Community Member Monday: Stanislaus J. Pinasthika

Today we’re talking to Stanislaus J. Pinasthika from the Indonesian LibreOffice community. He has recently become a member of The Document Foundation, helping to guide the LibreOffice project and community…

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

Let me tell you a story: Jember was a quiet city. No many cafes at the time. One day, in the beautiful morning, a boy was born. He was named Stanislaus Jiwandana Pinasthika – but his parents called typically called him Stanis. Twenty two years later, this boy graduated from the Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computer Science, at the University of Jember…

Today, I am struggling to start my masters degree in Computer Science at Gadjah Mada University. I like to design things using Inkscape, such as vector graphics, cartoons etc. You can see my work here. But I also love to contribute to open source projects.

For instance, I made a Linux Community in Jember with my friends – Sofyan Sugianto is one of them. He is also a member of TDF. My contributions to LibreOffice started with translating – at the time still using Pootle. Now, I am glad to be a proud member of TDF and the LibreOffice Quality Assurance (QA) team.

Why did you decide to become a member of TDF?

After one year of contributing to translations and joining the QA team, Ahmad Haris suggested that all of the Indonesian contributors fill in the membership application form. I thought: becoming a TDF member is more challenging for me, so I took the chance. I am very grateful that my application has been accepted.

What are you working on in the LibreOffice project right now?

In the QA community, we make sure that all reports are clarified as bugs or not, so that these reports help to improve the quality of LibreOffice. I also give a hand with translating into Bahasa Indonesia. But, QA is my first priority.

Anything else you plan to do in the future? What does LibreOffice
really need?

My plans are around social aspects, and marketing LibreOffice. Indonesians often know Microsoft Office as well as their neighbour’s business. But sometimes, when they cannot buy a licence, they get a cracked version. So it’s a pity that they don’t yet know about the powerful alternative, LibreOffice.

So, I think LibreOffice really needs more marketing, publications, and promotion to increase its popularity in developing countries.

Thanks to Stanislaus for his great work! Everyone is welcome to join our friendly worldwide community – you don’t need to be a developer. You can help out in marketing, design, documentation, translations and more. Build up skills, have fun, and see what you can do for LibreOffice!