If you are starting up a full community (e.g. a localized copy), make sure you have the website translation, an IRC channel, and a mailing list.
First of all, you have to install an IRC client—like XChat or Pidgin—on your computer. You then have to connect to irc.freenode.net. After the connection has been successful, you have to type:
/join #gnewsense to join our English general usage channel, or
/join #gnewsense-** for your-language-here (where ** represents the two-letter language code as listed here).
To register the channel, type;
/msg chanserv register #channel <a password here> (remembering to change <a password here> for something that people won't guess, and save the password in a safe place).
Now you have the password set and the channel registered, invite chanserv in to look after it when your away:
/msg chanserv set #channel guard on
Add Freenode staff and gNewSense cloaked users to the operators list:
/msg chanserv access #gnewsense-** add *!*@freenode/staff/* /msg chanserv access #gnewsense-** add *!*@gnewsense/friend/*
(As before, ** is your languages two letter code).
If you wish to have a bot ask gouki (find him in #gnewsense) to add gobot to your channel.
And your ready to go!
After that
Announce on the main gNewSense mailing list, and in the #gnewsense IRC channel.