candidacy

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

Name: Bill Haneman
Email: billh gnome org
Affiliation: Sun Microsystems

I'd like to put myself forward for re-election to the GNOME Foundation
Board of Directors for another term.  

I think it takes awhile for a newly-elected Board member to get traction
on issues, so I think a certain degree of continuity from year-to-year
in the Board is very important.  I also believe that I represent GNOME
positively in attendances at various FOSS and accessibility conferences
and represent the interests of the GNOME community well in Board
meetings.  The current Board has been reasonably successful at handling
some of the key issues that fall outside the day-to-day GNOME
development activities, like GNOME branding and outreach, and
organizational duties.  That said, I think there's room for improvement
in the effectiveness of the Foundation Board and in my own contribution,
and I'd like to have the opportunity to work hard to multiply our
effectiveness in these areas.  It's been an exciting year for GNOME,
let's make sure that we make the most of it.  I think the Board has a
key role to play in serving as a conduit between the Advisory Board and
the core GNOME developer community (a role which I think has been
neglected of late), in looking for ways to protect and improve the
visibility of the GNOME 'brand' (i.e. 'GNOME inside', the foot logo) and
coordinate developer and user events, and generally holding the GNOME
banner high.

Fortunately there has been little reason for the Board to get too
involved in policy issues regarding the 'direction of GNOME' over the
past year; I think that's as it should be.  On the other hand I think
the Foundation Board may be in a good position to facilitate and improve
communication between the Advisory Board and the developer community
which is the heart of the project.  As GNOME gains visibility and
"market share", and is used in new and larger contexts, we need to keep
the flow of information going between the development and end-user
communities, and unite them where possible.

As a co-maintainer of atk. at-spi, gnome-mag, gok, and other GNOME
modules, I am a very active GNOME hacker; as a presenter at a number of
conferences and an architect of the GNOME accessibility project I am
also focussed on the 'big picture' of "GNOME for everyone".  As such I
believe I am well qualified to make what I hope will be an increasing
contribution to the Board.

best regards,

Bill