Candidacy: Jeff Waugh

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

  Name: Jeff Waugh
  Mail: jdub gnome org / jdub perkypants org
  Nick: jdub
  Affl: Waugh Partners <http://waughpartners.com.au/>
  Blog: http://perkypants.org/blog/
  Biog: http://live.gnome.org/JeffWaugh


Summary
-------

I love GNOME. I am passionate, motivated, and dedicated to building our
success, both outwardly - a foot on every desktop; and inwardly - making
sure our developer and user communities are rocking all the time. I believe
I've earned the trust of the GNOME community to represent it, both as a
communicator outside the project, and as a mediator and leader within our
community. I am here to help GNOME rock.


Why You?
--------

First and foremost, I am passionate about and dedicated to GNOME. I have not
contributed to GNOME by writing code because I found very rapidly that I was
not going to be useful in that capacity. Embarrassing, yes. Useful, no. So,
I have spent a long time contributing in every non-technical way I could. If
there is one skill above all others that I bring to the Foundation, it is my
ability to communicate and connect people together. For instance:

 * Representing GNOME at the OSDL Desktop Architects Meeting, making sure
   our needs (financial and community) are addressed, and major platform,
   system and infrastructural issues are dealt with across the development
   community.

 * I kicked off the GNOME Mobile and Embedded Initiative (to be formally
   announced in January 2007), which has brought together a surprising
   number of organisations and individuals focusing on mobile, handheld and
   embedded user experience development with GNOME. This initiative will
   have a massive impact on the uptake of GNOME technology as a developer
   platform, the visibility of GNOME in the 'real world' among 'real users'
   and direct development on the GNOME Platform.
   
   I hold in very high regard our capacity to thrive at the intersection of
   commercial and community development, so supporting GNOME developers who
   find commercial opportunities for their work is very important to me. I
   really get a kick out of projects such as this. :-) It's also satisfying
   to know that GNOME can put food on the table for GNOME hackers and their
   families. Why is everyone having babies at the moment?

 * Organising and chairing, with Chris Blizzard, the GNOME Boston Summit.
   Based the feedback I've received, this year's Summit raised the bar for
   face-to-face GNOME events in terms of getting things done, and making
   sure the wider community sees the results. The Summit was also a venue
   for more focused community meetings for the accessibility and text layout
   folks.


Goals
-----

While I believe the main function of the Board is to represent the GNOME
community, it can often be an excellent platform for Getting Things Done.
There are a number of things I want to do this year, for which a Board
position would be advantageous... I document them here so you can decide
whether or not to trust me with that role. :-)

 * Continue with GMAE and kickstart a couple of similar projects, focusing
   commercial interest on community/upstream development, ensuring the GNOME
   community is a strategic asset for the companies involved, and keeping
   our successes in the limelight. We need to make sure that the innovative
   GNOME community continues to be seen as a highly valued part of the Free
   Software ecosystem, and improve on that status.

 * Build a platform for advertisement of GNOME-related product, solution and
   service providers, and GNOME-related recruitment.

 * Fund focused face-to-face meetings, as I discussed with lots of GNOMErs
   during the Boston Summit. Specifically, I want to start with a UK-based
   meeting for "collaboration and communications" developers (ensuring we
   have a fantastic platform and integration for collaboration, presence and
   communications technologies), and a meeting for GNOME artists to coincide
   with the Libre Graphics Meeting in May (in Quebecistan).

 * Hire a business development manager for the GNOME Foundation, to raise
   funds and manage our organisational relationships. I am particularly keen
   on this, because a bizdev manager for the GNOME Foundation will be able
   to better manage the operational side of my crazy ideas. :-)


Conclusion
----------

I believe I've earned the trust of the GNOME community to represent it, both
as a communicator outside the project, and as a mediator and leader within
our community.

Here are a couple of my previous candidacy statements that are well worth
reading if you want to know more about me and what I feel is important for
the GNOME Foundation:

 http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2005-November/msg00014.html
 http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2003-November/msg00010.html
 http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00008.html

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
  "We live in a place where policy discussion is conducted with money." -
                                Eben Moglen