Author: Darcy Casselman

2011 Year in Review

Wow. 2011, eh?

* **Back to school (sort of)**: I [sat in on](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/02/07/cs444/) the two UW computer science compiler courses over the winter and spring terms. This has become rather useful at work, as I’m now on OpenText’s compiler team. I also helped recruit my CS444 instructor to help us out.
* **Speaking of work**: it was a happy change for me to move teams so that I no longer work *with* OScript and started working *on* OScript to make it better for developers. OScript is OpenText’s proprietary programming language–something of a twist of history that was probably a great idea at the time is was conceived twenty-some yeas ago, but the developer experience of which has been sadly neglected over the years. We’re looking at rectifying that. The nice thing for *me*, is I’m doing fun and interesting things with Eclipse and with the language design, and I’m looking forward to getting the beginnings of that work in front of other developers in the next month or two.
* **Clutter**: I gave my first [KWLUG](http://kwlug.org/) talk in 2011 on [Clutter](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/03/09/clutter/). I gave it again at [Dev House Waterloo](http://groups.google.com/group/waterloo-dev-house?pli=1) as well. I’ll be giving my second KWLUG presentation a week from Monday, this time on [Unity](http://kwlug.org/node/847).
* **#LRTAwesome**: Following on from 2010’s involvement in [Northdale](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2010/01/13/my-delegation-to-waterloo-city-council/), [I gave a delegation to the Waterloo Regional Council](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/06/01/waterloo-lrt/) in favour of the region’s LRT project. It was gratifying to me to feel part of a community effort that, in spite of opposition from the local media, was able to get that back on track. As it were.
* **Hail to the chief**: Somewhat unexpectedly, I became [President](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/07/01/inaugural-address/) of [[Kwartzlab]]. It’s been a great experience, really. We pulled off a pretty amazing [Hacky Halloween](http://www.kwartzlab.ca/2011/10/hackyhalloween-2011-photos-posted/) event, and brought in a grant to buy an awesome new [laser cutter](http://www.kwartzlab.ca/2011/12/laser-cutter-preview/). But it has meant that I’ve had to prioritize my time a bit more than I’m used to. It has meant that I’ve had to pull back a little bit on Ubuntu stuff.
* **Circle of friends**: However, [[Ubuntu]] Canada hasn’t suffered all that much from my being distracted with Kwartzlab. In fact, we now have *two* monthly Ubuntu Hours hosted by [Charles](http://charlesmccolm.com/) and [Bob](http://sobac.com/bjonkman/) on the first Friday and third Wednesday of the month respectively. And we had the usual Global Jams and release parties. And I even finally got my [Ubuntu membership](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/08/19/hi-planet/).
* **FSOSS**: And, I went to [FSOSS](http://fsoss.ca) in October to give a talk about Ubuntu Canada, the Ubuntu community and how people can get involved.
* I’ve been doing a lot of public speaking lately.
* **Ellen**: Continues to be awesome. She really inspires me by being able to remain positive in spite of everything. We got to spend a whole bunch of time together doing some pretty amazing things: concerts, Perimeter lectures, Stratford plays, a trip to Montreal, her cousin’s wedding… I’m quite pleased with myself that I was able to get some of our friends down from Ottawa to jam with Ellen at her house for her birthday. We made sweet music together. Literally!
* **A surfeit of blogs**: One thing that really fell off the map this year was this blog. With all the things I’m doing, it just hasn’t been as much of a priority. You’d think that would mean I’d have lots of things I’d be eager to talk about. And it does! But with [Twitter](http://twitter.com/flying_squirrel), a weekly coffee meetup with friends where I can just tell them things, Ellen being very patient with me as I work out problems or tell stories on the phone where I might have otherwise done that here, I don’t feel the need to take the time to compose something. And I feel bad about that, but I acknowledge that the blog has become an unfortunate victim of prioritization. One thing that I really do feel guilty about is that I feel like I’m shirking my responsibilities and should be blogging more about Kwartzlab, Ubuntu Canada and the Agile P2P (especially after I’d agreed to blog about sessions for Communitech. I only did [one of those](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2011/02/25/product-sashimi/); I’d have done more, but I’ve had to miss nearly all the sessions since the summer). For Ubuntu Canada, I have actually done of few of those, more than anything else this year.
* **Agile Book Club**: Was a fantastic experience, but unfortunately now seems to be in the past tense. The principle members have either gone off and started a consulting company, [Lean Intuit](http://leanintuit.com) (I love the name), got [themselves](http://annalear.ca/) elected moderators of [Stack Overflow](http://stackoverflow.com) or [they’ve](http://twitter.com/az1) been whizzing around the world giving talks at Agile conferences. So the book club becomes another sad victim of prioritization. My one real regret is I’d just brought [Eric](http://eric.gerlach.ca/) on board just before it faded. He always has great insights and I’m sad he couldn’t have been a part of the club as it was in 2010 and early 2011.

