Blindraven
August 10th, 2007, 09:21 AM
So you want to help but don't know where to start?
You don't know anything about most things and figure you cant really help out?
Great!
If your reading, you've already done the first step, you want to but you don't know how, and here I'll explain where you can start.
There are various ways you can help the Ubuntu community at large, we all excel in different areas and most think that unless they know some form of programing language or bash scripting that they simply have no input or cant help in any way, I'm here to tell you that's simply not true.
The answers all lay with your own experience, especially those who have had allot of issues but stuck it out, because you are the people who have done allot of trouble shooting and therefore have that "know-how" to fix those issues should they occur again, not just for you, for anyone!
Media.
Are you a keen Gimp user? Do you run Photoshop through wine? can you make art-work that would contribute somehow to the spirit of the community? can you think of ways the desktop could improve by default? there are an immense amount of different things you can do with your photo-editing/artwork knowledge, but you have probably never thought about putting it to good use in the community.
The best part is, you get to have fun doing it while knowing at the same time it is going towards a good thing and helping people out to boot!
Here are just a few examples :
Wallpapers,
Icons,
Splash screens,
Boot screens.
Writing tutorials.
Do you know how to use a program especially well? what about a program that you got running in really unlikely circumstances? why not write it all down in simple bullet/walk-through format and share your knowledge with everyone!.
The best part of this is that you are going to get people who send you messages and tell you how much you've helped them out, and your keeping people inside the community and really letting them know how to harness the power of their day-to-day or workplace computing life.
Empowering people in anyway should be at least a partial aspiration for everyone but unfortunately some people just don't have the time, but they probably think more time is necessary then need be to give anyone real helpt.
Again, not true, and here I'll list some examples :
Walk-throughs (can be for absolutely anything),
Reviews ,
Set-up guides,
Installation help,
Specialty program advice,
Configuration or systems administration,
Upkeep advice,
Security advice.
Just two category's of the many in which the only limit is your own imagination.
Anyone, you, me, my grandmother can, given the motivation ,help anyone out in someway or another.
All it takes is a small amount of your time and putting your mind to words/graphics/video and you are essentially, without the tag, developing the growing community and Ubuntu as a whole.
The first thing you should do is grab yourself a Launchpad account and start submitting bugs as/if they come in.
Make sure you are clear and precise with program and operating system specifics so that the developers know exactly how to handle your problem. This is a good way to passively help the growth of the O.S a non active way, you don't really have to do anything until something happens, or maybe you want to try and break things (without meaning to) to see what happens? who knows, the limitations are set by you and they help everyone.
In short, to help people is to empower people, and I'm sure we have all heard the line that goes something along the lines of
"Cook a man a fish, and he eats for a night.
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime".
Good luck!
You don't know anything about most things and figure you cant really help out?
Great!
If your reading, you've already done the first step, you want to but you don't know how, and here I'll explain where you can start.
There are various ways you can help the Ubuntu community at large, we all excel in different areas and most think that unless they know some form of programing language or bash scripting that they simply have no input or cant help in any way, I'm here to tell you that's simply not true.
The answers all lay with your own experience, especially those who have had allot of issues but stuck it out, because you are the people who have done allot of trouble shooting and therefore have that "know-how" to fix those issues should they occur again, not just for you, for anyone!
Media.
Are you a keen Gimp user? Do you run Photoshop through wine? can you make art-work that would contribute somehow to the spirit of the community? can you think of ways the desktop could improve by default? there are an immense amount of different things you can do with your photo-editing/artwork knowledge, but you have probably never thought about putting it to good use in the community.
The best part is, you get to have fun doing it while knowing at the same time it is going towards a good thing and helping people out to boot!
Here are just a few examples :
Wallpapers,
Icons,
Splash screens,
Boot screens.
Writing tutorials.
Do you know how to use a program especially well? what about a program that you got running in really unlikely circumstances? why not write it all down in simple bullet/walk-through format and share your knowledge with everyone!.
The best part of this is that you are going to get people who send you messages and tell you how much you've helped them out, and your keeping people inside the community and really letting them know how to harness the power of their day-to-day or workplace computing life.
Empowering people in anyway should be at least a partial aspiration for everyone but unfortunately some people just don't have the time, but they probably think more time is necessary then need be to give anyone real helpt.
Again, not true, and here I'll list some examples :
Walk-throughs (can be for absolutely anything),
Reviews ,
Set-up guides,
Installation help,
Specialty program advice,
Configuration or systems administration,
Upkeep advice,
Security advice.
Just two category's of the many in which the only limit is your own imagination.
Anyone, you, me, my grandmother can, given the motivation ,help anyone out in someway or another.
All it takes is a small amount of your time and putting your mind to words/graphics/video and you are essentially, without the tag, developing the growing community and Ubuntu as a whole.
The first thing you should do is grab yourself a Launchpad account and start submitting bugs as/if they come in.
Make sure you are clear and precise with program and operating system specifics so that the developers know exactly how to handle your problem. This is a good way to passively help the growth of the O.S a non active way, you don't really have to do anything until something happens, or maybe you want to try and break things (without meaning to) to see what happens? who knows, the limitations are set by you and they help everyone.
In short, to help people is to empower people, and I'm sure we have all heard the line that goes something along the lines of
"Cook a man a fish, and he eats for a night.
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime".
Good luck!