Member of the community

• Me @ launchpad

Intro

• What's with the name? H stands for huayra, which means wind in several aborigine languages in America (yes, the continent!). It stuck after choosing it (hubuntu) for the gmail account I use for Ubuntu and FLOSS related activities.

• Age: 1981 model

• Bio: Father, single man every second week, Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) lover

• Education: Life, BA in Philosophy and IT, with additional studies in Classical Languages, Entrepreneurship and Social Sciences - University of Oslo, IT and General Science studies from High School

• Work experience: Currently Global Sales Executive @ Varnish Software. Have worked as Sales Consultant and Sales Specialist of FLOSS products and related services that solve real world problems. Worked also with sales of a variety of products earlier as well (both technology and others). Have extensive experience as a Security and IT/Telecom consultant.

• Ubuntu related: Ubuntu user March 2005. Tried the Gnoppix Warty LiveCD and I was sold... Hoary was my main OS since release day.

• FLOSS related: GNU/Linux user since 1997 and have used exclusively as my main desktop OS since 2000.

• Distro experience: Caldera, CorelLinux, Debian, Damn Small Linux, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Mandrake, OpenBSD, PCLinuxOS, Puppy Linux, Red Hat, SuSe, Ubuntu

• Desktop Environment: Gnome, but I do test the different Ubuntu flavors at least once a year.

Teams and roles

Current

• Member of the Ubuntu Marketing team (Oct 2006 to Present)

• Contact member for Ubuntu Norge LoCo Team (Jun 2009 to Present)

• Working as marketeer, motivator and driver of the SpreadUbuntu team and project as a subproject of the Marketing Team.

• Powered by stickers (by System76) distribution in Scandinavia. delivered to Trolltech, FAST, Active24, Eniro, Sesam

• Involved in many other teams and groups within the Ubuntu community.

• Participation in the joint Spanish speaking LoCo project to better organize our activities and move forward a goal for approval of all our LoCo teams.

• I am a beta-tester of launchpad interested specially in the OpenID and the LP API infrastructure.

• Pusher for tighter integration between launchpad and all other Ubuntu related infrastructure. OpenID will hopefully simplify this and help wider contribution and cooperation across the whole global community. I do testing of this technology on Drupal, SMF, LoCo-directory and other web tools.

• Participates in the forum @ Ubuntu Norge (Oct 2005 to Present)

• IRC moderator for the #ubuntu-ec IRC channel where we provide support and hold LoCo meetings (Jul2007 to Present)

• From time to time I go to #ubuntu and #ubuntu-es in IRC to just give a helping hand if someone needs it.

• Have worked in the answer tracking system, translations, blueprints and sended some bugs.

Past

• Contributor to the Ecuadorian forum at ubuntuforums (Jul 2007 to Des 2009)

• Founder and Contact member for Ubuntu Ecuador LoCo Team. By far my most regarding experience in this community: It it just amazing how a person can be able to participate in social and networking processes beyond the barrier of space. Mind you that I did this while living in Oslo, Norway. (Jul 2007 to Jan 2009)

• Heavily involved in the re-organization and coordination of the Spanish Documentation Team, an effort by the Spanish speaking LoCo Teams to create, translate and maintain the best possible documentation for Ubuntu available in Spanish. (Jul 2007 to Aug 2008)

• Coordinated and organized the creation of LoCo 14 CD distribution points in Ecuador (Jul 2007 to Apr 2008)

• Coordinated Powered by stickers (by System76) distribution in Ecuador. Delivered among others to the the Ecuadorian Presidential offices (Aug 2007 to Apr 2008)

• Working with the Spanish Ubuntu ISO project. See the full proposed specification (Spanish Only) (2008)

• Responsible for the Spanish translation of the Ubuntu Weekly News which was called at the time NSU - Noticias Semanales Ubunteras (Jan 2008 to Jul 2008)

• Involved actively in the Spanish speaking version of Ubuntu Classroom, the CUPIE Project (Oct 2008 to Jun 2009)

• Co-Founder of Ubuntu Island LoCo Team. Took contact with FLOSS people and after 4 meetings got the whole thing running. (March 2009)

• While visiting the country in the summer of 2007 I gave away 15 CDs to many different people. I even gave a CD to a guy in the Galapagos Islands! This would never have been possible without the sponsorship of the CDs by Canonical, thank you guys for that!