All in all, I think this was another pretty fantastic year in a whole bunch of areas. I’m looking forward to 2012, but (hopefully, if I get my slides done for the KWLUG presentation), I’ll talk about that later.

Recognizing city teams

Free software and open source, at least the non-corporate part, is a reputation economy. Sure, lots of people do things to scratch their own itch, but by and large, the ones who go above and beyond do it at least in part to be *recognized*–if not thanked, then at least acknowledged.

Ever wonder why nearly every LoCo team centres around a single urban centre? The team nominally covers a large geographical area, but with a few (admirable and welcome) exceptions, a state team or a national team is a city team that just happens to be in that state or country. One of the main *raison d’etres* for LoCo teams is getting people to meet up in person; to grow the community face-to-face. If the closest face-to-face meetup is a six hour drive away, you’re probably not going to be meeting anyone, ever.

From my own experience, growing new city teams in a LoCo outside the initial centre is tough to do. If you found a LoCo, though, you (likely) get a sweet title like “LoCo Contact,” and you get to basically run the show if you want to (not that you should…). What’s in it for someone to do the same sort of work in another city, only to be overshadowed by someone else who got their first? Sure, some people will take on the job for its own sake, and those guys are awesome. If we want Ubuntu LoCos to spread to more cities *within* LoCos, we need to think about what motivates people.

And I think recognition and acknowledgement would help. I think people need something to rally around and be proud of if they’re going to go to the effort of building that thing. I think we need city teams.

**I do not think we should dissolve the current LoCo team structure and recognize *only* city teams.**

Regional LoCo teams come with a lot of overhead. There are websites, forums and mailing lists to administer, team reports to write, regular IRC meetings to run. That’s not even considering re-approvals and other maintenance by the LoCo Council and CD shipping costs from Canonical. It’s not feasible for every city team to have the rights and responsibilities a LoCo team has today.

But it’s entirely feasible to recognize and manage city teams *within* regional LoCos. It’s possible (and cheap!) to acknowledge their leaders.

And it’s not something the LoCo council or the LTP developers need to do much of anything about. I think the recognition might *mean* more to a lot of people if it came from the central governance bodies, but I acknowledge these folks have a lot on their plate already. This is something LoCo teams *can* do themselves.

So something I’m going to push for this cycle, with our website refresh, is to acknowledge the people doing the work in Ubuntu Canada’s two current city teams–Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo–and any new ones that might spring up, to ensure they have their own space and they get their due. And maybe that’ll encourage more people to take up the mantle.

Hey guys!

You know, I kinda feel bad for not posting as much personal stuff. Most of what I end up posting is Ubuntu or Kwartzlab-related. I know there are at least one or two of you who might like to hear a little bit about *me*.

How do you feel about bullets? Maybe in reverse-chronological order.

