Candidacy (Ettore Perazzoli)

[Ettore Perazzoli <ettore helixcode com>]

So, I'd like to nominate myself for the GNOME Foundation Board.

* Personal information

  - I am a 26-year-old Italian and I live in Milan, where I spend most
    of my time hacking on GNOME, as this is what my employer Helix
    Code pays me for.

  - I am "almost" a computer science engineer (4 exams until
    completion).  I have (temporarily?) quit my studies to take the
    opportunity of working on GNOME full-time.

* My involvement with GNOME

  - I have been a strong supporter of free software since the first
    time I heard of it, in 1993 or so.  To me supporting free software
    is not just a matter of participating in the production of cool
    software, but above all a way to promote sharing of information
    and cooperation between human beings, and thus make the world a
    better place to live in.

  - I have been an advocate and supporter of the GNOME project since
    it was first started, although I only started contributing code at
    the end of 1998.  (Before, I was involved with other free software
    projects.)

  - I have contributed code and design to core components of GNOME,
    such as the base GNOME libraries and Bonobo.  My first major
    contribution was the GnomeDock widget.  In particular, I have
    designed and implemented GNOME VFS, which is the foundation of
    Nautilus.  (These days GNOME VFS is maintained by Nautilus hackers
    though.)  Also, my initial design and implementation of gnome-fm
    served as the base for the creation of Nautilus.

  - While I was hacking on GNOME VFS and gnome-fm, Miguel and Nat
    created Helix Code and I joined immediately.  During the early
    days of Helix Code and as the author of GNOME VFS and gnome-fm, I
    was deeply involved in the process that brought Eazel into the
    game, making them take over the maintenance of the GNOME file
    manager.

  - My first task in Helix Code as a hacker has been maintenance of
    GtkHTML, which at the time was little more than a quick and
    incomplete port of KDE's KHTMLW widget.  I rewrote the internal
    object system, I did a lot of reorganization and optimization, and
    implemented the editing functionality, thus making it suitable as
    a complete, lightweight HTML solution for Evolution.

  - After a few months, I moved over to Evolution; I designed and
    implemented the Evolution shell, as well as all the code and CORBA
    interfaces that allow the various components to be integrated into
    a highly extensible framework.

  - Finally, I have become the project manager for Evolution.  I have
    been in this role for a while now; all the releases since 0.2 have
    been under my coordination (we are (almost) at 0.6 now).
    Evolution is one of the key applications for GNOME these days.

* My ideas about the foundation

  - I think the main challenge for the foundation is to make GNOME a
    successful standard without betraying the original ideals that
    made the GNU project happen.  So, preserving freedom should be the
    #1 goal of the Foundation.

  - At the same time, the Foundation should be able to convoy energy
    from all the various parties involved, to get the best out of them
    in a concerted effort to make GNOME the best desktop environment
    ever.  It should also make sure that contrasting needs of the
    companies involved don't end up crippling the technical quality of
    GNOME.

  - I also think that the foundation should pay attention to the needs
    of hackers, to make sure the fun factor isn't lost.  Many people
    have been hacking GNOME just because it was fun, and I think it
    would be bad if all of this commercial support made us think that
    this is not important for the success of the project anymore.

  - Likewise, I strongly believe volunteer contributions are an
    important resource that must be kept in high consideration.  As a
    consequence, the foundation should make sure the entry barrier for
    contributors is kept low, and that non-paid volunteers don't end
    up feeling like they are useless because some other paid guy is
    going to do the work better anyway.  The foundation should also be
    able to provide resources (e.g. hardware) for those people that
    want to contribute but cannot afford getting the resources by
    themselves.

  - The foundation should also pay particular attention into making
    GNOME a success outside the US, by giving translation teams the
    appropriate support and by making sure GNOME meets the
    requirements of non-US countries.

* Why you should vote me

  - I am a hacker, and while the Board is not going to give specific
    technical directions, I think it's still important to have actual
    hackers on Board, to make sure technical issues are kept into
    account.

  - I have been advocating free software and GNOME for a long time.

  - My faith in free software is strong.

  - I have good communication skills, and I have experience in
    organizational and management problems, due to my everyday work on
    Evolution.

  - My job as the Evolution project manager also gives me good insight
    into the issues with getting GNOME to succeed in the office
    application field, as well as the problems related to free
    software business models.

  - I am one of the most visible European GNOMErs, and I think it's a
    good thing to have active European people on Board for GNOME to
    succeed in Europe.

-- 
Ettore