Candidacy (Jeff Waugh)

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

Hi all,

So, here's my foray into the jaws of democracy...

  Jeff Waugh
  jdub perkypants org
  Solutions First (small Free Software consulting co. in Sydney)

  In the time I've been involved in GNOME, I have casually contributed to
  documentation, usability, and plenty of support and advocacy.

  Now, I have joined the GNOME 2 Release Team as secretary and public
  relations "dude" who has to^W^Wgets to talk to the marketing people. I
  stay up to ungodly hours to talk with the release team, and write our very
  DV-inspired minutes. I am also attempting to herd the web developer cats
  towards building the almost mythical "new GNOME website", and having great
  success with our small, dedicated team. We have made a lot of progress in
  only a few weeks.

  I have quite a bit of experience with volunteer organisations. Recently
  they've been very Free Software related, such as the Sydney Linux User's
  Group (second year of committee position) and the linux.conf.au 2001
  organising group (by most accounts it kicked arse).

  Maniacal motivational phrases such as, "8 hours work, 8 hours sleep, 8
  hours GNOME!" and "Brides of GNOME: Married to the Mob" come naturally to
  me. This may or may not be a good thing.

  I'm Australian, and thus an exceptionally reasonable, relaxed and balanced
  person, although I do not say "mate".

  I will put my energies into broadening the voice of the project, so that
  our accomplishments and goals are heard far beyond our little band of
  hackers. It's an "outreach" thing, more than public relations or press
  releases.

  Thus, I'm keen to improve our existing support infrastructure, such as our
  website, servers, etc. so we can get information out more easily, and help
  people get involved, or find what they're looking for. Transparency from
  the Foundation and the project as a whole is crucial for this to happen.

  I'd somehow like to soothe the 'lack of love' that is apparent in the
  project now and then. Whether this can be achieved by pure youthful zest,
  or more thoughtful communication and understanding, it is important that
  we're all cooperating and enjoying the crazy world of GNOME together.

  Getting GNOME onto desktops and into businesses will mainly be a task for
  regional organisations, and I'd like to support them at the Foundation
  level - through publicity and such - and provide resources for them to
  "deliver an excellent GNOME experience for their clients". Issues such as
  administration of desktops, documentation, etc. Whilst this is fairly
  boring to the average GNOME user or hacker, increased use and support of
  GNOME means more users, more admirers for George, and more work for us.


The short spiel:

  We need to improve the project's outreach, both within the Free Software
  community and outside it, through documentation, publicity, and making
  good information easy to get to. Some work on infrastructure can make
  other tasks and goals easier, such as contributing and releasing. We need
  more GNOME love and better cooperation. All of this, openly and
  transparently, without interrupting our awesome hacker's hacking time! I'm
  wacky enough to believe we can do it, too. :)


Thanks,

- Jeff

-- 
     GDK (acronym): GNU's Not Unix Image Manipulation Program Tool-Kit      
                                Drawing-Kit.