Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase Deadline Draws Near
Just a quick note to you lovely folks that the [Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase), a competition to have your audio, video or imagery included on millions of Ubuntu systems, has it’s deadline drawing near on *16th July 2009*. If you know some creative types who you think would love the opportunity to have their art on all those delicious Ubuntu systems, point their beady eyes in the direction of [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase) and tell them to get cracking. 🙂
Also, thanks to our [friends at the Creative Commons for blogging the competition](https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15420).
Learn How To Run a Jam
Recently we announced to epic [Ubuntu Global Jam](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam) that is set to go down from **2nd – 4th Oct 2009**. In this event hundreds of Ubuntu fans and contributors get together in their local area to work on Ubuntu, get to know each other and just have a big ‘ol barrel of fun. With the scheme [recently announced](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2009/06/16/the-ubuntu-global-jam/) we are still building up the [list of events](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events) and are looking for you wonderful people to start organizing events. Sound interesting but don’t know how?
Well, I have good news.
We have organized a number of tuition sessions and events that will help you get started organizing a rocking Ubuntu Global Jam event. Here’ the skinny:
* **Live Video Tutorial** – Mon 29th June @ 6pm UTC – I will be hosting a live video tutorial with a live Q+A. You can watch it [here](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon).
* **IRC Tuition** – Jorge Castro will be running some IRC tuition sessions on these dates:
* June 27 – 1500UTC – #ubuntu-classroom
* Sept 4 – 2100UTC – #ubuntu-classroom
* Sept 18 – 1500UTC – #ubuntu-classroom
So there you have it, a good solid toolkit for how to get started. Go *learn*, *organize* and *have a great time*. If you need further help, be sure to ask the rather nice folks in `#ubuntu-locoteams` on Freenode. 🙂
**UPDATE**: I have needed to re-schedule the video tutorial until Monday 29th June 2009 at the same time (6pm UTC).
The Ubuntu Global Jam
In the last few cycles we have organized and run an event called the *Ubuntu Global Bug Jam*. The idea was simple: encourage our awesome global Ubuntu community to get together in the same room to find, triage and fix bugs. And they did, all over the world, as can be seen [here](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2009/02/24/ubuntu-global-bug-jam-success/).
Well, at the recent [Ubuntu Developer Summit](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS) we were having a good ‘ol chinwag about the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam and we came to an important and sage conclusion:
> Why limit the event to just bugs?
As such, I am proud to announce [Ubuntu Global Jam](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam) – *more jam but with the same great taste!*.
Based upon all the feedback from the UDS session we have scheduled the Ubuntu Global Jam from the **2nd – 4th October 2009**. To make the event as simple and accessible as possible, we have picked four 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.
* **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.
With four 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 Bug 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.
To get this campaign off on the right foot, we have organized an IRC meeting to discuss the event and how can get as many people involved as possible. Here’s the skinny:
* **WHEN** – Third Thursday of every month (next meeting is Thurs 18th June 2009) at 6pm UTC.
* **WHERE** – `#ubuntu-meeting` on [Freenode](https://freenode.net/).
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 [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events).
Rock and roll: let’s make this one to remember. Start your engines, folks…
Art Of Community Reviews
Recently I have been sending the completed [Art Of Community](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/) manuscript out to a number of people who are well respected in various communities to get there feedback on the completed book. Some of these quotes are [here](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/reviews/). Wow.
Community Leadership Summit Update
A while back I [announced](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/2009/04/12/community-leadership-summit-2009/) the [Community Leadership Summit 2009](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/) in San Jose on the 18th and 19th July 2009. Well, I think it is time for lil’ update on what is shaping up to be a rocking event.
The aim of the summit is get community managers, leaders and organizers together to discuss, debate and share ideas on building great community in a vendor-neutral environment. The event is entirely free (although I ask everyone to [go and register](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/register/) and it takes place the weekend immediately before OSCON, in the same venue: the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Details of how to get there are [here](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/travel-hotel/).
Since I announced the event, the response has been stunning and over 150 people have registered with a fantastic and diverse range of contributors signed up to attend. You can see this [awesome list of attendees here](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/attendees/).
The the aim and purpose of the event to provide an open, transparent and vendor-neutral environment for discussion, and I have been really keen to make sure this is an unconference (an event in which an empty schedule is available at the start of the event, and attendees can go and add topics). The reason for this is to ensure the sessions are as diverse as possible and not merely what *I* think we should discuss. The openness of the scheduling means that anyone can add a session that they think would be of interest to the other attendees.
