Ubuntu New York State LoCo Team Newsletter

WORK IN PROGRESS

<graphics (i.e. cartoon)>

The New York State Ubuntu Local Community (LoCo) Team is a group of volunteers united by a commitment to Ubuntu and free and open source software (FOSS). The team advocates and supports Ubuntu for home, business, and educational use in New York State. By bringing the freedom of choice, power of the community, and stability of Ubuntu to the public, the team believes it can change the face of computing for the better.

The primary purpose of the team newsletter is to document everything the team has done. The reader should get a sense of the activities conducted by the team both offline and online. Experienced members should find information on "what happened" and "what's going on," while newer members should find information on how to get involved. In addition to this primary purpose, the team newsletter can add another community aspect to the team and contain articles written by members on relevant topics.

Welcome to the New York State LoCo Team Newsletter, Issue #1 for January 2008.

Message from the Team President

<new message or substantial revision>

HEY TEAM! My fire is burning brighter once more thanks to new energies of PrivateVoid and NewJack. I look forward to seeing more fires burning brighter for Ubuntu in New York state. I am encouraging everyone to burn just a little brighter for Ubuntu: Share the news about our alternative to the proprietary solutions; Proof or create a helpful doc / tutorial for a favorite Ubuntu program; or Help improve the code base through confirming or patching a bug.

If your fire is already bright, share your efforts with the Team. If you're gathering kindling to increase your intensity, feel free to ask questions and share concerns with the Team. As leader, I am here to help support the many burning fires that make up our team's bonfire: sharing insightful kindling from me and the community; and allowing our bonfire of efforts to be seen by the wider citizenry of Ubuntu and our state.

Remember, the brighter each fire burns the brighter our Team bonfire. Our advocacy and support aspirations for New York State can be even more contagious, if we strive to tend and increase our individual fires as one large bonfire. I look forward to approaching dawn of Ubuntu as a mainstream *first choice* OS as our fire continues to grow ever brighter in the approaching day.

Feel free to use our Team resources for your volunteer advocacy and support of Ubuntu in New York State.

--
Jeremy Austin-Bardo
November 5, 2008

Team News

After six months of dormancy, the team found renewed energy in November 2008 and resumed team meetings on November 13, 2008.

Accomplishments

<more accomplishments, including amendment propsals and work towards LoCo team approval>

Elections

Team elections occured during the general IRC meeting on December 11, 2008. Charles (PrivateVoid) was elected vice president, Stacey (the-stace) was elected treasurer, and Joe (NewJack) was elected Rockland County regional leader. The positions of president and secretary are held by Jeremy (ausimage) and Brian (hal14450), respectively.

Online Presence

The online presence of the team is becoming polished. Activity on the forums and mailing list have increased. The wiki has been revamped and the website has been modified based on member feedback. Artwork in the form of contact cards and CD stands has been developed. Meetings are announced on the Facebook group wall, but administration of the group has not been handed over to an active member. Barnaba (hendrixski) has received administration of the team's Facebook group.

Regional Groups

Rockland County Group

The Rockland County group has been established and its first meeting was held on December 6, 2008.

Rochester Group

<Rochester representative needed to maintain>

The December 4th meeting at Barnes & Noble @ RIT was a success. The group held a CACert and PGP Key signing in addition to the general meet up. Barnes and Noble featured a meeting room equipped with a projector and screen.

Syracuse Group

<Syracuse representative needed to maintain>

Meetings

General Meeting (November 13, 2008)

Newsletter Committee Meeting (November 20, 2008)

General Meeting (November 25, 2008)

Election Meeting (December 11, 2008)

Newsletter Committee Meeting (December 16, 2008)

Regional Events

Rockland County Group

Introductory Meetup (December 6, 2008)

<add more info>

This was an informal meeting with no set topic and a free-flowing conversation. As the first meetup, regional members were acquainted face-to-face with each other.

Rochester Group

<Rochester representative needed to maintain>

Install Fest (November 1, 2008)

People were able to bring their computer to the event and have Ubuntu or other GNU/Linux distributions installed. The Rochester Computer Society provided facilities for installing Ubuntu on large numbers of computers. Experienced users helped newer and less experienced users.

Ubuntu 8.10 Release Party (November 1, 2008)

After the release of Ubuntu 8.10 in October, the release party assisted new and existing users with migrating to the new release.

General Meetup (November 6, 2008)

This was an informal meeting with no set topic and a free-flowing conversation.

General Meetup (December 4, 2008)

This was an informal meeting with no set topic and a free-flowing conversation.

Syracuse Group

<Syracuse representative needed to maintain>

Members News

<sense of family amongst active members through a personal news for members: new babies, kids graduating college, becoming an Ubuntu member, etc.>

Local News

<related news in New York State and local non-team-related events>

Team Goals

<showcase projects and ideas proposed by team members, including PrivateVoid's ideas expressed in forum posts>

General News

Ubuntu Global Bug Jam 20-22 February 2009 - The NYS Ubuntu Loco is trying to organize a statewide event to participate in this global event.

Announcements

<any announcements for members>

Member Opinions

<articles and essays by members on related topics>

<include DaraAdib's essay>

<include PrivateVoid's article>

<include InfectedWithDrew's article>

Upcoming Team Meetings and Events

Meetings

Events

Rockland County Group

Rochester Group

Syracuse Group

Upcoming Local Events

See the team calendar for a calendar of statewide events.

Getting Involved

Regular members have no obligations. Active members who volunteer to help the team are greatly appreciated and they impact the community. Your ideas and service count!

Team Discussions

IRC

The team IRC channel is a place where members of the team communicate and collaborate with each other in real-time. People from New York State can also find out more information about Ubuntu.

Server: irc.ubuntu.com
Channel: #ubuntu-us-ny

Mailing List

Team Forum

Registering Membership

Team Website

Register as a member on the team website.

Launchpad Team

Join the team in Launchpad. Review the Ubuntu Community Code of Conduct and place a signed copy of the Code of Conduct in your Launchpad account.

Mailing List

Subscribe to the team mailing list.

Facebook Group

Join the team's Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2389558839

Team Information

Team Owner: Jeremy Austin-Bardo
Team President: Jeremy Austin-Bardo
Sub Team Contact (Rochester): Brian Neil
<recalculate team membership>
Team Membership : 160 as of November 2008 (cumulative: website, Launchpad team, mailing list)
Team General IRC Meeting Schedule: second Thursday and fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 PM Eastern Time
Team Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam
Team Website: http://www.newyork-ubuntu.com
Team Mailing List: ubuntu-us-ny on lists.ubuntu.com
Team Forum: http://newyork.ubuntuforums.org
Team Blog: http://blog.newyork-ubuntu.com
Team IRC channel: #ubuntu-us-ny on irc.ubuntu.com
Team SIP conference channel: 5000@sip.nerdsonlinux.com or *8771-5000 on SIPBroker affiliates

Archives

You can find older New York State LoCo Team Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam/Newsletter

Additional Ubuntu News

You can find more news and announcements about Ubuntu at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news and http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the New York State LoCo Team Newsletter.

See you next month!

Credits

The New York State LoCo Team Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Dara Adib

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Newsletter Committee of the New York State LoCo Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Team Newsletter, contact the chair of the Newsletter Committee. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam/Newsletter/Ideas. If you'd like to contribute to a future issue of the New York State LoCo Team Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page.

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.