a fantastic set of discussions about how we could create a process that empowers application developers to bring their applications into the Ubuntu Software Center much easier. Today our developer and packaging processes are more designed for a contributor who wishes to contribute to the Ubuntu Platform as opposed to an application developer who wants to get exposure for her specific application in Ubuntu. As such, if you are an application developer and want to get your app in the software center, the process is probably too complex and involved.
We identified this disconnect at UDS and Rick Spencer and I proposed a process in which application developers can propose an application for approval by a community-driven review board, and when approval is granted their application will appear in the Ubuntu Software Center. This review board will assess the application for technical merit, packaging quality, perform a code review and ensure it is safe.
Since UDS I have been working on a proposed process (which you can read [here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PostReleaseApps/Process)) and first engaged in a series of discussions with some community members and then proposed the process to the Ubuntu Technical Board (Matt Zimmerman, Colin Watson, Kees Cook, Mark Shuttleworth, and Martin Pitt); our governance body that discusses and evaluates technical policy in the Ubuntu project. I am pleased to report that after a series of modifications and clarifications, the Ubuntu Technical Board have approved the process. 🙂
It is important to stress, and I know the Technical Board would like to ensure this is clearly communicated too, that this process is very much a first cut. While a mature and well-discussed process, we fully expect it to refine and change, and at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit we plan on reviewing the process and improving how it works.
## Finding Our Application Review Board
With the process approved, the goal now is to find members to join the new Application Review Board. We are going to be looking for 5 – 7 members who exhibit the following skills:
* Strong technical experience.
* Strong experience of the Ubuntu platform and the desktop.
* Knowledge of packaging to effectively assess other people’s packaging work for quality.
* Enough free time to commit to reviewing the applications and providing timely feedback.
As a bonus:
* You would be a core-dev or MOTU.
* A knowledge of programming, so as to perform a code review.
Anyone and everyone who satisfies the above criteria is welcome to apply. There are no specific requirements for location; you can be based anywhere in the world.
If you are interested in applying, head to [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PostReleaseApps/Process/BoardApplications) and follow the instructions. The Ubuntu Technical Board will ultimately assess the applications and decide who the final board will be. For full details of the expectations of a position on the board, read the [codified charter](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PostReleaseApps/Process#Application%20Review%20Board%20Codification).
The deadline for applications is **31st August 2010**.
Free Books For Approved LoCo Teams
Once again we have some wonderful free books to give away from Prentice Hall, the rather spanky-awesome publishers of [The Official Ubuntu Book](https://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0137021208) by Mako, Matthew Helmke and Corey Burger, and the brand new [Official Ubuntu Server Book](https://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0137021186) by our friend and yours, Kyle Rankin and Mako. These books were commissioned by Debra Williams-Cauley who has been awesome getting them on the shelves, and her sidekick is one Heather Fox who I have been chatting with recently to see if we can score some free copies for our rather fantastic Ubuntu LoCo Teams. Fortunately, Heather has been able to make the magic happen.
Prentice Hall are happy to send each and every *approved* LoCo team one free copy of *The Official Ubuntu Book* and one free copy of *The Official Ubuntu Server* book. To be entirely clear: this is one copy of each book per team. This will be a great addition to each team’s library of Ubuntu books!
To keep this as simple as possible, you can request your books by following these steps:
1. The team contact shown on our [LoCo Team List](https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/) (and only the team contact) should send an email to *usergroups AT informit DOT com* and include the following details:
* Your full name.
* Which team you are from.
* Your full address (including zip/postal code, region and country).
* Your phone number, including country and area code.
2. Heather will process your application and let you know if it is approved.
3. If approved, she will get your books in the post.
A few notes:
* Only approved teams are eligible for the free copies of the books.
* Only the team contact for each team (shown on [this page](https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/)) can make the request for the book.
* There is a limit of one copy of each book per approved team.
* Prentice Hall will cover postage, but not any import tax or other shipping fees.
* When you have the books, it is up to you what you do with them. We recommend you share them between members of the team. LoCo Leaders: please don’t hog them for yourselves!
* The deadline for getting your requests in **Sun August 15, 2010**.
