Re: Questions to the candidates

[Germán Poó Caamaño <gpoo ubiobio cl>]

El sáb, 19-11-2005 a las 09:04 -0500, Curtis Hovey escribió: 
> 1. How much time can you dedicate to the board each week?

5 or 6 hours a week.  I'm thinking 1 hour each day and a extra
hour any time is needed.  According to Glynn Foster[1] between 
4 or 5 hours a week should be needed.

> 2. How flexible is your time; can you dedicate extra time one week and
> less the next?

It normally happens to me; so I can.  

But, to be honest, sometimes it doesn't happen at the same time is
needed.  For instance, my schedule doesn't fit very well with the
release schedule; when I have more time is when GNOME is frozen, 
and viceversa.

But I guess the Board is not ruled by the release time.  But any
clue or information from people who has been in the board would be 
nice to know.

There is an exception: in my holidays I've been completely out of
network the last years, so probably at that time I won't be able
to do anything.  (February).

> 3. Please rank your interests:
> 	a. GNOME evangelizing to government, enterprise, small 
> 	   business, and individuals
> 	b. GNOME marketing and merchandising of branded items 
> 	   nationally and internationally
> 	c. GNOME legal issues like copyright and patents
> 	d. GNOME finances and fund raising
> 	e. Alliance with other organizations.

a. GNOME evangelizing to government, enterprise, small  
   business, and individuals
d. GNOME finances and fund raising
e. Alliance with other organizations.
b. GNOME marketing and merchandising of branded items  
   nationally and internationally
c. GNOME legal issues like copyright and patents

IMHO, letter 'c' it is quite important, but I have no 
competence there because I'm not a lawyer and I can help
better in any other instance described above.

Letter 'a' is to wide; probably it could be divided in different
parts, each one with different priority.

> 4. Explain how you expect to meet you goals.

Certainly, I wonder how to accomplish my goals.  In my opinion,
it should be easy to make more transparent the way the board
works; announcing each task as soon is possible through the
foundation-list and also through blogs, wiki, etc. But not
waiting much time in write about that.

In many cases, the minutes are ok.  But, sometimes there are
news that should be spread as soon as possible.  For instance,
ask to extend the candidacy deadline; to avoid confuse to 
anyone.

I'd been in the other side of local communities, and I'd
try to be a point of communication with different communities
to work coordinated.

> 5. Name one of your accomplishments if you have ever served on the
> board.

I've never being part of the board.

> 6. Please assess GNOME:
> 	a. What are its strengths

As a organisation:

It has a strong community.
It has a successful release process that has been consolidated
through the years and it proved that was possible to do
in a Free Software project.
It has a big deployment.
It has a good support from companies.

> 	b. What are its weaknesses

Besides it has a strong community, there is a feeling that is
hard to get involved and being part.  IMHO, It is harder to get
new blood nowadays than it was in the past.

People who have been working in ISV's usually complains about 
how unfriendly is GNOME as platform with them.  It's much 
better than in the past; but still is shown as a weakness.

> 	c. What are its opportunities

As usual, change the world through innovation and 
simpleness.

> 	d. What are its threats

(Some of) Big deployments depends strongly on the current 
policy party (in places such as Brazil).  Any change of
their leadership could affect directly on any deployment.
That happened in some parts Brazil.

There is nothing we can do except to continue improving 
our desktop and innovating to make their decisions harder 
each time.

> 7. Name the best album you purchased in the last year.

Pink Moon (Nick Drake).

[1]
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2005-October/msg00149.html

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