RexAlemi

Revision 26 as of 2010-03-31 15:26:55

Clear message

Background

Reza Alemy, I am known to my friends and community as Rex since it is easier for them to pronounce. I have been an Ubuntu user since Dapper Drake, and decided to professionally enter the world of Ubuntu in September of 2009.

I have been a software engineer for 20+ years, and in the years of 2004-2006 I wrote an Oncology treatment planning system which run under Dapper, some snapshots of which are in the Novatrex site. In my path to becoming an expert in electronic health, I had to go through development, administration, and data management projects. I created my launchpad profile in October of 2009

Contributions to Ubuntu

Since October of 2009 I have been constantly volunteering more than 20 hours a week to Ubuntu Vancouver Local Community. the results of this work is summarized here:

Plans and Ideas

In the past months I have come to closely examine the ideas of the Ubuntu Vancouver Loco organizer, Randall Ross, and I find myself in complete agreement with them. Randall has succeeded in growing the community from a few dozen to a around three hundred in a very short time, his approach has proven successful and I hope to act as an active and influential friend and colleague in pushing his strategy to realize its maximum potential.

The basics of the Idea, from my point of view, boils down to the fact that Ubuntu is a culture and more than an operating system. To share the gift of Ubuntu with everyone, we need to show people that they don't need to be administrators to make full use of Ubuntu. One of the biggest hurdles holding back people from using Ubuntu in my community is that they look at it as a "Linux" that requires you to know lots of "commands" and type them, maybe write a driver or two, and finally "compile the kernel". What if they put all their time and data into it and down the road suddenly find out that they can't connect their printer to it? This is of course a misconception especially with Ubuntu, but it is one that is gladly encouraged by the "experts" in the computer shops to whom normal folk go for computer advice.

We in the Ubuntu Vancouver Loco have decided to practically prove this wrong. we bring in the power of community to solve the problem of support. In a strong community where there are 12-15% system administrators and 2-5% low level programmers, the rest of the community can have all their administrative needs addressed by Support Saturdays and Bug Squishes that are organized regularly in short intervals. They don't need to learn what is under the hood if they don't want to. they can focus on being accountants, writers, artists, architects, whatever their normal is; enjoying the community and the values of Ubuntu.

An Ubuntu Vancouver Loco member discourages flame wars, OS discussions, and technical jargon by shifting them to specialized forums and mailing lists, leaving the general list open to subjects satisfying a boolean "AND" between Ubuntu and Vancouver, adhering to and showcasing the Ubuntu codes of conduct, and concentrating on making the Ubuntu experience fun and rewarding for everyone. Ze lowers the barrier of trying Ubuntu for other members, makes the transition fun, and ensure that others will never feel alone or belittled. Ze engages everyone else no matter what their level or area of contribution is. Ze employs technology to become socially active building a real character in face-to-face meetings, not socially isolated with a virtual identity in electronic forums. Ze is what Ze is, because of what we all are.

Testimonials

Rex is a knowledgeable and helpful member of the Ubuntu community and an asset to any organization that would have him. He has my full support. - Sean Rickerd, IT/Networking Instructor and ONA - CDI College, Surrey

I recently joined the Vancouver Ubuntu LoCo and definitely feel that meeting Rex has been one of the biggest benefits to joining the LoCo. Not only is he a friendly face, but he is also knowledgeable and giving of his time. He has spent countless hours of his time helping me enable my own desires to give to the Ubuntu community by conducting his Python programming sessions through the Ubuntu Vancouver Game Development Team. - Nathaniel Senff, Web Devel - 39 CBG HQ

Not only is Rex an educated and dedicated Ubuntu community member, but he genuinely cares about the people with whom he works, and does his best to promote synergy within his group. - Joseph Liau, Manager/Instructor - Languagelab Networks Inc., DrEnglish.net, Vancouver

I have known Reza since Ubuntu Vancouver started up. As I am for the most part, an end user, Rex has been an incredible source of help and inspiration for me and most of the newbies in Ubuntu Vancouver. Rex also was instrumental in helping me get my GPS unit working in Ubuntu by dialoging with the developer of QlandkarteGT and writing some code, getting it accepted by the developer and getting my GPS unit to work with Ubuntu. Rex is also in the process of making up a lesson plan to instruct non-command line users how to become basic command-line users without having to feel like they have to be administrators to use Ubuntu. We need more Rex's in the community - for sure! Ian "Roscoe" Ross