Re: Questions for the candidates - let's start the discussion(s)

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay">

> [1] What are your plans to answer the question put forward at the last
> GUADEC about "Why should one become a member of the GNOME Foundation" ?
> Would you be in a position to elaborate on your plans/projects to make
> membership more interesting for the GNOME Community ?

I don't think membership should be mandatory to contribute to GNOME on any
level in the community, but must be for organisational participation in the
GNOME Foundation (such as voting or running for election to the Board).

I don't think we need to make membership "shiny" (such as providing oodles
of irrelevant "benefits" to members), because membership ought to be a mark
of pride, not a coupon club. That said, membership comes with some relevant
benefits that are useful and/or important, such as access to some GNOME
services (email aliases and soon, Jabber accounts -- there are some things
I need to fix before Jabber accounts can be generally available to members
though).

I do think we need to do a better job of letting GNOME contributors know
that they can participate in the organisation that supports and represents
them by becoming members. Based upon the responsibilities expressed in our
charter, the GNOME Foundation can and likely will make decisions that affect
the entire community, so it is important to be a member.

> [2] What do you think is the most important item on the Board's agenda
> right now ? What will you do more or better than the previous boards ?

Our immediate #1 priority is to hire a bizdev director, who will focus on
funding opportunities for the Foundation, and maintain relationships with
companies and organisations around the world.

This will be a major contribution from the GNOME Foundation to the project,
and to all of the organisations that rely on us, from major distributors to
local consultancies, government deployments to individual developers.

That said, I think there's an important point to be made here: If during the
course of one year, the GNOME Foundation Board manages our resources wisely
and usefully, and represents the project well, then it has succeeded. There
will always be opportunities to go beyond that, but with those opportunities
come risks. This is not to say that the Board should slack off for a year,
but I do think it's important to balance "grandiose schemes" with our core
mission: "support and representation of the GNOME community"... I do realise
I'm saying that with a reputation for taking on ambitious goals. :-)

I hope this answer has an impact on how you vote: Elect candidates you know,
who you've worked with in the community, and who represent your values and
aspirations for the project. Elect candidates you can easily approach about
issues that matter to you. Shared values and trust are ultimately the most
important things about the Board.

> [3] How do you manage your time and that of others ? Are you good at
> working with others including those who might have a differing opinion
> than yours and try to reach consensus and agree on actions ?

I've had a very hard time making Board meetings at 05:00 in the latter part
of this year, due to changes in my schedule and work commitments. I'm not
happy about that, as I've held myself to much higher standards in the past
-- I'm hoping we'll be able to negotiate a better time if I'm elected this
year, but I'm used to my timezone being the odd one out. :-)

The second part of the question is more interesting.

When 95% of our values and vision are shared, differing points of view on
that last 5% can sometimes be tough, but ultimately extremely satisfying,
because (and this may sound odd) they are often at the most philosophical
edges of what we share. On the odd occasion, the Board agrees to build a
bikeshed but can't agree on the colour, but these instances are thankfully
rare.

I value vigorous discussion among Board members, because it demonstrates
that we are passionate about what we're doing, that the desires and values
of the community are in our minds, and that we value "getting it right".
It's hard doing that in a distributed organisation, and sometimes we get
cranky at each other, but I think it's worth it.

Last year I wrote about the difference between decision-oriented people
(decisive) and discussion-oriented people (consultative). That still plays
an important part in how I approach issues. I have the capacity for both,
but lean towards the latter.

> [4] How are you going to manage your current contributions to GNOME once
> you become a Board Member ?

Since passing the release management baton, I have been able to spend more
time on system administration issues (in particular, making our mail server
rock the casbah), but in many ways my current contributions to GNOME are in
one way or another related to the Board.

> [5] What do you think is the most important market for GNOME over the
> coming year and what do you feel you can do to help GNOME achieve better
> presence ?

There are a number of markets that we must continue to pay attention to,
including: Free Software developers, independent software developers, large
deployments (government and commercial) and our distributors (community and
commercial).

I've been focusing on another market for a while now (more seriously in the
last year) which is not entirely standard fare for us: mobile and embedded.

