Hi, I'm a Ruby developer working commercially with web applications in Dublin. I think that Ireland has great potential to be a high profile Open Source location and would like to see more FOSS development getting done in Ireland. Ubuntu is an important part of this as

• It's a great development platform
• Has a great community focus which will help get developers interested; especially those who may not otherwise see merit in patching FOSS projects

If you're interested in joining the Open Source scene in Ireland as a developer, I'd be interested to hear from you at my contact details below.

Contact information

Activities

• Code contributions to f-spot, freemix, bzr (bzr contrib in progress after review with bzr patch manager)

• Working on Qt on Rails a Rails-based development framework to simplify development of Ruby applications on Kubuntu

• Regularly featuring (K)ubuntu issues I've troubleshooted on my blog at theirishpenguin.com

• Contributing articles to 3rd party FOSS knowledge bases such as on KDE Techbase

• Bug reports on update-manager, mysql, mono-debugger
• Running Free Ruby Lessons for newbie developers (Monday at 6.30pm in Havana Cafe, Georges St, Dublin)

• Participated in Drupal 7 Usability Testing at DrupalCamp Belfast

• Podcasting on Open Source development at codemongrel.com

• Drove the production of Open Source and Open Standards at Home, an Open Source innovation policy framework published on the Irish Goverment website

• Attending and helping out at FOSS events, code jams and meetups in Dublin

In development terms outside of Ruby, I also like to hack on Ubuntu desktop apps and enjoy Python development along with the odd bit of Mono C#.

Future Goals

• Run and participate in more Ubuntu Bugjams, be a point of contact for FOSS and Ubuntu development in Ireland

• Help encourage discussion between various Open Source development communities in Ireland. To this end, I've set up the ossdev-ireland group. I'd like to get more folks onboard this group to get momentum behind the Irish OSS development community regardless of language, framework or technology

• Help grow Ruby Ireland as a development community and have more Ruby events, code jams and lessons - with Kubuntu development arising out of this. In particular

  • I plan to investigate ways to streamline Ruby code contributions to Kubuntu through KDE's SMOKE Ruby bindings. The Qt on Rails project I've listed above is central to this

  • Produce guidelines on how to package Ruby applications for Debian and Ubuntu. I am looking for people knowledgeable in debian packaging to help with this
• See if we can get more Ubuntu related development within the Irish Python community...
• ... and more Mono development on apps such as f-spot at code jams as part of the Dublin Alt.net community

Testimonials for Membership Application

• Declan is an enthusiastic contributor to both open source projects and to the international open source community. His patches to my graphing project were clean and useful. I would not hesitate for a second to grant him Ubuntu membership. Geoffrey Grosenbach, Ruby Gruff graphing library author and producer of the Peepcode.com screencast/Ruby on Rails podcast.

• Declan wrote a few patches for my freemix project, two days after attending a talk I gave about it. This trully shows he is well motivated and once he gets the membership and tasks in hand. He will be a good force pushing Free Software ahead. LuisdeBethencourt

• I first met Declan at a number of Free Software events in Dublin. He provided warm and carefully worded encouragement to new-comers and thoughtful technical criticism where appropriate. He has been an excellent collaborator in my Free Software work and he would be a invaluable addition to the Ubuntu community. RichardHenwood

• Declan is an inspired person and he is very passionate about Open Source. I've known Declan for a good few years now and he's always full of energy when it comes to Open Source as well as software in general. Andrea, Dublin Alt.Net Organiser
• Declan's passion for open source software is obvious. His blogging and podcasting reflects this. He's a very valuable and active member of the Ruby Ireland user group. Darrah Curran, Ruby Ireland Organiser
• Thanks very much for teaching us the basics of Ruby on Rails. I have enjoyed all the examples and the practice we've got on Monday evenings. Jairo Diaz, Free Ruby Lesson Attendee

• I've met Declan at a few Bug Jams and release parties. He's always in a good mood, very friendly, approachable and quite passionate about programming and FLOSS. rorymcc

• You can always find Declan at the Irish LoCo and ILUG events spreading the K\Ubuntu and FLOSS love and helping others. He's very passionate when it comes to programming and shares his ideas with the community. Great contributor to the LoCo and Ubuntu in general, fantastic mentoring skills (especially during the UbuntuJams). And here's Declan promoting Ubuntu Ireland user group during the Software Freedom Day 2008 in Dublin picture. Maciej Danielski

• I've found dealing with Declan over the last 2 years great to work with an offers to help without asking when I'm running events for the Irish LoCo. Declan also flies the oss flag with his podcasts and show cases Irish oss events for people who can't attend to hear about. czajkowski

CategoryTestimonial