[UbuntuWomen] 1st Annual Ubuntu Women Project "How I discovered Ubuntu." International Women's Day Competition Winners announced

Tue Mar 9 04:46:28 UTC 2010

[insert fig. 1]March 8, 2010  - 1st Annual Ubuntu Women Project "How I
discovered Ubuntu." International Women's Day [1] Competition[Insert
fig 2]

The Competition [2] which was announced back in January, asked women
and girls who use Ubuntu to submit their "How I discovered Ubuntu"
stories. We as a Project acknowledge that there is no one definite
answer to "How do you get women to use Ubuntu?", but wanted a way to
highlight some of the various ways that women become Ubuntu users,
contributors, and developers and at the same time not only have those
stories as examples but also as a growing gift of encouragement and
inspiration to women.

In order for events/competitions to be successful it takes community
participation, and a heart felt thank you to all those who
participated by submitting their personal "How I discovered Ubuntu."
stories, those who took the time to vote, those who helped promote,
and those who supported this initiative as well as offer encouragement
to those might not have submitted their stories otherwise. I am
grateful for everyone involved in the Ubuntu Women Project and greater
Ubuntu Community as a whole who are continually helping to provide
both the platform and encouragement for women to contribute to Ubuntu.

The winners of an awesome prize pack [insert fig 3] are: Elvira
Martinez and Karen Y. Perez with honorable mention going to Jen
Phillips as well. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Here are there stories:

***Elvira Martinez "tatica1" ***

Today my Honduran team mate Diego Turcios shared with me this link to
Amber’s blog that excited me to finally write about how I met Ubuntu.
I wanted to share this a while ago but I feel motivated about doing it
through Ubuntu-women and not just for the sole interest in
participating in the contest. I think it will be very interesting to
hear how other women became interested in Ubuntu and others may be
interested in my experience, specially considering that I am not the
“computer girl” precisely.

After nearly 20 years after my high school graduation in Colombia
Lycée Français Paul Valery, I found again one of my classmates through
Facebook (I guess) Fabian Rodriguez known as MagicFab who after asking
him what he was doing today, he mentioned Ubuntu as part of his
activities. And I say activities, because Ubuntu is much more than an
operating system.

I’ve always liked the world of computer science and unfortunately that
was not what I studied, but I learned on my own how to manage, fix,
clean my home machines. I could say that the world of computers is my
passion and when Fabian told me about this, I knew it was no fluke.

I remember the first thing I said was: Ubuntu what?? How do you eat
that?? And then after a brief speach about it and some information he
sent to me to read on the subject, dropped his usual phrase, “If you
want to install it, I can help you do it now”. Well, two days later, I
was harrassing Fabian to help me install Ubuntu after a bunch of
questions I had.

Some of my concerns were:

1. If I would be able to use MSN and Skype with camera and audio included.

2. My biggest question was if I could run iTunes on the computer (tool
my daughters and my husband use).

3. If Windows had to be removed to use Ubuntu.

4. If I’ll have Office, PowerPoint or Excel with Ubuntu also and if
so, would be so easy to use as those.

5. If I was going to be able to install Ubuntu alone, long distance
with Fabian’s instructions.

Well, the day I gave a YES myself to Ubuntu, began with a phone call
from Fabian from Canada. After downloading into my own computer some
files, we start by checking whether they were good and then install
it. I remember Fabian told me, don’t install it yet first test it.
Then after his explanations that I could partition the computer and
leave Windows intact but also have Ubuntu too I said “Let’s do it and
install it now”. And so it was, on the phone, with his help, that I
installed for the first time in one of my computers Hardy 8.04 and
some months later in another Ubuntu 8.10.

When he finally said, “Take a last click and you’re done, finished,” I
could not believe it!! First, I had allowed to risk to install another
operating system on my computer and two, that I had done through
instructions by telephone. That meant that it could be do so easily!
That’s how my story began with Ubuntu in June 2008 : D

Months later I bought an Acer Aspire One that came with Linpus and my
next challenge was to install Ubuntu on it. It was a laptop (and not a
desktop) and needed a version for netbooks so I tried first to fight
with LPIA platform with which I ended up frustrated because after
installing it did not work and gave me error. Then it was new to me to
download an ISO file to my laptop and also install it throught a USB.
I think it was two weeks without my computer, sweating and suffering,
but with some help of several friends of the Honduran community I
finally had Ubuntu on my Acer. I remember I installed 8.10 version
which gave me enough slow problems on my laptop, but when I upgraded
to 9.10, I was sooo happy;)

