Re: Candidacy

[Martin Baulig <martin home-of-linux org>]

Oh, dude. I'm happy you announced your candidacy in time :-)

Martin

Miguel de Icaza <miguel helixcode com> writes:

> 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.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-list mailing list
> foundation-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
> 
> 

-- 
Martin Baulig
martin gnome org (private)
baulig suse de (work)