If you are coming along and interested in running a session, feel free to discuss [it on this wiki page](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/wiki/index.php/Session_Ideas) with the other attendees: you may find some other people who would like to help with the session. Speaking of the wiki, we also have [rideshare](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/wiki/index.php/Rideshare), [roomshare](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/wiki/index.php/Roomshare) and other pages springing up to make attending the event as easy and enjoyable as possible.
I have another update on the event half-penned, but I will send that over in the coming week. Stay tuned, and go and [register](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/register/)! I hope to see you there!
The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase Kicks Off
Folks, we are back with another [Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase)!
The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is an opportunity to bring the best of two great worlds together by showing off high quality Free Culture content in Ubuntu. At the heart of Ubuntu’s ethos is a belief in showcasing Free Software and Free Culture, and with each development cycle we present the opportunity for any Free Culture artist to put their work in front of millions of Ubuntu users around the world. Although the space restrictions are tight, and we are limited to how much content we can include, the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is an excellent opportunity for artists everywhere. I am always hugely inspired by the wonderful entries that we recieve in each competition and I am excited about the opportunities we have to ship awesome Free Culture content with Karmic!
The winning submissions will be made available on the shipped CDs and download images of the Ubuntu 9.04 release. Every user will be able to find the content in the `Examples/` folder in a home directory.
With this competition we are accepting submissions for audio, video, and graphic/photo submissions. We have a winner to find for each category, and the competition closes on **16th July 2009**. The time is short on this competition, so you better get cracking on some stunning entries!
Entering the showcase is simple:
* Your submission must be one of the following:
* Audio Entries – no larger than 1MB in size – made available in Ogg Vorbis format.
* Video Entries – no larger than 2.5MB in size – made available in Ogg Theora format.
* Photo/Graphic Entries – no larger than 0.5MB in size – made available in PNG or JPG formats.
* All entries must be licensed and distributable under the [Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or [Creative Commons Attribution](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) license.
* Upload your submission somewhere online (there are lots of free hosting solutions available such as archive.org). Do not email any of the organisers or judges with your submissions.
* Add your entry to one of the submission tables at [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase).
* When the deadline for submissions closes, our panel of judges will pick a shortlist, and the Community Council will then pick the final winners from the shortlist.
The deadline is **16th July 2009** and you can read more about it at [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase).
Live Burnout Videocast
Recently I have been pointing my beady eye at the topic of *burnout*. My interest was originally sparked while researching content for [The Art of Community](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/), but I have also had something of a personal interest in it as I myself burned out a few years back. It sucked, and I felt compelled to confront the topic in the book as it is a very real issue in every community, particularly technical ones.
While reading up on the subject I was looking for some concrete methods of identifying the symptoms of burnout and found a fascinating piece of research called *The Burnout Cycle* with it’s twelve stages. Not only did I feature this in the book, but I also prepared a presentation for Allhands and the Ubuntu Developer Summit. The presentation really resonated with folks and I heard countless stories of how people had burned out in different ways.
Well, recently I have been doing a live videocast called [At Home With Jono Bacon](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon) on ustream.tv and I thought it could be useful to repeat the presentation, which would then obviously be recorded.
So, tomorrow (Wed 10th June) at 6pm UTC / 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern I will be doing the presentation and also have a Q+A. You can watch it live [here](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon). I really hope it helps. 🙂
Well, Hello
Oi oi folks. Well, hasn’t it been a while? It seems I have been on a little blogging hiatus recently, and I think the simple reason is that [I have been writing a lot more than usual recently](https://artofcommunityonline.org/) so my blogging tendencies have suffered from all the writing. Well, as I will share in a few paragraphs, I am largely done with the writing, so the blogging is coming back.
So, before we get back into the normal blogging flow…a quick update with what has been keeping me busy recently.
## Ubuntu
It has been a busy time in Ubuntu-land recently. A few weeks back we had our [Ubuntu Developer Summit](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS) in Spain and the week before that we had our Canonical Allhands conference. The time building up to UDS is hugely intense: weeks of planning the venue, schedule (which had doubled in size to over 450 sessions), merch, social events, plenaries, presentations and more. Thankfully, it was an awesome event and the response was really positive. Many people who had been to UDS before felt it was one of the most productive events we have run. Thanks to Jorge, Claire, James, Maria and the other organizers and thanks to my fellow track-leads for a sterling job!
David Planella also joined my team recently and he is doing a rocking job. David is focused on growing our translations community and I have been learning more about translations by joining the [Ubuntu UK Translations Team](https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-l10n-en-gb). At the heart of the Ubuntu ethos is a belief that everyone should have access to high quality software in their local language. While we have an incredible existing community, we have many challenges ahead to refine and smooth our translations workflow and how we can unite our community betwee. We have some exciting plans around translations so stay tuned, and keep an eye on [David’s blog](https://davidplanella.wordpress.com/).
