Plan a ubuntu global jam testing event!

Ubuntu Global Jam is just a few short weeks away. I trust you've seen the posts announcing and asking you to plan your events. Maybe you are confused about what type of session to plan or how the event could go. I will echo my friend Daniel Holbach in saying just do it! Grab a buddy (even an online one!) and plan to jam together. If your confused about what to jam with, check out the testing page.

It's got everything you need to run a session, and the documentation has all been done for you. Folks can choose what they are interested in testing (packages, images, or hardware), or even do some hacking on testcases. No need to be a programmer, manual tests can be written by anyone! Participants don't need anything besides there laptop and an image of ubuntu on a cd or usb stick (assuming of course they aren't already running ubuntu raring :-) ).

If your curious about wanting to host a testing event, checkout the testing page on the global jam site. Feel free to get in touch with me as well if you wish to share your stories or ask questions. Let's jam, quality style!

A thank you to some quality rockstars

The quality team has completed a series of classroom sessions held over the last two months. None of these would have been possible without the help from these wonderful instructors:

phillw, gema, noskcaj, smartboyhw, primes2h, letozaf, sergiomeneses

Thank you!

Thank you as well to pleia2, JoseeAntonioR and the other classroom team members who helped us schedule and run the sessions.

You all rock!

Some quality resources

A couple posts ago, I mentioned the ubuntu quality team was looking for people to join the team and help out in the testing efforts we undertake. Thanks to those of you who've already answered the call and our now joining our testing ranks. We love sharing the joys of testing with others!

We're serious about wanting to make sure you are able to contribute and join the community as easily as possible. So for the last couple months, as a team we've been writing tutorials, giving classroom sessions, and hosting testing events. We really do want you as part of the team. Check out some of the resources available to you and consider becoming a part of the team!

Classroom Sessions
Video Tutorials
Written Walkthroughs

• Contributing Cadence Testing results
• Contributing Image Testing results
• Contributing Call for Testing results
• Setting up Launchpad
• Contributing Manual Tests
• Contributing Autopkg Tests
• Contributing Autopilot Tests

Cadence Weeks, Quality, and You!

Starting tomorrow February 9th, 2013 (heh, some of you reading this might already be in tomorrow), the quality community team will start testing for cadence week #6. During this week, we as a team try and help test specific packages looking for regressions, doing new feature or hardware testing, and making sure our images are in good shape. If your still confused, there's a nice wiki page that lays out what "cadence" means in a bit more detail.

So what does this mean for you, dear reader? Well, we as a team would like you to be involved in helping us test! Everyone has unique ways of interacting with software, and naturally no two computer setups are exactly the same between us. Now, I know what your thinking -- how can I help? I'm no tester, and I don't run development versions of ubuntu!

That's ok! You can still help test without needing to compromise your system. If you don't want to install the development version on your machine, you can use a virtual machine installation instead. If you are unable to run virtual machines, or are confused at the idea, you can still help test by simply running a live session and executing tests there. It's not too hard for you! Check out this walk-through for participating using only an image of the development version of ubuntu and your computer.

To help demonstrate how you can participate, I'll be hosting two live events this next week where I'll be on-hand running through the cadence week tests along with others from the quality team. There will even be a livestream, so if your a visual person (like me!), you can see for yourself how you might be able to contribute. Here's the dates you need to know:

Monday Feb 11th, 1800-1900 UTC in #ubuntu-quality. I'll also be streaming live my participation in executing the tests .

Thursday Feb 14th, 1400-1500 UTC in #ubuntu-quality. No stream, but we'll be hanging out answering questions, and working on submitting test results.

Please consider attending a session or watching the video of the stream afterwards. If you can download an image and boot your computer, you can help test. You want to be a part of ubuntu; let us help you contribute!

PSA: Ubuntu Quality wants you!

NOTICE: To whom it may concern, the ubuntu quality team is seeking those with a desire to help ubuntu to contribute to the quality and testing efforts. With a little time and a willingness to learn, you too can unlock the tester within you!

Interested? Please inquire below!

If that text didn't get you, I hope the picture did. Seriously though, if you are here reading this page, I want to offer you an opportunity to help out. We as a team have expanded our activities and projects this cycle and we want to extend an offer for you to come along and learn with us. We're exploring automated testing with autopilot and autopkg, manual testing of images, and the virtues of testing in a regular cadence.

But we can't do it alone, nor do we wish to! We'd love to hear from you. Please have a look at our getting involved page (but do excuse the theme dust!) and get in touch. I offered a challenge to this community in the past, and I was blown away by the emails that flooded my inbox. Send me an email, tell me your interests, and ask me how you can help. Let me help get you started. Flood my inbox again₁. Let's make ubuntu better, together!

1. If anyone is counting, I believe the record is ~100 emails in one 24 hour period :-p