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| This is a gobbyrized version of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Edubuntu/StrategyDocumen /!\ '''Note:''' This is a draft |
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| Edubuntu's primary goal is to create an integrated and usable experience for educational users by enhancing Ubuntu with educational applications, tools, content, and themes. Edubuntu will provide students, teachers, and administrators with the best educational tools the free software world has to offer. It will do so with a focus on usability and simplicity. Edubuntu is based on Ubuntu and so brings with it Ubuntu's processes, philosophies and commitments. This document outlines Edubuntu's strategy for reaching its goals as well as its community structure and development policies. |
Edubuntu's mission is to provide educational software and content packages on top of Ubuntu. It forms part of the larger Ubuntu project and so brings with it Ubuntu's processes, philosophies and commitments. Constant Luther Meiring at 9:04am May 26 a LOT of people in the *nix world are, unfortunately, out to piss on all inferior human beings who do not know how to control their microwave from their *nix box by using only assembler and a couple of Lego blocks. Edubuntu's focus is on integrating educational softwares and content, software development is left to upstream projects. |
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| When creating release goals, feature specifications, community initiatives or introducing new contributors to Edubuntu development it is important that we have clear objectives in mind. Edubuntu has a three-fold set of objectives that expresses our goals and focuses our efforts. |
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| The first objective Edubuntu has is to bring a education focus to Ubuntu. This means packaging and maintaining learning, teaching, and administration tools and targeting the educational user experience. Edubuntu will strive to make it easy to install and use educational software that applies to all ages, all subjects, all languages, and all ability levels. Edubuntu recognizes that education is not just tools, but also content. It also sees the need to not only enable learning, but also to enable quality instruction. | The first objective of Edubuntu is to bring an education focus to Ubuntu. This means packaging and maintaining learning, teaching, and administration tools and targeting the educational user experience. Edubuntu will strive to make it easy to install and use educational software that applies to all ages, all subjects, all languages, and all ability levels. Edubuntu recognizes that education is not just tools, but also content. It also sees the need to not only enable learning, but also to enable quality instruction. |
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| The second objective of Edubuntu is the integration of the various educational applications and tools with both each other and the rest of the Ubuntu desktop. Integration is a key element of an effective and useful computing experience. It means that the educational applications should "fit" in with the rest of the desktop and should work together without user intervention where possible. Complicated installation tasks should be abstracted or eliminated. Programs from non-native desktop environments (KDE Edu, for example) should be tested to ensure that they are integrated as much as possible. | The second objective of Edubuntu is the integration of the various educational applications and tools with both each other and the rest of the Ubuntu desktop. Integration is a key element of an effective and useful computing experience. It means that the educational applications should "fit" in with the rest of the desktop and should work together without user intervention where possible. Integration with alternative desktops such as KDE, Xfce and Lxde sho |
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| Edubuntu's third objective is to provide a highly usable interface for both students and teachers. Usability for adults may be very different than usability for children and so special testing and considerations need to be made. Individual educational applications should be tested by target user groups to gain feedback for upstream developers. Enhancements to operating system and desktop environment such as theming and menus should be explored to make Ubuntu better suited to educational users. | Edubuntu's third objective is to provide a highly usable interface for both students and teachers. Usability for adults may be very different than usability for children and so special testing and considerations need to be made. Enhancements to operating system and desktop environment such as theming and menus should be explored to make Ubuntu better suited to educational users. |
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| == Areas of Focus == | === Objective 4: Relationship with upstream projects === |
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| In order to move objectives into concrete reality and concentrate Edubuntu's efforts, four areas of focus have been identified. Each is an important facet of Edubuntu's overall efforts and gives new contributors a better feel for areas to work on. === Focus 1: Learning & Teaching === Learning and teaching remains the core of the Edubuntu mission. Typical software found in the Edubuntu stack would include: * Gcompris * KDE-Edu * Sugar === Focus 2: Server Applications and Content Management Systems === Server side applications and services that add value to education and classroom environments. Examples include: * LTSP * Moodle === Focus 3: Administration === Improving user administration, class administration and desktop session management. * Sabayon * Pesselus * Replacement for system-tools-backend that's pam/ldap aware. See: https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/security-karmic-replace-gst/ * iTalc === Focus 4: Upstream Relationships === Edubuntu is conceptually an ideal platform to deliver upstream projects such as Sugar, KDE-Edu, GCompris and LTSP. Edubuntu will foster relationships with relevant upstream projects and aspire to make Edubuntu the ideal delivery system for these upstream projects. === Focus 5: Community === Cultivating the Edubuntu community and attracting users and developers to become part of it is crucial to the existance of any free software project. Edubuntu aims to be not only a welcoming and pleasant project to work with, but it and its members will also reach out to other similar software projects such as Debian-Edu, Guadalinex, K12-LTSP and SkoleLinux. |