In the interests of being concise (and not having much time to blog), I won’t go into all the details about what I have been focused on recently but it includes the LoCo directory, initiatives for this cycle (Ubuntu Open Week, Ubuntu Developer Week, Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase, LoCo Docs Days, UDS Planning) as well as some key projects for the cycle such as ArchiveReorg, Ayatana, Upstream Relations, Bug Triage best practise, Design community workflow and structuring the LoCo project. I am also really keen to get back on the ground more in this cycle: the last cycle had me busy with some of the growth inside Canonical, and I am keen to reseat the balance with our wider community. Exciting times!
## The Art of Community
As some of you will know, I have been writing a book called [The Art of Community](https://artofcommunityonline.org/) to be published by O’Reilly in mid-August. Well, the book is written and has been through the primary edit phase, the review edit phase and is now in copy-editing. As such, the content is complete but we are checking in for little types and grammar issues before it goes off to be typeset. I am really excited about the content: it feels good and I am really hoping the content will be useful for many different types of community. There has also been a fantastic amount of buzz around the book: thanks to everyone for supporting the project!
Last week I also confirmed that [Leo Laporte](https://leoville.com/) is writing the foreword for the book. I emailed Leo about it a few weeks back and he confirmed live on air shortly before we recorded [FLOSSWeekly](https://twit.tv/FLOSS).
The book will be available under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial ShareAlike license and available to buy in print in all good bookstores. The book is also available to pre-order on Amazon: you can find out more [here](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/get/). If you pre-order it, do stick a button on your website. 🙂
## Community Leadership Summit
A little while back I announced an annual summit that I have put together for community leaders, managers and organizers called the [Community Leadership Summit](https://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/). The 2009 event takes place the weekend before OSCON in San Jose on the 18th and 19th July 2009. The take-up and pre-registration for the event has been fantastic, and I will be updating the website with all the new attendees soon. It is shaping up to be a hugely exciting event with a massively diverse range of participants.
With the UDS, book and other things keeping me busy I have not updated the website for a few weeks but expect to hear more over the coming week. Stay tuned, folks!
## FLOSSWeekly / At Home With Jono Bacon
Recently I have become a semi-regular co-presenter with Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz on [FLOSSWeekly](https://twit.tv/FLOSS). I have been having a blast doing it, and I am looking forward to doing more shows with the guys. I will be there on the show on Wednesday to interview Tim O’Reilly.
I have also been experimenting with live videocasts and have a show called [At Home With Jono Bacon](https://www.ustream.tv/channel/at-home-with-jono-bacon) on ustream.tv. On the show on Wed 10th at 6pm UTC I will be talking through the 12 stages of burnout; a presentation I did recently at UDS. Stay tuned!
OK, nuff said. More blogging soon. Also, stay tuned with my microblogging madness on [my Twitter](https://twitter.com/jonobacon) and [my identi.ca](https://identi.ca/jonobacon) feeds. 🙂
Art Of Community Update and Pre-Order Available
As some of you will know, I have been writing a book in recent months called [The Art Of Community](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/) to be published by [O’Reilly](https://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596156718/index.html). The book covers a wide range of topics around building communities including *the social science behind community, planning your community growth, communicating clearly, building effective processes, setting up infrastructure, governance, conflict resolution, organising events, how to hire a community manager* and more.
Well, its been a while since I provided an update on the project, so here are some nuggets of goodness you.
I started writing the book back in November and I am now nearly complete. Right now I am knee deep in edits and I have merged in all the changes from my editors Andy Oram and Simon St. Laurent. We are also currently in the reviewers phase where *The Art Of Community* is gently slid under the noses of a diverse set of readers where they can offer comments on grammatical issues, typos, which content works well and not-so-well and other feedback. This merry band of heroes includes Amber Graner, Stephen Walli and Stuart Langridge. Their comments and attention to detail has been superb, and I want to say a huge thankyou for their efforts. I am looking forward to wrapping these final changes before I head off to the [Ubuntu Developer Summit](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS) in Barcelona soon.
I am also pleased to announce that the book is now available for pre-order. Before we finalised the book specs to go out to the retailers, O’Reilly and I had a conversation about the pricing. Originally the book was going to be priced at $39.99 but I felt the price could make the book less accessible to communities with limited funds available who wanted a printed copy. O’Reilly agreed and I am pleased that the book is now available for the more affordable recommended retail price of $29.99. Also, don’t forget that the book will be available under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Non-Commercial license too. This means that anyone download and read it, but the print edition complete with the expected O’Reilly quality in materials, print and binding will be affordable too. O’Reilly have been stunning over the coarse of these discussions; thanks folks!
