Innovation Room

Events which happen around me, though seemingly distinct at first glance, tend to create a lasting impression in my mind which form the basis for further thinking.

Two events which recently took place were:-
i) joining the social ubuntu forum at www.myubuntu.ning.com(which rightly claims to be “the social side of ubuntu”).
ii) reading a comment at the ubuntu forums. The comment was posted by a linux user; who had doubts desciding to move over to ubuntu. However, he found coding something he found uninteresting. He wanted nothing to do with a CLI interface and was asking the forum members`s opinion on whether or not he should move over into ubuntu.

This got me thinking.

Consider the case of a businessman, or maybe a housewife who blogs regularly on her favorite recipies; anyone who considers coding as the last thing they wish want to try out(I don`t blame them). Linux variants, in most cases, have their settings easily configurable via the CLI. Now, does a businessman need to learn bash scripting for setting the desktop environment for his basic needs?

Now, suppose a user posts his view on any popular forum as www.ubuntuforums.org ; ive lost count of the number of times i`ve seen them go unanswered. True, some questions may seem “lame” but experienced linux users seem to disregard that fact that a person might be using linux; not because he`s interested in the code(or is a wannabe-coder), but because its free. Not helping newbies and choosing not to answer their queries is not a good practice.

And this, i feel, is one main reason for the increase in popularity of ubuntu taking place at an incremental rate; rather than the exponential growth we would like to see. This is one major way in which the requirement of the end-users is not being met with.

And as usual, this is my attempt to bring about a small change in the way people perceive things.

I`ve created a room in the social network at ning. try out the Innovation Room at http://myubuntu.ning.com/group/innovationroom

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The idea behind this group is to provide a platform for :-

1. Tending to the needs of new linux users.
2. Bridge the gap between End-Users and Developers so that the former get to tell the latter, what THEY feel is required to be done.
3. I`ll explain this point using a simple example. Consider the case wherein, a task needs to be automated. In most of the cases, people opt for shell scripts which can help them in their tasks. But now, Users can put forward their requests and have them replied to.
4. Most importantly, the results produced by #1, #2, #3 mentioned above can be used to understand end-user needs in a more effective way; thereby improving the overall quality of the next distribution release.

Cheers!!!