I reside in Northern California and am originally from the Bay Area. My primary areas of interest are System Administration, Technical Writing, and Software Engineering, though not necessarily in that order. I am a university student seeking to gain experience documenting computer systems and technologies, with a strong interest in software and programming. I'm typically a quiet and reserved person who is arguably better at writing my thoughts than vocalizing them ;) What I enjoy most is solitude and having the freedom to research topics of interest, which I feel lends itself well to the study of computer technologies. I still have much to learn, but I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to delve deeper into the world of Fedora, open source projects, and computer technology at large.

What other projects or writing have you worked on in the past?

For the past year I have worked in an intellectual property office assisting in the creation of marketing materials for newly developed technologies at a research institution. This has included writing description of technologies by sifting through Records of Invention and Patent Applications. Some of these have been computer science related, but a great deal have been related to biological sciences, including biotechnology, bio-medical engineering, etc.

What level and type of computer skills do you have?

I started out learning Java basics before taking an introductory computer science course taught with Python. Subsequently, I took a software development course which was taught using C++ and also introduced Linux operating systems, the Linux CLI, and shell scripting. Since then I've installed and used Fedora and Arch Linux on my personal computers. I would consider my skill level to be beginning to intermediate.

What other skills do you have that might be applicable? User interface design, other so-called soft skills (people skills), programming, etc.

I study both English and Computer Science at the university level and believe this combination will be useful in the realm of technical writing and documentation. I have good communication and people skills, as well as the desire to enhance my knowledge and understanding of computer systems, technologies, and methodologies.

What makes you an excellent match for the project?

Since my first exposure to Fedora in my software development course, I have been enthusiastic about the Linux community. When I become interested in things I tend to dedicate a great deal of time to learning about them. I will soon be assisting in a university computer science lab which uses machines all running Fedora.

GPG KEYID and fingerprint:

pub   2048R/C9210F3E 2015-08-29 [expires: 2016-08-28]
      Key fingerprint = 153E E876 D9A8 8B66 E04D EEF8 9356 B9E2 C921 0F3E
uid                  Darryl Beckham (Fedora Docs Project) <dabeckham@ucdavis.edu>
sub   2048R/09C41F82 2015-08-29 [expires: 2016-08-28]