So, where can you pre-order it from? Ultimately most good book shops will carry the book but I know that each of the Amazon sites now provides the ablity to pre-order. So, head over to one of the following sites, lay down some wonga and pre-order a solid chunk of community building expertise distilled into an eye-ball friendly fun-fest:
* [Canada](https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241305382&sr=8-1) – CDN$ 37.99
* [France](https://www.amazon.fr/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1241305148&sr=8-1) – EUR 22,70
* [Germany](https://www.amazon.de/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1241305095&sr=8-1) – EUR 24,99
* [Japan](https://www.amazon.co.jp/Art-Community-J-Bacon/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=english-books&qid=1241305202&sr=8-4) – YEN 3,574
* [United States](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241304950&sr=8-3) – $29.99
* [United Kingdom](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/0596156715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241304996&sr=8-1) – £22.99
Buying a copy of the book will show your support for the project and send a great message to O’Reilly about (a) publishing books about community and (b) publishing books under a CC license. It will also provide you with chunk of text that requires no batteries, no Kindle, and can be scribbled on with a pencil for easy note-taking! Sounds like a good deal to me. 🙂
In addition to this, if you do pre-order it do show off your support for the *Art Of Community* project and put the following button on your website/blog:
Available in these sizes:
* [348×243](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3616/3502548272_f45ea46330_o.png)
* [240×168](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3616/3502548272_de019a9c27_m.jpg)
* [100×70](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3616/3502548272_de019a9c27_t.jpg)
So, there we go. But before I wrap up, I am also [looking for some feedback](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/2009/05/08/website-feedback-needed/) regarding the [www.artofcommunityonline.org](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/) website and how I can continue to build out its facilities for the needs of readers and those enthuses at building community. Do come along and join in the discussion! 🙂
Ayatana
I just wanted to let you all know about an interesting project kicking off in the form of [Ayatana](https://launchpad.net/ayatana).
Ayatana is the term that refers to the collection of user interface, design and interaction projects started by Canonical. Ayatana’s goal is to build a set of well researched and defined projects to help extend, improve and refine the Open Source desktop. More specifically, the focus of Ayatana is to improve the *perception* and *presentation* of information in the desktop, hence the name of the project; the Buddhist term for a “sense base” or “sense sphere.
I am really excited about this. When I first read *The Design Of Everyday Things* by Don Norman, he makes it clear in example after example that *perception* is a key consideration in great design. One of his examples is the thermostat. How many have you have walked into a cold house and turned the thermostat straight up to 10? Of course, cranking it up doesn’t do a jot to heat the house any quicker, but the perception of the interface and the expectations around similar devices suggests it will. There are countless examples of this kind of perception in devices, interfaces and across the desktop. I am excited that the project is starting out with this approach.
What I find exciting about Ayatana is that it is really putting design at a top level. Over the years we have seen collaboration in our community really evolve: at one time it was heavily programming led, but now we see contributions across a wealth of diverse skill types: translations, documentation, advocacy etc. Ayatana is going to be an interesting vessel in which design plays a real role accompanying these other skill sets.
The Ayatana community are keen to encourage contributors to get involved in the design, hacking, translations, documentation, and other areas. Canonical has also invested a team of developers who are actively contributing to the project. This team includes rock stars such as Mirco Muller, Ted Gould, Cody Russell, Bo Thorsen, Aurelien Gateau and Neil Patel. In addition to this a team of designers will be contributing to the project including some familiar faces such as Matthew Paul Thomas, Martin Albisetti, Ken Wimer and David Siegel as well as some new faces such as Ivanka Majic and Mat Tomaszewski.
Currently Ayatana comprises of the following Open Source projects:
* [notify-osd](https://launchpad.net/notify-osd) – a set of guidelines for organising user interactions with notifications and dialog windows
* [indicator-applet](https://launchpad.net/indicator-applet) – an improved message indicator and its underlying indicators framework
The first point of contact for getting involved is the Ayatana mailing list [here](https://launchpad.net/~ayatana) and the archives are available [here](https://lists.launchpad.net/ayatana/). To kick things off the team have organised their very first Ayatana IRC meeting on the 5th May at 17.00 UTC. The meeting takes place in `#ayatana` on irc.freenode.net. The agenda for the meeting will be fleshed out in more detail on the mailing list.