• I have distributed myself over 500 CDs from ShipIt and others I have burned myself to different people and organizations. Most of these have been given away either at InstallFests or other events.

• As part of the marketing team activities I am working in the Spanish Presentations projects so up-to-date information about Ubuntu (desktop, server and edubuntu) and Free Software are available for the community. This projects has since been moved to SpreadUbuntu.

• Inspired by the work done for Spanish Presentations and the Software Freedom Day material I got seriously involved in the SpreadUbuntu project and I am now its driver.

Events

• Besides InstallFests and my job I have installed or participated actively (more than just giving the CD) in the installation of over 40 machines (desktops mostly, but also 6 servers) with ubuntu since June 2005.

• 6. February 2007 - Installfest participation representing Ubuntu Norge - Set up 5 machines (including a PowerPC Mac with JAVA??!!) and distributed CDs and stickers (Lovely sent from Canonical and System76 respectively, thanks!)

• 04. September 2007 - Installfest participation representing Ubuntu Norge - Installed Ubuntu in 10 machines and distributed stickers and CDs to everyone who got Ubuntu installed (over 50 stickers and 13 CDs distributed). See pics here and here and the poster here. here the odt file too.

• Organizer of the LoCo activities within the FLISOL 2008 in Ecuador. See our wiki page here

• Organizer of the Software Freedom Day in Oslo. Pictures available, blog entry and mention in the Ubuntu Weekly News issue #109

• Intrepid Release Party in Oslo - Organizing, getting sponsors and working with some other details

• Jaunty Release Party in Oslo - Organizing, getting sponsors and working with some other details

• Karmic Release Parties - Going Nationwide - Organizing, coordinating, getting sponsors and local co-organizers hooked up, PR stunts and working with some other details. All in all 7 events are in the pipeline.

• 27. March 2010 Ubuntu Global Jam - Held sessions on Launchpad usage, translations, marketing.

• Lucid Release Party - Held a little gathering as our sponsors couldn't help us this time.

My goals

To Do

• Make SpreadUbuntu the main site for community marketing by the release of 12.04 Work In Progress We do have a well tested site running right now. See it here

  • Delivering Marketing material Kits

  • Integration with the Ubuntu LoCo Directory

• Grow participation of Ubuntu users in the activities of our LoCo

• Coordinate activities with other LoCo teams (specially within Ubuntu Nordic, but also beyond) to promote Ubuntu worldwide in a fun and uniformed way

Achieved

• My first goal is to achieve approval for Ubuntu Ecuador ASAP. Achieved

• A goal far down 2009 is to lead the Ubuntu Ecuador LoCo to be a model for viability within the Spanish Speaking community in terms of how cooperation within the community of users, Ubuntu support providers and the enterprise in Ecuador can be done while keeping our transparency and credibility as a Free Software advocacy group. We take Ubuntu as our origo, but we are open to and cooperate with the wider FLOSS community in the country. Well under way but as I have substracted myself from most of Ubuntu-ec activities I can'æt really longer use this as a goal for me.

• A goal for my participation whithin Ubuntu globally is that we should always move towards the Gobuntu direction for the whole project, and I want to show that it is posible, but that it takes time, patience and a LOT of HARD work! I have used GNU/Linux for 10 years on my desktop... We have come a long way, but have a long way ahead of us. Needs to be better defined since the whole Gobuntu thingy was dumped.

• Personally I am all in for endorsing commercially backed support locally but make it explicit that the Community efforts come ahead of commercial interest in any case the LoCo members are involved. Building a good and lasting relationship with the enterprise in Ecuador is a very important goal for me and Ubuntu-EC, but the relationship with the wider community comes first. Even if these two aims rarely collide, and do rather strengthen the position of FLOSS, it is important to know what comes first if there are things that arise within the community and enforce its use when neccesary. Pragmatism rules! and this I really mean. See above.