The fourth objective is to have sane and well working relationship with the various upstream projects working on the educational softwares included in Edubuntu. That relationship includes working on release together so Edubuntu doesn't ship with obsolete versions of the softwares and also coordination on bug reporting and bug fixing. |
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| The [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-council|Edubuntu Council]] team are people elected by the Edubuntu Members to oversee the Edubuntu community and approve Edubuntu Membership applications. The Edubuntu Council also acts as the release team for Edubuntu and so takes technical decisions for the release to come, work on release anouncements and update the website. |
The [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-council|Edubuntu Council]] team are people elected by the Edubuntu Members to oversee the Edubuntu community and approve Edubuntu Membership applications. The Edubuntu Council also acts as the release team for Edubuntu and so takes technical decisions for the release to come, work on release anouncements and update the website. |
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| Edubuntu Developers are Edubuntu Members who want to work on packaging and have shown that they're unlinely to do damage to any of the Edubuntu packages. | Edubuntu Developers are Edubuntu Members who want to work on packaging and have shown that they're unlinely to do damage to any of the Edubuntu packages. They are working on the packaging of Edubuntu's softwares but aren't necessarily the ones uploading them. |
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| The [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-doc|Edubuntu Documentation]] team, as one might expect, works on the documentation for and about Edubuntu. This covers several different areas including system documentation, [[http://help.ubuntu.com/community/|Help Wiki]], [[Edubuntu|Team Wiki]]. This team is a member of the larger [[https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc|Ubuntu Documentation Project Team]]. The Edubuntu Documetation team is also responsible for the Edubuntu website. |
The [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-doc|Edubuntu Documentation]] team, as one might expect, works on the documentation for and about Edubuntu. This covers several different areas including system documentation, [[http://help.ubuntu.com/community/|Help Wiki]], [[Edubuntu|Team Wiki]]. This team is a member of the larger [[https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc|Ubuntu Documentation Project Team]]. The Edubuntu Documentation team is also responsible for the Edubuntu website. |
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| The [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-artwork|Edubuntu Artwork]] team provides both Edubuntu-branded and educationally minded artwork themes for different age levels. === Edubuntu LoCos === Ubuntu LoCo teams are encouraged to create Edubuntu chapters if interest arises. The following Edubuntu LoCo teams have been created: * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-be|Belgium]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-bo|Bolivia]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-br|Brasil]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-chile|Chile]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-fr|France]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-it|Italy]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-ru|Russia]] * [[https://launchpad.net/~linux.sch.gr|Greece]] |
Edubuntu's artwork is done through the Ubuntu Artwork team. |
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| As a sub-project of Ubuntu, Edubuntu adheres to the [[http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct|Ubuntu Code of Conduct]]. Edubuntu leaders are likewise expected to adhere to the [[LeadershipCodeofConduct|Ubuntu Leadership Code of Conduct]]. While disputes are rare, the do happen. If a dispute between Edubuntu community members can not be resolved privately, one or both of the parties may appeal to the Edubuntu Council for resolution. | As a sub-project of Ubuntu, Edubuntu adheres to the [[http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct|Ubuntu Code of Conduct]]. Edubuntu leaders are likewise expected to adhere to the [[LeadershipCodeofConduct|Ubuntu Leadership Code of Conduct]]. While disputes are rare, they do happen. If a dispute between Edubuntu community members can not be resolved privately, one or both of the parties may appeal to the Edubuntu Council for resolution, if the Edubuntu Council also fails solving the issue, then it'll be escalated to the Community Council. |
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| == Edubuntu Development == === Seed Management === The lists of packages that are a part of the Ubuntu Education CD and education meta-packages are defined in the Edubuntu [[https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-seeds|seeds]]. The seeds maintained in bzr branches and may be modified by any Ubuntu Core Developer. The relevant branches are: * [[https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/edubuntu.jaunty|Jaunty]] * [[https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/edubuntu.intrepid|Intrepid]] * [[https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/edubuntu.hardy|Hardy]] === Package Maintenance === The Edubuntu development team strives to maintain all applications within the Edubuntu seeds. Maintenance is primarily done by bug triage and forwarding, syncing and merging packages from Debian, updating software versions, and enhancing communication with upstream software developers to advocate for our users. |
