[Linux-aus] FOSS Tools In Graphic Design

[Alec Sloman]

Hi everyone,

This is my first message to your mailing list, so please let me start with
a brief introduction.

My name is Alec Sloman. I'm 27, a recent first-time father, and a resident
of Melbourne, Australia. I started with Cocoa applications, and gradually
moved into web development. In the last few years, I've moved towards
infrastructure which is where I first encountered Linux as a day-to-day. My
main personal interest is in OpenStack, but in general, I love FOSS and
believe that it's the most compelling implementation of a freedom-centric
philosophy in the world today. I could be wrong on that. I'm still pretty
green when it comes to the wider community, but am eager to get involved.

Currently I work at 99designs in Melbourne, Australia. My position is
"Developer Advocate" which is essentially a "culture champion". I organize
meetups, write blog posts, and do professional development for our
technical team of 50+. Currently I'm the only dev who uses Linux on their
desktop (Mint 15 with i3). I'm writing some provisioning scripts to make it
easy for devs to get a working virtual environment with a Linux as the host
machine. Hopefully I can get these people off Apple's evil teat. I think
everyone would be happier and more productive.

I have a very specific reason for joining this group. Three weeks ago we
moved into an amazing new office right next to Richmond station with a
large presentation stage and multimedia equipment. I have a free mandate to
put on technical events and I now have the chance to share this space with
the FOSS community in Australia.

In particular, I am interested in organizing an event(s) along the lines of
"Open Source Tools for Designers" with an emphasis on GIMP, Blender, etc.
We have a sizeable community of designers from all across the world who
pretty much all have pirated copies of Photoshop and it occurs to me that
they could be a) using and b) contributing to free tools instead.

But I am not limiting discussion to design tools. Our tech team is
generally pretty darn good and organize a number of events already.
Actually, here's one that's coming up early in January for infrastructure
coders:

http://www.meetup.com/Infrastructure-Coders/

More generally, I want to start a discussion with fellow FOSS enthusiasts
about how we might use this space to do some good. This mailing list seemed
like a good place to start. I was referred to you from this thread on
Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1sac1c/any_expert_users_of_gimp_out_there/cdw6475

Any thoughts? I'd love to work with you guys!

Regards,
-- 
*ALEC SLOMAN*
*Developer Advocate*

*E *alec.sloman at 99designs.com
*99designs.com <http://99designs.com/>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/attachments/20131220/5ab87fb1/attachment.htm