• Implementation of OpenID access in the whole Ubuntu-ec infrastructure (using Launchpad as provider), showing that it is possible and be a helping resource with the implementation of it in the Ubuntu-es infrastructure. Done for Ubuntu-ec, Ubuntu-no and SpreadUbuntu

• Get a working demo of the SpreadUbuntu site by the release of Intrepid Done, we have had a site up and running since the fall of 2008.

• Work more and evenly over time with bugs triaging and LP answer system Not achieved - reality always gets in your face and shows you that your contributions are better off elsewhere.

Trivia

• At a age of 2 my daughter was able to recognize what she calls: "el ubuntu" (on a monitor, bag, sticker, CD, coffee cup... you name it).

• I ended up in 3 meetings while vacationing in Ecuador the summer of 2007: One at an International School (wanted to try Edubuntu), one at one of the biggest newspapers in the country and at the Ecuadorian presidency. These meetings where undoubtedly the final motivation for me to start the Ecuador LoCo, so MauLuna and I did days after the meeting. This happened:

  • School: I have tried to find out what happened there, but with no luck

  • Newspaper: They had load trouble in their web server. Incoming connections peaks with their IIS setup put the server down to its knees and it eventually collapsed. So MauLuna (ubuntu-ec co-founder) and I proposed to them to put Ubuntu as the front webserver and run the IIS in the back serving the content. They said they would consider it, but wanted to use RedHat (as they had in their spamfilter ;). In the end we never heard from them, but they ended up implemented our idea. Which is a victory for Free Software and a step closer to fix bug #1. Pretty cool I think!

  • Presidency: I met two key persons in of the Ecuadorian Free Software movement in this meeting: Rafael Bonifaz former president of ASLE (Ecuadorian free Software Association) and now working as Free Software Director in the newly created Bureau for IT and Esteban Mendieta IT adviser in the presidency. They both organized the meeting between Richard M. Stallman and Ecuador's president Rafael Correa which lead to his endorsement of Free Software by law. Esteban is part of the team formally, Rafael is not, but as far as I know he uses some *buntu flavor (probably Gobuntu).

• I was introduced to Ubuntu by a guy who walked in the store where I worked and wanted to buy a laptop. So we started talking about what he need it for and stuff and eventually he named Linux so we went on and I mentioned that I used Fedora Core (or something) at the moment, but upgrading to a newer release was such a pain (it was!), and then he said: "I have discovered this new distro, it even beats debian! But I prefer BlackBox over the GNOME standard". What happened? I got too interested in the issue (he even begged me to just do the sales job, he really wanted to be spontaneous) and no Laptop was sold... In exchange I got the love of Ubuntu! So if you are that guy: Thank you man! If you are my former boss, sorry...

• After I started studying I have found out that I use weekly (at least) 15 hours on Ubuntu related stuff comprehending reading, translating, writing e-mail, wiki edition, forum help, websites mainteinance, blogging about Ubuntu, helping (or getting help) in Ubuntu related irc channels, testing and advocating among other activities. I was really shocked to find out that one week I used over 40 hours!!?? - I have stopped counting...
• I got a job interview offering at FAST, just by talking to a guy (a Senior Recruitment Consultant) at a bar. I do not think I'm qualified for the job, but that's not the point; the point is that it was the Ubuntu @ FAST conversation that got me his card. Now that Microsoft is in the process of buying the company I do not think I will make that call anyway.

• I went to the Galapagos Islands (yes, they are in Ecuador) last year and went to the Isabela island to see penguins! I did take a movie with a penguin and me while wearing my Ubuntu t-shirt (Thanks Karianne for the t-shirt! ;). The movie can be seen here: high quality and low quality. I have a related Tux posts here.

• I once wrote a letter to RMS about the participation of Ubuntu Ecuador whitin a series of seminars he gave in Ecuador.

  • I asked: I want to ask you if it is posibble for us to give a talk in Quito, Cuenca and Loja? - he replied:

  • I cannot disregard the ethical shortcomings of Ubuntu... Therefore, you may not give speeches about Ubuntu in association with my speeches... To permit this would be to endorse the non-free software in Ubuntu.

