Team Reporting
Some time ago we created the [Team Reporting](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports) facility in Ubuntu, and I am pleased to see that [LoCo Teams](https://loco.ubuntu.com) are using Team Reports to kep us all up to date on the awesome progress going on across the community.
I just wanted to remind you good folks of [where to find the reports](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports) and [how to get involved](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/TeamReporting).
The Five Horsemen
Last week I was in Prague with my team; the first with Ahmed since he joined. It was an awesome week and it was useful to checkpoint our progress.
We also took the first ever full team photos of us, first in our room and second at the end of the week having a drink:
*Thanks to Gord for the photos*.
This photo makes me feel incredibly to be part of such an awesome team. Rock and roll!
Community Leadership Summit 2010 This Weekend!
Hope all of you lovely people are doing well and are primed and ready for an awesome [Community Leadership Summit 2010]() this weekend on **Sat 17th and Sun 18th July 2010**! We have an absolutely incredible list of [registered attendees](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/attendees/) and the event is shaping up to be an fantastic opportunity to discuss community management, strategy, building and development skills without the pressure of a vendor driven environment. We had a wonderful event last year, and I am confident that this year we are going to have an awesome event too.
I just wanted to share some information about the event that you will probably want to know. As ever, if you have any questions, feel free to let me know. 🙂
## Getting there
Getting there is simple. The Community Leadership Summit 2010 takes place at:
> Oregon Convention Center
> 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
> Portland, Oregon 97232
The event takes place in **F150 – 152**.
More details [here](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/travel-hotel/).
## Schedule
The Community Leadership Summit 2010 kicks off at 9am with the opening keynote starting at 10am. Do join us at 9am though, get to know some folks, have some coffee and get ready for the day.
As with last year, CLS is an unconference, so you good folks drive the content of the schedule. This first hour while people arrive and get to know each other is a great time to share ideas for sessions, plan how they will be run, share thoughts and experience and more. Last year we were blessed with some truly unique and innovative sessions, and I am excited to see what everyone wants to discuss this year!
The full schedule is [here](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/schedule/).
## Pre-Event Gathering
On Friday night (16th July 2010) we have anointed the DoubleTree Hotel as the place in which we will get together and have some pre-event drinks. Everyone is welcome, so join us in the DoubleTree bar and get to know some folks! The address is:
> DoubleTree Hotel
> 1000 NE Multnomah Street,
> Portland, Oregon,
> United States 97232
We hope to see you there!
OK, those are the key details and I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday morning! Oh, and as with every CLS, everyone is welcome, so feel free to bring along friends and colleagues who you think may be interested in joining us!
See you soon, and thanks for joining us again this year,
Ahmed Kamal Joins The Horsemen
I am pleased to announce that *Ahmed Kamal* has joined my team at Canonical to build the Ubuntu Cloud Community.
Although Ahmed’s formal background is Electronics and Communications engineering, he was always a Linux geek at heart. He touched his first Linux CD in 1998 with Red Hat 5.x and has been hooked ever since. He says:
> “I think the main reasons why I fell in love with Linux was because it’s predictable! It doesn’t try to hide anything, you can always understand why things happen the way they do. Also the Linux community was mind blowing to me, to imagine those millions of people networking and helping each other move Linux forward was/is just amazing. This was especially true back in the days when Linux was not yet an enterprise rock-star. Over the years I had been involved with Linux one way or the other. I had worked at a great redhat partner in Egypt, where I had the chance to do consultation and Linux professional services work for some of the largest enterprises. I had also enjoyed evangelizing Linux and open-source to hundreds of people through various trainings. I started the Egyptian Open-Solaris group as well as engaged in various university talks to introduce open-source concepts in general. It is such a great feeling to introduce and excite minds about FOSS. For the past couple of years, I had been working with a bunch of extremely talented engineers building next generation cloud and virtualization management solutions. The technology base we were working on later got acquired by Sun Microsystems and later of-course by Oracle. Cloud computing is extremely exciting to me, while the term has been abused to fit almost anything, I am confident of the potential cloud computing has to offer. The cloud is not a single technology, it’s rather a paradigm shift of our expectations and how we use technology”.
Ahmed is hugely excited about being part of the team and helping to grow the community:
> “What excites me the most about joining the Ubuntu community team is the far reaching impact of what that team’s work on the foss community at large. My role is to connect the Ubuntu cloud community with Canonical’s engineering teams making sure community contributers can find their way, as well as to ignite worldwide excitement about the great work Canonical is doing to innovate in the open-source cloud computing domain. What I find very exciting is that the result of our work with the community, is far more reaching than anything I could have ever done on my own”.
Ahmed is exciting about making the cloud accessible to all:
> “Cloud computing is re-shaping computing as we know it. Ubuntu is easily the master of the Linux desktop, and is re-shaping the open-source desktop and server experience. Put the two together, and you can understand why I am tremendously excited about a cloud computing solution based on Ubuntu and open-source software. While Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is an awesome product, that’s not where it ends. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Canonical’s server and cloud engineering teams are hard at work innovating on top of the cloud. And from what I’ve seen, it is going to be awesome. If you’re into open-source and you’re into cloud computing, you’re in for a treat, so stay tuned!”