>From Ubuntu, I further research, looking and learning how to move in
the Ubuntu world. As part of that and then again by MagicFab’s
suggestions I learned how to participate via IRC in different
communities, to tell my experiences with applications in Ubuntu, I
dared to start my own blog for the first time telling my experience
with the Ubuntu Desktop Course (elearning), learned to use my blog as
a tool through which I can inform others about Ubuntu, participating
in lists of the communities I belong and learned how to handle wiki,
blueprint and documentation pages to share information to others.

Today I am part of the community and am in several team where I hope
to be able to support as I learn from everyone’s experiences too. I am
a member in the communities of Ubuntu Honduras, Colombia, Women,
Guatemala and El Salvador. Almost daily I am present in IRC channels
of Honduras, Colombia and Women getting feedback and contributing
wherever I can. I still can not work actively participate in all these
media but try to do when I feel more confident about the subject.
English is my third language, so I am kind of shy in the ubuntu-women
channel.

Today I know that there is Free Software and Ubuntu exists there with
all its benefits over other systems. I also know that although I did
not study computers, I can handle and learn thousands of things about
it and help knowing others that will benefit too.

Today I belong and work hand by hand with others in the Honduras
Ubuntu community, promoting Ubuntu in the country, mostly in San Pedro
Sula where I currently reside. With the support Fabian gave me, I
revived the group that was practically abandoned and we are trying
again today to show people of Honduras that Ubuntu is the best choice
when it comes to choosing an operating system. Every day I try to
learn more and see how I can support other Ubuntu users here and
elsewhere. I am very excited to be part of this team and I love to
learn and collaborate with this good cause;)

Since I started being part of this community, I had the opportunity to
share with others from other distros like Fedora or Debian. There is
little that I have experienced them, but for now I’m only interested
in Ubuntu.

My name is Elvira Martinez or tatica1 as I I’m known in the community
and my main challenge is to convince my daughters and my husband that
Ubuntu is the best choice when we talk about operating systems.

***Karen Y. Perez***

When I was a little girl i saw my dad studying computer science to
eventually working on projects. Like most little girls I admire my dad
more than anyone in the world and I always tried to be just like him.
I read many books like him, I begged for my own laptop and fell in
love with space. Since then my passion for science, math and
technology developed. There were moments where I loved chemistry more
than physics and times where math was better than astronomy. But, my
passion for computers never faded once. Each year I pleaded my dad to
teach me how to program because his code was like a puzzle i need to
understand. So, every so often he would teach me bits and pieces but
only enough to keep my curiosity afloat and have me do my own
research. One day I stumbled across one of my dad's Unix books in his
library. I didn't really understand much at the time so I tried my
very best to read it and eventually I did some research on-line. While
doing my research I read about Linux and I saw what the open source
revolution was all about. I taught myself as much as I could and I
decided to convert my laptop to Linux for the first time in '09.
Ubuntu has helped me with my studies in computer science and helped me
stay open to new things of course including technologies. The last
thing a geek needs is to not want to explore outside of the box. I
guess you can say I'm a self pro-claimed fem-geek and I couldn't
imagine life any other way. Although, I am no professional yet I do
try to talk to other girls and show them how great of an experience
using Linux Ubuntu is as well as many other great "geeky"
technologies. I hope to one day show young girls that there is more to
life than fashion. That you can be as "fashionable" as Barbie and yet
be an astronaut.

***Jen Phillips***

Learning to Fly

Some years ago, I used to travel everywhere by bus. The company that
ran it was called Microsoft, and I used the Number 3.1. It generally
got me where I needed to be, but it took a bit of an odd route to get
there, and it would often stop at seemingly random points. If I
fancied a change, I could take my walkman, or a book. It wasn't the
most comfortable ride, but it did ok, and I was used to it. After a
while, the company decided to upgrade all their busses and change all
the routes - and put the fares up. I went onto the Number 95, and
everything looked nice and shiny, although I missed my stop a couple
of times because I wasn't used to the route. After a while I realised
that although the route didn't take the same detours, it took new
ones, so I didn't really get where I was going any faster. The busses
all seemed to get a bit dingy after a while, too. Still, I had my CD
walkman, and it became familiar again.