  • and then I asked What will it take for us to get a positive answer from you? - and he replied:

  • When Ubuntu changes its conduct, I will treat it differently according to its conduct.

  • So yeah, I sort of agree with him, but I believe that making that happen can only be done working from within Ubuntu and its community, not by just waiting until is done or forking the base. This proves a point I think: We all are Ubuntu and the world see us not apart from the software but the software as part of Ubuntu as a community, even RMS! which I think is great and gives testimony of the great work Canonical AND the community, in all of its instances, have being doing the last few years.

  • RMS did suggest using gNewSense, so for those of you wanting his approval get it here and those of you wanting totally free up-to-date software get it here. Both are Ubuntu based

• When I travel (either with work or vacations) I meet with Ubuntu and FLOSS people as much as I can. This far I have met people in:
  • Quito, Ecuador (Ubuntu-EC, ASLE and way too many great people to list them al here)

  • Valencia, Spain (JuanJo I am thinking of you)

  • Skanderborg/Århus, Denmark (yes, even at a Smukfest you can still do the geek-thing over a beer or two)
  • Copenhagen, Denmark (I just love the Ubuntu-DK people. I've been received by them twice! Looking forward to the third time already!)
  • Barcelona, Catalunya (the Catalan team is just awesome! And remember: Spain is NOT Catalunya!)
  • Reykjavik, Iceland (This team will always have a special place in my heart as I helped starting it myself)
  • Paris, France (Lots of FLOSS lovers here and there)

  • While travelling I met a girl and she was like: You mean that you can go around and meet people just like that. Like the masons? and I was like: Well. not quite like the masons, but yes we meet and talk. But relax, we are not taking over the world… At least not yet! ;-)

• Just for the record: I use the main Ubuntu flavour with full codecs support and universe, restricted, multiverse and the Canonical commercial, google and other repositories activated. I want to get my job done, simple as that! That doesn't mean that I do not work for a day in which only main and universe are activated, but we have to make it viable for ourselves till we get there. no excuse, just a mere fact!

Comments

• Hubuntu is a major contributor to the Spanish-speakers Ubuntu community. He has worked hard to strengthen relations between the Spanish-speaking LoCo Teams. He is actively involved in community projects such as the creation of http://doc.ubuntu-es.org (a great site of Spanish documentation for all the community), the Spanish translation of Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, and organizing LoCos Team members. He has been an important member in the project to create a large Spanish-speakers community integrated by all the LoCo teams, avoiding duplicate work in our communities, and strengthening the relationship and good communication between them. Also, he actually works on the integration of the different Spanish sites, finding to improve the experience of the user, that actually has a different login for launchpad, doc.ubuntu-es.org, ubuntu-es.org and their specific Local Team web site. kelp

• Ruben has contributed tremendously to the Spanish speaking Ubuntu community, and is long over due as an Ubuntu Member. He has my full support MartinAlbisetti

• Ruben has rapidly taken a leading role in re-organizing many crucial resources, most notably doc.ubuntu-es.org. He's also been very insistent on banding together several Hispanic LoCos into better collaboration. I fully support his membership. - FabianRodriguez

• Ruben does a superb job with Spanish translation of the UWN. He also keeps us up to date on great events, like FLISOL. - NickAli

• I am alex, this is cool!!! - Alex - member of Ubuntu-ec

• Ruben has been contributing to the Norwegian LoCo team by taking part in organizing install-parties, distributing cd's and stickers, and encouraging activities within the LoCo. He has definitely been a resource to help our small team grow in numbers. -KarianneFogHeen

• Ruben is an active contributor in the Spanish speaking Ubuntu community, and the closer relationship between the different LoCo teams, is actively involved in several projects, documentation, translations, talks, Ubuntu-ec .....etc, etc. - Meisok

• Ruben has been the vital leader to the SpreadUbuntu project for over a year. Even though I do most of the coding and actual work, our project would not succeed with me alone. He is always quick to respond when I need his input on a problem. He does a great job promoting the project, and knows the right offical people to contact. Evan Boldt edb82189

• Ruben helped kickstarting the icelandic LoCo team and for that I thank him. He's a true beliver in the ubuntu spirit. Ruben get's my full support! - Gardar

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