Application received from Ramanan Selvaratnam (rama uklinux net)

[GNOME Foundation Membership Committee Script <gnome-membership gnome org>]

Contact Information:
--------------------
Name: Ramanan Selvaratnam
E-mail: rama uklinux net
irc.gnome.org nickname (if any): rama and ram__
cvs.gnome.org username (if any): ram

Previous GNOME Foundation member: no

GNOME contributions:
--------------------

Summary:
1/ GTP

2/ Advocacy

Detailed description:
I am the current maintainer for GTP tamil 'ta'
-- I have been involved with Dinesh Nadarajah, the previous maintainer for 3 years with Tamil translation 
efforts although the amount of strings I have translated or even coordinated is very minimal due to the lack 
of tools and then broken support for Tamil (since strict UTF-8 requirements were introduced)
Pango 1.2.5 changes everything as Tamil support is satisfactory.
I have coordinated efforts to fix Tamil support as above.

I am currently organising the l10n efforts with an aim to use the framework used successfully by the Welsh 
team and on to get that free UCS Tamil font.
l10n to tamil should start soon at Savannah although there is an intermediate project 
[tamilgnome.sf.net]

On the advocacy front I do not want to write another essay but please ask if you need more details. In a 
nutshell, I have not stopped talking to people why they should use free software and GNOME as the desktop. My 
main audience is those who are new to computers and 'IT'. I live in the UK at present and live and move among 
a section of population that is still outside 'IT' empowerment.
I am very active on advocay matters in the Indian Sub continent. 
(eg: If the new enquiry to gnome-i18n list for creation of Urdu team is finalised, I would have played a part 
in it by supporting a query on GNOPPIX devel list)


Also I am working on a distributed proteomics tool for macromolecular data that would use GTK 2+ eventually. 
The user interface is about a year away and the work is part of my postgrad course work so not yet published. 


Contacts:
GTP; Unicode related l10n issues...
Noah Levitt <nlevitt columbia edu>
Carlos Perello Marin <carlos gnome-db org>
Sivaraj Doddannan <sivaraj doddannan intelligroup com>
Sivaraj helped Owen patch the vital 'laft matra' bug in Pango 1.2.4 and 1.2.5

For advocacy matters,
Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>
(might be very busy to answer if you are in a  hurry)
also from recent contacts made...
Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>

Other comments:
---------------
I want to join the foundation to participate in the forthcoming elections. If the application could be 
processed before the relevant dates it will be great. 
I became aware of the elections only today.
Sorry for leaving it till the last minute.

I would like to see the statement 'GNOME is a GNU package' given more recognition ... 

I do wish for this to propagate GNOME based on the high values it stands for, especially in my native 
homeland in the Indian sub continent.
This is very important for me so I will be very interested in GTP and GDP related matters.

Hope you will consider consider my application favourably.
(no, I am aware that this is an application for membership of the foundation not to stand for elections ;-)




[Application received at Sat Oct 25 6:44:11 2003 (Eastern time)]