All, please welcome Ahmed to the team!
Severed Fifth Update
I just wanted to provide another quick update on the latest goings on in my Free Culture music band, [Severed Fifth](https://www.severedfifth.com/). As ever, you can always get the latest updates on *Severed Fifth* on our [website](https://www.severedfifth.com/), in the [forums](https://www.severedfifth.com/forum/), and on [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/severedfifth).
## The New Album
The up-coming as yet untitled new album, which follows up from 2008’s [Denied By Reign](https://www.severedfifth.com/releases/) is scheduled to be recorded from **11th August 2010 – 15th August 2010**. As with the previous album, I wrote all the songs and will be performing and recording all the drums, guitars, bass, and vocals.
The new album comprises of eleven songs and runs in at around 50mins of audio. It is a far richer musical experience than *Denied By Reign*, and much more accessible. It retains the heavyness of *Severed Fifth* but brings in more clean vocals and a mix of fast, slow, thrashy, chugging, and acoustic guitars. I have a great feeling about this new record and I think you folks will like it too. 🙂
What is exciting about this new record is that I will be streaming the recording of it live from the *Severed Fifth* studio on the [Severed Fifth In The Studio UStream](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/severed-fifth-live-in-the-studio) from 10am – 6pm Pacific from **11th August 2010 – 15th August 2010**. This is going to provide an awesome opportunity to take a peek into the recording process, watch a Free Culture album evolve and interact with me while the recording happens.
## The Band
*More photos available [here](https://www.severedfifth.com/media/photos/)*.
Over the last three weeks *Severed Fifth* has gone from being just me to becoming a full-fledged band. This all kicked off with the help of Chris Kontos from Attitude Adjustment and started with Ben Gibbs joining us on Drums, then moved on to [Jim Adams from Defiance joining us](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/06/20/jim-adams-joins-severed-fifth-on-guitar/), and on Saturday [we recruited Ron Crockett on bass](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/07/13/ron-crockett-joins-severed-fifth-on-bass/). I will be taking care of vocal and guitar playing duties.
In that three week period in which Ben, Jim and I have been together we have started working on our live set, focusing on six songs from the up-coming album. Four of the six songs are almost complete, we are going to now finalize the next two and then focus on refining them. Our goal is to be gig-ready by August 15th so we can get out there and break some necks. 🙂
Our primary live focus is going to be the California Bay Area and then we plan on moving further afield as the *Severed Fifth* presence grows.
## The Community
The *Severed Fifth* community is rocking (pun intended). We have been seeing some great growth in the community and some awesome work going on in a variety of different areas. These include:
* [Oodles of wallpapers](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/07/01/severed-fifth-wallpaper-explosion/) – torontomario and justnice have been rocking and rolling on the wallpaper front, and we now [have an awesome gallery of wallpapers](https://www.severedfifth.com/media/wallpaper/).
* [Severed Fifth Android app](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/07/08/severed-fifth-android-app-in-the-works/) – Rob Kielty is working on an Android app for Severed Fifth. Be sure to [keep up to date with the latest developments](https://www.severedfifth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=56).
* [Street Team Content](https://www.severedfifth.com/streetteam/materials/) – the [Severed Fifth Street Team](https://www.severedfifth.com/streetteam/) continues to grow with a series of new flyers and website banners, and [our street team forum rocking](https://www.severedfifth.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7).
* [Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition](https://www.severedfifth.com/2010/06/08/frets-on-fire-severed-fifth-edition-transcribers-needed/) – work is continuing in charting all the songs, and I am excited about this release when we release the new album.
## Funding The Project
You have read the website, listened to the music, watched the videos, and possibly even chatted on the forum. You may have even taken some Severed Fifth content and used it in your own music or videos, played it in your car, shared it with your friends or otherwise enjoyed the content. All of this requires money to invest and produce these things, and I am passionate about Severed Fifth fans having the opportunity to contribute to the project, but only paying (a) what they can afford and (b) what they feel is fair.
Importantly: Severed Fifth will never expect any kind of payment for this content or service; we will always provide an awesome free service with lots of awesome content to rock out to.
To achieve this there are two ways of supporting the project:
* [Severed Fifth Fair Pay](https://www.severedfifth.com/pay/) – it is simple: you pay what you feel is fair and comfortable. If you download the music and enjoy using the website and services and would like to pay $1, that is awesome. If you decide to pay $50 that is awesome too. It is also awesome if you decide to pay nothing at all.
* [Severed Fifth Store](https://www.severedfifth.com/store/) – we are adding more and more products to the store and right now we have some t-shirts for sale. Stickers and more shirts are coming soon!
Contributions help power the Severed Fifth project and buy t-shirts and merchandise to reward awesome Severed Fifth Street Team members, to replace broken equipment in the studio, to invest in cool new products, to rent rehearsal space, put on live shows and tours and other elements that spread Severed Fifth further afield, putting Free Culture music in the hands of fans and setting a great example for the music industry.
