GNOME Board of Directors Candidacy - Philip Chimento

[philip chimento gmail com]

Name: Philip Chimento
Email: philip chimento at gmail com
Affiliation: Endless

I would like to announce my candidacy for the GNOME Foundation board of directors.

I've been a GNOME user since 2002. Since 2006 I have used some GNOME-related technologies to develop software, but I did not really join the community of GNOME contributors until I started working more directly on GNOME at Endless. This led into becoming a GNOME Foundation member and the maintainer of a core GNOME module (GJS) in 2016. I'd now like to volunteer for GNOME in a different capacity.

I have some experience serving on boards of volunteer organizations, though GNOME would be by far the largest. One thing I came to believe through that experience is that a board should put forward a strategic plan for their term. These are some themes that I care about and would advocate to include in the board's policy vision for 2018-2019, if elected:

* Welcoming environment.
I believe the GNOME community has always had a more welcoming environment compared to many of its peers in the world of open source. However, I think recently we are being eclipsed by other communities that make more of a deliberate social effort, and use better tools than we do. In both areas we have seen some improvement: a code of conduct is underway, and the move to GitLab is an example of better tools that make the environment more welcoming; but I believe more is necessary. I think we have the will but not yet the way, and I would like to look at what works in other communities and be open to adopting it for ourselves.

* Funding needed work through internships.
The GNOME Foundation has traditionally had no influence over the technical direction of the GNOME project. But the recent announcement of the GNOME internships means the Foundation now has a means to help technical progress in GNOME along in a direction consistent with its vision. The first round of internships is focused on privacy and security. How can we continue using this program to advance the goals of the Foundation?

* Sustainable maintainership.
A few interrelated things I've noticed: There has been recent movement towards personal fundraisers for some GNOME maintainers. Some critical components of GNOME are currently un- or under-maintained. I've read recent discussions around the web about maintainer burnout. Lastly, some GNOME maintainers lately have been on the receiving end of nastiness from toxic communities. How should GNOME ensure that all of its software is maintained sustainably, that maintainers have the resources they need, and that in the future contributors continue to volunteer to become maintainers?

* Staying ahead of proprietary competitors.
More and more in the future, proprietary software will be relying on collected user data and machine learning to provide convenient features for users, and users will come to expect this sort of convenience. We don't, currently can't, and probably shouldn't collect user data in this way, but how should GNOME anticipate this threat to our relevancy, and what should be our response?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but they are questions that I think the board is in a good position to answer, and I would like to help answer them.

Thank you for your attention,
Philip