Ubuntu Wiki

General Membership

The Ubuntu Beginners Team exists to enhance the initial experience of new Ubuntu users and to guide existing Ubuntu users to become part of the global Ubuntu community.
All team members are expected to adhere to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, and should consider signing the Code of Conduct on Launchpad. Furthermore, those in leadership positions are in addition expected to adhere to the Ubuntu Leadership Code of Conduct.

Although not a strict requirement, members are encouraged to contribute to the Greater Ubuntu Community and eventually become Ubuntu Members.

Join Us

Before applying to be a member and undergoing the following steps, ensure this is the place you want to be. Read the introduction on the BeginnersTeam homepage and look over the numerous subsections of the wiki listed in the header. This team is devoted to helping other users, thus its primarily for those interested in helping others. You can learn as you go, as many have, but don't expect anything structured, such as a learning course. For that, see #ubuntu-classroom or #ubuntu-learning on IRC for sessions held by experienced users on topics, as well as learning focus group.

Don't feel intimidated, all members are friendly and will answer questions as best they can. If you get stuck at any point, just drop into our main channel listed below for help. We can give you pointers, information and help with just about anything.

Application for Membership

The path to membership is different for everyone, how long it takes until your are given full membership is dependant entirely on you. There is no set time, nor is there an exact set of required knowledge or skills. What will most likely be the case is that you will remain a Padawan until such time as your mentor believes your ready. Final admission comes once you're approved by a vote at a team meeting, so be sure to get to know the team.

Below are steps, listed in order, that should be taken to ease the path to membership. Also of note, even if you aren't a full member, you can join and contribute to the work of any focus group, see their respective pages in the header and contact the leads (IRC is usually best) for more information.

Getting Started

• Have an account on Launchpad, process explained on the Wiki FG page. It has many purposes such as tracking team membership, bug fixing, development, etc... It is an openID and can be used for login on sites supporting it. A few examples of places we operate are:

  • Ubuntu Forums - Main support forums for Ubuntu and derivatives.

  • Team Wiki - Used for organization of teams, proposals of ideas, homepage creation and other assorted things.

  • Community Documentation - Community documentation centre for all wikis related to software and how to use it. See wiki focus group for more details.

• Come hang out with us in the InternetRelayChat channel #ubuntu-beginners on Freenode, most members are active in the channel and it's a good way to introduce yourself and meet us all quickly.

• Sign up for our NEW Mailing List. It is open to all members and padawans.

• Generate a wiki homepage on the team wiki (this site) introducing yourself. Post a link to the wiki page in the channel as well as below in the Padawan seeking master section. For help on doing this, see below.

Getting Involved

• There are menu avenues for participation, for information see Focus Group as well as each groups separate page (see header at top of page). Contact leads before adding yourself to the list, read over each groups page linked in the header for more information on what they do.

• Assisting on the Forums is popular, and counts as the Forums Focus group. We will, however, want to see you are active and review your posts.
• It is important for new members to get to know the team and how it functions, so we require that you are active on the IRC channel for 1 month (exceptions may be considered for established members of the community).

Sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct

• As an official Ubuntu team the CoC is required before you can be voted upon at a meeting, there is no rush to sign it prior to that. Simply read it over and then sign it. More information on this process can be found below:

  • Ubuntu Code of Conduct - The Code of Conduct.

  • Signing the Code of Conduct - Instructions on how to sign with a GPG key.

Mentoring

To smooth integration into the team, we have a mandatory mentoring system in place. Every new Padawan will be paired with an experience member of the team. Masters are responsible for the following:

• Welcome potential new members to the Ubuntu Beginners Team and familiarize them with general operation.
• Provide prospective members with a wide array of resources for learning and answering their questions.
• Help them find and integrate into the focus group of their choice.
• Assist prospective members creating and maintaining their wiki and launchpad pages.
• Ensure the the Padawan's preparation for the entrance test.
• Verify that applicants are committed and not just "passing through".

Just because your assigned a mentor, doesn't mean you can't ask questions of other members, by all means do. The mentor is there as someone who will get to know you more than others and spend time on whatever you need, like a first year mentor at a new school.

Skill and Knowledge alone do not make a Jedi. Personality and Character will play a far greater role.

Current Masters and Padawan

The following table lists available mentors, the padawans they have taken on and who is ready to take the final test. All mentors link to their wiki pages, read up about the free ones and see which is interested in fields you want to learn. Jumping on IRC and talking to people on the team is a good way to make a connection too. Please add yourself with your timezone to the Padawan list at the bottom while you wait to find a mentor. Initiative is your friend, just jump in and you'll connect quickly.

When ready, mentors should have their Padawan nominated for full membership on the Team Meeting Page

Padawan Seeking Masters

If you would like to join the team and have not yet been sponsored by a Master please add yourself to this table.

Young New Users

If you are between the ages of 8 and 18 please also join the Young New Users group.

Wiki Homepage Creation

• See the Wiki Guide on Page Creation to understand how new pages are made. Note that this guide is on the community wiki, you will be creating your page on wiki.ubuntu.com. The information applies nonetheless.

  • So for example (don't make the page), if my nick were Zergling, and I wanted a page named so, I'd type into an url bar of a browser wiki.ubuntu.com/Zergling. This will direct you to a create new page screen.

• At this point, you can either start a new page from scratch or select from either of our two prepared templates (they will be in the list of templates). They can be previewed HomepageBTTemplate and HomepageBTTemplate2.

• For documentation on how wiki markup (the language that dictates the formatting) works, see the Wiki FG's homepage. This section provides information on how to login and edit either wiki. Take special note of the Wiki Guide and it's formatting sections. You may practice with the listed Sandbox or simply within your new homepage, it is yours to do with as you see fit.

• DON'T edit other people's pages. For a few examples of what a wiki page might look like see the following:

  • starcraft.man

  • Bodhi.Zazen

  • Silver_Fox

  • JoelGoguen

  • nhasian

  • ZachK_

• To examine the markup of the above, be logged in, push More Actions ... drop down at the top and select Raw Text. This will allow you to look at a plain text version of the source of a page, comparing to what actually appears is a good way of learning. If you like some piece of markup like a table or organization structure, feel free to borrow it (i.e. copy and paste to your own page), it was probably borrowed from someone else before.

• Please note, not all section used by these members might apply, use only what you need. So if say for instance you've not made any Team Proposals or Wiki page contributions, just delete the sections and headings, can always add them back later.

• If you have any trouble or questions, ideally see members of the Wiki Focus Group. If none in the main channel, see anyone else who is, most have some experience with wiki.

CategoryBeginnersTeam