Board of Directors Elections 2019 - Candidacy Niels De Graef

[Niels De Graef <nielsdegraef gmail com>]

Name: Niels De Graef
Email: nielsdegraef gmail com
Nickname: nielsdg

Dear Foundation members,

I would like to announce my candidacy for a first term as a director
in the GNOME Foundation.

I made my first contributions to GNOME since 2016 while I was still a
computer science student. Ever since, I've become increasingly
interested in GNOME, its underlying design philosophy and the
accompanying technologies. This all resulted in nearly daily
contributions and maintainership of several (core) GNOME modules.

My current employer is Barco, a multimedia company based in Belgium
(where I also live). In my day job, I work on several modules that use
GStreamer and other GNOME-based libraries. Most of my contributions
either happen during my daily commute or when I can make some free
time at home.

Given that this would be my first term, I cannot say I have a lot of
experience with the board's internal workings (apart from always
reading the minutes). I don't see this as a big obstacle, as I'm
willing to read up on the processes and to put effort in filling that
gap where needed. The only hurdle for now is that I can't attend (the
full period of) GUADEC, due to other personal obligations in the
weekend of August 24-25. I don't see this as a big problem though, as
I can still be available the other days and telecommunication provides
multiple possibilities these days.

I don't have very large ambitions for the next year; that being said,
I hope we can put even more effort into our newcomers and how we
welcome contributors. Great initiatives like the GitLab migration, the
positive reaction and promotion of Matrix.org bridges and other
initiatives have -from personal experience- lowered the entry bar for
new developers, and I hope we can further support these (and other
similar initiatives) with the board.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to read this and feel free to
ask questions!

Niels De Graef