Category: Interviews

Today we’re talking to Jwtiyar Ali, who is helping to localise LibreOffice into Kurdish…

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hey! I live in the Kurdistan region, in the north of Iraq – the city of Sulaymaniyah. I have an MSc in Physics, but I love computer science too. Currently I am working in the Cement Quality Control Department at a cement factory, as a physicist.

I do translations for many open source projects such as Ubuntu, Gimp, Firefox etc., leading these translation projects. My hobbies are following new open source projects and seeing how they can be more competitive. I also like football, walking, and reading Python programming courses in my free time.

What are the opportunities and challenges for promoting/using free software and LibreOffice in your region?

In my country, promoting open source apps and systems is a very big challenge because most people – maybe 90% – use proprietary apps, because they don’t hear about or know about open source alternatives.

So we in the team at www.chawg.org decided to make a website to introduce many open source projects. We created a wiki platform and a forum for that reason – and now we have Facebook groups and pages.

In my opinion, an opportunity is to provide users with more guides, and make a comparison between LibreOffice with other apps. Show users what LibreOffice can do that others apps can’t. Also, show people that LibreOffice can do the same things – or even more – with their daily work, and send them articles to educate them about the software.

What are you doing in the LibreOffice project right now?

I am translating LibreOffice. I hope to see LibreOffice in my language – that would be perfect. Also, it would help users to interact with LibreOffice more often than before.

How did you get involved in LibreOffice, and what was the experience like?

My love for open source projects made me engage with LibreOffice and the big community behind it. Being in the community made me feel that I wasn’t working in a specific part of the world – but people around the world can benefit from what I do.

The experience was amazing, because I didn’t know beforehand that we have a great app like LibreOffice.

Anything else you want to add?

I want to thank everyone who helped me to join this great community. My passion for LibreOffice has no borders, and I hope to see other open source projects grow faster than ever. The best part of the community is that we all trust in open source and teamwork.

Thesedays, I am promoting LibreOffice to my colleagues and friends. Also, I help them to fix any problems that they may face it during installing or when using the suite.

Thanks to Jwtiyar for all his contributions! Our native language communities are always open for more help – so if you want LibreOffice and its website localised in your language, give us a hand!

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hi! I live in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and work remotely on PT Sakti Kinerja Kolaborasindo (the office is in Bogor, West Java) as UI and Graphic Designer. Aside from being an active member of the Indonesian LibreOffice community, I am also one of the founders of the Gimpscape ID community (a design community focused on open source applications). Regarding hobbies – hmm, I have an interest in ancient manuscripts (Malay manuscripts), Kamen Rider, and really always enjoy detective, mystery, adventure, and comedy-themed drama films.

You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and Telegram.

Why did you decide to become a member of The Document Foundation?

The first reason is, because Ahmad Haris (he’s my boss in the office) “sudo’d” me to apply for membership 🙂 But to be honest, I was indeed very interested in becoming a member since the LibreOffice Conference Indonesia in Surabaya about two years ago.

By becoming a member, I think I can do things related to contributing to LibreOffice better than before. Being a member is a responsibility, in my opinion. Because it means I have to do my best from time to time for the LibreOffice community, both in Indonesia and outside. LibreOffice will get better if the community ecosystem is also good. Well, one of the tasks of members (in my mind) is to ensure that these communities can actively give feedback to LibreOffice, so that they can grow and develop better.

What are you working on right now?

At the moment I am still improving the LibreOffice Theme Changer extension (which I presented some time ago at FOSDEM), occasionally helping with translations, QA, managing Indonesian LibreOffice social media (Instagram, Twitter, and the blog), and inviting community members to learn how to be active contributors. For example, I invited two female members to work on two sets of icons named that we named Srikandi and LibreKids. Making these two icons is a form of learning to contribute to LibreOffice in terms of design.

When there isn’t too much work (both at office or at the university), I usually take time to create a video tutorial related to LibreOffice or other FOSS that I upload on my YouTube channel.

In addition, I and many other Asians (Haris, Frank, Shinji, Naruhiko, DaeHyun, and others) are currently spreading the spirit of Open Document format in the Asian region, through the LibreOffice Asia League.

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

I really wanted to realize the LibreOffice for Kids task with Marina Latini – I heard she was one of the people who was also working on this topic. One of the reasons why LibreOffice is still less popular in Indonesia, compared to similar applications, is this: since elementary school, children have already been introduced to proprietary office applications.

