People of Utopian #5 - @rosatravels

Our multi-talented translations Community Manager in Hong Kong, @rosatravels, is a teacher, creator, musician, pianist and swimmer. Bringing her diverse skill-set, thirst for knowledge and passion for helping others to Utopian.io and the Open Source community, Rosa is our star this week in People of Utopian.

On Github: https://github.com/rosatravels

Who are you, @rosatravels?

I am not a tech person although I can pick up a lot of computer skills easily for building my own websites. As a professional passionate teacher, I help promote Open Source work to my friends by teaching them how to use some of the Open Source Projects I find useful.

Currently, my main focus is Utopian.io and our new initiative with @davinci.witness to bring back the translations category. It’s very time-consuming, and even sleep is hard to come by nowadays. But believe it or not, I actually do a have a life outside of Utopian. I love to swim, so whenever I can and the weather allows (which is quite often in Hong Kong), I go to the nearby beach that is only a half hour walk from my home, and swim in the ocean. I also teach the Bible because it gives insights to truth and freedom we all need.

The most exciting thing that happened to me was the fulfillment of a dream (after many years of searching): learning to play piano by ear. Being involved in a piano forum with other passionate pianists around the world when internet started back in the 1990s helped a lot. The realization of that dream would not have been possible without the Internet. Amusingly enough, I never learned to play the piano professionally, and yet I now have the opportunity to teach many students online, old and young alike, to use my creative method of Color Chord Improvisation to play by ear. So when people around the world tell me that they are super excited to have found me, it gives me a lot of satisfaction as I know exactly where their struggle is in playing piano, and finally can help all students to play piano in the flow!

Another one of my passions is traveling to meet new people and discover different cultures, which is what initially brought me to Steemit.

How did your love of travel end up bringing you to Utopian?

I initially came onto the Steem blockchain in August 2017 to share my travels with the world. My hubby and I have traveled to all corners of the world and created many DVDs (when they were a popular medium) documenting our trips to Greece, Israel, Turkey, Italy, & Egypt. Our travels always brought us to these places, time and time again, so we re-visited some of these locations 3 or 4 times already, and have never gone tired from what they have to offer.

I have a hobby piano website, but I was searching for a way to share our travels and so I discovered Steemit. As you may have guessed, this is also how I picked my username @rosatravels.

But now rosa doesn’t travel anymore. Utopian took over very quickly after I joined Steemit, and I have not been able to blog much about my travels. Still stuck on the hot air balloon rides in Cappadocia.

I am a firm believer that Steemit is a great platform for all bloggers. This is the reason for me powering up SP to help grow the Steeemit community, and I highly recommend others do so as well. I delegate some of that SP to help other communities. This is how I became a dolphin, and my goal is, of course, to someday become a whale. I find that using your power to help the community is as gratifying as using your skills to do so. This is what I have been doing in the past year and it has been very rewarding. Worry about the money later. Now is the time to give, give and give until the Utopian and Steemit communities get established with our communal SP.

How did you discover Utopian.io, and what made you a Utopian?

I discovered Utopian at its early stages in October when I saw people translating Utopian posts into different languages. At first, I had no idea what it was all about, but these posts kept appearing on the trending pages that I started taking notice of it.

I wanted to take part because I saw that Utopian had a grand vision to promote an Open Source Economy. I have used so many Open Source solutions for free that I felt the desire to give back to the OS Economy with my skills.

I joined Utopian.io in October for the fun of it, contributing to Utopian with whatever skills I had in an aim to help the platform grow. It was a game for me to test my skills to see whether I could reach the quality standards Utopian set. These standards helped me strive for my best in all my contributions, regardless of the potential reward.

The communal spirit in the organization is truly inspiring as we all want Utopian to go global and see it shine.

What was your relationship with Open Source before Utopian?

I started blogging in 2006, teaching piano online, which led me to build my own website and use FOSS tools to share my work. 7 Zip was the first open source project I used because I needed to zip up all my video courses for students to download.

I also started writing Kindle books and learned how to use the fantastic Calibre Open Source software to format ePub books. This led to 2 years of providing formatting services to other Kindle authors. Kindle then led me to being an online instructor at Udemy & Skillshare where I started creating valuable business courses and music courses on that platform. This is where I learned how to create fantastic audio using the Audacity Open Source software.

When my Circle of 5ths Level 1 Course went live at Udemy in 2011, it hit ‘best seller’ within a month, and until today, 7 years later, it is still my best selling course. This led to the possibility of starting my first Open Source Project on this fascinating Music Tool. I am still thinking about how to develop this project today with some friends.

How do you think Utopian affects your relationships with the Open Source community and ecosystem? How does it help you express your passion for Open Source?

I had no idea what the Open Source community and ecosystem were before I became a Utopian. I am still learning. But as I watch Utopian grow, I am very much inspired by what this Open source community can be, and the potential it has. I do a lot of local voluntary work in translation and production of tutorials to my students, so I like the opportunity to offer my skills to FOSS projects related to volunteering and education outside HK, taking my contribution global.

What made you decide to take on additional roles in the organization itself?

I used to just contribute as a user, but as I took up more responsibilities as moderators or CM to mentor contributors, I am glad for this great opportunity to help other people grow and develop their skills in translation and tutorial production.

How do you see the future of Utopian? What would you want it to be, and where would you like to see yourself in it?

The future of Utopian look bright. This small seed of initiative is going to grow into a giant tree for everyone worldwide to take shelter under. I am glad to be a part of this inspiring movement. I am also excited about Utopian.io having room for non-developers like me, who can contribute to the Open Source ecosystem in different ways.

Steem is the home for many apps aside from Utopian. Which are your favorite and why?

My favorite one is eSteem app especially the new eSteem Surfer. Next in line is Busy. Steemhunt is the new kid on the block, but I don’t know how much time I can invest there, now that I am fully involved in the DaVinci Platform.

What other Steem communities / initiatives are you part of? Any you would like to create?

I help out in Steem communities mainly by invitation or by chance. I got to know the Chinese community, serve as a Reviewer in the Smartsteem community, contribute photos to the steepshot community and I help translate the ongoing eSteem tips and updates for the Chinese community so they they know how to use the eSteem surfer and app.

Just this past week, I experienced the wildest adventure of my life - joining the DaVinci team to rebuild the translation category for Utopian.io so that we can create an international community of professional translators helping Open Source projects go global.

When I accepted the CM role at Utopian and CLM at DaVinci last Sunday night, I had no idea what I was in for. I never heard of DaVinci before this time, and suddenly on Monday morning I found myself diving deep into the ocean of the DaVinci organization. And guess what? I survived!

I feel that we are now surfing on the beginning wave as the translation activity goes live today, June 17th. For the past week, we dedicated 24 hours (or possibly more) each day as we went through 133 applicants for 20 different languages. The first wave includes only 5 languages (Greek, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, German) with 5 Language Moderators and 15 Translators on board. If I had known such a result was expected from us, I might have been too scared to even accept this role. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Just take the challenge and flow with it. It is great fun watching the resurrection of translations on Utopian.io today and knowing I have a role in it.

This last one isn’t really a Steem initiative, but one that could help me personally if created. My hubby loves to eat at home, so I try to find ways to put different dishes on the table without repeating the same thing every day. Luckily for me, whatever I put on the table, he loves to eat. I try to be more creative in searching for new recipes, but I still feel I lack the makings of a good cook

Can Utopian help? Maybe we need to create an Open Source Utopian Restaurant!