Looking back

Time does really fly.

In a few days it will be 3 months since I started at Canonical, so I thought this might be a good time to stop for a second and post a quick recollection of my work and experiences so far.

What I've been doing

  • People: I've been working very closely with my awesome team and with some other equally awesome people. All of them and many others have been really helpful in making me feel welcome and in getting up to speed with the internal processes and workflows. Thank you very very much, guys!. It is really inspiring to see people being driven by and working very hard in something they strongly believe in. If that alone weren't enough, they also make a difference in what they do. Now, how cool is that?
  • Allhands: my first time at the Canonical Allhands meeting was (for the lack of more adjectives to describe awesomeness) an amazing experience. Seeing the gathering of so many incredible individuals made me think it's no wonder we've gotten so far.
  • UDS: this time we had a good representation on translations at UDS, and we talked a lot about them. Well, that's only the beginning! Expect to have more and more of that in the next UDSs. You can see a picture of the whole translations crew showing off their good looks in Milo's post here.
  • Feedback, feedback, feedback: apart from direct feedback at UDS, I've been running a survey on the Ubuntu Translations Community and another one on Launchpad Translations. Stay tuned for more updates on this.
  • UNR: as part of the process of making the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) available to the community, I've been working with the OEM team to also make its translations available to Ubuntu Translators, so that end users can benefit of their fantastic work in localising Ubuntu. All the credit for the hard work in making this happen goes to Kyle Nitzsche from the Canonical OEM team - and to the Launchpad Translations team for their assistance as well.
  • Meetings: following the example of many other communities within Ubuntu, I believe translators will greatly benefit in having a dedicated space to discuss anything around translations in real time and with a specific agenda. It is all about improving and promoting communication, and that's why we're starting the Ubuntu Translations meetings.
...and many other bits and pieces.

What's coming up

  • Roadmap: I've been summarising all the direct feedback and that from the surveys and I'll be working in using this as my roadmap for Ubuntu translations. More on this soon.
  • Jams: the upcoming Ubuntu Global Jam is going to include translations this time (and more!). Remember to start adding your events on here.
  • Again, meetings: did I mention the meetings? Yes, I'm pretty excited about them, and I'm sure they will make a huge difference in the Ubuntu translations community. The first one will be:
    • this Thursday, the 2nd of July at 15:00 UTC at #ubuntu-meeting on Freenode.
  • Karmic translations: will be opening soon!

What else?

Finally, here's a question to you folks:
  • I'd like to hear more of your thoughts: in which areas do you think I should focus my work on translations?