I know that change cannot happen overnight, but if it does not start from now it will not happen for a thousand years. Therefore, with the presence of LibreOffice for Kids, I personally hope that this will be the first step to make next generation more familiar with LibreOffice.

One more thing, and with all respect and thanks to all LibreOffice developers: I think LibreOffice needs a team of marketing volunteers who can compare LibreOffice in order to compete with others. LibreOffice has great features that are very powerful, but it will be useless if not many people know about it. Short infographics or interesting videos about features, or working on a task with LibreOffice, will help a lot.

However, it should be underlined, that to be able to do this community support is needed, because it is the community that makes LibreOffice really what it is.

Indeed, as Rania says, everyone is welcome to join our community and help to make LibreOffice even stronger. See what you can do for LibreOffice – we look forward to meeting you!

Today we’re talking to Marco Marinello from the Italian LibreOffice community, who recently became a member of The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in Bolzano, which is a small city in the northernmost part of Italy. My main interests are robotics and computer technology. In my spare time I often enjoy going for a ride with the bike, which I use almost every day to get around. In the summer I spend my holidays sailing with my family and some friends.

Why did you decide to become a member of TDF?

During SFScon – the Free Software Conference in Bolzano – I met Marina Latini, former Chairperson of the Board. We talked about the work I did on LibreOffice Online, and she encouraged me to send the application and become a member of TDF.

I share the values of TDF, and I love working on something that’s useful for everyone.

What exactly are you working on right now?

Mostly, I’m working on the documentation for LibreOffice Online, but I’m even submitting some changes. Documenting features that have already been implemented well is the first goal which I have set myself.

Anything else you plan to do in the future?

If I became more skilled in C++, I would like to get more involved with developing LibreOffice. I think a solid and compact group of members who really care about the product and the strategies is the strength of TDF.

Thanks to Marco for all his contributions! Everyone is welcome to join our friendly community, develop skills and meet new people. We look forward to meeting you!

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!

Members of The Document Foundation – the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice – help to steer the project, vote for the Board of Directors, and spread the word. Today we’re talking to Leif-Jöran Olsson, who has recently become a member of TDF…

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

I am from beautiful Sweden, more precisely from the land of deep forests and white rivers in the middle of the country.

I work as a research engineer and IT operations supervisor at the Swedish Language Bank (a language technology research institute) daytime. I also run the consultancy company Frirogramvarusyndikatet.se, which among other things provides IT admin to TDF, and is a Collabora Productivity partner.

I am soon to become a grandfather for the first time. So, exciting times ahead.

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

Translations are ongoing, and the review of the grammar and spell checking infrastructure is running since last year. But the largest contribution in time and effort is the current work on a LibreOffice Online-based Sailfish OS app (like the ones for Android and iOS).

Why did you decide to become a member of TDF?

After promoting LibreOffice for many years, we decided to do a significant push for LibreOffice Online in late 2016. And since we from that time also provided IT admin services to TDF, I have been hanging around at hackfests etc.

But since the membership obligations are more towards personal contributions, I did not feel that I contributed enough to become a member. So in addition to becoming a Collabora Productivity partner at the FOSDEM hackfest 2018, I started to think about what I could do as personal contributions.

Since I work with language technology, I prepared for a review of the grammar and spell checking infrastructure in LibreOffice. In the dark ages I actually did a Swedish dictionary extension for the release of OpenOffice 3 with the new packaging format. I also started to contribute to the Swedish translations of LibreOffice. This is something I also do for other projects like Nextcloud, OTRS, SailfishOS, Matomo etc.

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

I will also try to get closer to the standardisation and evolvement of the Open Document Format specification, since I have experience from SIS the Swedish part of ISO. In addition, as an eXist-db core developer, XML is close to my heart.

We need to get closer to valuing/counting all contributions equally. I felt the translations were not counted as real contributions in the way code is (and I say this with a free software coding experience of 25+ years). This makes me a bit sad that we are not ahead of other projects in this aspect. But let us start changing this with the very positive 10/20 years celebrations with a grand Fest Noz now. Kenavo / på återseende!

Thanks to Leif for all his contributions! And to anyone else reading this who’s involved in the LibreOffice project and community, consider becoming a member: