About Me
I have been using Ubuntu full time since 6.10 and have enjoyed it tremendously. From then on I have used Ubuntu exclusively. Throughout the Last several years I have been using Ubuntu, I have been loving the experience it provides. I love the opportunities it allows, and also encourages. I study at a major university in San Diego currently working toward a degree.
I see myself always using Ubuntu or if something happens to the operating system, another Linux based distro. It suits me and should continue to suit me. I have also gotten involved in the Ubuntu community. It has been about two years now since I started to get involved with the community. I have done lots of things to help and they will be described bellow, and all the items I do with Ubuntu or Linux I love doing because it not only helps me, but helps others and the project as well. I hope that in time i can become even more involved in the community and in turn possibly share Ubuntu with even more who are still unaware through greater and greater means.
To me Ubuntu is not only about choice, though with Ubuntu and many aspects of Linux there is lots of choice. I see Ubuntu as also about being the perfect blend of freedom and productivity. Freedom to do what you want with it. You can make it as technical or non technical as you want it. The ability to bring a Linux platform Geeks and end-users can both get excited about is a very great opportunity for us all. Something I enjoy very much being part of.
Contact Information
Email philipballew@ubuntu.com
launchpad: Click Here
Ubuntuforums: Click Here
Twitter:philipballew
IRC: philipballew, you can find me in #ubuntu #ubuntu-beginners and always in #ubuntu-us-ca whenever I am connected to IRC
github: Philip Ballew
Ranks Gained in Ubuntu
Ubuntu Membership
I Gained a Ubuntu Membership in May of 2011 and have not looked back since. I see that as a door that opens allowing me to advance my involvement with Ubuntu and my success with the Open Source community.
Ubuntu Beginners
I am a member of the Ubuntu Beginners team and provide tech support for the new comers on Ubuntu. Moving to Ubuntu is a challenge that gets easier as you go, therefor I love to help the people who have just started with Ubuntu and help them get the hang of their machine.
Ubuntu Youth Commander
I am the head of Ubuntu youth and guide all youth in how to best work with the Ubuntu community and get started with greater involvement in Ubuntu.
Global Community Involvement
UDS
Natty
* Remotly partisiapted in UDS N by listening to all the different discutions that occured
Oneiric
* Remotely Partispated in UDS O Listened to sessions for the Oneiric UDS and all that the release needed to have done to make it a great release while providing my input at the same time.
Precise
* Remotely participated in all five days of sessions by both listening to that audio feed and being connected to the rooms IRC feeds. I was able to voice my thoughts in every session I attended, which were numerous. I attended all community roundtables as well as all the other sessions on the Ubuntu community track.
Quantal
Attended UDS-q where I picked up a lot of work items that I am still working of completing. I was able to meet and see all the faces that make up the Ubuntu ecosystem in person.
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter
- Summery writer, article/blog seeker for the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter: Every weekend I take a little while and write summaries for the already proposed after i have during the week found articles and posted them to the
newsletter planning document.
Ubuntu Leadership
I work in the Ubuntu Leadership team where I both teach and learn how to be a leader for the Ubuntu community. It is a great experience and I am encouraged by all the Things I can do with this group and where this group is going.
Ubuntu Classroom
Ubuntu Open Week
I am the person in charge of running, advertising and scheduling OpenWeek, while making sure it all goes smothly. I faciliate speakers and remind them of their times that they speak as well as make sure people are aware of the times that they speakers are speaking so they can tune in and see all about the topic they want.
i Lead a session during the Oneiric cycle of how to get help and practical ways to get technical support questions answered.here i covered all the many places and ways to find help for a Ubuntu machine. Also discussed, was practices to get proper help in the places you visit. It was a great way to give people all the information the need to get Ubuntu working for them. Logs can be found here: Link
Ubuntu User Days
Ran a session for the Ubuntu Oneiric entitled "Equivalent applications found in Ubuntu, you might have used in Windows or OSX. This was a great chance for me to be able to get to meet some more users of Ubuntu and personally both talk and answer questions. when running a session I do not necessarily view myself as a teacher but someone who is also learning through the people who came to the session as we gather together to teach each other what we know. Logs are available here:link
Ubuntu Youth
- Ubuntu-Youth protect lead. Current head of Ubuntu Youth and I oversee all aspects of the organization/group. We are a great resource for youth and youth at heart to use in order to make helping and working in the
Ubuntu ecosystem easier.
