Who am I?

My name is Og Maciel, born in Brazil but living in the United States since 1991. Graduated from Pace University with a BS in Biochemistry in 1997. Married since 2000, father of a 4 1/2-year-old daughter and soon to be a father of a second child.

Been involved with Open Source, and more especifically with the Brazilian community since 2005, thanks to incentive from Stephan Hermann. Started as a translator for the Brazilian Team, eventually being appointed as the administrator, and now proud leader of the team.

Web Presence

• Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/people/ogmaciel

• Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OgMaciel

Blogs:

• http://www.ogmaciel.com (en_US)

• http://blog.ogmaciel.com (pt_BR)

Involvement:

• Leader of Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team

• Founding Member of Ubuntu Brazilian Planet Team
• Spearheaded the creation of the Brazilian Data Miners Team
• Spearheaded the creation of the Brazilian Documentation Team
• Represented Ubuntu at the Linux World Expo in Boston (2006).
• Represented Ubuntu at the Princeton Computer Show (2006).
• Member of Norther New Jersey MySQL User Group
• Founding member of the Ubuntu United States - NJ Team
• Organizer of Nothern New Jersey Linux User Group (2004 - 2005)

What's new?

Around december of last year (2005) I was asked by the then leader of the Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team to step up as the new (and only) administrator. For the last 9 months I can proudly state that we, as a team, have translated more than 110,000 strings and have become the 4th translation team with the most translations!

Along the way I had the pleasure of meeting some amazing people, who are just as commited (or more) to the Ubuntu way of life as I am. These people have been a constant source of support and inspiration for me, and together we have managed to increase our overall community presence in Brasil. Since I currently reside in New Jersey, USA, I rely on them to convey our objectives and physical presence over there.

Together with this awsome group of people we have initiated several "town hall" meetings where everyone gets involved and can directly contribute to any given subject by offering suggestions and ideas. These events have become the birth place of my of our new groups and projects, and I have been able to watch as newer contributors take their "first baby steps" towards, I have no doubt, a brilliant future.

Last month I asked the then leader of the Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team to consider stepping down, since he had been absent since he appointed me as the new administrator. He was more than willing to accept my request, and in the process I was appointed as the new leader. My first actions as the new leader was to appoint 2 members from the community as the new administrators for the team: Fabio Nogueira, my great friend who have stood by my side for pretty much this journey and had already helped me organize the team, and Andre Noel, an up and coming new member who has shown a lot of "guts" and reliability.

I have also helped members like Rafael Proenca and Rafael Sfair become more involved and take on the leading roles for our Documentation and Data Miners Teams. Out of these 2 new groups, we have seen great people emerge, such as Lucas "Birula" Macieira, Jose Vitor, Alex Rocha, Guilherme, and many others. These are the people who have shaped the current state of the community!

Through the last 10-11 months I have been a part of the Brazilian community, I can honestly say that none of my decisions or actions were taken without the counsel of my good friend KurtKraut. Kurt has been a major part of my "presence" among the community and is, without a shadow of a doubt, our unsung hero!

What next?

I have very ambitous goals for the upcoming months:

• Completely finish the translation effort to pt_BR by the end of 2006!

• Turn the main site for Ubuntu Brasil the place to visit for great documentation and support, not only for Ubuntu Linux users but everyone who supports Open Source!

• "Hatch" new members and help them grow and take leading roles within the community!
• Strike a cooperative relationship with the major Brazilian linux translation teams, such as Debian, Fedora, Gnome, etc, in an effort to merge our efforts and avoid redundant work amongst the different groups!
• Get more involved with the Rosetta team, so as to provide important feedback and help Rosetta become more userfriendly, specially for people performing administrative tasks within their groups!
• Form a Canonical approved Community Council for the Brazilian Team, made up of distinct members from each subgroup and community members, in order to better organize it and maintain the current spirit of openness and fairness that has won so many people over!
• Eventually 'retire' as the leader for the Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team, allowing the newer (and very capable) members bring the community to the next level!

A look in the past

I wrote the following paragraphs in a not so distant past.

"It was not long ago, during one of my recent rants about open source not always being open to non-contributors, that I first heard of Stephan Hermann. He had written something that really clicked with my way of thinking, and shortly after exchanging some emails/posts replies I was convinced that it was about time I got more involved with the community. I didn’t want to be one of those individuals who talk a lot but doesn’t do anything about it. It was thanks to Stephan that I finally joined the Ubuntu Brazilian (Portuguese) Translation Team in Launchpad and started translating documents and applications for the upcoming release of Ubuntu. Granted I couldn’t spent much time every day on it, neither could I hang out in #ubuntu for my company blocks all ports, I still managed to squeeze a few minutes here and there… and it was a great feeling knowing that my work will benefit hundreds of Portuguese speaking people to use Ubuntu in their native language! And every time I couldn’t work on it, I wished I had more free time to contribute more!"

Ever since I wrote the above post, my involvement with Ubuntu and the Linux Community has increased both in volume and intensity. I've spent more time lending a hand to my fellow Ubuntites at #ubuntu-br and our mailing list, trying my best to not only help them solve their issues but also spreading the word about the "Ubuntu way" of doing things. I also proposed the creation of a blog aggregator (planet) for Brazilian Ubuntu users/supporters, so that we could have a place to post helpfull information for new users. The idea was gladly accepted and within a few days, with the awsome effort of several Brazilian users the web site was launched. Every now and then I initiate "translation crusades" to get more people to help out with the translation process... and... and... I'm just glad to be able to help out my fellow Linux user!