What was discussed, and what was the outcome of the Ask Ubuntu UDS-N session?

Question

There was an Ask Ubuntu session at UDS-N on Friday 29th October 2010.

What topics were discussed?

What decisions were made?

Answer 1

This post aims to provide two documents related with the session.

1 - The written short record of the session taken during the session:

Publicly available source as of 30.10.2010 01:00 UTC via collaborative text editor Gobby, with server: document ubuntutheproject/ubuntutheproject-community-n-ask-ubuntu on server gobby.ubuntu.com.

Agenda
 * How to make site more accessible
   - screen readers will read it
   - possible issue with color compatibility
 * Localisation
   - number one priority for us (most users are international)
   - Would be nice to have a subdomain (eg nl.askubuntu.com)
     -- could then have a shared database of questions, but automatically tagged with language
     -- possibly making community wikis translatable (flag needed to indicate outdated translations)
     -- would make it possible for multilingual answerers to look at other pages
     -- currently we lack an askubuntu.com alternative for multiple languages (shapado can be used instead)
   - The software is running on proprietary software - we should see if open source technologies can be linked to that (e.g. gettext)
 * Replacing Launchpad answers (for Ubuntu project)
   - non-english bug reports session wants to use this for non-english bug reporters
     - questions can be converted to bugs and vice versa
   - would be nice to convert a launchpad bug to an askubuntu question
     - might be nice to be able to reconvert and automatically pull data back
       - existing launchpad bugs get converted to questions and back somewhat frequently
   - might be difficult to turn off answers in launchpad
     - redirecting to askubuntu would be different (eg with 15 day warning)
       - dealing with questions asked during transition period would also be a problem
 * Integrating ask into existing work team processes
   - encourage people on ask to link to official documentation (rather than just giving answer for instance)
     - would help boost search ranks of official documenation too
 * open source
   - we are following stackexchange here mostly
     - has hundreds of thousands of developers
 * how community can use database dumps (cc-licensed) 
   - in case stackexchange gets eaten by godzilla
   - "offline wikipedia CD"
 * Loco team integration
 * Default bookmark / adding ask link on stub page
   - bug filed in firefox to update default links LP: 602265
Work Items
 * [marco] 508 compliance research (site has to be this for US Gov $$$)
 * [jorge] bring up replacing answers in launchpad stakeholder process with Marjo (they have 6 month backlog or so)
 * [jorge] talk to online services: change start.ubuntu.com (in english) help link to "Ask a question" that links to stackexchange
 * [chris coulson] make a default bookmark for askubuntu and drop launchpad answers

2- Log of the IRC chat parallel to the session:

From ubottu.com

2010-10-29T20:08:54  <txwikinger> o/ Jorge
2010-10-29T20:09:34  <txwikinger> ok
2010-10-29T20:09:45  <badp> speaker: sooo ahead of you :P
2010-10-29T20:11:25  <txwikinger> great
2010-10-29T20:12:30  <txwikinger> Jorge: I announced the details in the askubuntu.com general chat
2010-10-29T20:14:01  <txwikinger> txwikinger is Ralph Janke
2010-10-29T20:14:18  <txwikinger> Hello Robert
2010-10-29T20:14:39  <txwikinger> rofl
2010-10-29T20:15:15  <marenostrum> marenostrum is Deniz. Launchpad: ~kdenizogut
2010-10-29T20:15:27  * nUboon2Age is Drew Johnson, involved in wiki documentation for ubuntu beginners
2010-10-29T20:15:40  <AlanBell> hello people who want to exchange their stack
2010-10-29T20:15:54  <marcoceppi> They don't call it a StackExchange for nothing!
2010-10-29T20:15:56  <dv3500ea> dv3500ea is David. Launchpad: ~david4dev
2010-10-29T20:16:12  <AlanBell> there is a bit of a concern from the Accessibility team about askubuntu.com and accessibility
2010-10-29T20:16:21  <AlanBell> as there is lots of ajax stuff going on
2010-10-29T20:16:43  <AlanBell> we believe they have at times broken accessibility
2010-10-29T20:16:47  <txwikinger> what is our document?
2010-10-29T20:16:50  <AlanBell> http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/68898/how-accessible-are-the-stack-exchange-sites-for-users-of-screen-reader-software
2010-10-29T20:17:05  <AlanBell> http://meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=blind+accessibility
2010-10-29T20:17:25  <badp> if you're fine with read-only access there are more accessible interfaces
2010-10-29T20:17:42  <badp> example: http://stackapps.com/questions/542/column-80-plain-text-optimised-sofu
2010-10-29T20:18:06  <AlanBell> not neccessarily a huge or unfixable problem but I would ask you to bear accessibility in mind, we want to bring all the ubuntu sites up to scratch in this regard
2010-10-29T20:18:31  <marcoceppi> AlanBell, As in 508 Compliant?
2010-10-29T20:18:41  <AlanBell> marcoceppi: well that would be nice
2010-10-29T20:18:54  <badp> AlanBell: that's not something the AskUbuntu team can do much about, you'll have to contact the StackExchange dev team at meta.stackexchange.com
2010-10-29T20:19:29  <txwikinger> Jorge: Are we using gobby or something else?
2010-10-29T20:19:36  <AlanBell> badp: I know, but if there are plans to move stuff from the wiki over to askubuntu.com then we don't want to introduce an accessibility regression
2010-10-29T20:19:38  <marcoceppi> From what I have seen, and know of 508 Compliancy - the style and engine for SE is pretty much there - though there are a few small things that would likely need to be changed. Primarily colors
2010-10-29T20:19:43  <marcoceppi> AlanBell, From what I have seen, and know of 508 Compliancy - the style and engine for SE is pretty much there - though there are a few small things that would likely need to be changed. Primarily colors
2010-10-29T20:19:50  <badp> you may be interested in WeMenu integration too
2010-10-29T20:19:52  <AlanBell> good stuff
2010-10-29T20:20:15  <txwikinger> speak up please
2010-10-29T20:20:20  <Morasique> i don't use the same nick on IRC as on SE; i feel like i'm in stealth mode
2010-10-29T20:20:22  <AlanBell> anyhow, I have to pop to the summit session, have fun with your stacks!
2010-10-29T20:20:50  <marcoceppi> Jorge: Sure
2010-10-29T20:21:10  <txwikinger> Jorge - we will have a similar law soon in Ontario
2010-10-29T20:22:58  <txwikinger> We might want to have multiple translations of the same question/asnwer?
2010-10-29T20:23:27  <badp> Honestly that sounds like a terrible idea.
2010-10-29T20:23:47  <Morasique> it's hard to keep them in sync, wikipedia has this problem
2010-10-29T20:24:48  <txwikinger> http://ubuntu.shapado.com
2010-10-29T20:26:02  <patcito> shapado.com runs on ubuntu by the way
2010-10-29T20:26:16  <badp> it's an open ghost town, yeah :)
2010-10-29T20:26:31  <txwikinger> shapado is a ruby on rails app
2010-10-29T20:26:38  <marcoceppi> It's based on the design of the "StackExchange 1.0" engine
2010-10-29T20:26:54  <patcito> badp: http://ask.debian.net is pretty active though and officially supported by debian.org
2010-10-29T20:27:00  <patcito> and it uses shapado
2010-10-29T20:27:14  <patcito> (I'm a shapado dev by the way)
2010-10-29T20:27:45  <badp> didn't know about that site :)
2010-10-29T20:28:03  <patcito> it's the official debian q&a site
2010-10-29T20:34:48  <badp> use the API and the monthly dumps
2010-10-29T20:35:55  <badp> http://stackapps.com/questions/1/api-documentation-and-help + http://blog.stackoverflow.com/category/cc-wiki-dump/ + http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/defending-attribution-required/