If you have any questions or queries, *don’t* contact me or Canonical, contact Heather Fox at *heather DOT fox AT pearson DOT com*.
Also, for those teams who are not approved or yet to approved, you can still score a rather nice 35% discount on the books by registering your LoCo with the [Prentice Hall User Groups Program](https://www.informit.com/usergroups).
All in all a pretty sweet deal, methinks. Enjoy!
At Home With Jono Bacon
Just a quick FYI: tomorrow (Wed 4th Aug) I will be hosting my weekly [At Home with Jono Bacon](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon) videocast at **11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern / 6pm UTC** and I will be covering the following topics:
* CALL FOR EVENTS: Ubuntu Global Jam
* HOWTO: Team Reporting
* LoCo Council
* Q+A
I hope to see you all there [at the live recording](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon)!
Ubuntu Global Jam: We Need Your Events!
Are you good folks aware of what is happening on **27th – 29th August 2010**. But of course, it is the [Ubuntu Global Jam](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam)!
In the last few cycles we have organized and run an event called the *Ubuntu Global Jam*. The idea was simple: encourage our awesome global Ubuntu community to get together in the same room to work on bugs, translations, documentation, testing and more. And they did, all over the world, as can be seen [here](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2009/10/06/ubuntu-global-jam-rocks-the-world/).
One thing that I am keen that everyone remembers: you don’t have to be an official developer, packager or programmer to take part in the Ubuntu Global Jam. Also, lets not forget that *Ubuntu Global Jam* events are a fantastic place to learn and improve your skills: you can sit next to someone who can show you how to do something or explain something in more detail.
If this is all sounding right up your street and you fancy organizing an event, go and read [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams) and then add your event to the [LoCo Directory](https://loco.ubuntu.com/events/global/195/detail/) by following [these instructions](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events).
Rock and roll: let’s make this one to remember. Start your engines, folks…
Severed Fifth Update
Hi folks, back again for a quick update on my Free Culture music project, [Severed Fifth](https://www.severedfifth.com). As before, I just want to share a bunch of links to interesting things that are going on.
To kick off with, I put a few short videos on the [Severed Fifth YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/severedfifth) from yesterday’s rehearsal. These are the first videos of the full band playing, and of course all the music that you hear and the rest of album will all be made available [under a free license](https://www.severedfifth.com/about/licensing/). Here are the vids:
Don’t see them? [Click here](https://www.youtube.com/severedfifth).
Other things going on:
* [Severed Fifth interview on libre.fm podcast](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/08/01/jono-interviewed-on-libre-fm-podcast-about-sf/) – I did a long interview with Elleo about the band, Free culture, [Severed Fifth Fair Pay](https://www.severedfifth.com/pay/) and more.
* [Companies that support Severed Fifth](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/08/02/companies-that-have-supported-severed-fifth/) – a write-up about how Bytemark Hosting, Toontrack, and Microsoft have supported Severed Fifth.
* Severed Fifth Android App – Rob is busily working on a Severed Fifth Android App and he tweeted recently that he expects to have a release out tomorrow. I can’t wait to see his progress! He did post [this screenshot](https://yfrog.com/59mkxp) recently, which looks awesome!
* [New wallpapers!](https://www.severedfifth.com/media/wallpaper/) – Mario has been going wallpaper crazy and created a bunch of new awesome wallpapers, and new [Severed Fifth Street Team](https://www.severedfifth.com/streetteam) wallpapers. 🙂
It was also cool to see Chris Kontos, who is currently playing with Attitude Adjustment but previously on Machine Head’s hugely successful first album Burn My Eyes, and has played with Testament, Konkhra, Attitude Adjustment, Exodus, Verbal Abuse, Custard Pie, Anti Trust, The Servants, Dog Faced Gods, Death Angel, Grinch and with James Murphy, wearing a *Severed Fifth* t-shirt at a recent show in San Francisco:
Finally, don’t forget that the new album is recorded from **11th – 15th Aug 2010** and the entire recording will be streamed live on [our ustream.tv channel](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/severed-fifth-live-in-the-studio). Be sure to be there!
