Meetings

[Tom Syroid]

Miguel and Group

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Miguel Branco <mig.jcb at gmail.com> wrote:
> "How do I start helping / What can I do?" style. Even if it means to
> coordinate first with anyone responsible for handing out tasks.
> I'm sorry if this sounds strange or obvious(!), I don't have much experience
> on open source but I felt that maybe I was not the only one who needed that
> explicit :)

Not strange or obvious at all.
Sorry in advance in this is TL;DR -- your post struck a cord.

I've been tinkering and hacking on OSS stuff for 15+ years, and I've
yet to become
involved in "the community" in what I consider to be a meaningful way for just
the reasons you state:

What can I do?
Who do I talk to?
Where do I start?

One of the problems of most OSS communities is they are typically geared toward
"coders" or programmers or people who have at least some experience in
the latter.

I sometimes struggle with bash scripts :-) I try, in earnest, to
understand code for my
own KB, but I simply don't have the foundation for anything more than cursory
understanding.

But. I'm highly proficient in "wordology". I can communicate complex
technical details
in a way people understand. I've written two books and a multitude of
papers for back-room
IBM engineers. I've been hacking and tweaking Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo
(yeah, I used to build
new Gentoo installs on the weekends just for kicks ;-) when I was
younger and had more
time). I can take a bare disk and have a fully functioning, fully
tweaked Ubuntu install
build in under two hours. So I have stuff to contribute.

I've offered my help to individuals, communties, groups in the past.
Unfortunately, most
of the "front contact" people are typically programmers; and most
programmers don't have
time or interest in documentation (later, right?) or tweaks (why would
you want to tweak
my perfect code/app/installation?).

I joined this community in hopes it might be different; that I'd find a way into
"meaningful community".

And I don't think I'm all that isolated in my situation; just read
some of the posts on
Ubuntu Planet about building community.

Yes, please.
How do I help?
What's first?
and most important,
Who do I contact?

What about mentorship for my interests?
I want to build packages and post them to UbuntuPowerUsers? Who do I talk to?
I want to submit a tweak/script -- who do I tap on the shoulder?

/tom (IRC: Scruffles)