My name is Andrea Grandi, I'm an italian student and software developer. I use Ubuntu since its first version and in general I'm a Linux user since 1996. I'm the president of Pistoia Linux User Group, a local (Pistoia, Italy) Linux group. We use Ubuntu on our servers, PC and at our homes. We are open to other Linux distribution, but we think Ubuntu is the more user friendly available around.

Contributions

Even if sometimes I like to hunt bugs and reporting it or helping people on IRC or forums, the main area where I contribute to Ubuntu is in the everyday life. As I've already described, I manage a local Linux User Group since 2001 and starting from 2004 the main Linux distribution we have used so far is Ubuntu. Our association counts about 10 council members and about 100 normal members. We have a place with 4 PC (of course with Ubuntu installed) and Internet connection where we meet once a week. People come to our place to get free tech support with Ubuntu/Linux. We also have a mailing list, but we prefer helping people directly on their PC.

Every year we organize the local edition of LinuxDay, an event that takes place in more than 100 different cities in Italy, since 2001. Every time we propose Ubuntu as suggested Linux distribution both for new users and more skilled one. We also dedicate one talk to Ubuntu in our agenda of LinuxDay.

I also organize "install fests", inviting people to take their computer to help them installing Ubuntu or upgrading from an older version if they're already using it.

I collaborate with the PA (Public Administration) of my city, Pistoia, to help them migrating from proprietary software to free software, in particular using Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu

I'm active in the Unity-2D project. After Budapest UDS I started contributing to Unity-2D fixing some bugs:

• bug #715611 https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/715611

• bug #750303 https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/750303

• bug #730003 https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/730003

• bug #821880 https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/821880

I'm also studying and testing which is the best way to do automatic testing of QML user interfaces, but this is still a work in progress.

At the moment I'm collaborating in the Ubuntu Accomplishments project and I'm also trying to realize the "Ubuntu Release Sprint" project. You can find more informations here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuReleaseSprint

UDS

• UDS-P (Budapest): This is my first UDS I've ever attended and I mostly followed tracks and met people of the Community.

• UDS-O (Orlando): In UDS-O I was choosen as a member of the Crew and helped during the first day of UDS. During that week I also proposed and leaded the track Defining a stable API and docs for desktop development.

• UDS-Q (Oakland): during UDS-Q I proposed a session about migrating settings on the cloud using Ubuntu One. You can find more informations here: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-synchronizing-settings-among-multiple-computers

Team Memberships

• Ubuntu Users

• Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

• Unity Community Hackers

• Unity and Ubuntu Users

• Ubuntu Server Team

• Laptop Testing Team

Plans and Ideas for the future

I've many ideas regarding community management, Ubuntu development and events organization, since I've maturated a lot of experience in those fields: since 2007 I'm an active member of the Maemo Community, I've been part of the Maemo Council from September 2010 to March 2011 and I'm a Qt/C++/Python developer. I've gained lot of experience in community management and events organizations, thanks to my experience in Maemo and I'd like to make my experience available for Ubuntu Community too. I'm now involved in MeeGo, but since I'm not part anymore of Maemo Council, I've much more spare time to dedicate to other projects and I really would like to dedicate my time and efforts to Ubuntu. I would like to share all my ideas and knowledge with the whole Ubuntu Community, to build together the best Ubuntu experience for final users.

Other plans

• Keep fixing bugs for Unity-2D and possibly implementing missing features to fill the gap with Unity
• Research in automated testing for QML UIs

• When I fix a problem on Ubuntu or discover something new, I like to blog about it, both in italian and in english language. You can see my posts on my blog: http://www.andreagrandi.it/category/ubuntu-en (ENG) - http://www.andreagrandi.it/category/ubuntu-it (ITA).

• I'm organizing the Ubuntu Global Jam with Ubuntu Italian Community: http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/ubuntu-it/1165/detail/

Support for Ubuntu membership

• - Andrea started just recently helping out with unity-2d, and contributed only a few patches so far. However from his submissions he appears to be competent developer, clearly in love with QT and unity-2d itself and willing to contribute as much as he can. I am also quite curious to see the results of his research in automated testing for QML UIs. -- uriboni

  - Andrea is very motivated to contribute and likes to make things as good as they can possibly be. He takes criticism of his work very well, learns from that and improves. I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of his work in Unity 2D and Ubuntu. -- fboucault

  - I met him during last UDS, in Budapest and talking with him he gave me a very good impression. He's skilled and very very precise in what he does. I really think he fully deserve the membership for his coding contributions but also for his LUG activity. -- andyrock

  - I met Andrea during a UDS session he was leading. The topic was about providing documentation and support for community members who want to work in Unity. He is very motivated about working in Ubuntu. I am sure he will do very well as an Ubuntu member! -- jaytaoko

  - Andrea is really a great passionate of free software and he's so much active in our local area with the LUG that he manages, spreading the word and making people and organizations to adopt Ubuntu as a their default system. Also he has been involved with Qt development contributing to unity-2d with nice patches -- 3v1n0

  - +1. Andrea's become a great contributor with his tireless efforts of connecting Ubuntu with upstream Qt. He's been to two UDSes now and continues to grow his contributions. -- jorge 2011-11-21 22:35:36

  - Andrea joined the Italian LoCo Marketing Team and with him we organized the Ubuntu Global Jam in Pistoia. He's a great guy, always very active and passionate. Good candidate for the membership. -- xdatap1 2011-11-27 22:19:27