Jean-Pierre Giraud

I am an archaeologist in Toulouse, France. Bored by the Windows blue screens and insecurity with old systems, I start using Linux since 2001, first Mandrake then Mandriva, using free software whenever it was possible. Around 2006, I switched to Debian, attracted by its well-known stability and security, helped by the wiki and the users's mailing list to resovle WiFi and display issues. I greatly appreciated the social contract and the way the project works. So I wanted to give back to the community and, via the "How you can help Debian", I found a way to contribute despite my limited skills in computing.

At the end of 2011, I reviewed and translated wiki pages to ease access for users who don't speak English: the move to Linux is often found quite difficult and the language should not be an additional barrier. A year latter, I joined the l10n-fr team and started to review translators submissions to the mailing list and in mid-2013, encouraged by Thomas Vincent, I sent my first translations. Since 2014, my involvement in Debian expanded progressively to website pages (security advisories), announcement and DPN with translation first, then editing some section of each release. I work on package descriptions (>7.3K descriptions translated or updated, more than 11K description reviewed) and contribute to the team effort on the manpages translation. I contribute also to the work of the publicity team, editing post for Bits from Debian and Micronews.

Since 2017, I help debian to have booth at Captitole du Libre (Toulouse), and FOSDEM 2023. I attended the Toulouse Mini-Debconf 2017 and Marseille Mini-DebConf Marseille 2019, where I co-organised a French translation team Sprint with Thomas Vincent. To be more involved in the project, I joined Debian France association since 2019, and become Assistant Treasurer in 2022.

In the future, I plan to continue my current tasks and invest more time in publicity team, including coverage of the major events in our community (Debconf, new release,...).