Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

I'm a 44 year old married father of two living in Farnborough, Hampshire in the UK. I've been using Linux on the desktop since about 2002 or so and run a mix of Ubuntu desktops, laptops & servers and other odd devices. I work as an Community Manager in Ubuntu Engineering Services for Canonical and actively help out with my LoCo Team in the UK.

I installed Ubuntu when version 4.10 (Warty Warthog) was released and now have a mixture of real and virtual machines running various releases.

Things I do for Ubuntu

Work

I work on the Community Team at Canonical with my primary focus being on the community maintained Core Applications delivered with the phone.

Community

• I was previously a member of the LoCoCouncil , EMEA Membership Board and CommunityCouncil. I'm back on the Membership Board.

Development

• Started the Ubuntu Podcast and continue to co-present, mirror, co-produce and co-manage the show along with a few other members of the UK LoCo Team. We have interviewed numerous key people in the Ubuntu project have around 3,000 core subscribers with each episode downloaded about 10,000 times. We recently hit 1.4 million downloads which is quite an achievement for a niche podcast.

• Sponsored myself to attend Ubuntu Developer Summit in Sevilla in 2007.

• Gained Canonical sponsorship to attend four more subsequent Ubuntu Developer Summits.

• Setup and ran the Screencast Team which aimed to create a set of tutorial videos for new Ubuntu users. As part of that I managed the Ubuntu Screencasts Site. I have now handed this over to another Ubuntu member.

• Often run development releases of Ubuntu early in the cycle to provide testing, bug reporting and triage help.
• I have run a couple of sessions during past Ubuntu Open Weeks in #ubuntu-classroom.

• I've previously did a bit of packaging for https://launchpad.net/~tomboy-packagers which has been entertaining/enjoyable/educational in roughly equal amounts.

• I co-created http://marvin.popey.com/Marvin which enables Ubuntu Phone app developers to test their creations on phones they don't own.

• I review code for Ubuntu Phone Core Apps developers.

Support

• I have helped out with Support tickets in the past, and more recently with bugs.

• Gained a lot of Karma through answering many support questions in a courteous and thorough manner.

• I also answer some questions on AskUbuntu and vote up/down stuff that looks sane/insane

• When time permits I answer support questions in #ubuntu and #ubuntu-uk
• I help out moderating various IRC channels

UKTeam Stuff

• I helped organise and prmote a recent Ubuntu in Business event in London.
• I was the UKTeam Point of Contact for 2007/2008.
• I sponsored a stand in Bracknell for Software Freedom Day 2007 and 2008, and liaised with Canonical Marketing to obtain stuff for the event.

• I organised free hosting for the Ubuntu-UK LoCo team website through Bitfolk Ltd, and continue to help manage that server.

• http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/ hosts a bunch of screencasts I made for the UK LoCo team (and subsequently the Screencasts Team) to educate new users about Ubuntu.

• I represented UK LoCo team at the recent Linux World Expo in London in 2007 and 2008, helping new users, answering questions and generally promoting Ubuntu and the UK LoCo team.

External Stuff

• Helping to organise OGGCamp - a barcamp style unconference.

• Help administer http://lug.org.uk/ and assist with paying the hardware and hosting fees.

• I donate money to Debian UK and Freenode when I can afford it.

• Committee member of my local LUG I am responsible for the webhost. I am also quite an active member of my local LUG mailing list, and sometimes give talks.

• Member of most LUG mailing lists in the UK, I help out where I can with members of any LUG

• Participated in Software Freedom Day in London in 2006 by handing out leaflets and Ubuntu CDs to members of the public.

• Helped out as 'Crew' for LUGRadio for 2 events.

• Wrote up how I help with Ubuntu.

• Detailed how I found switching to Ubuntu.

• Wrote up how I think others can help with Ubuntu.

• Gave talks to my local LUG which are available to download or watch online

Future Work

• I'd like to expand on the training side of Ubuntu by developing more screencasts
• I have a few ideas for applications and games that I would like developed and would like to write specifications for those and/or develop the apps myself - time permitting.

Room for Improvement

There are areas where I'd like to improve myself and my own knowledge:-

• Increase my Ubuntu/Debian packaging knowledge and experience.
• Try to understand more of the internals of Ubuntu - much of which comes from experience.
• Learn to say 'no'.

• Learn not to be like this http://www.xkcd.com/386/

CategoryUKTeamProfile