Ubuntero.org   Showcasing the Ubuntu community

Completely fueled by what I consider to be the best BoF (Birds of a Feather) I’ve ever been to, I’ve made some serious changes in how I interact with the Ubuntu community.  Listening to some of the ‘Rock Stars’ at our relatively small gathering at Ohio LinuxFest, I have been able to determine some of the best ways I can immediately get involved with the community.  Ken described some excellent methods on this topic earlier this week and has given us an outline of things that we can start doing at this very moment.

OLF has come and gone, and for those of you that were there, perhaps you were motivated by the speakers’ tone regarding community and belonging.  For those of you that weren’t there, you’ve been clinging on to recaps from the various sources around the blogosphere and are motivated to do something.  So what are you waiting for?  Go ahead: pick your pony, and mount up.  Specifically, ask yourself at least one of these questions:

1. What’s my favorite software?
2. What’s my favorite feature of that software?
3. What’s my favorite feature in Ubuntu?
4. What software/feature am I really good at using?
5. What’s the coolest plugin, add-in, or package that I just can’t live without?

If you answer any of these, you have just identified a place to start.  Ken told you to get yourself a Launchpad account and get cracking on bugs. Perhaps you really don’t know where you can begin.  I can say that at this point, I’m no developer.  However, I can tell you that I have sat down regularly with my 4-year-old son to take part in the GCompris software bundled with Edubuntu.  I have since subscribed to all bugs in GCompris and I will be popping into the IRC regularly to help support the application to the best of my ability.  Additionally, I have saved a search on the forums for anything regarding the GCompris suite.  I know that GCompris may not be as popular as say, Firefox, but I am embracing a piece of software that is important to me (and my son) and we are not alone.

Perhaps you don’t have software that you are attached to like I do, but are looking to help.  Perhaps you use a laptop and use Network Manager to connect your computer wirelessly.  Perhaps you are particularly good at troubleshooting nm-applet.  What can seem small and insignificant to you right now, may have a few bugs that need help.

So have you picked your pony yet?