About the Authors

Benjamin Mako Hill is a Seattle native working out of Boston, Massachusetts. Mako is a long-time free software developer and advocate. He was part of the founding Ubuntu team, one of the first employees of Canonical, Ltd., and coauthor of The Official Ubuntu Server Book. In addition to some technical work, his charge at Canonical was to help grow the Ubuntu development and user community during the project’s first year. Mako is currently a fellow at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, and a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Mako has continued his involvement with Ubuntu as a member of the Community Council governance board, through development work, and through projects such as this book.

Matthew Helmke has been an Ubuntu user since April 2005 and an Ubuntu Member since August 2006. He served from 2006 to 2011 on the Ubuntu Forum Council, providing leadership and oversight of the Ubuntu Forums, and spent two years on the Ubuntu regional membership approval board for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has written articles about Ubuntu for magazines and websites, is the lead author of Ubuntu Unleashed, and has written several books and articles on other topics. He works for the iPlant Collaborative, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and is building the world’s first cyberinfrastructure for the biological sciences.

Amber Graner is an active Ubuntu Community member, whose path to Ubuntu activism started as she blogged about her transition to Ubuntu in 2009. Amber contributes to the Ubuntu News Team, Ubuntu Women Project, Ubuntu North Carolina LoCo Team, and more. She assists with many of the online Ubuntu tutorial weeks and various UbuCons. Amber resides in Western North Carolina where she works as the Associate Web Editor for Linux New Media. Her writing can be found online and in print for Linux Pro and Ubuntu User magazines. Additionally Amber is often found at Linux and open source events promoting, advocating, and encouraging participation in the Ubuntu Community and with the Ubuntu project.

Corey Burger lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is a long-term user and contributor to Ubuntu. A founder of the Ubuntu Canada group and former member of the Community Council, he has been involved with Ubuntu since its first release. Corey is currently a geography student and has most recently worked for a Canadian Linux company. He also contributes to OpenStreetMap and works to promote Ubuntu on Vancouver Island. Corey speaks regularly about Ubuntu, OpenStreetMap, and open source to a wide variety of audiences.

Jonathan Jesse is a full-time Microsoft Windows consultant specializing in IT lifecycle management products. Beginning with the Hoary Hedgehog release, he joined the Ubuntu Documentation Team by proofreading and submitting patches to the mailing list, then worked on the Kubuntu documents. Currently, Jonathan is involved in working on bugs for the Kubuntu Team, the Ubuntu Wiki, and the Laptop Testing Team. Ubuntu and Kubuntu have given Jonathan a way to give back to the community without having to be a developer, and he encourages everyone to come help him out.

Kyle Rankin is a senior systems administrator for Cyan, Inc.; the current president of the North Bay Linux Users’ Group; the author of The Official Ubuntu Server Book, Knoppix Hacks, Knoppix Pocket Reference, Linux Multimedia Hacks, and Ubuntu Hacks; and he has contributed to a number of other O’Reilly books. Kyle is also a columnist for Linux Journal and has had articles featured in PC Magazine, Tech Target, and other publications.

Jono Bacon is the Ubuntu community manager at Canonical, author of The Art of Community, founder of the annual Community Leadership Summit, founder of Severed Fifth, and cocreator of the popular LugRadio podcast.