Effenberg0x0

Name: Alvaro Leal

Ubuntu Member since: March 2012

Location: Redmond/USA (UTF -0700)

Email: Effenberg0x0 [at] Ubuntu.com

Launchpad: Effenberg0x0

UbuntuForums: Effenberg0x0

IRC: Effenberg0x0 @ FreeNode (#U+1)

About Me

Professional Profile

My name is Alvaro Leal, I'm 32 years old and live in Brazil. I started using PCs when I was 12 and 4 years later I already had a job working with IT and Telecom for a small ISP (those were the dial-up connection days). In this ISP I got to try UNIX (SunOS) and play with common Internet services (Webserver, FTPd, IRCd, Sendmail, etc) and shell scripting for the first time. It's been 16 years now and I have never really stopped.

In recent years I made a move from the IT jobs to the Marketing, Research and Strategy areas, working at large ICT consultancies. It gave me the opportunity to work with the largest global IT vendors and cooperate with worldwide and LATAM teams of analysts, as well as learn a lot about the IT market dynamics. By 2006 I helped build a Market Intelligence firm in Brazil with a few colleagues from previous jobs and I still work for this company.

My full CV can be accessed at my public LinkedIn Profile

Education

  • Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree
  • Post-graduate degree in Corporate Finances

Skills

IT and Programming

I have worked with many different types of hardware (PCs, Thin Clients, Network Appliances, Storage, VoIP Infrastructure, Fixed and Mobile Carriers' equipments, etc) and software (mostly all popular Operating Systems, ERP, CRM, SCM, BI and other applications). I can code in ANSI/ISO C but, because of work-related demands, I have learned to use it with the WinAPI32. I'm having a lot of fun with going back to C programming, but now with other FOSS APIs. Unfortunately I think I was born without the set of neurons needed to properly adopt C++. However, with all the focus on Python at Ubuntu, I grew to like RAD. Most of the time none of that is needed as I'm a BASH fanatic Smile :-) I do a lot of prototyping in BASH before converting large scripts into C code.

Market Analysis and Business Development

I have been working for some years with large clients to evaluate and size opportunities and trends in global IT markets, as well as develop tactics through which these vendors can achieve better results, in terms of revenue, market share and market-awareness. By doing so, I now have a detailed view on hardware, software and services current adoption and tendencies in many different economies. One of the most rewarding projects I have developed in last years was a large sized survey to evaluate Linux Adoption in the corporate segment in Brazil. It was the first serious research about FOSS in small, medium and large enterprises done in this country and results surprised the market and its players.

Project Management and Leadership

I had the opportunity to manage teams in both technical and business-oriented tasks. Most of the time I tend to look at things in a methodical and analytical way, enumerating priorities and transforming ideas into teams, projects and time lines. My leadership vision is to lead by example: People do not respect projects and do not engage into activities when the delegation group does not get their hands dirty.

Activities and Personal Interests in the Ubuntu Ecosystem

IT Communities and UbuntuForums Ubuntu+1 sub-forum

Although I used Conectiva Linux for many years, I was sold to Ubuntu the first time I tried it (it was HH in 2005/2006, if I'm not mistaken). I registered to UbuntuForums in 2007, but I still had too much delegated to me in other local communities. So, basically, I lurked at UbuntuForums.org everyday without really participating (it was mostly an information source for me).

I only started to change it by end of the LL cycle and beginning of MM in 2009/2010, by gradually leaving other local communities and forums in order to be able to focus exclusively on Ubuntu and have UbuntuForums as my main community. That was done by the end of the NN cycle. I have been active, on a daily basis, in the Ubuntu+1 sub-forum throughout the OO and PP cycles and got really attached to that community.

Ubuntu+1

I have found the exact type of activities, discussions and people that I enjoy the most at the Ubuntu+1 sub-forum. Testing Ubuntu with our regulars became a primary activity in my daily routine. Things changed during the PP cycle, as a new goal of keeping the development releases "usable" created DRs users (not just testers): Users need support.

We have been providing support for Development Release users everyday, as their threads are moved by the forum staff from others sections of UF to the Ubuntu+1 sub-forum. Gladly, it also brought more people interested in testing to our small community. By the end of the OO cycle and beginning of PP I felt like it was time to do more.

A first attempt at change: The U+1 Bug Management Thread

I have created the U+1 Bug Management Thread at Ubuntu+1 with great support from Cariboo907 and Philinux and amazing advice from Castrojo. I wanted to check how motivated people were to report bugs and how efficiently they could do it.

Ubuntu Developer Week

A first activity towards publicising Ubuntu+1 and it's members was our participations at UDW. I was invited to host a session named “Running the Development Release” and invited Cariboo907 to host it with me.

The U+1 Team

I had been drafting the creation of a testing-team focused on Ubuntu development Releases for a while. As I made those ideas public, Castrojo put me in touch with Guitara, the new QA Community Coordinator. I also added Cariboo907 to the talks and, with great support from these guys, I have managed to create the U+1 Team. The U+1 Team is a self-managed and independent team, dedicated to testing the Development Releases of Ubuntu and providing information and support for other testers and Ubuntu teams, developers, users and the community. It's a closed team, requiring approval of membership applications. You can read all about the team in its U+1 Team Wiki.

The big picture: A new and improved QA-Team and Ubuntu Testing Structure

As the discussions regarding the creation of the U+1 Team were developing, I found myself working to help Guitara in his efforts to restructure QA-Team. I'm currently developing proposals and drafts of processes (governance, management, hierarchy, requirements, etc) for the new QA-Team structure, to help and be a part in this process. The U+1 Team will be an active part of the new QA-Team, so both things can (and must) be developed in parallel. I'm learning a lot about QA and Ubuntu in this process.

Current goals at the Ubuntu Community

UbuntuForums

  • Increase the number of regulars at the Ubuntu+1 sub-forum
  • Retain testers at the forum and bring back old MIA testers from previous cycles
  • Improve the quality of the support at the Ubuntu+1 sub-forum
  • Recruit Forum users (and also, hopefully, Ubuntu Members) to U+1 and QA activities

U+1 and QA-Team

  • Solidify U+1 as a long-term goals structure
  • Contribute to the new QA-Team creation, operations and management
  • Enable testers to create/improve automated tests
  • Prepare Ubuntu+1 support, U+1 testing, QA for new and upcoming Ubuntu-based gadgets and devices
  • Improve integration of UX/UI to QA and testing teams

Contact Info

LaunchPad:Effenberg0x0
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvarohsleal
UbuntuForums: Effenberg0x0
IRC: Effenberg0x0 @ irc.freenode.net (#U+1)

Effenberg0x0 (last edited 2017-04-26 22:28:55 by effenberg0x0)