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| Education is a such a broad category of interest with many sub-categories that Edubuntu seeks to provide its users with helpful application "bundles" which group together related packages for easy installation by users. The application bundles will be maintained as metapackages installable via Add/Remove (gnome-app-install). The current applications bundles are: * {{{ubuntu-edu-preschool}}} - Canonical-supported applications for preschool children. * {{{ubuntu-edu-primary}}} - Canonical-supported applications for primary education * {{{ubuntu-edu-secondary}}} - Canonical-supported applications for secondary education * {{{ubuntu-edu-tertiary}}} - Canonical-supported applications for tertiary education * {{{edubuntu-preschool}}} - Community-supported applications for preschool children. * {{{edubuntu-primary}}} - Community-supported applications for primary education. * {{{edubuntu-secondary}}} - Community-supported applications for secondary education. * {{{edubuntu-tertiary}}} - Community-supported applications for tertiary education. |
Education is a such a broad category of interest with many sub-categories that Edubuntu seeks to provide its users with helpful application "bundles" which group together related packages for easy installation by users. The application bundles will be maintained as metapackages installable via Add/Remove (gnome-app-install). Current categories include ubuntu-edu-preschool, ubuntu-edu-primary, ubuntu-edu-secondary, ubuntu-edu-tertiary, edubuntu-preschool, edubuntu-primary, edubuntu-secondary, edubuntu-tertiary. |
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| === Ubuntu Education CD === | === Installation Media === |
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| As a convenience to our users, we produce a CD that contains the Canonical-supported educational software Edubuntu maintains. The Ubuntu Education CD is not an independent installation CD but relies on an existing Ubuntu desktop installation, and so allows the user to add on an educational "layer" of applications. | Edubuntu is currently distributed on CD-ROM as an add-on to Ubuntu. Future versions of Edubuntu may be distributed on DVD-ROM or USB Flash disk image as the demand for a larger selection of software, translations or content increases. Releasing Edubuntu as a full install distribution would also require a move from CD to DVD. |
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| === Edubuntu-specific Applications === Edubuntu exists to maintain and integrate educational software in Ubuntu and does not primary develop software itself. At times however, when a particular need is found and there is an interested developer, Edubuntu will take on a application development project. The goal of such projects should be to eventually create a free-standing, independent project. Where possible Edubuntu development should be done upstream rather than creating new edubuntu-specific problems. === Relationship with Ubuntu and Upstreams === Edubuntu is a part of the Ubuntu project and Free/Libre/Open Source Source (FLOSS) software landscape. We strive to maintain friendly and open communication with upstream developers and leverage the knowledge/expertise/skills of other Ubuntu teams for our users. == Misc == === WINFLOSS Edubuntu === To give teachers and school admins a better idea of what Edubuntu is all about, and most of these users are currently windows users, it should be possible to test/install educational packages via WUBI or some similar approach. Though this should be a secondary focus, being implemented where time permits. === Branding === In the past the cd-rom containing the educational packages used to be called the Ubuntu educational add-on (Hardy and Intrepid). This will no longer be the case starting with Jaunty, instead edubuntu will be used again as it used to prior to Hardy. So, the project and the cd-rom containing the educational packages will be called Edubuntu but the educational part of the main Ubuntu website will remain "Ubuntu in Education". The IRC channel will remain: #edubuntu on freenode and the website www.edubuntu.org === Branding & Naming === ==== Ubuntu Education Edition ==== * "Ubuntu Education Edition" will be dropped as a brand name ==== Edubuntu ==== * "Edubuntu" will be retained as the name for the: * Ubuntu Education Community * Ubuntu Education Project ==== Ubuntu in Education ==== * "Ubuntu in Education" will be retained as: * a information area / marketing portal on the Ubuntu web site * where it represents a shorthand term for Ubuntu in (the) Education (sector) === Facilities & Hosting === 1. Ubuntu website http://www.ubuntu.com/education * general high level marketing / introducing people to Ubuntu Education benefits * providing an overview of the Edubuntu project and associated resources {***} see below * providing an overview of the download / installation process {***} see below 2. Edubuntu website http://www.edubuntu.org * used for: * Edubuntu documentation * {***} providing detail of the Edubuntu project and associated resources * {***} providing detailed instructions for the download / installation process 3. Edubuntu IRC channel #edubuntu * unchanged: * Community channel for users / developers / support and meetings 4. Edubuntu mailing lists edubuntu-users / edubuntu-devel * unchanged: * Mailing lists for users / developers see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Edubuntu/BrandingAndNaming for discussion behind these decisions |
Contents |
Introduction
Edubuntu's mission is to provide educational software and content packages on top of Ubuntu. It forms part of the larger Ubuntu project and so brings with it Ubuntu's processes, philosophies and commitments.
- Constant Luther Meiring at 9:04am May 26
a LOT of people in the *nix world are, unfortunately, out to piss on all inferior human beings who do not know how to control their microwave from their *nix box by using only assembler and a couple of Lego blocks. Edubuntu's focus is on integrating educational softwares and content, software development is left to upstream projects.
