Approval Application for Belgian Team (ubuntu-be)

The Ubuntu Belgian Team wants to grow the local ecosystem of individuals, companies, non-profits and governmental and intergovernmental institutions working with Ubuntu in Belgium. We want to do that by organizing and supporting promotional, educational and community activities.

Because Belgium is a small country with 3 official languages (and many other spoken by immigrants and expats), and all those languages are primarily spoken outside Belgium, we work together with the respective LoCoTeams of those languages (currently mainly ubuntu-nl & ubuntu-fr) so that their and our efforts aren't split up. Many Belgian Team members are also members of their respective language-related teams, e.g. to give support and/or to help with translations or writing documentation.

Key Details

• Date - 2006/10/12

• Team Contact - Jan Claeys <ubuntu@janc.be>

• Membership - 164 as of 2006/10/12 (see http://map.ubuntu-be.org)

• Mailing List - ubuntu-be on lists.ubuntu.com

• IRC - #ubuntu-be on Freenode

• Web - http://ubuntu-be.org

Roadmap

• Support points map v2 development

  • Main contributors:
    • Pierre Buyle: backend
    • Toni Van Remortel: web frontend

    • MarkVandenBorre: initial code, use cases, nagging at people to contribute

  • Use cases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/SupportPointsSpec

  • Code: https://launchpad.net/people/mapdevs/+branch/support.points.map/dev

  • Test site: http://free.extreme-alternative.org/osfreeshops

• Presence on more computer fairs

  • http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs

  • More about the fairs at: http://www.dipro.be/1/index.htm or http://www.dipro.be/1/indexfr.htm

• FOSDEM 2007

  • No detailed plans yet, but we should be present for our 1 year birthday...

Experience

• Ubuntu Belgium launch meeting at FOSDEM 2006 - 2006-02-25/26

  • Main contributors:

    • LionelDricot - original idea and gave a speech giving his views on what Ubuntu-be should become.

    • JanClaeys - contacted people from the Dutch-speaking community to attend

• Ubuntu 6.06 press release - 2006-06-01

  • Main contributors:

    • MarkVandenBorre: NL press release, quotes from users, Department of Education of the Flemish Community Government, ...

    • Cedric Janssens: FR press release

  • The press release: http://ubuntu-be.org/index.php?page=pers

  • Media coverage:

    • http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=GI6T3PF2 (212000 ex., second newspaper in the country)

    • ... quite a few other news sources

• Map of distribution and support points - 2006-06-01 (official launch)

  • Can be found at http://map.ubuntu-be.org

  • For contributors and future development, see the roadmap

• Small kindergarten & primary school goes Ubuntu

  • Cédric Janssens gave a speech, after the school director and the IT responsible, in the presence of some local politicians

  • Press release in French on http://www.vivegnis.be

• Presence at local computer fairs

  • More about the fairs at: http://www.dipro.be/1/index.htm or http://www.dipro.be/1/indexfr.htm

  • Fairs that we were present already:

    • Charleroi computer fair - 2006-09-24

    • Antwerp computer fair - 2006-10-07/08

  • Fairs that we are already sure Belgian Team will be present:

    • Leuven computer fair - 2006-10-15

    • Liège computer fair - 2006-10-22

    • Oostende (Ostend) computer fair - 2006-10-29

  • More computer fair participation planned but not yet confirmed, see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs

  • Many people contributed and will contribute

• Distribution of "Powered by Ubuntu" case stickers in belgium - since 2006-10-01 (after some struggling with Belgian customs, sigh)

  • See http://system76.com/index.php/cPath/53_64#belgium

• Interview with "Het Bedrijf" - 2006-10-02

  • By MarkVandenBorre

  • About the magazine: http://www.upp.be/nl/infotitre.php?id=254&ed=185