Comment 44 for bug 392799

I would like to propose a solution that is simple, will involve complex governance infrastructure an is something we could implement in a reasonable timezone.

We faced a similar problem with membership applications to the CC. The CC were getting bogged down in the volume of requests so we scaled up the infrastructure in the community and created three memberships boards, each service a region of the world.

In a similar vain I propose:

 * Let's create #ubuntu-europe, #ubuntu-asia and #ubuntu-americas and encourage our users to use their nearest support channel.
 * The IRC Council will govern each of these channels as official channels in the same way they do now.
 * We will write a tiny fix in Ubuntu that will detect a user's timezone at install time and auto-join the nearest channel.
 * #ubuntu will still exist but show a message when you join inviting you to join the nearest channel.

The benefits:

 * Only three channels for the IRC Council the maintain.
 * Limited development work involved.
 * Matches our regional approach to membership.
 * Channels are better matched to users - more people are likely to be available and awake.
 * We could potentially promote other regional resources in these channels such as LoCo Teams.

I would like to ask the IRC Council to draft up a blueprint to outline this change and we can then tighten the nuts and bolts and get a spec together.