Posted on July 31, 2007 - by jono

USA-wide Approved LoCo’s by the end of the year! Lets do it.

**UPDATE: Digg this and spread the word!

OK folks are you ready make something cool happen? Christer and co at the excellent USTeams Project are working hard to get an Ubuntu LoCo team in every state in the USA. Their specific goal is to have an approved team in every state by the end of the year. This goal is absolutely possible, and the incredibly committed USTeams Project are chomping at the bit to help teams get set up and started.

Back in November when I delivered a talk about community I noticed that the two bare regions for LoCo teams were Africa and rather interestingly the USA. The USA map looked like this:

The blue states were new states and the green states approved teams.

Well, thanks to the incredible efforts of the USTeams Project and the wider LoCo project, the USA is now looking much healthier:

But, lets not get too carried away. We have a target on our hands, a target that we absolutely can achieve if we all work together to nail it. There are a number of states left over that need teams setting up. These are:

• Alaska (AK)
• Delaware (DE)
• Hawaii (HI)
• Idaho (ID)
• Iowa (IA)
• Louisiana (LA)
• Minnesota (MN)
• Mississippi (MS)
• Nevada (NV)
• New Hampshire (NH)
• North Carolina (NC)
• North Dakota (ND)
• Rhode Island (RI)
• South Dakota (SD)
• Texas (TX)
• Vermont (VT)
• West Virginia (WV)
• Wisconsin (WI)
• Wyoming (WY)
• Michigan (MI)

If you live in one of these states and like the idea of bringing together Ubuntu users, you are in an ideal position to kickstart a LoCo team in your state. A LoCo is simply a team that brings Ubuntu users together to talk about Ubuntu and help promote and encourage Ubuntu use in your state. Creating a team does not mean that you need to be an expert in Ubuntu and it does not mean you need to organise physical meetings, you just need to set up some resources for the team to talk together (typically setting up a mailing list and IRC channel, which can be provided freely by Canonical and Freenode) as well as helping the team to work together to think of things it can do to increase Ubuntu use. This could involve handing out free CDs from ShipIt at computer fairs, visiting Linux User Groups, representing Ubuntu at trade shows, installfests, designing merchandise or other activities. A LoCo team really is what you want to make it.

So how do you get started? How exactly do you create a LoCo team? Well, head over to the #ubuntu-us IRC channel on irc.freenode.net and express your interest there. If you get no response, contact [Christer Edwards](mailto:christer DOT edwards AT ubuntu DOT com).

Come on folks, lets make this happen. On a global scale we are already kicking ass with LoCo teams, lets now kick ass in the USA and get an approved team in every state by the end of the year.