Monthly Archives: febrer 2009

I discovered internet in the early 2003, when I was 16. Since then my life changed definitely. From a young who was dreaming to develop the future career around geography science (yes, I loved geography and I participated at various national contests) I became an advocate and activist for FLOSS and Digital Society. A significant change. After discovering internet my second step were to try to learn web programming. I already was a GNU/Linux User, so internet gave me the possibility to discover new distributions, to learn how to administrate a Linux machine, how to ask on forums, how to find solutions etc. Then, I began to meet people. First, I began to communicate via email with an ex-neighbor who at that time wrote and coordinated a Linux magazine. He proposed me to help him by finding various Linux contributors in Romania and make them short interviews. So searching for GNU/Linux contributors in Romania, I met Faculty of Computer Science of Iași. Then I met local Linux users and we started a little group. My desire to know more about web grew, so I started to buy some books, then I met FII), one of the books’ author and my future professor at Faculty of Computer Science from Iași. Obviously I chose to go to Faculty of Computer Science from Iași to start my university studies. There, my life changed. I met people, I discovered what a community means, I saw projects, I learned to manage projects, I shared my ideas, I learned how to build a community, I organized events. So, my wish to contribute at FLOSS movement became stronger. I began to meet people from the Romanian Linux User Group and to participate at various national events. Obviously, those activities made me not to be an “exceptional” student, thus neglecting my courses a little. In the 2nd year of university I met Lucian and I participated at the 1th edition of eLiberatica, so it was the moment when I began to interact with various international communities, one of the most interesting being Mozilla. So I began to study Mozilla’s philosophy and to understand more about the Mozilla global community (I have been using Firefox from the beginning, then I discovered Thunderbird). One year later, after I decided to move to Barcelona, through Internet (Twitter) I met Toni (one of the most beautiful things who happened in my life). 2 months later I met Alex and Irina (localizers for Mozilla in Romania) virtually, and proposed them to found Mozilla.ro and to try to build a Romanian community around Mozilla and to do more marketing in Romanian. Now I’m helping also the Mozilla community from Catalonia (the country where I have been living since December 2007). Yes, I can say that Internet had and still having an impact to my life. This has been helping me to meet people, to make friends, to discover new horizons, to be part of an awesome project such as Mozilla, to be part of the FOSS international community, to maintain the connection with my family and friends from Romania… So, this is my Internet short story.

After a few weeks (sorry) I’m writing the wonderful 7 things you would like to know about me (“thanks” to Marek Stępień and to William Quiviger for tagging me :D ).

So, first of all, here are the rules:
Link back to your original tagged and list the rules in your post. Share seven facts about yourself. Tag 7 people by leaving names and links to their blogs. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

And now..let’s go with the 7 things:

1) I was born in Ploiești, one of the biggest industrial centres (petrol industry) in Romania. I spent a large part of my first 7 years in my grandmother’s village, in the middle of the nature. One of my activity was pasturing goats (yes, my grandmother had 3 goats);
2) I began with Linux and I’ve dicovered the interesting world of Open Source and Free Software during my 2nd year of high-school, when I received (as a gift from my parents) my first personal computer.
3)I spent 2 years of my life in Iasi (the old capital of Moldavia) and actually the most important city of Moldavia region. It’s an amazing city with a rich culture (most of Romanian literary personalities were born there or spent part or most of their lives there). In Iasi I studied 2 years at the Faculty of Computer Science.
4)One of the most interesting discussions I have had about free software and open source philosophy was with Monk Serafim (whom I met at a Linux User Group meeting in Iasi)
5) I met my sweetheart at a Open Standards presentation in the International Day of Document Freedom (yes, he is a FOSS activist, mozillian and…sweet Catalan )
6) I love animals, during my childhood I had a lot of pets (fishes, turtles, water reptiles, hamsters, Guinea pigs, cats, dogs, birds )
7) Now, I have as a hobby the Aquariophilia. I just set up my African cichlid aquarium (Lake Tanganyka fishes) 3 weeks ago. I’m waiting this week for my fishes .

Now…the tagged persons:
Anca Paula Luca, one of my friends from Iasi
Sabin Corneliu Buraga, professor and one of the most web (technology) enthusiasts I’ve met.
My dear Toni, who didn’t write the 7 memes yet
Alexandru Szasz (from Mozilla.ro and creator of the Narro translation tool).
The rest of the persons I would like to tag, published their 7 things already.