Ubuntu Wiki

Hello, I am Alan, one of the directors of The Open Learning Centre, a Canonical partner and software solution consultancy business.

Contact information

Stuff I have done

• I assisted with Software Freedom Day 2008 and 2009 at the Bracknell event.
• I often provide support in the #ubuntu-uk irc channel.
• In association with Elonex and Carphone Warehouse and Canonical we helped get Ubuntu based netbooks in stores all over the UK in an insanely short timescale when their original operating system did not work.

• As part of the webbook project I ran a blog supporting all the customers of the Ubuntu webbook http://webbookblog.com

• I have worked with Open Forum Europe to present Free software including Ubuntu and the OLCP XO to teachers and other educationalists at the BETT educational tradeshow in 2008 and 2009.

• We were interviewed by the Ubuntu UK podcast and I have submitted a recorded tip to the podcast too.

• I have submitted a number of bugs in launchpad, and made an effort to fix them. In particular for an issue with OpenERP I provided a patch from an upstream changeset that allows it to work with libxml2 rather than python-xml.

• I have been studying packaging and whilst I have some way to go it is a subject I would like to continue with, becoming a MOTU one day.

• I set up the Naked Computers site to list and promote vendors who will sell a computer without any operating system, the intention being to contribute to the fix to bug #1.

• We are producing a range of packaged server appliances running Ubuntu and a useful application targeted at small businesses, more details at http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com/libertus

• I sponsored and presented at the OggCamp event

• I organised and co-authored a white paper for the National Computing Centre on Open Source Software

Future plans for Ubuntu

I would like to see Ubuntu being accepted more by the business community, in many respects this is a marketing issue rather than a technical one.

In terms of technical direction I would like a better out of the box experience for setting up a group of related computers, thus single sign on to a central directory, with hotdesking/centralised home directories etc.

Testimonials for Membership Application

Alan Bell is a friendly, patient, knowledgeable member of the community. He frequently provides support and encouragement to new users. Alan is an asset to the Ubuntu community -- AlanPope

I had the opportunity to meet Alan Bell at the Karmic release party in London. Alan is helpful and very active on the Ubuntu Women Project and in the Ubuntu Women IRC channel. He makes the novice community member feel welcome and is always a source of encouragement. Alan will be an asset to the Ubuntu membership rolls as he is already an awesome part of the Ubuntu Community. -- akgraner 2009-12-01 19:00:11