* I dressed up as The Blue Screen of Death for Hallowe’en. [Blurry MySpace shot](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LyXn7pEaAJqS6vt6HQFlcVcronFdHSbP-DFsMLhVdgU?feat=directlink).
* I spent a chunk of the weekend at [FSOSS](http://fsoss.ca). Yeah, that’s Ubuntu-related. See the previous post. But it was cool and I got to hang out with some really interesting people, like one of the engineers working on the [Raspberry Pi](http://www.raspberrypi.org/?p=106). I also made some contacts and got some ideas for future Ubuntu things, if I ever have the time.
* [Hacky Hallowe’en was awesome](http://makebright.com/2011/10/kwartzlab-rocks-hacky-halloween/) apparently. I’m sad I wasn’t there. Wait, that’s about Kwartzlab, not me…
* I got a cold a couple of weeks ago and have been mostly quarantined from seeing Ellen. This makes me sad.
* I’ve become mildly obsessed with Dragon Age. I got the game because a bunch of co-workers liked it and figured it would be a modest distraction, but I ended up getting sucked in. I’ve played Origins and all the DLC. I haven’t played Dragon Age II yet. I’ve been too busy to afford resurrecting the time vampire. I have, however, bought the first volume of the tabletop role-playing game (which was a little disappointing) and I’ve just finished reading the first novel. I started the second last night.
* Speaking of obsessions, have you seen [the Doctor Who toys they’ve announced recently](http://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/enemies-of-the-third-doctor-collectors-set/)?! My most recent order (including Idris, River and Scaroth, last of the Jaggaroth) should be arriving soon.
* I should write about what I’m doing at work sometime. I’ve become a language designer as well as an IDE developer. It’s all pretty cool. My employer encourages us to blog about what we’re working on, but I still feel weird about it (hence not referring to said employer by name; not that it’s a secret or anything).
* I didn’t get to do nearly as much gardening as I wanted to do this year. Nearly every weekend was booked up with *something*: Ubuntu release parties, Stratford plays with Ellen, SoOnCon, Toronto International Film Festival, Ubuntu Global Jam, our trip to Montreal, Car Free Sundays, Kwartzlab cottage weekend… If not one of those, I was most likely spending time with Ellen or playing Dragon Age. I did a little bit to enact my gardening plans, but I’d hoped I’d be further ahead.
* Still, it was a pretty awesome summer. I can’t say I really regret all the stuff I’ve been doing.

Ubuntu LoCo Teams and the 200 Million

During Jono’s (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17977168) a couple weeks ago, Jono was asked what ordinary users and enthusiasts could do to help Ubuntu reach its goal of getting 200 million users in 4 years. This was his response:

> “The most important thing folks like you can do to help Ubuntu get to 200 million users is join your LoCo team. LoCo teams are critical to the future growth of Ubuntu.”

I was scheduled to give a talk about [Ubuntu Canada](http://ubuntu-ca.org/) at the [Free Software and Open Source Symposium](http://fsoss.ca) on Saturday. That comment made me change my focus a bit.

The reason is I don’t think the things that we as a LoCo team do will make any sort of dent in that 200 million target. That’s not to say I’m not very proud of what we do. I think we do a great job of supporting and energizing the community that’s already here. Ubuntu Hours, Global Jams and release parties are fantastic opportunities to meet, work with and get to know other Ubuntu users. But besides perhaps making the community more vibrant and thus more attractive, I don’t think they do much to recruit new users.

So I put the challenge out to the people at the conference: what *should* Ubuntu Canada be doing to help us meet the ambitious 200 million goal?

There were a few suggestions:

* Raise money for marketing campaigns and advertisements
* Develop and discuss concrete ways Ubuntu solves specific problems real people have
* Encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses to support Ubuntu
* Do more to make people aware that commercial support is available from Canonical
* Work with groups like [GOSLING](http://www.goslingcommunity.org/) to help get Ubuntu into Canadian governments
* Work with the universities (particularly in my town of Waterloo) to promote Ubuntu there
* Provide training seminars in libraries and community centres
* Get involved in local events like the multicultural festival

And all those ideas are great, but it seems to me it’s still scratching the surface.

If LoCo teams *are* going to be a significant force in recruiting 200 million Ubuntu users, we have to become a movement. Something that permeates the culture.

I don’t have a lot of experience starting movements. Who’s with me? What should LoCo teams be doing to make Ubuntu a household name?

Ubuntu 11.10: Oneiric Ocelot Party in Kitchener!

[The Oneiric Ocelot] Ubuntu 11.10–the Oneiric Ocelot–is set to release this week. As usual, we’re hosting a release party at Kwartzlab to celebrate.

Join us Saturday, October 15th at 4pm (till late) and celebrate the latest and greatest release of Ubuntu! Release parties are a fantastic opportunity to meet other Ubuntu users face to face. And, hey, it’s a good excuse for a party.

We’ll have cake, devilled eggs, commemorative collector’s CDs and a fast repository proxy to help with upgrades!

For any other Canadian Ubuntu users reading this, if you’re not in Kitchener-Waterloo (or Toronto) and there’s no party in your area, you should host one! Join the Ubuntu Canada mailing list and let us know where and when your party is. Tell your friends and post on local message boards. We’ll help do what we can to announce it to the Canadian Ubuntu community.

If you are in KW and want to help publicize the event, please print out some posters and paste them up around town.