Self-Introduction

[David Nalley]

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 8:38 PM, Tom Deering <tomdeering7 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Fedora Docs Project!
>
> My name is Tom Deering, and I am a senior in Computer Engineering at Iowa
> State University. In two years I will have my masters degree in the Software
> Systems field of CprE. I have always been infatuated with Linux and open
> source software; however, about two months ago I made the permanent switch
> to Fedora 12 and fell in love! I am seeking a way to give back to the great
> project that has given so much to me.
>
> I also enjoy programming; I have extensive C and Java experience.  While I
> feel I would be a natural fit for an OS developer position as well, I feel
> that documentation is potentially where I can do the most good, at least
> initially. In my opinion, documentation and user-friendliness is what it is
> going to take to increase the popularity of any Linux distribution. Since
> this is my first step as a contributor to an open source project,
> documentation may also be an easier transition than diving into coding right
> away.
>
> I have always been an excellent writer. I have had three English classes
> while at ISU, including a technical writing class. I have had to write many
> lab reports, instruction sets, technical documents, etc. I feel that I could
> bring these strengths to the Docs Project.
>
> Since I do not know where I may be needed, I would appreciate feedback from
> interested groups. Meanwhile I have joined the docs and docs-commits mailing
> lists so I can begin learning your task flow.  My GPG fingerprint is below.
> Please let me know if there are any other steps I need to take to join the
> community. I look forward to working with all of you!
>
> [root at tom-pc Downloads]# gpg --fingerprint 64455EA2
> pub   4096R/F0B5BB51 2010-04-05 Tom Deering (Fedora Contributor)
> <tomdeering7 at gmail.com>
> Key fingerprint = 0877 EB2A 853B FBCF 16EC  0175 D4C9 9608 F0B5
> BB51
> sub   4096R/64455EA2 2010-04-05
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom Deering
> Senior, Computer Engineering
> Iowa State University


Hi Tom:

Welcome to the group. Sorry for the lag in response you've experienced.
You've jumped in at one of the busiest times in the release cycle,
right about the time that the Beta release comes out.
We have meetings[1] on IRC at 2300 UTC (7pm Eastern) in
#fedora-meeting on irc.freenode.net every Wednesday. Please join us
for the next one.

We have a ton of work to do - essentially at this point we've got a
number of guides that need some rewriting for new content for Fedora
13 release on May 18. Among those are that are pretty to easy to jump
in and get started are the Installation Quick Start Guide[2] and the
User Guide[3].

I realize it's a pretty heady experience to immediately jump into, so
if you need help feel free to ask for it in #fedora-docs (someone is
there almost 24/7.) or on the mailing list. Feel free to find me
(ke4qqq) or just ask around if I am not near my irc session, there are
plenty of helpful people in docs.

I just did a quick, albeit naive, search for your name in the Fedora
Account System and didn't see an account for you. If I missed it, feel
free to let me know your FAS account name and I'll get you approved
for the Docs group, otherwise you'll need to create an account and
sign the CLA[4][5] and apply to join the Docs group. If you need help
here, please let me know.

While you're at it, you may want to seek out John Rose who is both a
staff member at Iowa State and a seasoned Fedora contributor.

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs_Project_meetings
[2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ke4qqq/F13IQSGTasks
[3] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Laubersm/F13_UG_Update_Checklist
[4] https://admin.fedoraproject.org/accounts/
[5] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/AccountSystem

Thanks,

David Nalley