Eventually, I took the plunge, and got a car. I loved the freedom - I
could go where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go. I wasn't
constrained by having to have the right money, and I didn't have to
stop for the sake of everyone else. It was a SuSE, and it was mine and
I loved it. Except, any time anything went wrong I had to ask for
help. When the radio stopped working, I had to get someone else to fix
it. If i couldn't find a particular stick or button, I had to get
someone to show me where it was. It also wouldn't play any of my old
CDs. In short, it was frustrating. I tried a couple of other cars, but
they weren't any better. I took ages getting my Debian to even start,
and somehow had a knack for stalling it before I got to the end of the
street. Eventually, I gave up and went back to the bus - the XP route
now had air conditioning and contoured seats, and I could cope with
the delays (and occasional breakdowns) because it did tend to get me
there in the end.

Then one day, something quite miraculous happened: someone gave me a
pair of wings. In only a couple of lessons, I was flying! I no longer
have to wait for the bus, and I don't need a mechanic to come and
rescue me any more. If I want different music, I can just pick up a
media player and set it going. If I want to dye my wings a different
colour, that's easy too. I decide which route to take - I'm not even
limited by roads any more. The best thing is that flying feels so
natural - like walking only better. I call these wings "Ubuntu".

These story submissions along with all the others are available on the
Ubuntu Women Project wiki pages [3].

Without the efforts of Ubuntu Women Project team member, Melissa
Draper, the competition may have never made it to the community, the
time and talent she personally put into this competition by drafting
the competition as well as writing the voting submission application
was awesome! - Thanks Melissa!

It is also important to say thank you to the sponsors of this
competition, Rikki Kite, Associate Publisher, Linux Pro [4] and Ubuntu
User [5] Magazines, for donating Linux Pro or Ubuntu User Magazine
subscriptions (choice of one per winner), to Canonical [6] for
donating the Ubuntu Backpacks, notebooks, pens, lanyards, pins and
T-shirts, at last but not least to Jono Bacon for making the
announcement of the winners as well as for copies of Art of Community
[7].

Again, Congratulations to the winners of the prize packs as well as
all those who submitted your person Ubuntu discovery stories.  I can't
wait to read the submissions for the 2nd Annual Ubuntu Women Project
"How I discovered Ubuntu." International Women's Day Competition, so
mark your calendars and work on YOUR personal discovery of Ubuntu to
help celebrate 100 years of International Women's Day. [8]

REMINDER: If you or someone you know would like to find out more
information about the Ubuntu Women Project there are several ways to
do so - website [9], mailing list[10], IRC channel(s) [11], [12], and
Ubuntu Women Forums [13]

[fig 1, attachment 1] International Women's Day Logo  - located at -
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/linkto.asp
[fig 2, attachment 2] Ubuntu Women Logo -
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~troy-sobotka/+junk/ubuntu-women-identity/files
- lic agreement -
http://www.ubuntu-women.org/ubuntu-women-identity/LICENSE.html
[fig 3, attachment 3] - Image of Prize pack contents

[1] - International Women's Day website - http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
[2] - Ubuntu Women Mailing Competition Announcement
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-women/2010-January/002406.html
[3] - How I discovered Ubuntu wiki page -
http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/InternationalWomensDay/HowIDiscoveredUbuntu
[4] - Linux Pro Media Website - http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/
[5] - Ubuntu User Website - http://www.ubuntu-user.com/
[6] - Canonial, Ltd website - http://www.canonical.com/
[7] - Art of Community website - http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/
[8] - International Women's Day 2011 -
http://internationalwomensday.com/centenary.asp
[9] - Ubuntu Women Website - http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/Home
[10] - Ubuntu Women Mailing List -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-Women
[11] - Ubuntu Women IRC Channel #ubuntu-women on freenode [dot] net
[12] - Ubuntu Women IRC Channel #ubuntu-women-project on freenode [dot] net
[13] - Ubuntu Women Forum - http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=76

-- 
Amber Graner//akgraner//
http://amber.redvoodoo.org/
http://www.ubuntu-user.com/Online/Blogs/Amber-Graner-You-in-Ubuntu

Just me Amber.

There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but
only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is.
Linus Torvalds
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