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 5 1/2-year-old and a 8-month daughters.

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 XFCE Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team

• Leader of Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team (2006-2007)

• GNOME Foundation Member
• Member of the GNOME Brazilian Translation Team
• Member of the Foresight Linux Brazilian Translation Team
• Foresight Linux Developer
• 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?

Lots of things have happened... After a very successful 18 months as the leader for the Ubuntu Brazilian Portuguese Translators Team, I decided to step down so someone else could have a chance to perform this task. I also decided to dedicate whatever time I had free to translate directly with the GNOME, XFCE, and KDE upstream teams. Once something was translated and approved, I'd then coordinate with the Ubuntu Brazilian team the submission back into Ubuntu via Rosetta. This move helps us release GNOME completely translated for the last 2 successive release cycles! XFCE is already close to the 100% mark, with KDE close by as well.

Something else that happened was the creation of a Brazilian LoCo Council, voted by all the current members who are also part of the Ubuntu Member team. Due to time constrains by some of the people who were selected, I was asked to join this team.

I also moved to North Carolina and am now the proud father of 2 girls! I have also started working full time for an "all Linux" company and switched from running Linux as a "hobbie" OS to a full time, professional level! I also switched from coding in VB/C#.NET with Oracle to learning Python, TurboGears, CherryPy, "Ajax", javascript, web programming, and now I'm facing the steepest learning curve of my life. This has caused me to cut down dramatically my advocacy time and I have kept a very low key, attending local events only.

What next?

I have very ambitous goals for the upcoming months:

• Help out with the transition of bringing in translations from GNOME, XFCE and KDE upstream (this includes making sure standards are followed throughout);
• Help get Open Source ideals to other parts of the US and Brazil;
• Find some free time to do some more advocacy;

A look in the past

These were my goals last time I talked to the CC:

• 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!