OStatic

At the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) late last month, Ubuntu community manager, Jono Bacon, spoke to attendees about community, and why it means so much to open source projects. Ryan Paul at Ars Technica put together a concise, informative overview of Bacon's SCaLE talk.

Bacon says that community -- and building a sense of belonging -- are crucial to growing and maintaining any open source project. No doubt this is due to the heavy element of voluntary participation in the open source world, but the belonging concept is one that any project or company -- open or closed, with paid employees or non-compensated volunteers (or any mix of the two) -- would benefit from applying to its management techniques. It is, without argument, one of open source's strongest traits.

Are you interested in open source software? Do you use Ubuntu at all? Will you be passing through the Los Angeles area later today or tomorrow? Think you'll be spending any time over the next two days near a computer with an internet connection? Are your weekend plans peppered with a few small gaps (or wide open expanses) of free time?

Yes? I've got some good news, then. This weekend is shaping up to be a lively one for open source enthusiasts, whether they're in sunny southern California or Tokyo, Japan.

For those in the vicinity of Southern California, SCaLE (the SoCal Linux Expo) is taking place this weekend. Lisa spoke with SCaLE organizer Gareth Greenaway a while back about how the event was shaping up, and the event schedule is packed with talks, tutorials and demonstrations for open source fans of any skill level.

If you'll notice, SCaLE is hosting a number of sessions for the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam. Not in California? Not to worry. The weekend-long Bug Jam is global in the truest sense -- and if you're unable to attend a real world meeting, the #ubuntu-bugs IRC channel can get you in on the action.

The Ubuntu team has revealed the schedule and events for its next Developer Week. Ubuntu Developer Week events are traditionally held online to introduce new developers (or new to Ubuntu developers) to the Ubuntu development process.

The next Developer Week is slated for January 19th through the 23rd. Events start daily at 16:00 UTC, and occur hourly until 20:00 UTC. The first two scheduled events for Monday (at 16:00-18:00 UTC) are introductory events that will be conducted in several languages.

Are you an Ubuntu developer/Launchpad member who had fate conspire against you, keeping you from the the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week at the clandestine Google Crittenden Campus in Mountain View?

It's not quite the same, but Mike Basinger has the details on how to be there without actually attending. For Launchpad registered developers, the UDS schedule page has links to live streams (video and audio) for the talks and presentations, as well as instructions on how to use VOIP to participate.

Not registered with Launchpad? More of an interested onlooker than a developer? The Jaunty Jackalope UDS attendees have rigged a number of virtual postcards for the event featuring more than the local weather and obligatory wish you were here.