Re: Candidacy

[Bart Decrem <bart eazel com>]

it looks like this guy has made real contributions to GNOME.

seriously: wow, that's one hell of a candidacy statement!

bd

Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> Hello guys,
>
>    I would like to nominate myself for the GNOME Foundation Board of
> Directors.
>
> * Summary.
>
>         Name: Miguel de Icaza.
>         Works for: Helix Code, Inc.
>
>         Have been an active contributor to the free software movement
>         since 1992.
>
>         Started the GNOME project when various freedom issues arised
>         that would threaten the future of a fully free system.
>
>         I am one of the founders of Helix Code, one of the GNOME
>         companies, where we employ around 30 GNOME hackers that
>         develop free software.
>
> * My involvement with GNOME and Free Software
>
>         I started the GNOME project in 1997, you can read a detailed
>         account of the story of the project from my perspective in
>         this web page:
>
>         http://primates.helixcode.com/~miguel/gnome-history.html
>
>         I have worked in many areas in GNOME: from the foundation
>         libraries, to the applications to the early consistency work,
>         to the early documentation infrastructure.  I am one of the
>         main contributors to the gnome-libs, the bonobo component
>         architecture, and the Gnumeric spreadsheet;  And I have
>         contributed code in pretty much every one of the core modules
>         that make up GNOME.
>
>         When the project was started I did it all on my spare time,
>         last year me and Nat (another GNOME hacker) started a company
>         that would build services around the GNOME platform and would
>         improve the GNOME platform.
>
>         I am glad to report that Helix Code has succeeded in making
>         GNOME easier to install and more wildely available than it was
>         before.
>
>         Currently I serve on the board of directors of the Free
>         Software Foundation.
>
>         I am the maintainer and co-maintainer of various core GNOME
>         modules.
>
>         Before being involved with GNOME, I was a contributor to GNU
>         and the Linux kernel.
>
> * My work as a mediator
>
>         A lot of my time has gone into negotiating various interests
>         between the various contributors and people who have raised
>         issues regarding GNOME, or that are interested in developing
>         applications with GNOME.
>
>         I was the first one to suggest Qt to GPL their library back in
>         1997 as a solution for their business and the KDE libraries.
>
>         I was among the first ones (or the first one?) to suggest
>         Netscape to dual license Mozilla, and spent countless hours
>         writing mail to various people to get Mozilla dual licensed
>         under the NPL/GPL over time.
>
>         I have spent a lot of time talking to lawyers for various
>         companies to get them to license their software under sensible
>         terms and hopefully under the LGPL/GPL (OpenOffice being one
>         of them).
>
>         I have tried to find a common ground for contributors that
>         have expressed their interested in donating code to GNOME and
>         keep their copyrights to allow them to make a profit out of
>         their work using dual licensing (libart and xpdf).
>
>         Together with Nat Friedman, we made the call for the creation
>         of the Steering Committe for driving the direction of GNOME
>         2.0
>
>         Together with Bart and John, pushed for the creation of the
>         GNOME Foundation that will provide a ground for GNOME to
>         administer its resources, and a good ground for companies to
>         approach the free software movement and contribute to GNOME
>         and GNOME related techologies.
>
> * Promotion of GNOME and Free Software.
>
>         Since the early days of the project I have spent a lot of my
>         time promoting GNOME in both conferences and magazines.  I
>         have delivered about seventy (70) conferences and talks on
>         GNOME, GNOME technologies and GNOME related topics.
>
>         I have written a variety of articles on GNOME and its
>         foundation for different magazines and reports.
>
>         I have got hardware for GNOME developers when they were in
>         need of it; I have negotiated conferences to pay for people to
>         attend their conferences; I have tried to get resources and
>         sometimes jobs to GNOME hackers that needed them.  I have paid
>         out of my own pocket for hardware and travel expenses for
>         hackers.
>
>         I raised most of the funds that were used to bring people to
>         the GUADEC conference in Paris.
>
>         I have tried to get various representatives in various
>         countries to adopt free software technologies.
>
>         Pretty much every one of my talks stresses out the importance
>         of free software.
>
> * My role in the foundation
>
>         Have a representative role of the GNOME foundation to other
>         organizations to work together with them.  Arranging to work
>         together towards implementing standards, components, and
>         trying to assemble in-house GNOME teams at software and
>         hardware companies.
>
>         To help re-organize the various teams that maintain various
>         GNOME efforts: the web services team to make sure we provide
>         the best possible services to the GNOME developer and user
>         community
>
>         To help re-organize the GNOME UI and the GNOME Features team
>         to re-establish the feed of ideas from the user base to the
>         developers and to encourage artists and aesthetics people to
>         help the developers improve their applications.
>
>         I would continue to do various things to push GNOME forward
>         and to make it the standard user environment for free systems
>         and for Unix systems.
>
>         I would continue to try to find the best fit for the various
>         interests of the GNOME contributors, both the individual
>         hackers which are the core and the spirit of GNOME, and the
>         contributions made by companies.
>
>         Getting and helping organizations, governments and companies
>         to adopt GNOME and free software.
>
>         Help in the process of establishing good partnerships and
>         alliances with companies to improve GNOME, and help them
>         to become free software companies in the long term.
>
>         To promote the creation of GNOME training and teaching tracks
>         at the various conferences.
>
>         And all in all, to continue doing the same work I have been
>         doing for free software and GNOME in the future, with the
>         backup of the Foundation.
>
> Miguel.
>
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