Minutes of the GNOME Board meeting 30 October 2001

[Daniel Veillard <veillard redhat com>]

	  Minutes of the GNOME Board meeting 30 October 2001
	  ==================================================


Presents:
=========

    Havoc Pennington (chairing)
    Daniel Veillard  (minutes)
    Jim Gettys
    Dan Mueth
    John Heard
    Tim Ney           (director)
    Owen Taylor
    Maciej Stachowiak 
    Raph Levien
    Federico          (from :20)


Regrets:
========
    Bart Decrem
    Miguel de Icaza  

Decisions:
==========

   - getting in serious contact with a new lawyer company.
   - discussion of the relationship with the FSF, reasserting our
     current status as part of the GNU project. More work still needed
     to put details on the website.
   - people should send candidacy statements to the foundation list
     for the elections

Action Done:
============

  ACTION: Havoc to sent the Advisory Board list to the Board,
          looking for completion of the member liason.
   => Tim has answer back from everybody except VA.

  ACTION: Owen make sure the mail send to the accounts gnome org is not lost
   => Done

  ACTION: Maciej to email the Board the current draft of the platform
          license policy for review.
   => Done

Actions:
========


New Actions:
============

  ACTION: Havoc to redirect gnome-press-contact to Leslie

  ACTION: Tim to get the membership logos one the foundation page

  ACTION: Tim, John and Havoc to get a draft statement on the relation
          with the free software and license policy.

Discussion:
===========

 - approve last meeting minutes:
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2001-October/msg00001.html

 - Tim announced that the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in
   Palo Alto has agreed to work for GNOME on a pro-bono basis. The WSGR
   legal team will assist the GNOME Foundation in the following areas:
     - getting tax exemption
     - copyright/licence/patent issues
     - Trademark.
   Sounds excellent !
   they have the starting documents transmitted by Tim.

 - Sun donated equipment for the Linux Expo gnome Booth in Frankfurt.
   ASLab is donating hardware for the GNOME booth at ALS in Oakland.
   Ximian will provide machines for the GNOME Hothouse at ALS.

   As a prelude to GUADEC 3, there will be an informal gathering of GNOME
   developers in Dublin on November 24th & 25th <deemed GUADEC 2.b>. Glynn
   Foster and Telsa Gwynne are organizing with Proinnsias Breathnach.
   Information can be found at  http://www.linux.ie/

 - elections:
   this seems on track, but there have been no nomination yet.
   Those from the current Board should send candidacy statements if running
   again for the elections in order to help start the process.

 - relationship with FSF:
   We have strong links with the free software community, even if
   we sometimes don't totally follow the guidelines. The very important
   point is to stay close to the people to avoid strong issues. We
   consider that Gnome was and should remain part of the free software
   movement and of the GNU project.
   More actions needed to get a wording defined and kept on the Gnome
   web site.

 - Sun's documentation work:
   There have been an agreement between the GNU and Sun on a revision
   of the GFDL (GNU Free Documentation Licence) needed for Sun to release
   its work under that Licence.
   So Sun will release its documentation soon.

 - Update on GNOME 2
   We are trying to get the API freeze to avoid a moving target.
   The major apps are being ported, it's looking promising.


Daniel

-- 
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