Ubuntu Beginners
- Tech support in #ubuntu-beginners: Every day I log into IRC and #ubuntu-beginners is my main channel where I give support to those who need it. being that beginner is such a relative term we get so many items come up into our channel that I try my best to assist and help with. It can be a challenge with the problems that come in, however. I find the more time I spend helping others, the more I end up learning myself. In the Ubuntu Beginners team I am the go to person for getting help with Unity and making the Unity interface work for people.
Ubuntu Power Users
I help with getting the Ubuntu Power Users getting things accomplished for each cycle
- I made sure to keep the team aware of progress with Ubuntu-Tweek as well as reminded people of opportunities to help test and report bugs to the developer.
- Keep Blog up to date reminding people of all the projects the Power-Users are busy tackling as well as busy planning for the future.
Ubuntu Forums
- I first started with helping people who used Ubuntu on the forums with fixing the common problems associated with Ubuntu. Through helping them I have gained even more knowledge where i can transfer that to IRC allowing for more people to be able to get the help they need. I try to be as humble as i can when giving help because in the past i have felt belittled by other people and will often try to be as compassionate as i can no matter what the person did or was doing.
- Issues I often help with are:
- Getting started in Ubuntu
- Basic terminal commands
- Problems I myself have encountered as well
- Issues I often help with are:
Blogging
my personal Ubuntu blog Click Here here I blog and write about my use with Ubuntu, my involvement in the Ubuntu community, and ways I see that we can make Ubuntu better for everyone
Guest writer for www.iheartubuntu.com This consists of writing software reviews, news stories, how-to articles and anything else that looks like it would be interesting to read.
LoCo
I have been a member of California LoCo for about two years: I help wherever is necessary, and use this group as a way to find other people who use Ubuntu and together promote it as a successful operating system. Through being a part of this group i have been able to get even more involved through events and the like
Scale
I help run and lead the official Ubuntu California booth at SCALE which is California's biggest Linux convention that gains national attention in the global Linux community: Running this event is a team effort that takes lots of coordination and effort to get as many people from are LoCo to be able to come great distances and show off Ubuntu to other Linux enthusiasts.There are many actions that need to be done and some tasks I was in charge of was:
- Handing out a pack of fifty CD's that I burned and packaged,
- Running live CD's on peoples computers myself demonstrating how the operating system runs on their specific hardware
- Answer peoples questions about Ubuntu and all of its derivatives. This can be a good way to make sure you have brushed up on your technical skills and also A fun way to tell people about Ubuntu who might be curious about the system and also get to meet other Ubuntu users as well.
Ubuntu Hours
- Co-founder of the San Diego Ubuntu Hour. I Help aside from starting it; organizing, running and promoting the Hour: I organize the outreach, logistics and planning for The hour we run once a month. I am known for carrying around flayers for the Ubuntu hour and passing it out to people i know who I think might be interested in attending. I email the list a few days before the event again just as a reminder of what is coming up and look for possibly having more people come out if possible. When planning an event of this goes. location is critical. thats why i have picked some of the locations we have held the event at, therefor I can scout out good seating a hour to half hour in advance in order to ensure enough seats for as many visitors as possible. ANy questions related to the San Diego Ubuntu hour can be brought to me.
Ubuntu Global Jam
I set up and planned a Ubuntu Global Jam for the California LoCo that brought four new Ubuntu users to join out LoCo.We helped people understand what Ubuntu 11.10 has to offer to people and what ways that can help contribute. After we helped people with their machines, we all got down to buissness and tested our machines. This enabled us to test Ubuntu of various types of systems allowing it to be used easier by more people because we have tested it. A flyer is available here showing the event. : Click Here
Individual Contributions
- I have for years and still do make my own pre-burned CD's and passing them out to friends and others of the sort. also I have helped them install and run everything for their first few times in order to get them going. when I help them get going they are more likely to stick with Ubuntu because the basic early hang-ups are not going to be there for them.
- Find suitable places to set up CD giveaway booths and allow people to receive free CD's Such locations would include but not limited to: library's, high school programing classes and clubs, and community colleges computer departments and labs. People can find these CD's and take them; they will have the name of what is on the CD, my name and email. therefore, these people are free to contact me with any needs they have.
- Attender of The Linux Users' Group of Davis whenever i can and promote Ubuntu there as a distro that is capable and help it to stand out from the others.
