I still didn’t write about the Bug Jam we had in Berlin. We had 10-15 people at Berlin’s c-base and a great time. Caspar who is a member of c-base (the people who believe that it is actally a sunken space ship) organised the event and we got the workshop room which has ~10 Hardy machines in it. So far so good.

In the first hour I talked about:

  • what makes a bug report a good one,
  • Bug statuses,
  • other important properties of the bug.

Basically a lot you’d also find on HelpingWithBugs. It was a free-form talk I didn’t prepare beforehand. (Does anybody know of a presentation about that?) I suggested taking a look at Unconfirmed New bugs or Bugs without an assigned package. Our bug jammers started looking at bugs themselves and of course lots of interesting questions popped up. We had a great time and everybody said how they looked forward to the next jam.

Some example questions that came up:

  • Which bug list do I work on?
  • How do I do X in Launchpad? How did you get to that page?
  • Where can I find that information in the wiki?
  • Which bug shall I make duplicate of which?
  • Which team can I talk to about bug X?
  • This bug has a fix - how can I get it uploaded?
  • Why is it called “bug triage”?
  • etc.

Some of them are obvious if you’ve read HelpingWithBugs, some are if you’ve dived into the wiki for a bit longer and some of them require that you’ve been doing bug triage for a while.

To me the most important thing was that people try and see what it’s like doing bug triage and what it feels like sharpening their “detective skills” to find a solution or a good answer.

What irked you when you got started during bug triage? How do you think we can eliminate more of the first hurdles?

We have the Global Bug Jam coming up in 6,5 weeks and up until now the Ubuntu heroes from Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Perú, Chicago, Maryland, India and Berlin have stepped up for the challenge and are planning the event.

In our “How to run a Bug Jam” IRC sessions (more to come on **July 4th 16:00 UTC **and July 5th 19:00 UTC) a lot of questions popped up about how to prepare for it, what to bear in mind, how to run it, etc. Here’s a quick overview:

  • Organise a venue: if it’s just going to be a few bug triagers, do it at home: nice comfy armchairs, some food, a few drinks, wi-fi and you’re set. If you have a big LoCo or city team, ask a local computer club, university, college, LUG or library if they have rooms available. Most of them will be only to happy to offer room.
  • Ask people for package preferences and report back on GlobalBugJam - we’ll have specialists available on IRC who can help you get started.
  • Do a quick presentation (like the one I mentioned above) to get started. If people run into bigger problems, there’s always #ubuntu-bugs for answers.
  • Ask people to work in teams of 3 or 4 who are willing to work on one bug list together. That way people will help each other, avoid duplicating work and have more fun.
  • Blog about the event. Post pictures, videos and funny stories. The world wants to know what you get done in your LoCo: GlobalBugJam/Stories.

The Global Bug Jam is going to be awesome. Join in today!

My 5 today: #242818 (m17n-db), #242662 (linkchecker), #217110 (libdvdread), #242667 (scim-anthy, anthy), #242692 (xscavenger) Do 5 a day - every day! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day