Hello all,

My name is Ben Bromley and I would like to join the Fedora Documentation Project. My primary experience with the kinds of tools that the Documentation Project uses is through Mediawiki, which I use both at work and on my own personal server; however, I am also willing and excited to learn other tools that the Documentation Project uses.

What other projects or writing have you worked on in the past?
I currently live in Henrico, Va., and work in Williamsburg, Va., as an archivist.  This means that I help preserve and make available letters, diaries, records, photographs, books, etc., that might be important for researchers in the future.  My job entails a lot of writing, as I respond to emails from the public, write descriptions of manuscript material, manage our social media tools, and digitize manuscript materials.  Finally, I help write tutorials that help people understand how to use manuscript and archival material (the typical audience is undergraduates who have never heard of archives before).

What level and type of computer skills do you have?
I use XML extensively in my job, as most archival finding aids are encoded in EAD or Encoded Archival Description.  More generally, I have used various Linux distributions since May 2006, mostly alternating between Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora.  I maintain my own server running Apache, MySQL, Mediawiki, and Wordpress; I also install various pieces of archival management software like Archivists' Toolkit[1] and Archon[2]. 

What other skills do you have that might be applicable? User interface design, other so-called soft skills (people skills), programming, etc.
I create activity diagrams to show the workflows for different processes at work using UML, so that we can look at these processes from a different perspective and (hopefully) simplify them.

What makes you an excellent match for the project?
I am excited to start giving a little bit back to the greater community that has given so much to me.  I am also more than willing to learn the various tools that the Documentation Project uses and am willing to work on whatever is necessary.  My FAS wiki page can be found at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Benuski.

Thanks!
-Ben Bromley

[1]http://www.archiviststoolkit.org/
[2]http://www.archon.org/