Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Re-Launch
Below is the email in full that I sent to the news team about the re-launch. Thanks to those who have already started to come forward to help! Thoughts and comments are welcome.
I’ve also been asked to expand on what my vision and role of the leadership team would be so I’ll be blogging and emailing about that shortly.
Hi all! (I'll add this to a blog post as well but wanted to start with an email to the team first) During this cycle there will be a re-launch (Next week suggested new time line to follow) of the newsletter, a re'org of the team and newsletter, and the election/appointment of a new editorial leadership team. Below is the blueprint and etherpad [1] from UDS [2] on items that were discussed. Goals ****** 1 - Lower barrier to contribution and team participation (In Progress) 2 - Simplify all steps of the production process while continuing to produce a consistent, predicable, and reliable "snap-shot" of a week in time of Ubuntu in as many consumer forms as necessary to met the needs of the readers. (In Progress) 3 - Re-launch weekly newsletter (See Below) 4 - Identify the various jobs and what part of the process they fall under (contribution, editing, publishing etc) (In Progress) 5 - Elect/Appoint a leadership team. (See Below) Lower barrier to contribution and team participation ************************************************************ WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS! Think about helping this is also a great way to show sustained contribution if you are thinking of Ubuntu Membership. Re-launch ************ Here is the new suggested Template [3] based on the survey results- explanations of each section can be seen by viewing the raw text version Suggested Timeline for Production * All links and Story ideas submitted by Friday * All summaries (English Version) completed by Saturday (Hard Freeze no changes to be made except by publishing editor after 2400 UTC on each Saturday (reason must be stated in the change log on wiki page) * Sunday through Tuesday Translation teams can have time to translate and add to their versions * All versions to be be published on Wednesday by 1200 UTC What that means for this week - June 3rd all stories in, June 4th all summaries and links added and edited (English Version), Email then goes out to translations teams that it's frozen and they can translate, publish on June 8th. I'll write a summary and catch everyone up to date with the re-launch issue and from this issue on the issues will cover Saturday through Friday of each week. Leadership Team ******************** Past Editors ave suffered from burnout on a routine basis and this is something we as a team and I personally wish to never have happen to a member of the news team again. We like our members and we want more, but we can't suggest people step up and lead if we are setting them up for burnout. So here is my suggestion 1 - Self nomination 2 - The news team will vote in a 3 person leadership team *OR* 3 - Appointment of a leadership team by asking the CC to step in and help I am suggesting the following timeline to help everyone who is thinking about stepping up to lead learn the processes, be part or the re'org, and take ownership of the future of the project. Between now and the end of August *anyone* who wants to be part of the leadership team let me know so I and others can help you learn various parts of the newsletter and help mentor and leadership questions/concerns you may have about motivating and leading a team of volunteers, as well as what makes reliable and trustworthy news stories, rss feeds to watch etc. * September 1-15, 2011 nomination phase * September 16-30, 2011 testimonial phase * October 1-10, 2011 voting phase Then the new leadership will be in place prior to the start of the next UDS. We will need to define who is eligible to vote etc, but that can all be worked out through the next 10 days or so. I am really looking forward to seeing the new leadership and the new UWN back up and in full swing again. Thanks everyone so far, and thanks to all those who will be helping going forward. Looking forward to hearing from you all. Please feel free to email me on the list or privately as well as ping me on IRC if you have any questions or comments you'd like to discuss further. Remember it's you the community who are awesome and will make this newsletter rock again! Amber [1] http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-o/meeting/community-o-ubuntu-news-team/ [2] https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-o-ubuntu-news-team [3] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/SuggestedTemplate
