Re: Questions to answer

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="baris teamforce name tr">

> 1) Why are you running for Board of Directors? What will you do more or
> better than previous years Boards have done?

I've had a year off after two years on. So I understand the workings of the
Board from the inside and have watched it from the outside with and without
that experience. I'm running again because I have time, renewed energy, and
I want to make sure that the Board is focused on its core mission, and help
the community achieve its goals (through both active assistance and getting
out of the way - whichever is appropriate at the time).

> 2) 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 still take oversight as seriously now as I did during my time as release
manager, so I regularly read and participate on the major mailing lists, and
catch up with the other lists when I can. Beyond that 'community oversight',
I also watch for GNOME in external forums such as LUGs, press mentions, etc.
It's extremely important for a Board member to understand what's going on in
the community if they are to capably represent it.

> 3) What sources of funds do you as a candiate try do establish? And what
> will you spend it on? Not counting revenue from the shop and Friends of
> GNOME. Think more like the recent move by Mozilla or a subscription based
> bounty system.  (olafura from gnomedesktop.org)

In the past, I have encouraged the Board to involve smaller companies on the
Advisory Board by creating a tiered fee structure, and I was extremely happy
to see Dave Neary complete that goal. I'd like to bring more companies into
the Advisory Board, encourage more pooled funding and (importantly, because
it's not all about money) resource contribution to GNOME projects, and make
sure we're getting the most out of existing fund-raising efforts.

> 4) Gnome is mostly a european and US based project, but seems to have some
> following in Latin America and India. How will you as a candidate grow the
> contribution base, especially in Asia, Africa and South America?  (olafura
> from gnomedesktop.org) Or in general what would you do to increase
> community participation in the GNOME community and GNOME elections?

I see the Foundation (and the Board, shepherding it) as a natural conduit
between stakeholders in the project that do not otherwise communicate or
mix, so outreach to new and existing local communities is an important part
of that. I raised this goal of reconnecting our local communities in my
10x10 speech at GUADEC, particularly focusing on outreach to developing
countries (or 'emerging markets' in the marketing lingo). I want the Board
to assist in any way it can to help this happen. For instance, flying GNOME
developers and evangelists to local FOSS events to talk and teach... Spread
the love! :-)

> 5) 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 consensus on each item for
> discussion. Are you good at working with others, who sometimes have very
> differing opinions than you do, to reach consensus and agree on actions?

Hmm. I wonder how entertaining this answer will be. I have come to realise
over the last few years, and in particular over the last year and a half,
that some people are decision-making oriented (make a call, run with it,
adapt to changes or failures as they arise), while others are discussion
oriented (sound out the options, talk with stakeholders, build consensus,
then agree to a course of action). I tend towards the latter, 'feminine'
approach, which drives my boss and sometimes my wife up their respective
walls. I'm appreciate and value both approaches. :-)

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

I work from home and travel quite a lot, so my time is necessarily flexible!

> 6) 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?

I think this is one of the most important things I bring to the Board (and
to the project in general). I'm an energetic ambassador for GNOME, I've had
media training (and generally keep my foot out of it), and I'm very good at
developing and delivering good messages. As an amusing answer to the above
combined question, here's an interview I did a while back that required
serious restraint and diplomacy simply to answer the combative questions:

  http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/21/1045638481419.html

I particularly like the last sentence of the introduction. :-)

> 7) What do you see as current threats to the future of a complete Free
> Software desktop? And what would you like the GNOME Foundation to be doing
> to address these issues?

(I will answer this in reply to the SWOT analysis section of Curtis' earlier
email.)

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

I've already mentioned my goals for structure and messaging of the Board
itself, so here's something else. I want to put some Foundation resources
into organising a few smaller, focused meetings about particular issues we
need to drive forward such as: Performance improvements, building a great
platform for third party developers, vastly improving our website, etc. I
see this as a valuable contribution the Foundation can make to the GNOME
community, which the Board will need to push (which may involve delegation
to organising groups for each event, funding travel, etc).

> 9) Please rank your interests:

Okay, these are my personal interests, totally independent of what I think
needs attention in the GNOME world or what the role of the Board is:

  a. GNOME evangelizing to government, enterprise, small business, and
     individuals
  e. Alliance with other organizations.
  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

And again, but in order of what I think is important and appropriate for the
Board in particular to focus on:

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

(Though with this list, it's worth noting that what is listed last is by no
means "not a priority" - all of the items mentioned are very important!)

> 10) One of the ingredient for success in Free Software project such as
> GNOME is committed and dedicated memberships. How would you propose to
> promote new membership, and encourage commitment of existing membership to
> make the GNOME desktop the desktop of choice? [ Hints: the number of
> Foundation members have reduced from 460 in 2001 to approximately 300 in
> 2002 ] (this question is taken from questions of year 2002. I wanted to
> include this because our member count is around 350 today)

There's a problematic conflation in this question, in that 'membership' of
our community is not exactly the same as 'membership' of the Foundation. I
want to answer both sides though, as they are both interesting:

 * Foundation Membership: It's important to have the Foundation membership
   reflect the past and present activity in the GNOME community, because we
   have veterans and elders to keep us honest, active contributors to keep
   us on the ball, and a broad and varied audience who want to be assured
   that the GNOME community is vibrant, large and well represented. So, it
   is somewhat disappointing that the Foundation membership is so small if
   we compare it to the greater GNOME community - but then, we haven't done
   a lot of work to encourage people to join. Sometimes people ask what the
   benefits of being a Foundation member are, "Why bother to join?" Do they
   think it is an effort to join? (It isn't!) Do they think the Foundation
   needs to do something for them? (It does already, but could do better at
   informing them.) Do they think that Foundation membership is only for the
   "cool" people? (All Foundation members are cool, of course, but it is not
   an exclusive club - it is very inclusive for all GNOME contributors.) So,
   I don't think we need to *tempt* people to join, we just need to make
   sure everyone involved in GNOME - at whatever level - knows that they can
   join, and *should* join, as a statement of their contribution and role in
   our community. We all have a stake in this wonderful project. :-)

 * Community Building: We need to focus a lot more on general community
   building, and enabling new developers to contribute. Most of the major
   code contributors, module maintainers, subproject leaders and community
   leaders haven't had enough time to spend on mentoring, which is quite
   unfortunate. There is not a lot the Board can do to contribute directly
   to this effort, but I'm sure there will be ways to help members of the
   community who are keen to work on this.

> 11) (only to those who are running for reelection) Name one of your
> accomplishments. And we were told that the board in the last years had
> huge problems being pro-active. Any issue which was slightly contentious
> had an opposition in the board. As a consequence there was no resolution.
> How do you intend to behave differnetly this year to avoid a repetition of
> that problem.

(I'm was not a Board member last year, but was for the two previous years.)

Possibly a strange answer, but I think a good one for a representative Board
member: I stepped down from the Board for a year when I knew I wouldn't have
enough time or brain cycles to contribute, and encouraged fresh faces to run
who have proven invaluable to the Board and the community (in particular,
Dave Neary).

What will I do differently? I think my candidacy statement very neatly sums
that up. :-)

In closing, I think my sigmonster knows what I really want to say. :-)

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2006: Dunedin, New Zealand               http://linux.conf.au/
 
   "We are not lovers. We are not romantics. We are here to serve you." -
                        Gary Numan, Down In The Park