Gary E. Domke
[email protected] incubator I've been an Open Office user since the inception of the community and program (incubator) and do truly love the concept, the product and the nature of the contributors. I'm 66 years old, a "semi-retired" executive vice president of a stock brokerage and investment banking firm (somewhat dependent on my social security checks to put food on my table). I'm slightly more technologically competent than most people my age, have built several computers starting with Heathkit and Commodore PET products back in the '70s. I've written a couple of tiny and unsophisticated programs in Basic and C+ at various times that served my purpose. I helped establish the original MIRC and was sysop for the #new2mirc training link visited by thousands of users as a first step to using Internet Relay Chat. Even with that very limited (self - taught) level of knowledge, I'm frequently asked to assist clients, family and friends with computer issues, problems or to provide guidance about purchases of hardware or selection of appropriate software. I think a forum like ApacheCon EU might benefit from input at my level of expertise. I could well be the "proto-typical" end user of Open Office. I'm a gifted public speaker, friendly, outgoing and reasonably personable. Following a couple of unfortunate personal events, I no longer have the resources to pay for travel outside of the range of a couple of tanks of gasoline. I'd love to attend and believe I could make a contribution. Lacking any personal financial resources of significance and without any corporate or TAC funding, I'd need the full subsidy, discount and 600,000EUR to be able to make the trip. It'd be great if I could stay for several nights. Every product development process should have input from typical end-users. I'm about as typical as you'll find anywhere on the planet.
