Martin Albisetti's blog

8May/120

Help us organize UbuConLA 2012!

While a lot of you are at UDS, several Latin American LoCos are working hard to organize a local Ubuntu conference.
Things are going really well, we're 4 weeks away, but we're a little short on funds. Every year the same people who organize it end up having to pay for many things themselves despite have a few generous sponsors, and this year I'd like to change it so I set up a small but valuable fund raising campaign and we could really use your help.
The site is in Spanish, so it may take a bit of blind surfing to get around but it should be fairly easy once you've been sent to PayPal  :)

If you have a some spare change, head on over here: http://www.groofi.com/profile/beuno/projects/ubuconla-2012-conferencia-de-ubuntu-en-argentina

Filed under: Bazaar, Canonical, Debian, Ubuntu No Comments
14Apr/120

Ubucon 2012, Buenos Aires edition

This June 1st and 2nd, we will be holding an all-Ubuntu conference for the second time in Argentina, and with plans to make it regional from now on (next one is in Uruguay!).
Even though it's in Spanish, I'd like to open up the Call for Papers here on planet Ubuntu as well, in case anyone reading is close by  :)

 

 

Ubuntu-AR y Ubuntu-UY, grupos locales de Ubuntu para Argentina y Uruguay, convocan a miembros de
la comunidad de software libre internacional y de otros grupos locales de Ubuntu en Latinoamerica a presentar propuestas de charlas para la conferencia anual sobre Ubuntu de Latinoamerica, UbuConLA 2012.

 

Qué es UbuConLA ?

Un acontecimiento internacional, anual e itinerante para Latinoamerica surgido a partir de una idea común entre miembros de los grupos comunitarios locales de Ubuntu en Argentina y Uruguay, con los siguientes objetivos:

  • Difundir la capacidad y experiencias logradas en ambientes empresariales por especialistas de Latinoamérica en proyectos y contextos de diversas características
  • Mostrar el grado de madurez alcanzado por Ubuntu GNU/Linux y los profesionales que trabajan con él en ambientes empresariales, ya sea tanto como consultores como también usuarios y responsables de áreas de sistemas
  • Integrar técnica y socialmente a usuarios y especialistas de Latinoamérica, tanto sea para adquisición de nuevos conocimientos y habilidades como también para aprovechar y/o generar oportunidades de negocios en la región
  • Difundir el espíritu "Ubuntu" de la comunidad Latinoamericana
  • Institucionalizar UbuConLA como "El Acontecimiento Ubuntu" anual para Latinoamerica.

Próximas sedes: 2013 - Montevideo, Uruguay. 2014 - Colombia

Dónde, cuándo y cómo

La conferencia se realizará los dias 1 y 2 de Junio 2012 en la sede de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires de la Universidad Austral, en  Argentina.

El autor de cada conferencia seleccionada deberá participar presencialmente como orador en el acontecimiento.

Podrán participar como máximo 3 autores por conferencia, que deberá ser expuesta en Español.

Las propuestas deben ser enviadas via e-mail en texto plano con archivo adjunto, en alguno de los formatos indicados más abajo, a ubuconla@gmail.com con la etiqueta [CFC] y a continuación el título de la conferencia a proponer en el Asunto del mensaje.

Las propuestas serán recibidas hasta el día 1 de Mayo 2012 inclusive.

Orientación

El día viernes será dedicado a empresas y profesionales con una disposición de 3 tracks presentándose en paralelo:

  • Track 1: Casos de exito: por qué funcionó la migracion/proyecto - Características del contexto - Consideraciones previas para minimizar riesgos de fracaso
  • Track 2: Cómo migrar a Ubuntu en empresas - Metodologías y mejores prácticas aplicadas - Cuándo y por qué usar Ubuntu en PyMES
  • Track 3: Soporte corporativo para Ubuntu - Tengo un problema, y ahora qué hago ? - Alternativas locales de soporte

El día sábado estará orientado a entusiastas y comunidad en general, también con 3 tracks presentándose en paralelo:

  • Track 1: Casos de exito: Comunitarios
  • Track 2: Principiantes - Qué es Ubuntu? - Cómo instalar Ubuntu - Instalé Ubuntu, y ahora? - Migrando de Windows a Ubuntu - Participando en la comunidad (Introducción) - Charlas relámpago (5 minutos)
  • Track 3: Usuarios experimentados - Personalizaciones - Ubuntu Server - Unity, por qué? - Cómo reportar bugs en Ubuntu - Ubuntu TV/Android - Charlas relámpago (5 minutos) - Otros temas de software libre - comunidad relacionados con Ubuntu

Condiciones

Las propuestas deberán contener la siguiente información:

  • Título
  • Autor - Nombre completo
  • Organización a la que pertenece/representa
  • Lugar de residencia
  • Extracto/síntesis biográfica del autor
  • Teléfono y dirección de correo electrónico de contacto
  • Track en el cual quiere presentar su exposición
  • Tipo (taller ó charla)
  • Descripción (resumen o esquema que permita evaluar su calidad y punto de vista)
  • Duración estimada (las charlas son generalmente de 25 minutos)
  • Requisitos/recursos necesarios (Equipos Multimedia, Sala de máquinas, equipo de sonido, etc)
  • Nivel (básico, intermedio, avanzado)
  • Destinatarios (Sociedad, Empresas, Técnica)
  • Conocimientos previos de la audiencia.

