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About me
I'm 30 years old, and I live in sunny Cairo Egypt. When most people hear Egypt, they think of pyramids and people riding camels. Sorry to disappoint, but I have never ridden one 
I am a Canonical employee and an Ubuntu enthusiastic contributor. I come from a systems-engineering background, I had worked as a professional services engineer servicing RedHat in the middle-east, and the last couple of years was involved building a next generation cloud computing platform, that ended up being acquired by Sun Microsystems. I have been a Linux user since 1999. I've used almost all major distros and have settled on Ubuntu that has won my heart!
I am the Ubuntu cloud community liaison. That means I get the Ubuntu community excited about "cloud". This includes mostly running Ubuntu server in a cloud such as Amazon's EC2, or the Rackspace cloud. It also includes people building their own private in-house cloud computing platforms using Ubuntu server and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud UEC. I am working to build an exciting, dynamic community around Ubuntu cloud and Ubuntu server. If you are interested in contributing to Ubuntu from that perspective, please contact me and I will try to help you anyway I can
Contact
- E-mail: ahmed.kamal[A T]canonical.com
Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/ak_kim0
Nickname on IRC: kim0
- Channels: freenode #ubuntu-cloud, #ubuntu-server, #ubuntu-community-team, #ubuntu-eg
GPG key: 359E358B
Interests
My main interests are
- Help form and sustain an Ubuntu Cloud and Server community
- Make Ubuntu Server a kick ass server platform
- Make Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) the top open-source private cloud solution
Talk to me if you would like to contribute to Ubuntu Server or would like to use Ubuntu in any cloud context
Contributions
Written the open-source mapuntu web application for the purpose of celebrating the Ubuntu server 10.04.1 LTS release. The application is hosted live at http://maps.ubuntu.com/ The launch was very successful, as the map shows we have received thousands of hits from almost all major cities around the world
Helped with the open-source awstrial application. This application allows end-users 55 minutes of free Ubuntu server usage over the Amazon EC2 cloud. I have helped with testing the application, filing bugs, fixing bugs, suggesting features, performing QA and marketing around the event
- Worked with the IRC council to restructure available official irc rooms for support Ubuntu server and cloud. The decision was to shutdown #ubuntu-ec2, #ubuntu-virt, and to capitalize on #ubuntu-cloud and #ubuntu-server
Worked with Forums council to create an Ubuntu forum for the cloud
Worked with JonoBacon to assess the current state of the community around Ubuntu cloud and server, as well as the state of the industry in Cloud computing
- Working with new community members interested in contributing to Ubuntu server. Sent a call for volunteers, did a survey and assessment of past experiences. Held IRC meetings with community members to understand how to better align them into becoming active contributers. Currently working with the community members to help them become contributing members
Have been working hard on creating an Ubuntu Cloud Portal. The portal aims to be the one stop shop for Ubuntu community members wishing to learn more about Ubuntu and the cloud, as well as community members wishing to start contributing to Ubuntu cloud and server projects. The first version of the cloud portal is now complete and is waiting to be deployed by Ubuntu IS team
- Work is under way to identify fixes and enhancements that need to go into the next version of the cloud portal as part of 11.04 cycle. For that I am iterating in discussions with prominent Ubuntu developers on the server team among others
Created the UEC book on the wiki in order to provide a high level structured overview of information relating to UEC for anyone wishing to to start learning more about it
Created the Cloud FAQ Ubuntu FAQ page as a starting point to start collecting common questions and answers that relate to cloud computing. The content there is to grow over time
Contributed to the latest Ubuntu Open Week by presenting an IRC session that provides a high level overview of what cloud technology really means, the pros and cons of it and different types of cloud technologies. The session also included a live demo where I launched a live Ubuntu server over the EC2 cloud, demo'ing how easy it is to get started with Ubuntu in the cloud, as well as demo'ing a great and unique technology from Ubuntu called cloud-init that helps customize the virtual server as it starts up in the cloud. I have used cloud-init to upgrade the virtual server, install my ssh public keys on it, install and start apache on it as it boots. I will keep on holding IRC sessions and various events evangelizing about Ubuntu especially from a server and cloud perspective
- A member of the Egyptian Loco, I have and continue to contribute time and money to holding events and spread Ubuntu awareness locally
Worked with various ISPs to start hosting the first Ubuntu mirror in Egypt. The first successful mirror is being built by CityNetHost an Egyptian ISP. Others should hopefully follow
Interviewed by Amber Graner of Ubuntu User Magazine
Plans
- Launch the Ubuntu Cloud Portal, make sure it is successful
- Attract, Grow and Sustain a world wide community that cares about Ubuntu Cloud and Server
- Help improve documentation and technical guides as it relates to running Ubuntu in cloud contexts
- Creation of a screencast library showing off the great technology Ubuntu server and UEC are
- Continuing to deliver training sessions to spread awareness of Ubuntu server and cloud via IRC and other mediums
- Advocate Ubuntu and present it in conferences, give talks, attract new community members
- Beat bug #1, Make sure Ubuntu rocks the planet
Testimonials
Ahmed has worked tirelessly promoting Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Cloud. He's a great guy and a real asset to the Ubuntu Community. +1 on his Ubuntu membership! (DustinKirkland)
- Ahmed has definitely improved visibility to Ubuntu and Cloud Computing. In the short time as the Cloud community manager, Ahmed has shown extreme enthusiasm in organizing documentation, helping with the cloud 10 project, and promoting cloud computing with Ubuntu. He's definitely a good asset for Ubuntu! - jpugh
Ahmed has been instrumental in giving more visibility to the server team cloud efforts, and will be able to do so even more once he gets Ubuntu membership. Well deserved and needed ! (ThierryCarrez)
Not only does Ahmed help greatly linking Ubuntu with the Cloud Community, but he is also contributing his heart and mind to it. (NickBarcet)
Ahmed is a great asset to the Ubuntu ecosystem. His enthusiasm and work on promoting the Cloud community around Ubuntu cloud is as good as it gets. His work on Ubuntu cloud will influence the Ubuntu desktop experience in many ways. -- Seif Lotfy 2010-10-18 11:45:30
I have started working with Ahmed a few month ago on the Ubuntu Cloud Portal, he is always trying to find solutions and getting things done, he is devoted to contributing to the Ubuntu community. He has my support for his Ubuntu membership. -- adnane002 2010-10-18 21:08:06
Ahmed is fantastic to work with. As a team mate his answer in the most cases is just "ah, that's no big deal, I already thought of that". I wish him all the best in making the Cloud world rock even hard and I'm sure he will succeed. -- dholbach 2010-10-19 14:47:01
In the short time he's been on the Community team, Ahmed has already managed to show all the goodness he's been able to pull in the Cloud area. This is an exciting and growing part of our community, which I'm glad to see landing in very good hands. I think he's exceedingly demonstrated to uphold the values of the Ubuntu project. I fully support his application. -- dpm 2010-10-20 09:25:09