Rocking The LoCo Council
I just wanted to take a moment to highlight the incredible work going on with the [Ubuntu LoCo Council]() who are working hard to govern the Loco community and ensure everything is running smoothly.
The LoCo Council have also been two key IRC events in each month that everyone is welcome to attend:
* **LoCo Council monthly IRC meeting** – on the 3rd Tuesday of the month in `#ubuntu-meeting`. See the [agenda](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncil/Agenda)
* **LoCo Health Check** – 1st Tuesday of the month in `#ubuntu-locoteams` – an informal meeting where anyone can add a topic to discuss and get some council feedback – see [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncil/LoCoHealthCheck) for more details.
…and of course, the LoCo council are always available in `#ubuntu-locoteams`.
Finally, when tweeting about Ubuntu LoCo teams, don’t forget to use the `#locoteams` tag.
Keep up the great work, folks!
Operation Cleansweep: We Need YOU!
One of the most critical components in any flourishing community is to ensure contributions that are offered in good faith are fairly reviewed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the success of Ubuntu has resulted in more contributions than we have had time to review, and Nigel Babu is leading the way to encourage the community to review these outstanding patches.
This is important and worthwhile work, and I am really keen to encourage you all to get involved.
How do you get involved? Simple:
1. Read the [Operation cleansweep wiki page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OperationCleansweep) to get an idea of what we are trying to do.
2. Read our [Reviewers Guide](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReviewersTeam/ReviewGuide) that explains the process of how you review a patch.
3. Pick a patch [from this list](https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.subscriber=ubuntu-reviewers&field.tag=-patch-needswork%20-patch-forwarded-upstream%20-patch-forwarded-debian%20-patch-accepted-upstream%20-patch-accepted-debian%20-patch-rejected-upstream%20-patch-rejected-debian%20-patch-rejected&field.tags_combinator=ALL) to review.
4. Review it and provide feedback.
5. Join `#ubuntu-reviewers` to ask for help.
To do this you don’t have to be programmer, you don’t have to have a degree in rocket science, and you don’t have to like metal. The only requirement is that you have the desire to make Ubuntu better, and if you are reading this, you clearly have that.
Thanks in advance to everyone who helps! 🙂
The End Of Shot Of Jaq
Today we published our final [Shot Of Jaq](https://www.shotofjaq.org/). You can listen to it [here](https://shotofjaq.org/2010/07/the-end/).
*Shot Of Jaq* was our experiment into whether podcasting could be turned on it’s head a little and instead of being a long show (such as what we did with [LugRadio](https://www.lugradio.org/), could be a short, sharp burst of content to *start* the discussion. We did this with *Shot Of Jaq* for nine months, put out around 70 shows on a twice-weekly basis, and had over 3000 comments as part of the discussions.
Although *Shot Of Jaq* had a fairly short life-span, I am proud of what we achieved with it. I feel like the format worked, and our final show which we released today talks about some of the lessons learned in a hope that others will continue the *shotcasting* format.
As for why we are stopping *Shot Of Jaq*? Well, [Aq](https://www.kryogenix.org) and are simply too busy with other things (such as [Severed Fifth](https://www.severedfifth.com/) on my part) and we both have hectic work lives. We didn’t want the quality of the show to suffer, so we figured now was a good time to call it a day.
Thanks to everyone who was so supportive of the show!
Sound Indicator
I am totally digging the sound menu that is shipping in the development branch of [Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat]():
It feels well designed, implemented and sleek. Great work mpt and Conor!
Indicator Panel Menu Rocks The House
Recently we have been investing in creating an implementation of a panel-based menu that we are planning on shipping with the 10.10 version of the [Ubuntu Netbook Edition](https://www.ubuntu.com/netbook). As with our other projects, this is entirely Open Source and you can download, test and play with it from [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationMenu).
So far for testing purposes we have been leaving on the in-application menu, but yesterday I switched it off to get the full experience. To do this I edited `/etc/X11/Xsession.d/80appmenu` to set `APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=0`. I was aware of the design justification of having a single menu; it is easier for users to find it due to it’s consistent place, and particularly for netbooks, it saves on significant screen-real estate use. Now I can absolutely see and feel the benefits; I am loving having the menu there and my desktop feels sleeker and more consistent.
Of course, there is much to be fixed — such as the fact that GIMP crashes the menu — but most apps are working great and while this is not designed or scoped for the desktop, I think I might just leave it on. 🙂
What’s more, an added benefit of this implementation (and using the dbus-menu approach) is that KDE applications running in GNOME have their menu’s rendered as GTK widgets (and vice versa), helping to integrate GNOME and KDE apps better. Right now the in-app menus are still visible, but the following screenshot shows K3B’s menus rendered as GTK menus:
Awesome! 🙂
I just want to offer some kudos to Cody Russell for writing the menu, Aurélien Gâteau for his awesome work in ensuring all of this works with KDE, Jorge Castro for coordinating much of the testing, and for our awesome community of testers and bug reporters for helping to bang it into shape. You are going to help really make Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 really rock, and of course anyone who chooses to use it on their desktop.
Go and find out more and play with it yourself [here](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopExperienceTeam/ApplicationMenu).