Re: Low voter registration and candidate bias

[dap us ibm com]

Tom,

Just a point of clairification....as far as I know, and I just checked
candidate list again, there is no one form IBM running for board. I plan to
be on corporate advisory committee, but I am not running for board. Someone
correct me if I am wrong.

Also, I continue to take issue with comments like:
>Instead, I fear that the election will be a
>tool for the companies with a vested interest in Gnome to claim legitimacy
>in attempting to control Gnomes future to their purposes when in fact the
>legitimacy may not exist.

Why would a corporation that is participating nicely in the open and open
source community, want to control Gnome (or any other open projects)
interest. I think people are watching too much x-files. There is no great
conspiracy theory going on with corporation that participate in open source
projects. The negative PR associated with going out and trying to dominate
an open source project with corporate goals/strategies would be
devastating, and would make it hard for a corporation to work with the open
source community in the future. Is it so far fetched to believe that the
people in these corporations, who work with open source projects, do it
because they have experience, and believe in the open source movement
themselves. I think that is the main reason they get involved...it is why I
do...I love Linux, and the open source movement...have for 20 years since I
was in college and saw the power of this with Nethack, still my favorite
game, and one I have never won without cheating.

As for no one knowing about this election.....the announcements and
information on this have been prominently posted on Gnome.org, even I (one
who does not spend a ton of time on Gnome Newgroups), found it...I find it
very hard to believe that folks who work on Gnome day in and day out are
not aware of this...especially looking @ experience and Gnome know-how and
Gnome dealings of the candidates.  Also, I would hope the candidates would
be passing the word to everyone to make sure to register to vote, if I was
running I would do the same (why not try to win if you desire to be on the
board in the 1st place).

I also am disappointed that more people have not registered to vote...but I
also continue to be disappointed of the apathy of the American people in
the voting process...oh well, they don't cancel those elections, I don't
think we should cancel this one either.


Thanks,  dp - Dan Powers
Director, IBM Early Stage Internet Technology
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