Ubuntu Wiki

About Me

Hello, I'm Valorie Zimmerman, Kubuntu member. I'm active daily on both Linuxchix and Freenode IRC, nick valorie. My main interests in Kubuntu are documentation and community. I wrote the Handbook and Amarok Insider for Amarok, and am also active in Linuxchix, Seattle Linuxchix, Ubuntu Women, and the Washington Ubuntu LoCo (Local Community). I also write the "Linux Grandma" blog.

Other activities: My family, reading, art, music, photography, PFLAG (Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and genealogy, including Alsachat.net, an international genealogy project.

Contact Information

IRC Channels

You can find me in #kubuntu , #kubuntu-devel , as well as #ubuntu-women and #ubuntu-women-project , #ubuntu-us-wa , #amarok , #kde-multimedia , #kde , #kde-soc , #kde-women , #kde-lgbt , #kde-accessability , and #kde-cwg

Contributions

• As a new Kubuntu member, attended UDS which kicked my involvement into high gear

• Member of the KDE Community Working Group and of the e.V. supporting KDE

• Active member of Ubuntu-Women, providing support in IRC and the list

• Active in the Washington Ubuntu LoCo

• Provide support in the Amarok IRC channel, forum, and lists as well as Kubuntu and KDE support

• Blog to help other non-technical users of Linux, Kubuntu, and KDE. Over 70 posts tagged Kubuntu so far

• Editor of the Amarok Insider (now defunct)

• Headed up the writing team for the Handbook

• Active in developing the Kubuntu Docs

• Elected to the Kubuntu Council in 2013

• Co-author of KDE Developers Guide

In 2010

• Staffed a booth at both LinuxFestNorthWest and OSCON

• Participated in the CLS

• Organized Ubuntu Hour

• Helped organize the Washington Loco Lucid Release Party in Seattle

• Organized Ubuntu Global Jam locally

• Planned Software Freedom Day in September (canceled due to lack of participation)

• Planned the 10.10 Release Party in October, which was great!

• Requested and got sponsorship to UDS where I plan to get to know and plan the Natty release with the Kubuntu team

• Asked for and got Kubuntu membership 15 Oct 2010

• Mentored 13 students in over 50 tasks for KDE Google Code-In

2011

• Finished the Handbook

• Co-Administrator for KDE Google Summer of Code, and Season of KDE

• Member of the KDE Community Working Group

• Staffed Washington State LoCo booth at LinuxFestNorthWest

• Gave an OpenWeek class promoting Kubuntu: details

• Participated remotely in many sessions of UDS-O

• Attended Community Leadership Summit

• Staffed the Ubuntu booth at OSCON with the Oregon LoCo team

• Attended the upstream Desktop Summit in Berlin, Germany and Randa sprint in Switzerland and Google Summit of Code Mentor Summit

2012

• Attended part of the virtual UDS, and co-presented a session with the Xubuntu team, about Kubuntu's concerns in the change to rolling.

• Beta testing Raring on both an x86 netbook, and a 64-bit PC (AMD64) laptop

• Staffed Washington State LoCo booth at LinuxFestNorthWest

• Attended the upstream KDE Akademy in Tallinn, Estonia

• Co-administered GSoC and GCi for KDE, then attended the Mentor Summit at Google headquarters in California

• Participated in a Book Sprint the preceeding week, and had our book published

• Helped organize and fund the Randa Sprints 2012

2013

• Worked on getting our docs finished and onto Kubuntu Docs

• Staffed Washington State LoCo booth and KDE booth at LinuxFestNorthWest

• Got permission to move our working docs to Userbase

• Attended the upstream Akademy in Bilbao, in the Basque country of Spain

• Elected to the Kubuntu Council

2014

• tested Trusty Alpha upgrade on a 32-bit laptop, tested the beta on two other laptops, and filed lots of bugs

• Gave a Ubuntu User Days presentation about Kubuntu as an Ubuntu flavor

• scheduled and staffed a table for Ubuntu Washington shared with Debian Seattle at LinuxFestNorthWest. We burned at least thirty liveDVDs for folks - not just Kubuntu and Ubuntu, but most of the flavors

Future Goals

I plan to continue updating the Amarok Handbook, and find other tech writing and community building projects which need doing in Kubuntu and KDE. I'm continuing as a part of the KDE Community Working Group, and part of the administration of Google Summer of Code, and Google CodeIn. I want the Washington LoCo to grow, and become official, and continue to have fun. I plan to promote Kubuntu at LinuxFestNorthWest again this year, and will continue on the Council. I'm also planning to attend Akademy again this year (Brno, in the Czech Republic). The Kubuntu team plans a BoF at Akademy. Working with a webdev to get a testing framework that will work for Kubuntu applications and ISOs, and KDE applications as well.

Testimonials

Valorie is a tremendous help with driving and planning activities for the Ubuntu Washington LoCo. Her cheerful personality makes her great company. We are very lucky to have her around. -- linda-halligan 2010-08-16 19:09:52

I've seen Valorie help out in the Kubuntu channels and the UW channel. She is awesome and I would truely +1 her for Kubuntu membership. -- nigelbabu 2010-10-14 02:57:33

Valorie was my first friend in the FOSS community, by which I mean: she introduced me to the FOSS community. She taught me to use IRC and introduced me to all the wonderful mentors and role models I've had through LinuxChix. Aside from being on the (figurative) Welcome Brigade in Ubuntu Women, she seems to do a good job of maintaining good relationships with upstream too, and that's always important work. -- maco.m 2010-10-14 03:18:24

Valorie is awesome: she is a very productive contributor, a great motivator and community builder and always has a helping hand. Without her the community would not be as strong and by far not as much fun. I fully support her application to be a Kubuntu member. -- myriam 2024-05-05 18:26:45

Valorie was a valuable contributor to the OSCON 2011 Ubuntu Booth, She advocates for women who use Ubuntu/Kubuntu which is an excellent initiative for the open source community. I look forward to collaborating with her on future Ubuntu LoCo stuff. -- bkerensa 2024-05-05 18:26:45

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