Una vez evaluada la propuesta, se les informará a los autores el resultado de la selección por las vía de contacto facilitadas.

Formato para las Presentaciones

Formatos aceptados

  • ODT (LibreOffice y equivalentes)
  • HTML standard
  • PDF
  • Texto plano

Licencia

Deberá especificarse una licencia para las presentaciones que permita a los organizadores distribuir el materia libremente.  Cualquier consulta sobre este tema pueden canalizarla via ubuconla@gmail.com.

Agradecemos la difusión de este llamado y del acontecimiento en sí.

www.ubuconla.org

Filed under: Canonical, Ubuntu No Comments
3Feb/121

Support open source games, donate to 0 A.D.

0 A.D. is an awesome cross-platform game that is fun, has stunning graphics and is completely open source.
There's even a PPA for Ubuntu.
It works wonderfully on both my laptops.

They are looking for a round of donations to pay for some more development work, and as of this moment they're $634 USD short. I've just sent $50 their way.
If you've got a few bucks to spare, please send some money their way. Or maybe you want to get into some development work, they have detailed instructions on how to do just that!

Filed under: Canonical, Ubuntu 1 Comment
29Jun/111

Ubuntu One Files for Android released!

After a long and interesting journey, today we've released Ubuntu One Files for Android.

The app started being developed by Michał Karnicki as a Google Summer of Code project, and he did such a fantastic job at it that we hired him on full time and teamed him up Chad Miller to end up releasing a fantastically polished app. It got immediately featured in the press!
It was built on top of our public APIs, documented here: https://one.ubuntu.com/developer/

Besides it letting you access all your files stored in Ubuntu One, it has a very cool feature to auto-sync all the pictures on your phone, having an instant backup of them, and a convenient place to share them!

I'm super proud of the work we put out.

Also, as with all the rest of our clients, it's open source and you can get it in Launchpad

Tagged as: , , 1 Comment
25Apr/112

Looking for a CSS/HTML guru to work on Ubuntu One

In the last few months, I've been lucky enough to be able to hire some exceptional people that were contributing to Ubuntu One in their free time. Every time someone comes in from the community, filled with excitement about being able to work on their pet project full time my job gets that much better.
So, everyone say hello to James Tait and Michał Karnicki!

Now we're looking for a new team member to help us make the Ubuntu One website awesome. Someone who knows CSS and HTML inside out, cares deeply about doing things the best way possible and is passionate about their work.

If you're interested or know anyone who may, the job posting is up on Canonical's website.

Tagged as: , , 2 Comments
7Mar/112

Ubuntu, Natty and Unity

I have to confess, after I heard I found out we where shipping Unity in Ubuntu by default I was nervous. I got asked many times what my feelings were, and I think I generally dodged the question. This was a pretty risky move, which we are still a few months away from finding out how well the risk pays off.
Given that a lot of the design behind Unity wasn't done in the open and hadn't had a long time to mature, I've been sceptical of whether we  (as in, the Ubuntu project) could pull of such a massive change in a such a short period of time, and still have happy users.

I've been using Unity on and off on my netbook (which is my secondary computer), but while enjoying a long weekend I've spent the last few days using it a lot, and my feeling towards the it have changed quite a bit.

I think it was the right decision. Overall, it feels like an overall improved experience, even with its current rough edges. Exactly what I think we need to win over a wider audience and have them fall in love with Ubuntu head over heels. Everything is starting to feel much more tightly integrated and with a purpose, as well as some eye-candy sprinkled in a lot of the right places.
I'm really glad Canonical decided to invest to heavily in such a risky and insanely complicated task, Natty is probably one of the most exciting releases I can remember.

There are still a few key challenges ahead, most notably to me is making the design process more open and inclusive, but still being able to deliver something that feels polished and not a pile of consensus between people who have gotten good at arguing. The Ayatana community does seem to be slowly growing, though, so the future looks pretty bright. Getting the right balance between Canonical and a community around design feels like one of the hardest problems to solve, luckily, Canonical continues to hire the brightest and most enthusiastic minds around, so I'm sure it will eventually feel like a solved problem.

