GNOME User Groups / Web site

[Steven Mautone <steven inverted com>]

GNOME Marketing,

My name is Steven Mautone, and I am a Web designer/developer located in Miami, Florida, USA. I recently began speaking to the User Groups team (gugmasters-list) about helping to build a United States based GNOME user group... specifically in the Miami area.

Upon speaking with the User Group team it became evident that my skills and resources are best focused on Web development. Brian Cameron suggested that I get in contact with the Marketing team in order to see if there was any overlap.

Here is what I've recently discussed with the User Group team:

• I am a Web designer based in Miami, Florida, USA. 
• I have not been previously involved with GNOME, but am an avid Linux user and have been using the GNOME desktop for many years. I am extremely excited about the new changes present in GNOME3 and the future of the project.
• I have presented at many conferences; most recently I gave a presentation about WordPress for Mobile at the WordCamp Miami Conference. I am a huge proponent of open source software and would love to be a GNOME evangelist! I am a core member of the Lucid Desktop open source project (http://www.lucid-desktop.org). We based the design of version 1 of the Lucid system on the GNOME interface, but have restructured version 2 for a more Web friendly UI.
• I have lectured at the University of Miami and have a strong talent for training teams and developing a group of contributors. My linkedin profile is: http://www.linkedin/com/in/stevenmautone
• By creating a GNOME-MIA (GNOME Miami) user group I hope to expand the GNOME user-base to my local community. I actually notice that there is no GNOME-USA user group! Maybe it's best to start there, so that there is a proper structure in the United States community. My vision would be to build an online community (Web-based) that would allow users to post screenshots of their customized desktops, questions about using GNOME, and general how-tos and what's coming articles. I would want to foster gnome-usa.org (or a similar domain) into a flourishing community. I maintain the Web servers and design resources necessary to handle this type of Web project and would love to contribute to GNOME with what I do best. I believe that by creating gnome-usa.org, we can utilize sub-groups within the community in order to properly build smaller, localized communities. I can build a solid site on WordPress (as I see gnome is now using WordPress for the main project site), and BuddyPress can be used to allow users to manage their own space within the community. We can even allow event registration through the site to help organize local meetups.
• 5 years from now I would hope to build gnome-usa.org into a vibrant community of users who love GNOME and love helping each other learn new features of the desktop.

Brian also noted that the Friends of GNOME site (gnome.org/friends) is not functioning. I'd love to help get this site working if my WordPress skills can be of assistance.

Thank you and best regards,

Steven Mautone

steven inverted com

http://www.inverted.com

(917) 512-9694