Re: Questions for candidates

[Pat Costello <Patrick Costello Sun COM>]

Bastien Nocera wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 23:22, Sri Ramkrishna wrote:
> > On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Pat Costello wrote:
> > >
> > > - Maintainers, and everyone else 'outside influence on maintainers'.

> > It's definitely not this definition.  People in various parts of gnome
> > have influence over the maintainership and I have never in my experience
> > seen tyranny of a maintainer that they wouldn't listen to new ideas.

Right. 

You see, what got me worried is that we seem to be making public pronouncements at well-publicized events such as GUFOURDEC that the above definition is the current picture of GNOME culture. Having worked in the GNOME project for the last three years, this view came as a surprise to me at the GU4DEC presentation. If the above definition is not true, and the GNOME culture is more inclusive, >>especially the directional strategy part of the culture<< then that is what we should be saying to the
public. There was a Dutch lady sitting behind me at the presentation, I believe she was an EU representative, and she made a point along the lines of: "This culture is very closed and inward-looking, and will restrict the broader acceptance of the GNOME Desktop". I paraphrase, but that was the substance of her comment to the speaker. The reply was: "I am not presenting the culture as it should be, nor how I would like to see it. I am presenting the culture as it is. This is the reality." Again,
I paraphrase, but that was the substance of the exchange as far as I can remember. 

So, if the GNOME culture is genuinely multi-disciplinary in establishing future directions and strategy, then maybe the change that we need to make is how we present the multi-disciplinary nature of the culture. Also, if a respected speaker can make a presentation at the main annual GNOME event, which paints a picture around the above definition, and on the other hand respected members of the community can come forward and reassure me that this picture is not accurate, then there is a
discontinuity in our shared values and community vision. 

Sorry for stirring the pot, but this is election time, 

Pat