Half the battle of wanting to contribute to open source is knowing where to start. I remember when I first started contributing to Ubuntu I found it difficult to discover a project to contribute to, especially since I’m not a developer.
The Ubuntu community are aware of this, and as such, they’ve brainstormed a new event that’s happening right now.
It’s called the Ubuntu Community Week and it’s running from yesterday (Monday, 18th July) to Friday (22 July). We probably should have given you a heads up a bit earlier… but we were too busy wrestling bears and fighting off the byte-toads that hang around our server.
But how does it work, Benjamin!?
The structure is broken down into five different areas which make up the process of contributing to Ubuntu. Targeted at fresh newbies who aren’t part of a project, or are floating on the edge of the Ubuntu universe looking for a way to get in, the week should be useful for people of all shapes and sizes.
The five areas are Find, Create, Grow, Nuture, Govern and are each given a dedicated day.
The whole event takes place on IRC and in this case, in the channel #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.
Don’t know what IRC is? Check out this page.
What should I see?
Some of the more interesting sessions include:
- Podcast your way to a bigger community! with the venerable Alan Pope
- Working with other groups in your community with the lovely Elizabeth Krumbach
- Community Manager Q+A with none other than Mr Bacon himself
- and Haters Gonna Hate: Grow your community with less negativity with Joe Liau
Of course there’s much more than simply these sessions, so if you’ve got a bit of time kicking around and are interested in spreading the Ubuntu word or contributing back to the operating system you love, click through to the official Wiki page for more information as well as a handy dandy schedule.
And if you’ve got any questions, raise them in the comments and I’ll make sure the community team is floating around to answer them. Enjoy!