> 1. Judging from the comments posted here (gnomedesktop.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? In the end, the purpose of the foundation is very simple - to advance the interests of the GNOME project. And the board coordinates that activity. The foundation and board should never be the focus. The message we should be projecting is that the board is for troubleshooting, and for enabling things people want to do. Is the sysadmin team ignoring your request? Do you need support for an event? tell the board about it. But if the board is making lots of noise, that's the tail wagging the dog. > 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 most important thing board accomplishes is definitely making sure that the yearly GNOME get-togethers happen. Which has gone quite well. What I'd like to work on over the next year is improving the job the board does at communicating with the outside world. > 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? The GNOME project is in a transitional stage right now. At the beginning, we had a pretty well defined set of software components to create; from the toolkit, to the file manager, to the preference dialog to set the background. While we're not done with that activity, we've largely accomplished it, and GNOME project members are now often working on projects that go beyond the strict realm of desktop software, or new user interface ideas that extend the conventional desktop. The challenge, and the priority has to be to keep a coherent vision of what GNOME is about in that environment and make sure people are still working together. What the board can do to help that is simply to keep people talking, both by direct pressure and by organizing events appropriately. > 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? Market definition isn't really a suitable job for the board. People are doing all sorts of very different things with GNOME and that's a good thing. But once you go beyond the software enthusiast's desktop, whether it's to education, to the enterprise, to government, to home users, there is a common thread; we need to do a better job at communicating what GNOME is about and what benefits it brings. That's a job for the board. > 5. What unique aspect will you bring to the job? We have a very talented group of people running for the board. I'd be hard pressed to name one skill that I have that someone else doesn't share as well. Or at least one relevant skill. What I'd highlight about my background is the combination of deep knowledge of the GNOME technologies and community processes with an interest in spreading the message about those to the outside world. > 6. How would you feel about moving to a system of Preferential Voting? The people arguing for preferential voting have some good points. I wouldn't consider it a pressing issue for GNOME at the moment, however. My rough guess is that in the last few elections at most just the last few spots would have been affected by using a different voting system. In the end the board doesn't make policy; we generally haven't had situation where competing blocks of GNOME contributors are desperately trying to get their candidates on the board. > 7. How do you think you could motivate the rest of the board, if and > when the other directors have other time pressures? In the end, the best way to motivate board members is to do work yourself, to bug people, and to simply not let issues drop. > 8. What one problem could you hope to solve this year? Of the 4 items I listed in my candidacy statement, the one I'd highlight is getting a short one-paragraph description of what the GNOME project is about. It's a small thing, but it's an important thing. > 9. What would you do to increase community participation in the GNOME > community and GNOME elections? Well, the way to increase interest in the GNOME elections is to have a public brawl between board members :-). Seriously, increasing community participation in GNOME is a question of execution. When someone wants to participate we have to make sure we are welcoming that, not putting roadblocks in their way. Interest the GNOME elections will follow. > 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*) The percentage of people who are able to go out and install GNOME on top of their existing operating system is tiny. To the end user audience, to the journalist audience, we have to market GNOME as a component of the overall free software desktop. Let people know that GNOME is what makes the Linux system they are using easy to use, attractive, and just work.
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part