Objectives
Objective 1: Education
The first objective of Edubuntu is to bring an education focus to Ubuntu. This means packaging and maintaining learning, teaching, and administration tools and targeting the educational user experience. Edubuntu will strive to make it easy to install and use educational software that applies to all ages, all subjects, all languages, and all ability levels. Edubuntu recognizes that education is not just tools, but also content. It also sees the need to not only enable learning, but also to enable quality instruction.
Objective 2: Integration
The second objective of Edubuntu is the integration of the various educational applications and tools with both each other and the rest of the Ubuntu desktop. Integration is a key element of an effective and useful computing experience. It means that the educational applications should "fit" in with the rest of the desktop and should work together without user intervention where possible. Integration with alternative desktops such as KDE, Xfce and Lxde sho
Objective 3: Usability
Edubuntu's third objective is to provide a highly usable interface for both students and teachers. Usability for adults may be very different than usability for children and so special testing and considerations need to be made. Enhancements to operating system and desktop environment such as theming and menus should be explored to make Ubuntu better suited to educational users.
Objective 4: Relationship with upstream projects
The fourth objective is to have sane and well working relationship with the various upstream projects working on the educational softwares included in Edubuntu. That relationship includes working on release together so Edubuntu doesn't ship with obsolete versions of the softwares and also coordination on bug reporting and bug fixing.
Edubuntu Community
Edubuntu Governance & Teams
Edubuntu Members
The edubuntu-members team are people who have demonstrated a significant and sustained contribution to Edubuntu and education in Ubuntu. Edubuntu Membership gives an @edubuntu.org email alias and Ubuntu Membership. Edubuntu members may aggregate their blogs to Planet Ubuntu.
Edubuntu Council
The Edubuntu Council team are people elected by the Edubuntu Members to oversee the Edubuntu community and approve Edubuntu Membership applications. The Edubuntu Council also acts as the release team for Edubuntu and so takes technical decisions for the release to come, work on release anouncements and update the website.
Edubuntu Developers
Edubuntu Developers are Edubuntu Members who want to work on packaging and have shown that they're unlinely to do damage to any of the Edubuntu packages. They are working on the packaging of Edubuntu's softwares but aren't necessarily the ones uploading them.
Edubuntu Bugsquad
The Edubuntu Bugsquad is a bug triage and tracking team. Members of this team help to ensure that bugs have enough information to act on and are given proper priorities and are automatically subscribed to Edubuntu bugs. This is an entry-level working team that all interested parties are welcome to join.
Edubuntu Documentation
The Edubuntu Documentation team, as one might expect, works on the documentation for and about Edubuntu. This covers several different areas including system documentation, Help Wiki, Team Wiki. This team is a member of the larger Ubuntu Documentation Project Team. The Edubuntu Documentation team is also responsible for the Edubuntu website.
Edubuntu Artwork
Edubuntu's artwork is done through the Ubuntu Artwork team.
Code of Conduct & Dispute Resolution
As a sub-project of Ubuntu, Edubuntu adheres to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. Edubuntu leaders are likewise expected to adhere to the Ubuntu Leadership Code of Conduct. While disputes are rare, they do happen. If a dispute between Edubuntu community members can not be resolved privately, one or both of the parties may appeal to the Edubuntu Council for resolution, if the Edubuntu Council also fails solving the issue, then it'll be escalated to the Community Council.
Communication
Communication is critical to any community-based project. Edubuntu has four primary means of communication for development:
- IRC - the #edubuntu channel on irc.freenode.net network. Realtime Edubuntu development and support chat.
- Mailing Lists - the edubuntu-users and edubuntu-devel mailing lists are support and development-related mailing lists.
- Wiki - the Edubuntu team wiki is used for task tracking, development documentation, and long term organization.
- Launchpad - Launchpad is used to communicate to users and other developers about bugs via bug report comments.
Application Bundles
Education is a such a broad category of interest with many sub-categories that Edubuntu seeks to provide its users with helpful application "bundles" which group together related packages for easy installation by users. The application bundles will be maintained as metapackages installable via Add/Remove (gnome-app-install). Current categories include ubuntu-edu-preschool, ubuntu-edu-primary, ubuntu-edu-secondary, ubuntu-edu-tertiary, edubuntu-preschool, edubuntu-primary, edubuntu-secondary, edubuntu-tertiary.
Installation Media
Edubuntu is currently distributed on CD-ROM as an add-on to Ubuntu. Future versions of Edubuntu may be distributed on DVD-ROM or USB Flash disk image as the demand for a larger selection of software, translations or content increases. Releasing Edubuntu as a full install distribution would also require a move from CD to DVD.
Edubuntu/Strategy (last edited 2009-10-14 18:48:27 by 95)