Fixing Ubuntu Software Center Descriptions
The Ubuntu Software Center is making some rocking progress, but as [everyone’s favorite Dr Vish suggests](https://design.canonical.com/2010/07/never-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/), it is only a container for other content, and we need to fix and improve the descriptions of apps inside Ubuntu to make it easier for users.
This is a wonderful contribution to Ubuntu. Want to get involved? Simple, check out [Vish’s awesome post](https://design.canonical.com/2010/07/never-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/).
Red Hat, Canonical and GNOME Contributions
Earlier this week at GUADEC, the always affable Dave Neary presented his GNOME Census work. Unfortunately, I was not there to see it, but I read his [excellent post on the topic](https://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2010/07/28/gnome-census/).
One of the reactions from the survey was that Red Hat are responsible for 16% of the contributions to GNOME whereas Canonical are responsible for a measly 1%.
Of course, this has generated some flame, such as a [particularly angry post from Greg DeKoenigsberg](https://gregdekspeaks.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/red-hat-16-canonical-1/) and the [rather pithy response from Jeffrey Stedfast](https://jeffreystedfast.blogspot.com/2010/07/re-red-hat-16-canonical-1.html). Greg is clearly pissed, and Jeffrey is clearly pissed at Greg being pissed, and I suspect Greg is going to get even more pissed at Jeffrey being pissed. The worse thing is that they are both going to be pissed at me for this blog post.
First I want to put these figures in perspective and then I want to talk about how we read the figures we do have.
I think the GNOME Census report is excellent, and it provides some excellent visibility into contributions in GNOME, but it only takes into account upstream contributions to GNOME itself. What the report doesn’t take into account are upstream contributions that are built on the GNOME platform but (a) not part of official GNOME modules, and (b) hosted and developed elsewhere, such as [Launchpad](https://www.launchpad.net/). As such, while the report is accurate for showing code and contributions accepted into GNOME, there are also many projects built on GNOME technology that are not taken into account due to non-inclusion in GNOME modules or being developed outside of GNOME infrastructure.
As a general rule, Canonical staff develop inside Launchpad. The reason is simple; Launchpad and Bazaar provide a powerful development environment that was also built by Canonical and we therefore have lots of internal skills and best practice based on these tools. Launchpad is also a fundamental component in Ubuntu development and all the software we develop ultimately ships in Ubuntu, so using the same development forge makes sense. Finally, the site is a Free Software and Open Source project, so there really no philosophical reason to move, testified by the 18,000+ Free Software projects happily using Launchpad already.
Canonical is actively developing upstream desktop software, but doing it in Launchpad. Some examples include:
* [notify-osd](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Flaunchpad.net%2Fnotify-osd&ei=KD1STN2yKNObnwej1bGhAw&usg=AFQjCNHcEtBlQ7ApgfchYlWutAt2HKss0w&sig2=B1X9XwgIr2UliaYglpl2bg)
* [Messaging Menu](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-messages)
* [Application Indicators](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-application)
* [Indicator Applet](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-applet)
* [Indicator Date Time Applet](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-datetime)
* [Sound Indicator](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-sound)
* [Me Menu](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-me)
* [Indicator Global Menu](https://edge.launchpad.net/indicator-appmenu)
* [Unity](https://edge.launchpad.net/unity)
This is by no means the full list, and is other work such as Simple Scan, the Hardware Drivers tool, Computer Janitor, and more. Many of these contributions (such as Application Indicators and Simple Scan) could bring real value to GNOME, but they have not been accepted. I know that the Canonical engineers who work on them would be delighted if they were included in GNOME.
The above list also doesn’t include significant upstream investment in other areas such as Upstart, Bazaar, Launchpad, and a full team building Ubuntu. I don’t want to turn this into a “*who contributed more*” competition, but I think for some to suggest Canonical is a bad citizen who is not contributing upstream code is unreasonable. To suggest that Canonical has limited code inside approved GNOME modules is fair.
So that was the first thing I wanted to clarify; Canonical *does* invest heavily in upstream work, but GNOME is *not the only home for upstream contributions*.
