About Me

I am currently attending college at Dakota State University majoring in Business and Computer Information Systems (Nearly Done!). In my spare time I spend time with my fiancee, on IRC, and working with Ubuntu. My personal website is http://www.profarius.com/.

I also started a company called Kalliki Software with two other people. It's been an incredibly hectic time; it's come with joys and pains; it's been fun and challenging. It seems we're on the right track for success though.

Contributions

South Dakota LoCo

I am the leader/contact of the SD LoCo Team. I have been very active with this team, and have been doing my best to promote its existence and user base. I have rebuilt the structure of the Wiki to make it more manageable and structured. I reworked the LP team and the mailing list. I have been managing all parts of this team. I created a website for our team at http://sd.ubuntu-us.org as well. My only issue has been the lack of interest in building a community.

Ubuntu Drupal

I have been very deeply involved with a team that has put together a suite of tools for LoCo teams. Any LoCo that wants to create a website and integrate it with Launchpad for their team can use our set of tools to do this. We have a theme that is legally acceptable as well as a set of modules that make deployment very easy. Our aim is that in the end the user will be able to deploy this entire suite in under 5 minutes.
You can see the project itself at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-drupal.

Packaging

I have been learning how to package software for Ubuntu. This has been a fun experience and it's helped me to understand how the various FOSS communities interact. I do hope to become MOTU. I would also like to use the MOTU to help spread Ubuntu. I intend to do this by packaging tools that will make it easier to spread Ubuntu.

Launchpad

I've been deeply involved in bug reports for a while. I try to report bugs for users so I can help them have Ubuntu working for their systems. I have been managing bazaar branches, projects, teams, blueprints, bugs, answers, etc.

I was sitting with over 34,000 karma in bug management and bazaar branches alone. This is what JoeyStanford is referring to below.

Supporting Users

I have spent a lot of time trying to support users that have gone to Linux but don't understand how to use it correctly. I also try to spend at least a few hours in #ubuntu every week supporting users. There are a few reasons that I have reduced my time here; I still put in my efforts here as well.

Advertising Ubuntu

I have been a member of the ubuntu-marketing team in LP since 2008-09-09. I was also a member about a year prior to joining the LP team. As part of this team, I push myself hard to advertise Ubuntu every chance I get. The fact that my girlfriend buys me Linux shirts helps.

Making Ubuntu Efficient

I have been writing some web logs about modifying Ubuntu to be very efficient, as well as some things about administration of a Linux system. These can be seen at my website listed above. Not only have I managed to make it extremely efficient; but it is now faster and leaner than many Gentoo systems I have seen.

Future Plans

I want to promote Ubuntu as much as possible. I will continue by contributions in the same manner as I have been. I also want to push my LoCo to be able to thrive. I feel a thriving LoCo will be one of the easiest ways to promote Linux since it incorporates so many things that are vital to it's success. Things such as marketing, user management, friendly environments, etc.

I will continue to develop and offer support on IRC.

Ubuntu Drupal

This is always a constant push for me. We keep developing new modules and working to produce better work. I recently made some changes to some Canonical built code which was a nice feeling to know that FOSS was working great here. I will continue to work with them as well as work with systems to help promote this development. For example, I will make an installation profile to easy deployment of the Ubuntu Drupal 'suite' and then make a package in the universe so the entire suite can be deployed in one simple little command. [Although I'd never personally deploy a web app via package manager.]

Bug Control

I have been offering support through Launchpad and have been doing my best to offer quality support. This team has a large push in it but is lacking man power. Although I attempt to help here, there is much more I could be doing. This venture tends to lead me to want to help in other areas.

MOTU

The Bug Control work tends to lead me here. This is a fun area because this is where so much work makes it into a single (group) repository that is simple for end users to utilize. I have been learning how to do all this to help other developers get their work into the Universe. I still have much to learn but with a basic understanding of what I'm doing I feel I'm well on my to MOTU.

KernelTeam

The KernelTeam is of course a vital part of Ubuntu. Without them we would have a lot of software that can't work. I have learned much about the kernel. I still need to learn about code within the kernel as well as learn how to track down bugs in it better. However, I feel I have a solid understanding of the way the kernel build process works. I just need to work at it further.

The Community

There isn't much secret that in almost any large community there will exist issues. These are issues that must be resolved in order for the community to sustain itself. In communities with extremely diverse backgrounds it is important to focus on the interaction between the users. This is an area in the Ubuntu community that needs work and I feel that many see the issues and have begun a push to improve these issues.

This is something that I really want to help improve. This could be way of the IRC team, the CC team, or just speaking my mind. I have worked with users that had issues within various groups inside the community to improve these situations and found myself mostly successful but would like to improve here.

Current Activities

I devote myself to a lot. To keep things in a nice order I'll only devote myself to a few big projects and let things stem from there. This is my list of current significant involvements.

1. Ubuntu Drupal / Ubuntu Website
2. Nginx
3. l3ib lal
4. Freenode GMS

Testimonials

• MauricioPennaloza: Well, after read the wiki and see some report bugs, i saw that Michael, had a lot of knowledge about Ubuntu. Is only time that he needs to become a good Ubuntu Member or a Canonical employee (why not?). Saludos desde Chile!

• TonyYarusso: Michael can frequently be found volunteering for user support in #ubuntu and related channels. Additionally, while I'm not actually in his LoCo, I'm in the neighboring state and have been proud of the efforts I've seen him putting forth there. Of particular interest are his work on web resources for that team and marketing and conversion efforts locally.

• TravisWatkins: Michael is doing great work getting his LoCo going and is always around on IRC helping people.

• JoeyStanford: +1. Michael has been good to work with on the Drupal items and also on LP bugs. He is dedicated to Ubuntu and his enthusiasm rubs off on you. Despite circumstantial evidence to the contrary, he has no life but Ubuntu (any doubts can be dispelled by looking at his karma) and occasionally his girlfriend Kim when Launchpad is doing a roll-out.

• ChristianReis: +1; smart worker with a sense of humor. Am particularly impressed at him getting this LoCo in a box project assembled and shipped. You'd have to work hard to find a harder working contributor.

• KurtvonFinck: +1; I have had numerous opportunities to interact with Michael in Ubuntu IRC namespace. I have always found him interesting and interested, and have watched him both help others and seek help and guidance. Being able to give and take direction results in valuable work like the LoCo Drupal project, which by accounts from Ubuntu-Quebec members, has been of value indeed.

• MatthewRevell: +1; great work with the LoCo Drupal project. Good to deal with.

• 02/20/09 03:52 "#ubuntu-meeting: < atoponce> for those that come to the meeting, and don't meet approval, MTecknology is a shining example of what we're looking for"

• ~hggdh2 I have had contact with MTecknology since beginning of 2009, and I find him, and his work with Ubuntu, to be extremely positive. I really wish we had more people like him.

My Linux Experience

Initial Exposure

I have been using Ubuntu since 5.04. I was initially exposed to Linux during a conversation with a network administrator. He mentioned that I don't need to be using illegal software and he helped me learn how to install Ubuntu on my first laptop.

Microsoft Angers

I've worked at some Microsoft dependent companies that complained about the costs of having computers. After many discussions I came to the conclusion that they just enjoyed having a reason to complain. I realized these were the types of places I'd never want to work in again. I would rather bag groceries at Hy-Vee than work for a company that complains about money and says everything free sucks. I did take this route until I was able to take a position in a company that I could be happy in.

Current Experience

I'm currently the CTO of a company which requires high availability and uptime. It's been a challenging process but we're now running exceptionally well on the infrastructure that was built from scratch.

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