I think it's been almost 6 years since I landed in the Ubuntu world, I've done all kinds of things in the community ranging from starting and building the Argentine LoCo to editing the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, to evaluating new Ubuntu members in the Americas region. With its ups and down, great press and wild controversies, it still feels like the best place to be.

Filed under: Bazaar, Canonical, Ubuntu, Ubuntu One, User Experience 2 Comments
7Oct/1014

Open source is awesome

I am ZOMG very tired from the exciting release for Ubuntu One, but I wanted to highlight a very pleasant surprise.
We launched the Ubuntu One Music Streaming a week ago, and yesterday, while hadn't yet publicly released, we got a patch that adds support to tell last.fm the music you are listing from the Android app.

A big thank you to Scott Ferguson for being so awesome.

Tagged as: , 14 Comments
6Oct/101

Exciting changes in Ubuntu One

Matt Griffin has written a great blog post, so I'm just going to echo it:

After over a year’s worth of feedback from users like you and a clear view of where we want to take Ubuntu One in the future, we’ve just made some changes to the Ubuntu One service offering and pricing plans.

For starters, we will no longer offer the 50 GB plan to new subscribers. Everyone will get the basic plan and then have the option to add various ‘add-ons’ of services and storage as needed. But here are the details:

Ubuntu One Basic – available now
This is the same as the current free 2 GB option but with a new name. Users can continue to sync files, contacts, bookmarks and notes for free as part of our basic service and access the integrated Ubuntu One Music Store. We are also extending our platform support to include a Windows client, which will be available in Beta very soon.

Ubuntu One Mobile – available October 7th
Ubuntu One Mobile is our first example of a service that helps you do more with the content stored in your personal cloud. With Ubuntu One Mobile’s main feature – mobile music streaming – users can listen to any MP3 songs in their personal cloud (any owned MP3s, not just those purchased from the Ubuntu One Music Store) using our custom developed apps for iPhone and Android (coming soon to their respective marketplaces). These will be open source and available from Launchpad. Ubuntu One Mobile will also include the mobile contacts sync feature that was launched in Beta for the 10.04 release.

Ubuntu One Mobile is available for $3.99 (USD) per month or $39.99 (USD) per year. Users interested in this add-on can try the service free for 30 days. Ubuntu One Mobile will be the perfect companion to your morning exercise, daily commute, and weekend at the beach – we’re really excited to bring you this service!

Ubuntu One 20-Packs – available now
A 20-Pack is 20 GB of storage for files, contacts, notes, and bookmarks. Users will be able to add multiple 20-Packs at $2.99 (USD) per month or $29.99 (USD) per year each. If you start with Ubuntu One Basic (2 GB) and add 1 20-Pack (20 GB), you will have 22 GB of storage.

All add-ons are available for purchase in multiple currencies – USD, EUR and, recently added, GBP.

Users currently paying for the old 50 GB plan (including mobile contacts sync) can either keep their existing service or switch to the new plans structure to get more value from Ubuntu One at a lower price.

We know that you will enjoy these new add-ons as well as the performance enhancements we’ve made to Ubuntu One in recent months. If you have questions, our recently updated support area is a great place to start. There you’ll find a link to the current status of Ubuntu One services, a link to our frequently updated list of frequently asked questions, and a way to send us a direct message. As always, you can also ping the team on IRC (#ubuntuone in freenode). We welcome your questions, comments and suggestions.

Tagged as: , 1 Comment
30Sep/100

Ubuntu One Music Streaming public beta!

After a solid 6 months of work, music streaming is up for public testing!  \o/

Read the full announcement for all the details, and go see the wiki page on how to sign up.

Tagged as: , No Comments
24Sep/100

No, we are not infringing any licenses

We spend a lot of time making sure we're not violating any licenses, and usually work with upstream early on. Charlie Smotherman got confused about how we had implemented music streaming and filed a bug reporting a violation. I'd encourage anyone who even suspects there may be a license violation to report a bug or contact us as soon as possible, but maybe hold off on the inflammatory blog posts  ;)
We've contacted him explaining all this but he seems to not had a chance to update his claims so I'm bringing this up now.

Nobody on the Ubuntu One team commented on any of his blog posts either. Ampache seems like a nice piece of software and even some people on the Ubuntu One team use it. We chose to go with Subsonic clients (we are not using any of the server pieces as it doesn't fit with our infrastructure) because the API seemed to be very nice, the existing clients where very nice to use, and all upstream developers where friendly and happy to help us release the service.

I'm sorry if any feelings got hurt, but there's no need to lash out like that.

For future reference, the whole team hangs out in #ubuntuone on Freenode.

Filed under: Canonical, Ubuntu, Ubuntu One No Comments
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