Posts Tagged ‘MOTU’
Ubuntu Developer Membership Board Election
An election for a recently opened spot on the DMB has just begun. While all the names of those nominated are familiar to me, I still need some more information to make a decision. All of the candidates are eminently qualified. Unfortunately, the call for votes didn’t include any statements of intent from the candidates. Votes will be accepted through 2011-09-06 12:00 (presumably UTC). So perhaps we’ll hear from the candidates themselves. Until then, to save others a little bit of Googling, here are their Launchpad profiles and Ubuntu wiki pages:
Reflections on being an Ubuntu Universe Contributor
Last week I made the big leap from “contributor” to “developer.” At the most recent MOTU-Council meeting, my application to become a Master of the Universe was approved!
Now, I want to take a minute and think about the Ubuntu Universe Contributor (aka Ubuntu Contributing Developers) program, how we can better utilize it, and ultimately encourage more people to get involved in Ubuntu development. But first of all, what is the UUC program anyway?
On the wiki page, Ubuntu Contributing Developers and their roles are described as:
- Are members of the universe-contributors team in Launchpad
- Are collectively responsible for the maintenance of most of the packages in Ubuntu (the universe and multiverse components)
- Merge new versions from Debian, work on bugfixes and new packages
- Continue with sponsored uploads
- Participate in technical discussions with other Ubuntu developers, providing ideas and feedback
That’s pretty vague. A lot of people who aren’t UUCs do merges, work on bug fixes, and get uploads sponsored. The qualifications for joining are even more so. You have to meet the requirements to be an Ubuntu Member and submit an application to the the MOTU-Council.
We need to be more clear on both the goals of the team and what it takes to join. But this becomes a bit of a sticky issue. We shouldn’t be placing hard metrics on the requirements for joining. Joining should be about the quality not quantity of uploads and connecting contributors to the development community not quizzing them on technical aspects. Becoming an UUC doesn’t give you upload rights, but it does make you an Ubuntu Member. So while it is a development centered path to Ubuntu Membership, its really a community designation not a technical one.
So how about who is an UUC? Looking at the UUC members list, you see that there are 16 individuals on the team. Including Chow Loong Jin (hyperair), who just joined, congrats! Of those, nine of us have gone on to make MOTU. So there are only seven proper Ubuntu Universe Contributors. So, it seems that becoming a UUC is a good step to becoming a MOTU, but still not all that many people are using the program. In fact, more people have become MOTUs this year so far than have become UUCs.
According to Ubuntu Top Uploaders list, 395 people uploaded at least one package in Jaunty (although it’s not a completely accurate count as some people have more than one listing due to using more than one email address). Of those, only about 100 people uploaded more than 10 packages. The top 25 all have over a hundred uploads. The level of involement is amazing, but it is also extremely top heavy. We need to shift that curve down.
For me, the main goals of the UUC program should be to draw reoccurring contributors further into the community and acknowledging them for the work they have already done. It’s about both retaining contributors and increasing their involvement. The more connections someone has with a project the more likely they will continue to contribute and increase their level of commitment. Someone who gets a few patches sponsored into Ubuntu but doesen’t get involved in the community may well switch distributions when they have an issue and take their contributions with them. Someone who becomes engaed in the community will stick around and help solve the issue.
We also need to be making it easier for contributors to navigate the sometime bureaucratic processes involved with getting patches sponsored into Ubuntu. Dan Chen has already talked about some of the plans coming out of UDS Barcelona, including a new Launchpad group to take on this issue, ubuntu-reviewers.
As every one who went to UDS is now home, I expect we’ll hear alot more about the discussions that went on there. I’m looking forward to it, and hope to find ways that I can help make the plans made there a reality.
So, if you’ve read this far, what are you’re thoughts? Have you contributed to Ubuntu? What was the most annoying part? Have you considered joining the Ubuntu Universe Contributor team? What’s stopped you?
print “Hello, World!”
Alright, I’ve been a Ubuntu Member since last October, and I haven’t set up a blog to be syndicated on Planet Ubuntu yet. That changes now. There hasn’t been an UbuntuOne post in almost two days. I just couldn’t let that happen. Let me tell you what I think!
Alright, I’m just kidding. You don’t have any reason to care what I think about anything since chances are you have no idea who I am. So, please allow me to introduce myself…
My name is Andrew, and I’m an Ubuntu Universe Contributor (aka Ubuntu Contributing Developer). I’ve been an Ubuntu user since Feisty and an active contributor since the Hardy cycle. I also maintain a few packages directly in Debian. You can find out more about my specific contributions on my wiki page or on my Launchpad profile. I’ll also be up in front of the MOTU-Council on May 28th, as I’ve finally applied to become a MOTU!
So why start a blog? Well, I’m not sure how much I’ll end up posting here, but I’d like to think that some of the things I’ve gone through in my journey into the world of Ubuntu development will be helpful to others thinking about diving in…
andrewsomething@ubuntu:~$ 