Matthew Helmke has written articles for magazines such as Linux+ and Linux Identity, helped write Prentice Hall's The Official Ubuntu Book, and has written and self-published two books about Arabic and Moroccan culture. He first used Unix in 1987 while studying Lisp on a Vax at the university. Currently, he is an active member of the Ubuntu Linux community as an Administrator and Forum Council member for the Ubuntu Forums (ubuntuforums.org), and a member of the membership approval committee for Ubuntu in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has run a business using only free software, has done some consulting, and is currently working on a master's degree in Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona.