Lisa Baron

I’m a qualified librarian, currently based in the Middle East - I had the opportunity and thought it would be a great way to experience a very different culture to my own.

I first became aware of free software in the early days of Koha, an open source integrated library system, but have always worked in environments were commercial systems are the preferred option. I became more aware of the all the effort that goes into free software work via adsb after he started contributing to Debian and then became a DD back in 2008.

I first met the Debian UK community in 2008 and soon found them to be warm and welcoming, something that was reinforced by the wider international Debian community at my first DebConf (DC10) in 2010. After causing much hilarity in a hack lack by installing Frozen Bubble on an Apple Mac - it took 2 hours and I had to register as an Apple Developer - I realised this was a community that I had a lot in common with and would like to be a member of but wasn’t certain how due to a distinct lack of technical skills and know how and feeling more of a hanger-on.

After a couple of shifts helping at the DC12 Front desk in Nicaragua I joined the main DebConf Front Desk team, headed by nattie, at DC14 in Portland. This was a fabulous thing to do and I thoroughly enjoyed repeating the experience at DC15 and DC16. It allows me to use my skills to benefit the project particularly that I may not know how to answer your question but I will find an answer and if I can’t I’ll find someone who can. Also, if I am at the Front Desk it allows a conference attendee to go to the talks and participate in discussions to further the project.

Separately I have a pretty good understanding of the Release process from witnessing various releases over the past 8 years and general exposure to the project. A couple of my suggestions made it into the DC15 release team talk.

I’d like to contribute more to the project through becoming part of the the wider ‘enabling’ aspect of the Debian community. To me this involves working on non-technical aspects of the project and using my skills to enable members who are more technically minded to do the technical stuff. This covers a range of things from ensuring procedures are followed correctly to becoming more involved with DebConf beyond Front Desk and everything in between. Though I have to confess that I really enjoy being on Front Desk particularly meeting everyone and helping to make their DebConf experience as good as it can be.