Re: 10 Questions for All Candidates

[Chris Lyttle <chris wilddev net>]

> 
> 10 Questions for all candidates:
> 
> 1) Why are you running for Board of Directors?
> 
My initial reason for wanting to run was to encourage others to run.
Then after I had thought about it for a while I realised I had some
skills to bring that I thought would benefit GNOME. More on this
below...

> 2) Do you have leadership and committee experience? If so, please explain.

I have been involved in various volunteer organisations since about
1993. I first became involved in a leadership and committe role when I
was one of 3 people who formed a non-profit ISP in New Zealand called
PlaNet. Our aim was to serve non-governmental organisations and
community and environmental groups, enabling them to communicate more
effectivly over the internet. We joined together with several other
groups in different cities in 1995 and formed a national trust which
then joined an international organisation called The Association for
Progressive Communications. Through all these activities I have gained
much experience of working through problems and working with others in a
committee and being able to take a leadership role in an organisation.
> 
> 3) How familiar are you with the day-to-day happenings of GNOME?  How much
> do you follow and participate in the main GNOME mailing lists?
> 
I follow the gnome-hackers mailing list and tend to be on irc.gnome.org
all throughout the day. Even though I cannot keep up with every project
in GNOME (for example I only recently found out about sodipodi, I love
it!) I try to stay in touch with the main changes and happenings in the
GNOME world and when I have time contribute to projects and tasks where
I feel I can offer some assistance.

> 4) One of the primary tasks of the Board of Directors is to act as a
> liason between the GNOME Foundation and other organizations and companies
> to find out how the two groups can work together to their mutual benefit.
> Do you feel you would be good at understanding other people and companies
> and finding ways that GNOME can collaborate with other companies and
> organizations to benefit both groups and their users?
> 
Yes, One of the roles I played working at PlaNet was that of accounts
person/grant requisition person. This involved working closely with
commercial companies and government organisations that were supporting
us with funding. I am also a very helpful and congenial person by nature
so find it easy to work in this capacity with others.

> 5) One of the responsibilities and powers of the Board of Directors is to
> identify organizational weaknesses and needs of GNOME and to create
> committees, appoint coordinators of these committess, and act as liasons
> with them.  What do you believe are the current weak points of GNOME as an
> organization, and if you were able to, how would you change the GNOME
> organization?
> 
My point of view about the weaknesses of GNOME is almost entirely
because I work as a Systems Administrator. I appreciate the wonderful
time and equipment that has been donated to GNOME but feel that we
should appoint someone to look after the machines formally that comprise
our cvs and web presence. I know there are already quite a few willing
hands that look after these things (Hi greg) but it would be nice to see
things looked after in a more formal way by the board to ensure that no
'accident's' leave us without these services for an extended period of
time.

> 6) The board meets for one hour every two weeks to discuss a handful of
> issues.  Thus, it is very important that the board can very quickly and
> concisely discuss each topic and come to concensus on each item for
> discussion. Are you good at working with others, who sometimes have very
> differing opinions than you do, to reach concensus and agree on actions?
> 
Yes, I am not prone to waffling and if I am in disagreement with someone
am willing to work with them to reach a consensus.

> 7) Often Directors have to draft policies, form committees, find
> weaknesses or approaching problems of GNOME and work on solutions, and act
> as liason with various groups (both within and outside GNOME) and
> companies.  Please name three or more areas which you feel are important
> for the Board to address over the next year and which you would enjoy
> contributing some of your time to help get things started and possibly act
> as a liason between the Board and any other committees, groups, or
> companies if relevant.
> 
I would involve myself in addressing the looking after of the web and
cvs machines, liasing with the GDP in transistioning to XML
documentation and working with other documentation projects and working
with the GNOME Packaging Project to help releases be easily available in
binary form for different distributions.

> 8) Do you consider yourself diplomatic?  Would you make a good
> representative for the GNOME Foundation to the Membership, media, public,
> and organizations and corporations the GNOME Foundation works with?
> 
Yes, even though I am not the sort of person who actually likes being
focused on (in the spotlight, so to speak) I am more than willing to
step up and make sure that GNOME is represented well.

> 9) Will you represent the interests of GNOME and the GNOME Foundation over
> all other personal or corporate interests you may represent?
> 
Hmm thats probably the hardest question so far as its so absolute! I
will represent the interests of GNOME as much as I can barring personal
things that may prevent me from actually doing so. I have no conflicts
with my job that I feel would ever make it's interests outweigh the
interests of GNOME.

> 10) Will you be willing and have the available time to take on and
> complete various tasks that the Board needs accomplished?
> 
Yes most definately!

Chris Lyttle