Monday 30 April 2007

Ubuntu CD's database? It already exists

Tiago ("gouki") Faria, you're going to set up a "database of people who are willing to distribute Ubuntu CD's on their location".

http//map.ubuntu-be.org is basicly what you described, and more. It's been running for about a year now, and a great success. It's only been a few weeks we have moved to a decent codebase, written by Pierre Buyle and accomplices.

Why did we use php? Maximum collaboration. Easily installed onto about any other server. Easy for you to contribute.

You're more than welcome to contribute:
Update: For clarity's sake: map.ubuntu-be.org is only serving Belgium right now. In response to this post, there have been several requests to open it up to other parts of the world. That sounds like a good idea. Some thoughts:

Three things necessary for opening up map.ubuntu-be.org beyond Belgium:
  1. Some localisation and performance improvements. Most of the localisation is done, but a few strings here and there are still Belgium specific.
  2. The locoteam for your region (if any) should support the idea. If there's no locoteam for your region, a map like this is a great way to bootstrap one. That's how many Belgian team members got involved.
  3. Someone to bootstrap and maintain your region of the map. A big word for little work, but it needs to be done. Things like
    • adding zoom areas for cities in your region to the map
    • answering questions by local volunteers
    • some elementary quality control

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WAY to Brussels-centric. AFAICT, no coverage outside your nation certainly no coverage outside of continental Europe.

I'm in the U.S. and you registration form wouldn't even allow me to register. I got a number of errors. (1) "Unknow Zipcode." -- My Zip code is 72701 and has been for quite a while, so I know that's correct. (2) 'City must have value: "".' -- Fayetteville, AR, USA was pretty specific, but I guess you service isn't really all-inclusive is it?.

Also, your java script on the initial page runs so slowly that Konqueror thought it was locking up and offered to kill the offending script for me. I didn't kill it; I just waited though.

Nice try though. I'd like to see what Tiago does.

Mark Van den Borre said...

It might not have been entirely clear from my post, but map.ubuntu-be.org was obviously developed as a solution for the Belgian locoteam.

My message was that we made sure you can (re)use our efforts if you want. Encouraging collaboration has been our point of focus from the very beginning:
* We've chosen php instead of a more productive, but less common framework like rails or django.
* We've put everything in a public version control system.
* We've put translations into Rosetta.

In the near future, we might even decide to open up the map, and offer it directly as a service to the rest of the world... How cool would that be.

Now server performance... The server is being hit pretty hard right now, and the client side code is pretty demanding on resources. Lots of optimisations possible. Your contribution is more than welcome.

Mark
ubuntu-be.org coordinator

Anonymous said...

Actually, no, it doesn't exist.

What I'm thinking about doing is different from the map on ubuntu-be.org.

A made a general post with a basic idea of what I want to accomplish, I did not gave specific details on how it's going to turn out. People are rushing with no need.

Thank you for your offer and e-Mail. I'll reply ASAP, but today was pretty filled.