Together we have the opportunity to bring real technological freedom to every part of the world, across multiple devices and the cloud, and clothed in an elegant, beautiful, experience. It is a bold vision, but our greatest strength in Ubuntu is our community and together we can do this. Come and join us and be a part of bringing Ubuntu to the masses.

About

We help to build Ubuntu, the most popular Free Operating System out there, we do packaging, translation, quality assurance, marketing, support, writing, design, art... We currently have more than 500 active members, from at least 100 countries. Join us!

Collaboration

There are many different ways of contributing to Ubuntu. Contributions are valued and recognized whether you contribute to artwork, any of the LoCoTeams, documentation, providing support on the forums, the answers tracker, IRC support, bug triage, translation, development and packaging, marketing and advocacy, or anything else. The whole community needs each other and depends on each other. Whichever way you choose to bring benefit to Ubuntu and help others is very much appreciated.

Ubuntu also benefits from contributions to upstream projects and Debian specifically. However, while contributions to those projects are appreciated and worth being recognized, involvement in downstream Ubuntu is required for membership. After all it’s all about Ubuntu membership.

The idea that only technical contributions (like patches or uploads of packages) or only contributions which give rise to karma in Launchpad is incorrect. The community is much broader and more diverse than that and it is sufficient to demonstrate significant and sustained contributions in any area of the Ubuntu community. It is important that members demonstrate the ability to interact with others, so detailed endorsements from others are important criteria that are evaluated during your application, because they give better insight into specific parts of the community. Testimonials from members of various parts of the community are appreciated, even if they're not Ubuntu members themselves. Contributions are evaluated on their own merit and how they benefit Ubuntu and the Community, regardless of whether the contributor was paid to make the contribution or not.

Upstreams

The work done in other Open Source communities is vitally important to Ubuntu. If you are part of one of Ubuntu's Upstreams we appreciate your work. If your collaboration with the Ubuntu project and involvement in the Ubuntu project constitutes as a significant and sustained contribution, you are eligible to Ubuntu membership.

Some examples in what constitute valuable contributions for getting the Ubuntu membership follow:

• Somebody working hard on Launchpad or some other piece of infrastructure, supporting and coordinating with the Ubuntu developers for months.
• Somebody working on upstream project X that dealt with loads of Ubuntu bugs and coordinated releases together with Ubuntu developers.
• Somebody working with hardware manufacturers to get Ubuntu pre-installed in an specific market.
• Somebody writing apps for Ubuntu, making Ubuntu more beautiful by adding new functionality.

When applying for Ubuntu membership, please make the relevance of your work to the Ubuntu project very clear.

The Benefits

While the benefits of Membership can apply to the the individual, it also applies the whole Ubuntu Community. It also can reach out into the greater Open Source community. These benefits include:

For the Individuals

• Provides a recognition of significant, sustained, and continued contributions.
• Suggests you're serious about your contributions and you'll be there if someone wants to find you (gives you credibility).
• Allows the creation of a sort of Ubuntu resumé that could be used with potential employers (the testimonials could be independently verified through the wiki history).
• Gives you clout within the larger world, since you essentially work for Ubuntu.
• Acts as a commitment on the part of the team to engage and include the individual.
• Gives you something to be proud of: being a member of a team of wonderful people around the world trying to make the world's software better.

For the Communities (Ubuntu and Open Source)

• The commitment that you give gives credibility to the community that will ensure it retains good people and makes the best out of investments in training (resources are limited).
• Membership is not a statement of how great one is, but a commitment to the team and the community.

The Perks

Ubuntu Community

• Voting privileges to confirm Ubuntu Community Council nominations.

• An @ubuntu.com email alias that forwards to your real email address.

• An ''ubuntu/member/your_nick'' cloak on freenode.

• The right to print business cards with the Ubuntu logo, you will need to take care of the printing.

• Syndication on Planet Ubuntu of your Ubuntu blog. Follow the registration instructions to add your blog!

• An Ubuntu Member title at the Ubuntu Forums.

• SFTP access to a Web-accessible directory on people.ubuntu.com

• A certificate signed by sabdfl (Self appointed benevolent dictator for life) Mark Shuttleworth. Example below:

3rd Party

• A subscription to Linux Weekly News.

• Signing up for SixXS account with an Ubuntu email address and a link to your Launchpad page will grant you an "Ubuntu Credit Bonus" of 25 credit points.

• Ubuntu Member Flair on Reddit.

• Discounted domain registration pricing and partner rates for cloud hosting at Gandi.net.