Category: LoCo

A couple months ago, the Canonical Design Team asked for feedback on a [new multi-monitor Launcher set-up on their blog](http://design.canonical.com/2012/01/launcher-reveal-prototype/). People had complained that if you had a whole bunch of monitors, mousing all the way over to the top-left one to access the launcher was kind of annoying, so they wanted to do something about it. Fair enough.

I tried out their prototype. Their solution involved putting a launcher on every monitor. Okay, sure. But what surprised me was by default they caused the mouse to stop at the monitor boundary unless you move the mouse above a certain speed.

I didn’t like this very much. Good thing I was involved in the design process and caught it early! They asked for feedback in blog comments, so I left one.

Please, [I asked](http://design.canonical.com/2012/01/launcher-reveal-prototype/#comment-23596), provide a way for me to disable this feature. I don’t use the launcher very much and it’s more important to me that I can move smoothly and seamlessly between applications on different monitors. I like Unity because it gets out of my way and lets me work. This will get in my way.

I upgraded to beta1 today for the Global Jam. I was disappointed to see my request seems to have been ignored. So I’ve posted [a bug](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/946104). And I’ve changed the request slightly: please just give me a config setting somewhere that allows me to pass between monitors without being hindered. Maybe it’s really hard to implement an option to turn off per-monitor launchers and that’s why my suggestion was ignored. Who knows?

To illustrate the issue (since it’s easier to show than to explain), I made a short video using a two-monitor setup. It’s a bit rambly and could probably use editing, but I think it eventually gets the point across. Also, you probably want to watch it in at least 720p and full-screen.

[Click here to watch video on YouTube](http://youtu.be/elB0nejRU7s).

PS: *To the Unity hataz*: I know that by posting something like this I’m going to get a tonne of “Unity/Canonical/Ubuntu/all y’all sucks!” and “You should use $FAVOURITE_WINDOW_MANAGER!” comments. I use Unity and I like it. I want to keep using Unity. Thanks, though. If you’ve found something you like better, great! Keep using it! I’m glad you’re happy with it. I’m aware of the alternatives. But maybe you could post your on your own blog saying that $FAVOURITE_WINDOW_MANAGER has some cool feature or other or some annoying bug you don’t like, and I can learn more about it that way. Maybe even with a cool video! That’d be great!

The new (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/ubuntu-12-04-adds-new-video-lens-for-finding-movies-tv-shows-online/) in Ubuntu 12.04 features searchable content from across the Internet. It also shows region-specific content, like the BBC iPlayer if you’re in the UK.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the video lens gave Canadians access to videos from the [CBC](http://cbc.ca/), [CTV](http://ctv.ca/), [NFB animations and documentaries](http://nfb.ca/) or [Comedy Channel](http://thecomedynetwork.ca/) shows like [The Colbert Report](http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheColbertReport)? I think it would!

Now, I foresee a number of possibly insurmountable problems from the start.

1. I have no idea how the Ubuntu video lens project is managed or how welcoming they are of contributions.
2. Or what sort of guidelines they’re looking at for adding content channels.
3. Or how ridiculously complicated they’ve made it to add new channels.
4. I will be very surprised if any of the above-mentioned sites have publicly-accessible APIs I’d likely need to support this.
5. Or what policies they might have that would that prevent using their content in this way.

Other than that, it should be easy!

Does anyone out there in Ubuntu Planet land have any suggestions or insight that might help overcoming the difficulties above? Comment here! Or poke me (dscassel) in #ubuntu-ca on Freenode.

I’m giving a talk on Unity at [KWLUG](http://kwlug.org/) tomorrow (Monday) night. I was going to say something, but I really couldn’t do it any better than [Paul Nijjar](http://pnijjar.freeshell.org/)’s announcement on the KWLUG mailing list:

> Just like every other desktop environment recently, the GNOME desktop environment has been looking to update its WIMPy interface. GNOME 3 brings with it two prominent options: GNOME-Shell and Unity. Which interface will be the ultimate victor?
>
> In the left corner, wearing orange trunks, is the Unity Upholder, Darcy Casselman. In the right corner, wearing aubergine trunks, is the GNOME Shell Gorilla, Chris Irwin. In this desktop deathmatch, Darcy and Chris will battle to the.. wait a minute. They aren’t fighting! They’re standing together weaving daisies into each other’s hair! (Where did they find daisies in January?) They aren’t going to fight at all! Instead, they will be demonstrating the strengths of the two desktops, discuss their goals, and address some common complaints.
They will start spreading the love at 7pm.
>
> If this sounds too touchy-feely for you, how about using your brains? This month’s FLOSS Fund nominee is MusicBrainz, a project to develop an encylopedia/database of music information, all released under open licences. You can use MusicBrainz to tag music or build website that play with data via web services. If you are so inclined, you can make a donation at the meeting, or by getting in touch with me.
>
> The meeting will be held at our usual location
>
> St John’s Kitchen
> 97 Victoria Street North
> (Corner of Victoria and Weber Streets)
> Kitchener
>
> There is some Hippie Bus parking in the Worth a Second Look parking lot, and if you are crazy you can park your bike along the side of the building. Photos and maps of the location are on the website.

I don’t think I have enough time to grow my hair long enough to get daisies in there. Come out and watch Chris and I sing the free software desktop environment equivalent of Kumbaya tomorrow night.

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.