[Sussex] Thoughts On Contrubuting to the Community

[Gavin Stevens]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:57:28 +0100
Steve Dobbo Dobson <steve at dobson.org> wrote:

> So here is your homework from me.  You MUST reply to this email saying
> how you contribute, how you pay your dues, for using Linux.  There are
> 
> no exceptions, no excuses, and a reasonable time limit.  You can take
> until the next moot to answer.  Because I'm sure we'll want to talk
> more about it then.  But answer you should.  That's my EULA on this
> posting and all my future posting too:  To make use of the knowledge
> that I impart you must be a contributer too.

Very disappointed to have to miss the moot last night - had to stay at
work & just wanted to go home by the time I finished.

So, here's my "homework":

I'm not a programmer, just an ordinary user who got fed up with Windows
a long time ago. I switched to Debian & always liked the idea of "share
& share alike". Obviously, I can't write code & this used to bother me,
but I do have other skills - I have been a piano teacher & music
lecturer either full or part-time for years & I have good communication
skills - I'm not afraid to stand up in front of a group of people & talk
(if you can talk at our moots, you can talk anywhere :-)). I have a good
gift of being able to explain things clearly & in a way that beginners
can understand. This is an essential skill for a piano teacher with a
new student.

I try to utilise this skill when I talk about my experiences with Linux
& the apps that I have used. These talks are sometimes fairly simple but
I am always surprised at the apparent breadth of their appeal: I was
overjoyed when Dominic mentioned at last month's moot that he tried Qemu
on the basis of an introductory talk I gave last year that did little
more than say "hey, look what I've been playing with - it's fun - here
are some basic commands that will make it work for you - I hope you have
fun with it too".

My knowledge deepens not only through the questions I ask, but also
(probably even more so) through the answers I give.

My "mission" - the guiding force in me trying to make my contribution to
the community - is to offer the opportunity to use Linux to the
"ordinary" user - or anyone else for that matter.

This is my practical effort at contributing. I often think about
financial contributions but where would I start - there are so many
different projects that make up the complete OS?

Gavin.