Come Ubuntu release day, there’s so much stuff happening it’s often hard to keep track. There are new articles popping up on OMG! Ubuntu! throughout the day, reactions on Twitter and Identica, friendly banter and speculation in the #ubuntu-release-party IRC channel and constant refreshes of www.ubuntu.com to see if the release is, in fact, released.
Well we’ve taken all of this goodness and put it into what we’re dubbing “The OMG! Hub.” Let me introduce you.
So what does it do?
Well we’ve taken all of this goodness and put it into what we’re dubbing “The OMG! Hub.” Let me introduce you.
Head on over to omgubuntu.co.uk/hub/natty and you’ll be greeted with a customizable landing page full of aggregated information such as…
- The latest OMG! Ubuntu! articles
- Release reaction tweets and dents from the #ubuntu or #natty hashtags
- The coolest Ubuntu wallpapers from Flickr
- An embedded IRC webchat hooked up to #ubuntu-release-party and #omg!ubuntu! for you to get your groove on.
Nifty, huh?
The best thing is that each module is movable and saved in a cookie – so if you want webchat at the top of the page, simply drag it up there. Don’t care so much for tweeters? Move the Twitter stream down the page.
This system was designed by me way back at the end of last year to be used as an Ubuntu Developer Summit hub for UDS-N last year. Unfortunately we never got around to building it until our wonderful web developer Richard Lyon joined the Ohso team last month.
We’re giving the system a bit of a test run today to see how it copes.
But all this for 2 days a year?
The real purpose of The Hub is to serve attendees and remote participators at open source conferences like the Ubuntu Developer Summit, DebConf, Linux.conf.au, GNOME summits and more, making their life that much easier during what is normally a very busy time.
Look out for The Hub throughout the year – but in the meantime, we’d love it if you could check it out and tell us what you think. As usual, the best place is on Get Satisfaction – but we don’t mind if you just want to post something in the comments below.
Plans for the future
The Hub is very much alpha software right now, and amongst bug fixes we have the following features to add over time:
- Redesigned IRC webchat
- Session schedule module with localized times
- Video module
- Gobby/Etherpad document tracking
- Session reminders
Enjoy, and don’t forget to share it with your friends!
Updated in 2022 to remove broken links