gsilva

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Gustavo Silva

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gustavosantaremsilva@gmail.com

https://launchpad.net/favicon.ico Launchpad Profile

https://launchpad.net/~gustavosantaremsilva

https://launchpad.net/@@/language IRC Nick

gsilvapt

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gsilvapt

https://launchpad.net/@@/language Blog

Lead Utopia

About Me

Hi, my name is Gustavo, I am 22 years old and I live in Portugal. I am currently finishing my master's degree in Industrial and Firms Economics, while looking to start my professional career in my fields of expertise - management, strategy, economics.

I am a passionate person for technology. Unfortunately I don't possess any high-end knowledge, thus I am not able to create the change. However, there is lot more that technology to develop. I could have invested in some sort of education on that topic, but I believe that doing one thing very well done, is more important than doing several, but not so perfect. Also, that allows me to be faster, since I am aware of my resources. However, there is always information that we can acquire, and that is what I am looking for in Ubuntu's communities. The possibility to meet and exchange experiences with many other people, while learning new stuff every day. And, of course, being a Team Leader is also exciting, since it keeps bringing me new and tough challenges, on a daily basis. Since this is on a voluntary basis, you can imagine that inspiring and coordinating efforts is extremely difficult - that's why I created my blog.

Past Experiences

I have worked for 6 months at an US-based IT Firm, where they developed productivity tools. I was hired to study the viability to create a branch office in Portugal but there were a lot of restraints to it, so they I had to participate more actively in the management affairs. Moreover, we both realized I could be useful in other tasks while researching and so I started developing the KPI control tool for them. However, they didn't had any KPI back then, so I also took part of the 2014 KPI definition. Other issues came up and I dealt with a lot of tasks too. For instance, developing a strategy to reach and penetrate the Chinese market, back-office management, and hiring people. I am graduated in Bank and Insurance management, with a final average of 14 (out of 20). I have also enrolled in extra-curricular courses I felt important for my set of skills, such as Competitive Strategy and Developing Innovative Ideas.

Current Work

Industrial and Firms Economics Master's Degree - Still finishing the master's thesis.

Phonebloks - Partnership manager (Since November 2014)

Lubuntu Wiki & Docs Team - Team Leader (Since ~December 2014)

Challenges & Future

As mentioned before, I am currently looking for a job and start exploring my knowledge and willingness to succeed. However, it has not been an easy task. I'm too young, inexperienced and resourceless, in a very tough world, where being great is not enough. I have already figured out that Ubuntu has opened wide by awareness and knowledge of the IT world. Unfortunately I can't contribute directly to it by developing apps, developing distro's, but I am happy enough to get means for these guys. Either way, I wish to learn more about programming, specially in the most common languages in my world - R, LaTex, VBA and Java. I truly believe these tools will enhance most of my capabilities and, eventually, will make me an interesting person.

The community has given me a lot and I wish to give it back in many ways. Unfortunately, my lack of technical knowledge does not allow me to work directly in the development of new stuff. But, the open source community allows all users to engage directly with new projects in many different fronts and I shall focus in those that I can work with. Besides that, I'd like to get the Portuguese LoCo back together. Furthermore, I'd like to extend my contribution to further horizons and spread Ubuntu everywhere I go.

I am also interested in learning some leadership skills in non-profit and open source projects. It requires a specific mindset and a preparation, since most of the people involved are volunteers and, therefore, the ability to convince others to comply with the leader's goals is very, very, difficult.

Testimonials

Please leave below your comments of previous contributions, if you wish to do so.

It is a pleasure to have met Gustavo. He's such an enjoyment to work with and always reflects a radiant attitude whenever I speak to him or see him on channels. Not only this but he is an important addition to the Lubuntu community. The job of Team Leader for the Lubuntu Wiki and Docs Team is an important one. Sometimes the work is tedious, but Gustavo has stuck around and continues to play a role in the community. Not to mention that he is also a student. If one were to create more synonyms for the word dedicated, Gustavo's name would be among the new additions. He more than deserves membership into the community and I fully support that. -- JasonO

Gustavo is that kind of person who is always there, for everybody. His collaborates with my team, and others, with translation, templates, wiki documents editing, meetings, etc. All this time I spent with him at the team, he always finished his duties in time (like releases cycles) and always being kind and extremely respectful with others and their needs in the community (considering how difficult is organising people at several timezones). I'm honoured to be able to work with Gustavo, and I highly recommend his membership. -- rafaellaguna

Gustavo is truly one of a kind. He is not a typical contributor in the sense of being very technical, and yet he is a great example of a truly remarkable contributor. Being a committed open source user, he relentlessly sought a place where he could contribute back. Through the Linux Padawan program, he sought guidance. I was lucky to take him on as as a padawan. I taught him a few things and he took to them readily. Additionally, when I gave him projects to work on to flex his newly-found skills on, he greatly exceeded my expectations. When I was at a point where he could be released to properly contribute on his own, he brought grand ideas to the Lubuntu team and took on some of the team's most ambitious ideas, including the manual project. His fervor, passion, self-motivation, and professionalism easy earned him a place as a Team Leader. The thing that makes him an ideal contributor is his business acumen. Sure, he has fun doing it, but he takes his volunteering as seriously as he would any other job. I cannot recommend his membership highly enough. -- wxl 2015-04-24 19:19:09

I have a pleasure to work with Gustavo. He seems to bring passion and drive to the lubuntu docs that was not seen in some time. Gustavo also made sure many wiki pages for the release needed for 15.04. While I finished some final testing on the images. --walterorlin

When I met Gustavo, he had no idea how the community was "ticking". But I could tell right from the start that he was different from those who participated in the project Lubuntu before him. He wanted to know everything, questioned things and was always able to make the ultimate step for the project and the "brand Lubuntu" to get closer to its goal. After he had tried himself in various niches and sub-projects, he finally found his place at Wiki & Docs team where he was able to give a long needed reboot and - within one month - re-did the wiki pages of Lubuntu which are now even easier to use and will enable even the greenest Greenhorn to find his&her path without difficulty.

If it were up to me, Gustavo - despite his short period of commitment - has already credited outstanding services to the Ubuntu community and should be rewarded with membership. --silverlion

I remember when Gustavo got started with the Ubuntu Community, he was clueless on how things worked. At that time, I was his mentor and we discussed various things about the Community. Though those discussions, Gustavo understood the problems that the Community is facing. Shorty after we started these mentioning sessions, his real life started to stress him out and we had to quit our sessions.

A month later, Gustavo's life started to be better for him and he asked the Lubuntu folks to find a place where he can help the development. Since he is not a developer, the wiki/docs area was suggested. After learning how to edit in MoinMoin, he quickly learned how to do it and also create plans on how to make the docs/wiki more useful and became the wiki team leader. This all because of his commitment and hard work to the (L)Ubuntu Community.

Like what others said, Gustavo is truly a different type of person and has the commitment and hard work to improve the Ubuntu Community. Keep up the great work, Gustavo!!! -- belkinsa 2015-04-24 20:21:24