Candidacy

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

I'd like to nominate myself for GNOME Foundation board.

Although I was one of the earliest people to join the GNOME project
originally, I have only been heavily involved for the past
year. However, in that timen I've made big contributions to GNOME both
technically and organizationally. I believe a position on the board
will best allow me to continue these contributions. Among other
things:

* I am one of the main developers of the Nautilus project, a key
  component of GNOME moving forward; as such, I can represent the
  needs and interests of this key project.

* I've contributed to many other projects to varying degrees, with a
  particular focus on component/object technology, by maintaining
  ORBit and contributing to Bonobo.

* I'm employed by Eazel and have good communication with everyone in
  engineering and many people on the business side. As such, I can
  present Eazel's official point of view, and provide information
  about the many GNOME-related projects Eazel employees work on (which
  is much more than just Nautilus).

* I've been a member of the current GNOME Steering Committee and have
  been a strong voice in it's decision-making process, and helping
  move towards more formal governance through the GNOME Foundation.

* As one of the release coordinators for GNOME 1.4, I've made the
  process more open and accessible in many ways. For example, anyone
  can have input into the set of packages that can go into GNOME 1.4,
  and the new Extra Apps release will provide even more opportunity to
  bring more tested, quality software to users.

* I know many people in the GNOME community well, and have good
  communication skills, both in terms of listening to people in the
  community, and presenting information well. I talk to people from
  many different constituencies (developers of different projects,
  documentors, translators, users, testers, UI designers, people from
  different companies, people not affiliated with any company,
  etc). (If you don't know me already, feel free to email me or find
  me on IRC and say hi :-)

* Having worked with the UI design experts at Eazel for nearly a year
  now, I've picked up a lot about how to create end-user focused
  software, and I can help apply this perspective to more areas of the
  project.


Finally, and most importantly, I care deeply about free software, and
the community development process. I want to make sure GNOME remains
completely free and does not become too controlled by the many
companies now contributing. Although I work for one of these
companies, I've tried very hard to make sure Eazel in particular and
the GNOME project at large don't shut out volunteer contributors and
community voices, and welcome broader participation.

I ask for your vote to help me continue making the GNOME project
better and stronger, while staying true to it's principles.

 - Maciej Stachowiak