We Are Everywhere You Need

When I’ve heard that Fedora contributors will be present also in Tibet for localization I was very amazed!

Who could have taken care about Translations? Who contacted the Project for this?

In my “European” thoughts (maybe the same of the most of you), I believed that in the Tibetan Community there was no “IT” or any other type of connection with the world.

Personally I hear news from Tibet almost exclusively in TV or reading the newspapers (either web and printed).

So, how could our project get in contact with Tibetan Groups loving Fedora?

I have deepened the news, and discovered two people well known by me:

Joerg Simon

Fabian Affolter

About Joerg Simon I only can say beautiful things; he was the Mentor which followed my first steps into the project. He gave me the right idea of the Project and he’s known for his commitment in everything he does.

I met Fabian Affolter last year while we attended at FAD EMEA in Rheinfelden. He is a very peaceful guy, with clear ideas and he’s involved in many parts of the Project.

Well, these two guys provided the ground to build up a Tibetan group of Fedora Contributors. Travelling to Dharamsala wasn’t that easy, listen to Joerg & Fabian:

Gabri (Q): How was the travel to Tibet?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “Even if we saw the foothills of the Himalayas – our trip wasnÂ´t going to Tibet – we traveled to Dharamsala in India – here is the residence of the Dalai Lama, living in exile – and the headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan exile government and a large tibetan community. The Trip itself was surely an adventure – especially going to Dharamsala by car during the monsoon 😛 The People we met are open-hearted, caring, eager to learn and smart. It was a very personal experience, far beyond any other foss activity i have made so far and i want to keep the most of it private. See some pics instead. Back in Delhi we also had the opportunity to present Fedora and ISECOM to the local null community – an opportunity to follow up on my talk in Delhi last year where i couldn`t finish the presentation, because i was running out of time you can find the summary-report here“

That’s what a man have to do for FOSS, each Ambassador should consider going toward the users. Linking a wiki page or giving the way to do things is not even enough.

Sometimes seeing our work and passion get the people involved more easier than a cold mailing list or a chat.

Gabri (Q): How do you became aware of the Tibetan translators?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “Joerg met people from the Central Tibetan Administration during his trip to nullcon Delhi last year – Joerg was especially impressed by a young tibetan programmer who proudly presented him a tibetan onscreen-keyboard for Fedora â€“ and if you read carefully, you will also find a hint here “

This likely happens to most of Ambassador, sometimes something special happens and we may take care of this.

I was interested also to know something about Tibet contributors, related to Fedora and to themselves.

Gabri (Q): How is the Fedora knowledge in Tibet?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “I do not know how the situation is in Tibet itself – but for the tibetans living in exile itÂ´s a well used OS – as long as we speak about the younger generation which is interested in technology.”

Gabri (Q): what means for Fedora having Tibet contributors?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “Starting with the Fedora-Project surely supports a good membership experience because we are a very welcoming community – but for us the first and most important thing was, enable and teach some of the tibetan people how to contribute to the foss eco system in general and use it as a opportunity to bring their goals and ideas to live in the foss eco system.”

Here Joerg & Fabian are making an analisys about the situation there.

The first goal is bring up people to FOSS and they’re right; this is a long term vision of involvement that will keep people within the FOSS border and, hopefully, into the Fedora ones.

In fact:

Gabri (Q): Are there any other help for getting Tibetan contributors more active, also in other groups?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “Localization seems a way to start and enable others and to scale up with a larger community effort. I always believed in Fedora as a global effort and i was not always happy with our regional-leadership approach in the past – therefore i think FLOCK was one step in the right direction to share and learn across boarders – even if i could not attend. ItÂ´s not only limited to the Fedora Project, just a starting point to go upstream. I hope we see also tibetan contributors upstream soon and in other groups. And because HW sometimes a bit older and slower here in Dharamsala – maybe we will see a tibetan lightweight desktop distribution sooner or later.”

Gabri (Q): How far Tibetan contributors can go whitin the Project?

Joerg & Fabian (A): “there are no limits â€“ from the FOSS point of view”

Yeah! This is what I love hear: no limits! LetÂ´s hope that limitations are not put up by some other vectors outside the FOSS Eco System.

At least I would love to point out a reflections that Fabian wrote in his blog:

“Well, India and especially Dharamsala was a nice experience and it shows me a different world. Not everywhere around the globe the same resources – like decent hardware, internet access, or stable wireless connections – are available. We as Fedora, one of the big open source projects, should keep that always in mind.”

Joerg Simon

Fabian Affolter

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Chris Roberts

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