Public Speaking
Give small quick talks to 5-10 people about both the benefits of a Ubuntu system and also the technical aspects of it that make it different compared to Windows and OSX on both technical levels and non-technical levels. I was a featured speaker at Scale 10x. "Getting involved in open source at a young age]." This was a great opertunity for me to share my knowledge of how Youth can effectively contribute to Open Source.https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale10x/presentations/getting-involved-open-source-young-age
Speaker at LUGOD (Linux Users Group of Davis) I presented a talk in May of 2012 on Ubuntu 12.04. This was a great opertunity for me to be able to show other Linux users just what Ubuntu has to offer. http://www.lugod.org/meeting/past/2012.05.21.php
Guides and Documentation
I have written several guides and documents to help other Ubuntu users, Some are from my blog, and othere are from web sites that I am asked to contribute to in the form of a guest writter.
- A guide on how to install the popular DVD ripper from a ppa: https://philipballew.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/37/
IRC Councel
I am available to work in the IRC Moderator after nine pm everyday California time most days and sometimes from after three. That is 14:00 and 09:00 utc iirc.
Testimonials
Ubuntu Membership Board
Phil has been active in the Ubuntu Power users community, recently attended UDS and is enthusiastic. My only advice to him is to slow down a little bit occasionally, otherwise the rest of us are going to have some problems keeping up! 
-- jamesgifford
I have been interacting with Phillip via IRC for some time and got to meet him at UDS-Q and based on my opinion I feel Phillip would be a potentially good candidate for a Membership Board because he seems to have a good grasp on what contributions we like to see in the community and I feel he would be thorough in reviewing and voting on candidates for membership not to mention the added benefit of having a Youth sit on th board for diversity purposes. -- bkerensa 2012-05-15 18:38:11
Ubuntu LoCo Council
I have been interacting with Phil for some time now on the #ubuntu-beginners-team IRC channel. He is always polite, reasonable and puts forth a very positive image. I have always had very pleasant interactions with him and he has without exception always been an excellent addition to the UBT IRC channel group of regulars -- ScottSanbar October 29th, 2011
I have known Phil about a year now and I can attest to his great human qualities of organisational skills, responsibility, and leadership. He has worked tirelessly between SCaLE9x, Ubuntu documentation, as well as orchestrating Ubuntu Hours around California. Phil is diligent in his paperwork, easily reachable and punctual. A perfect match for joining the LoCo Council. I would highly recommend him and feel Ubuntu would benefit from his input and helpfulness. [ https://wiki.ubuntu.com/iheartubuntu ]
I must agree with the others above me, Phil is a joy to chat with, and knows how to get the job done. I really look forward to possibly having him on the Ubuntu Youth council one day. -- AndrewMC
Phil has been active in the Ubuntu Power users community and is enthusiastic. My only advice to him is to slow down a little bit occasionally, otherwise the rest of us are going to have some problems keeping up! -- jamesgifford
Ubuntu Membership
Phil has been an active member of the San Diego Ubuntu Loco contingent since we started it in November 2010. He's a good supporter of Ubuntu and the Community! --kdub [KevinDuBois]
I was very impressed with Philip when I met him at SCaLE9x where we worked together at the Ubuntu booth. His charismatic nature makes him easy to work with and for him to convey the Ubuntu spirit. He is a perfect communicator that worked well with any visitors coming to the Ubuntu booth. He is also active in IRC, rarely missing a team meeting, and helps run the Ubuntu Hour in San Diego. I am working with him to possibly set up another Ubuntu Hour in Claremont, CA (location of five major universities). As always, I look forward to working with Phil and together helping spread Ubuntu! -- [ iheartubuntu ] 03/28/2011
Trustworthy, kind, and always willing to provide a helping hand, Phil is the kind of guy you would want on your team (whatever it may be). seidos 5/8/2011
Phil has surprised me with his enthusiasm. He has stepped up with the Loco in San Diego and has pushed forward with speed and a desire to help. He truly represents what the spirit of Ubuntu is. Phil will succeed and and any team he is on will succeed. @-- david.wonderly 2011-05-17 22:13:38@
Phil has been a thoughtful and active member of the local Ubuntu community, and instrumental in getting Ubuntu Hour San Diego off the ground. He's made sure to get involved in local events such as SCaLE9X and these events have been all the better for it. He is an asset to any project he is involved with. -- -- nhaines 2011-05-19 18:59:04
Ubuntu Beginners
Phil is a voice of reason and a helpful hand for all who frequent #ubuntu-beginners -- holstein august 12th, 2011
People who I have Helped: Kathrin Weber