Kemel

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 * I also was tracking Kemel's work, and had the opportunity to meet him personally 2 times on the last years, on open source events. Kemel is definitely a "must be" member: he has solid contributions, he is clearly a leader on the Ubuntu-BR-SP organizing events, bringing new users and supporting them. [[DudaNogueira|Duda Nogueira]] * I also was tracking Kemel's work, and had the opportunity to meet him personally 2 times on the last years, on open source events. Kemel is definitely a "must be" member: he has solid contributions, he is clearly a leader on the Ubuntu-BR-SP organizing events, bringing new users and supporting them. [[DudaNogueira|Duda Nogueira]]

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Launchpad ID:

Kemel Zaidan aka Legendario

Nick:

Legendario

IRC:

Legendario irc.freenode.net

Jabber:

legendario@jabber.org

Twitter:

@kemelzaidan

Email:

kemelzaidan at gmail dot com

Website:

http://www.linuxlegal.blogspot.com

Kemel Zaidan aka Legendario

Who Am I

My name is is Kemel Zaidan and I believe free software have changed my life. I'm gonna tell a bit of my free software life and how I've got involved with it because I believe it's a pretty neat story.

I'm graduated in Performing Arts at University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. My first contact with free software was at my senior year (somewhere in 2007). My roommate bought a computer with GNU/Linux installed and didn't know how to use it well. I was already interested on GNU/Linux, had even bought a book about it, but didn't have a computer myself. So I foresaw a chance of finally learning more about it.

The distribution was some obscure Gentoo based one adapted by the manufacturer, called Librix. We've played with it a bit and switched for Ubuntu after some time, what I considered better for such a low spec PC with low bandwidth (256Kb) we had at that time.

The more I used it, the more I got addicted to it. This made me study and read everything about Ubuntu and GNU/Linux I could find all over the internet. It grew up so much that last year I decided to head back to college and take a second degree in "System Analysis and Development". In short, that's how free software became part of my life

My Contributions

Ubuntu Translations

One of the things I've found most interesting about free software was the opportunity to contribute with it. Short after I started using Ubuntu, I found the right path to the contribution world. I've started contributing first with translation. AndreGondim, the translation team leader for pt-BR should even remember some of my translations. I was pretty active on it at that time. Wink ;)

Ubuntu LOCO Team

Couple years later I've started working for a non-profit organization which had some digital inclusion projects. All of them were done with the use of proprietary software. Therefore, I've tried to convince my boss to switch all of them to free software alternatives. In order to make my life a little easier, I suggested we could to make some sort of internal seminar in the company to explain to every other people in charge for the projects what free software was and the advantages of it.

I've got responsible to invite some people and organize everything for it. This was how I first got in touch with the Ubuntu-BR-SP LOCO team. After this first contact, I've started contributing more actively with them. Some point later I was invited to became the leader of the community, an achievement that makes me really proud of.

Since them I have strived to organize things better in the group and bring more people to the team. I try to collaborate to Ubuntu-BR team as much as possible too. I believe this is my main contribution now a days.

Ubuntu Advocating

This is obviously related to what I have told above. I have represented Ubuntu in a bunch of regional and also national technology and free software events. I can easily list some here: FISL, CONISLI, CAMPUS PARTY, LATINOWARE, VOL and LINUXCON among many other. Our team is also invited to make speeches and install fests in many universities and academic events here at our state. We have also been organizing release parties and install fests often since Hardy Heron. Because of that, I'm very happy to realize that our team has became a reference in free software in our local area. Smile :-)

Miscellaneous

Those are not so frequent but I try to contribute with them as much as possible:

Ubuntu Launchpad Answers

I'm subscribed as an Ubuntu Answers contact for Brazilian Portuguese, so every time there is a question about Ubuntu in this language I receive an e-mail with it. I try to answer all the ones I can get a clue.

Ubuntu Bug Squad

I'm a member of Ubuntu Bug Squad Team in Launchpad, so I report all the bugs whenever I find them and try to fix stuff when I face it: marking duplicates, confirming, etc.

Ubuntu Ubuntu-BR Wiki

Whenever I find something wrong or outdated, I try to fix it!

Other Contributions

I contribute to other initiatives that are not directly related to Ubuntu, but end up representing it because of the nature of my relation to the distribution.

Ubuntu Quinta-Livre

Ubuntu-BR-SP and myself are one of the founders of Quinta-livre, a community project that was created after the Campus Party 2010 in order to try to bring different free software communities together with the objective of exchanging knowledge, learning and spreading free software all around.

Ubuntu Espírito Livre Magazine

Espirito Livre (Free Spirit Magazine) is a Brazilian community magazine distributed online as a PDF which counts on my contributions frequently. I have written some articles for it, made some translations and even interviewed Mark Shuttleworth (by e-mail) and Linus Torvalds (personally)! Smile :-)

My Future Plans

I'm very concerned about the future of Ubuntu-BR-SP team. I don't want it to die after I leave. And I will eventually need to leave someday. I want to prepare that for the end of 2011 year. I plan to keep contributing to the team, but I want my contributions to it to be pretty much done at that time. Besides that I want to be able to have more time to contribute with other stuff.

One of those stuff is the MOTU packaging team. This is something I've already put some study on in the past but haven't been able to dedicate as much as I wish. As soon as my programing skills get better, I wanna see if I can be able to contribute with some development code too.

Last Words

I was passionate for free software at first sight. I believe it's something that has the potential to change the world for better and quoting Richard Stallman, "I'm only interested to change it for better". I believe that free software can play a main character among education and feel myself responsible to bring that discovery to the others as much as I have discovered that myself.

I am very grateful for Ubuntu because it's the distribution that helped me the most and showed me that learning GNU/Linux can be fun and enchanting. I would never know as much as I know about computers today if it wasn't for Ubuntu.

I hope I have been able to give a bit of it back to the community. Community is something I find very important to care about. It's what makes free software so interesting.

Testimonials

Please, write a testimonial about me, if you believe you won't be able to be at the meeting to cheer for me. And don't forget to sign it! Big Grin :)

  • Finally! Kemel is probably the most awaited Ubuntu Member of the moment in Brazil. Being the guy that carry our name in the main brazilian free software events and do a wonderful work in Sao Paulo locoteam, sure that him deserve our support. Smile :) -- Ayrton Araújo

  • I fully support Kemel as Ubuntu Member. I believe he's absolutely qualified for that, as I've been following his work and witnessed all the effort he puts into making Ubuntu-BR-SP, the largest subloco team in Brazil, a successful team. He also works on spreading Ubuntu by organizing events, lots of them. Kemel, just let me know when the meeting will happen and I'll be there to personally cheer for you! -- Ursinha

* I also was tracking Kemel's work, and had the opportunity to meet him personally 2 times on the last years, on open source events. Kemel is definitely a "must be" member: he has solid contributions, he is clearly a leader on the Ubuntu-BR-SP organizing events, bringing new users and supporting them. Duda Nogueira


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Kemel (last edited 2011-01-25 21:36:54 by c951e838)