If there is one thing that the GNOME Census has really outlined is that we should all be proud of Red Hat and their contributions to GNOME. You only have to take a look at all the red items on [this image](https://www.neary-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/diagramme_inkscape_updated.png) to get a feeling for the wonderful work that Red Hat is doing inside GNOME. Novell too. Look the green items in there; Novell has done a wonderful job maintaining many modules inside GNOME. In fact, there are many companies investing inside GNOME modules and inside GNOME infrastructure. I don’t believe it would be fair to undermine these contributions in any way; they are testament to the ethos of those companies and their commitment to GNOME. All of the people working at those companies are doing good work within the spirit of Free Software.
Likewise, I don’t think it is fair to undermine Canonical’s contributions just because many of them exist outside of GNOME. Our engineers are also doing good work within the spirit of Free Software. I have never claimed for a second that Canonical are equal to Red Hat and Novell in terms of our accepted contributions in GNOME; it is clear that there are far few contributions from Canonical staff inside accepted GNOME modules, but this does not for a second mean that Canonical is not (a) producing upstream contributions and (b) heavily invested in the GNOME platform. Ubuntu, our primary product is a GNOME desktop, and the vast majority of our engineers are GNOME users and developers and they work every day on a GNOME based product.
So in a nutshell, this is my take: both Red Hat and Canonical invest heavily in Open Source development, but they do it in different ways and different places. The GNOME Census clearly outlines that within GNOME modules, Red Hat are doing far more, but that doesn’t mean that Canonical are sitting on their thumbs and doing nothing, far from it.
Ubuntu Global Jam: Start Your Engines!
Are you good folks aware of what is happening on **27th – 29th August 2010**. But of course, it is the [Ubuntu Global Jam](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam)!
In the last few cycles we have organized and run an event called the *Ubuntu Global Jam*. The idea was simple: encourage our awesome global Ubuntu community to get together in the same room to work on bugs, translations, documentation, testing and more. And they did, all over the world, as can be seen [here](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2009/10/06/ubuntu-global-jam-rocks-the-world/).
To make the event as simple and accessible as possible, we have picked five topic areas and we are encouraging you lovely people to organize an event with one or more of them:
* **Bugs** – finding, triaging and fixing bugs.
* **Testing** – testing the new release and reporting your feedback.
* **Upgrade** – upgrading to Maverick from Lucid and reporting your upgrade experience.
* **Documentation** – writing documentation about how to use Ubuntu and how to join the community.
* **Translations** – translating Ubuntu and helping to make it available in everyone’s local language.
* **Packaging** – packaging software for Ubuntu users to install with a clock.
* **Other** – other types of contribution such as marketing and advocacy etc.
With six primary methods of getting involved, there is something for *everyone* in this rocking global event.
One thing that I am keen that everyone remembers: you don’t have to be an official developer, packager or programmer to take part in the Ubuntu Global Jam. Also, lets not forget that *Ubuntu Global Jam* events are a fantastic place to learn and improve your skills: you can sit next to someone who can show you how to do something or explain something in more detail.
If this is all sounding right up your street and you fancy organizing an event, go and read [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams) and then add your event to the [LoCo Directory](https://loco.ubuntu.com/events/global/195/detail/) by following [these instructions](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events).
Rock and roll: let’s make this one to remember. Start your engines, folks…
Awesome GUADEC Espresso and Coffee Bar
I have always been a fan of helping in any way I can to encourage people to support small organizations and businesses who are doing their best to be successful by working hard and providing a friendly, honest service.
For the earlier part of this week I am in The Hague at GUADEC, and I stumbled across a small espresso shop that is the embodiment of these kinds of small business. It is impeccably clean, the food is awesome, the coffee is fantastic, it is good value, and the guy who runs the shop is the definition of kind and welcoming. Oh, and it has great wi-fi too. 🙂
So, I wanted to share with all my friends who are visiting GUADEC too to come and support this guy’s small business, drink some coffee and leach his Internet. 🙂
The address is: *7 o’clock Espressobar, Wagenstraat 187 2512 AW Den Haag* and if you are walking back to the hotel before you walk over the small bridge you will see it on the left with a big Coca-Cola sign above it.
More details on [the website](https://www.7oclock.nl/).