This is a massive, growing market, more open to newcomers than the desktop
market (thanks to our favourite monopolist incumbents), and we have a bunch
of fascinating advantages in this space. It's a huge opportunity to take
Free Software to *vastly* more people, faster than we've done so far, and to
spur further investment in our developer platform (there are already more
developers contributing to our platform for embedded use than desktop use).

Consider the Nokia 770, the new FIC open platform handset with OpenMoko and
the OLPC XO-1, all using GNOME technologies for user experience on embedded
and mobile devices... I'm going to keep working on this. :-)

> [6] What are your plans to encourage and mentor contributions to GNOME
> from Latin America, Africa and Asia ? How would you increase community
> participation ?

I will support realistic things the Board can do to assist initiatives to
strengthen GNOME awareness, contribution and community around the world. I
don't have specific things I want to achieve in this area, but that's why we
should aim to have a widely representative board, with different interests
and motivations, aiming toward similar fundamental goals. :-)

> [7] What areas do you see lacking currently in a complete Free Software
> Desktop ? What would your role be (should you be elected) in addressing
> the issues ?

The Foundation Board exists to support and represent the GNOME community,
which is responsible for choosing the technical direction of the project.

Should the community face an organisational challenge that requires Board
action (such as when the Board "blessed" the GNOME 2.0 release team), or
official representation, then we'd have to pull out all stops... But I am
committed to the "separation of church and state" that we have established
between the community and its support organisation, the GNOME Foundation.

So, my role would be to ensure that the Board supports the community in
every way it can. :-)

> [8] What are your planned activities to promote use of GNOME in small
> and medium business environments which potentially deliver many users to
> GNOME ?

A few weeks back, I proposed a new project to the Board that would provide
exposure for companies providing support and services related to GNOME. We
need to ensure that we have a thriving industry around GNOME to make small
(and large!) businesses feel that choosing our platform is a safe business
decision. I'll continue to work on this "GNOME business network" project.

> [9] What sources of funds do you as a Board Member (should you be
> elected) try to establish ?

We need to diversify our income, such that we are not fully reliant on our
(very kind) advisory board. That's not to say we have an immediate risk of
losing funding, but diversifying where it comes from just makes financial
sense.

The #1 priority of hiring a bizdev director will help greatly with this, as
that person can be tasked with bringing our ideas (such as creating a GNOME
shop and certification scheme) to fruition.

Board directors ought to be busy with the GNOME community, so should not be
the primary drivers behind business development ventures. It is extremely
difficult for volunteers to provide the time and commitment that projects
such as this require. Hard to swallow, but that's why we're hiring a bizdev
person. :-)

> What areas do you think require most fund-love ?

I want to fund highly focused development and subproject meetings. See my
candidacy statement for specifics.

> [10] Please rank your interests:

With my Board responsibility hat on (actually different to last year):

 * Alliance with other organisations
 * GNOME finances and fund raising
 * GNOME evangelizing to government, enterprise, small business and
   individual
 * GNOME legal issues like Copyright and Patents
 * GNOME marketing and merchandising of branded items (nationally and
   internationally)

Without my Board responsibility hat on (same as last year):

 * GNOME evangelizing to government, enterprise, small business and
   individual
 * Alliance with other organisations
 * GNOME marketing and merchandising of branded items (nationally and
   internationally)
 * GNOME legal issues like Copyright and Patents
 * GNOME finances and fund raising

I think the differences in these lists are as important as the priorities
themselves. :-)

> [11] How much 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.

> [12] Can you elaborate about your plans to provide the Board with a focus
> that steers development choices and works with allied organisations in
> order to define and adapt (and or adopt) standards ?

I have no plans to "provide the Board with a focus that steers development"
(see answer #7). I'm working with allied organisations such as members of
the Advisory Board and the GNOME Mobile and Embedded Initiative, focusing on
investment in our software and marketing/exposure of the platform. It's up
to the technical community to define, adapt and adopt standards -- where the
Board can support these activities, it should.


My sigmonster is being good today, too. :-)

Thanks,

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
     "Beware the lollypop of mediocrity: Lick it once, and you'll suck
                          forever." - Brian Wilson