2010-10-29T20:36:46  <txwikinger> It's only the English questions anyway until we are multi-lingual
2010-10-29T20:38:55  <badp> I don't really think i18n can work. It's a matter of audience, rather than technical challenges.
2010-10-29T20:39:17  <badp> See StackExchange 1.0 (money) vs StackExchange 2.0 (audience)
2010-10-29T20:41:40  <badp> press the power button and pop in the oranger version between kubuntu and ubuntu in the cd tray
2010-10-29T20:42:00  <badp> http://chat.askubuntu.com/transcript/message/11770#11770
2010-10-29T20:43:49  <this_is_a_test> What is oranger, Ubuntu or Kubuntu?
2010-10-29T20:44:02  <txwikinger> Jorge: This is a matter of voting
2010-10-29T20:45:05  <txwikinger> 200 to retag
2010-10-29T20:45:14  <marcoceppi> http://askubuntu.com/privileges
2010-10-29T20:45:15  <txwikinger> 150 to create new tag
2010-10-29T20:45:37  <txwikinger> you can always ask a friendly moderator to help you :D
2010-10-29T20:45:41  <badp> tag wiki page requires being one of the top 20 answerers and having enough reputation
2010-10-29T20:46:18  <badp> +editing
2010-10-29T20:46:27  <Morasique> (1500, not 1000 like they said)
2010-10-29T20:48:03  <marcoceppi> Activity is edits, answers, responses
2010-10-29T20:48:19  <marcoceppi> for Hot it's like upvotes, page views, and above activity
2010-10-29T20:49:58  <Morasique> "1500 reputation is like a couple days of using the site" :)
2010-10-29T20:50:04  <patcito> stop coughing in the microphone
2010-10-29T20:50:45  <marcoceppi> One good answer can easily land you 250 reputation
2010-10-29T20:51:04  <Morasique> marcoceppi: not in a couple days, there's a limit
2010-10-29T20:51:14  <marcoceppi> 250 is the daily limit
2010-10-29T20:51:35  <Morasique> is it not 200 like the other sites? anyway, my point was a couple days would put you at ~500 rep, even maxing it out
2010-10-29T20:51:42  <txwikinger> 200 is the daily limit (however accepted answers can go over the limit)
2010-10-29T20:52:10  <marcoceppi> Ah, 250 was the most I got - txwikinger is right it's 200
2010-10-29T20:52:52  * txwikinger cheers on the security team
2010-10-29T20:53:01  <patcito> there are ways to get more than 200 rep per day http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8086/how-to-get-over-200-reputation-points-every-day
2010-10-29T20:53:38  <Morasique> patcito: yeah, txwikinger said it, accepted answers
2010-10-29T20:53:48  <marcoceppi> So many points to cover, so little time
2010-10-29T20:54:47  <txwikinger> but we certainly encourage stackexchange to look into using and developing open source
2010-10-29T20:56:58  <patcito> stackoverflow have been giving database dumps for a few years and nothing special came out of it btw
2010-10-29T20:57:26  <marcoceppi> Just because no one uses it doesn't mean it won't be used sometime soon :P
2010-10-29T20:57:50  <Morasique> well, odata used it, but just to provide a way to search it, not in any particularly clever way
2010-10-29T20:57:58  <marcoceppi> There are a few questions like this
2010-10-29T20:57:59  <marcoceppi> http://askubuntu.com/questions/2872/what-are-the-biggest-barriers-to-walking-the-motu-developer-path
2010-10-29T21:00:35  <this_is_a_test> why did my stream randomly pause?
2010-10-29T21:00:51  <days_of_ruin> That happened to me too.
2010-10-29T21:01:23  <marcoceppi> mad rep for that
2010-10-29T21:01:56  <marcoceppi> Other people are upvoting
2010-10-29T21:02:01  <htorque> yeah :P
2010-10-29T21:02:33  <days_of_ruin> holy cow, it gets more upvotes every time I refresh
2010-10-29T21:02:49  <marcoceppi> mass effect
2010-10-29T21:06:31  <txwikinger> Jorge: In Quebec you will be sued
2010-10-29T21:07:39  <marenostrum> Is written report of the session available on Gooby? Name?
2010-10-29T21:08:02  <this_is_a_test> Hello
2010-10-29T21:08:08  <txwikinger> Thanks Jorge.. thanks Robert for coming
2010-10-29T21:08:23  <marenostrum> Thanks a lot dear friends.
2010-10-29T21:08:48  <dv3500ea> Thanks.
2010-10-29T21:09:16  <hhlp> thx

Later edit :

3- How to integrate with Ask Ubuntu subtitle on Ubuntu Wiki:

• StackExchange will look into ways to localise AskUbuntu, so sites like 'nl.askubuntu.com' may become reality;
• Chris Coulson will look into replacing Launchpad Answers with AskUbuntu in the default Firefox bookmarks;
• Marco will investigate 508 compliance for AskUbuntu;
• JorgeCastro will discuss with Marjo ask for replacing Launchpad Answers with a redirection to AskUbuntu for Ubuntu, in the Launchpad stakeholders meetings;
• JorgeCastro will look into changing the 'Ubuntu Help' link on the default Ubuntu start page to link to AskUbuntu.