Re: Questions for the candidate

[Germán Poó Caamaño <gpoo ubiobio cl>]

late, but better than never.

El sáb, 13-11-2004 a las 14:11 +0530, Sayamindu Dasgupta escribió:
> ***************************************************************************
> 
> 1. Judging from the comments posted here (gnomdesktop.org comments
> area), it seems as though most people are confused about the purpose of
> the GNOME Foundation and its board. How will you, as a member of the
> board, try to clear up confusion and outline a clear direction and
> purpose for the Foundation?

I'll add thar sometimes people want to help but they doesn't know 
how or where to start.  Moreover, some people doesn't know they can
help to task discussed by the board.

While the minutes are important, they are not enough.

We can suggests include an special section on GNOME Journal, on
the foundation site or any other visible place, that talks about
the activities of the board --probably a summary of the minutes, 
but written as a little article-- that show, for 
instance, in four subsections, what has be done, what are the 
currents tasks, the future tasks and a list of tasks that need
volunteers to get them done.  For the last one, give a deadline 
to take the task.

Also, it's convenient that people writes (on their blogs) about 
their impressions about their stuff on the board.  For some people
it can sounds bored and obvious, but is not for others.

I think that both of them are not hard to do.  Also, it allow to 
keep the foundation's tasks nearest of the community and the people
that want to part of the community.

> 2. What do you see as the most important thing that the board
> accomplishes, and what do you think is the area of the board's activity
> where you could improve things?

The board is the bridge between the community and the business and
the media.  It is the main bridge between regional groups and
the global project. And also, organize events and help other
organization where GNOME can be present.  

I think they have doing a good work and I help improving the 
contacts with regional groups and helping with their formation.

> 3. What is the number one priority for the GNOME project now, in your
> opinion? What do you think you can do as a board member to work towards
> that goal?

Make the desktop as simple and usable as a desktop can be.

To dominate the world we need more people around the world programming
with the desktop platform, because if we would have more applications
"developed for GNOME desktop" more people will want to use it or it will
be easier get chosen in their migration plans. 

Because of that the GNOME's regional groups are important and also
it can be the new source of fresh blood for the project. 

> 4. What do you think is the most important market for GNOME over the
> next year or two, and what do you feel you can do to help get GNOME
> better penetrated into that market?

The main market of GNOME is business and government market.  An special
market where the decisions to change comes from the directors.  GNOME
would project to engage to every people in a organization that chosen
GNOME as desktop, not only they heads.  But we can't forget that the
same people uses computer in their homes and we need to provide them
the easy way to do their work done in both places.

Also, in the next years the administration can changes, and GNOME 
should be the preferred desktop independent of the current
administration.  We should work for that.

A missing point is our innovation ability, it's needed to increase
our market.

> 5. What unique aspect will you bring to the job?

I can give a regional point of view.

> 6. How would you feel about moving to a system of Preferential Voting?

At moment I don't see any problem.  But, honestly, I'd like to work in
other stuffs.

> 7. How do you think you could motivate the rest of the board, if and
> when the other directors have other time pressures? 

Simply doing the work, trying to give the best effort and keep them
informed.  Seeing the people work normally is enough to get motivated
again.

> 8. What one problem could you hope to solve this year?

Trying to solve as soon as possible the logo and branding policy.  I
think is a "stopper bug" for people who want to help in different
arenas.

Also, as I said previously, improve the communication channel 
between the board and the community.  

> 9. What would you do to increase community participation in the GNOME
> community and GNOME elections?

Motivating the board to write they work, feelings, success and failures
while working in the board.  Makes the work more transparent.  In that
way people will know what work can be done, what they can expect, and
possibly, getting more active for the next elections :-) 

But also, helping to move hackers around different places.  For one
reason or another, people in third world countries regret participate
(or showing themselves participating actively) in the main project
while they working they local GNOME group.  I would to get closer the
gap between local groups and project.

> 10. Should Gnome be marketed as a separate component ? Or should it be
> actively promoted as a part of the offerings in a commercial software
> stack ?
> (Separate component in the sense *a DE in its own way and with its own
> ecosystem*)

Both of them. GNOME is a project per se, and as such it should be get 
promoted to be widely adopted. But also, we need to support the
any distribution, vendor, etc. who offer GNOME as their desktop and/or
development platform.  I don't think is not a race between vendors
and the project, it's a complement.

-- 
Germán Poó Caamaño
http://www.ubiobio.cl/~gpoo/