Re: GNOME Foundation Elections 2007. Let's start the debate!

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Thanks for the thoughtful questions.

> With the final list of candidates announced, it's time to submit
> questions about the GNOME Foundation and GNOME Project to this years
> prospective Board of Directors.
>
> [1] How much impact would being a member of the GNOME Foundation Board
> have on your current contributions to GNOME ?

I anticipate that spending time on the GNOME Foundation would augment
the current work that I am involved with, and help me to find new and
more exciting ways to be involved with the community.  I do not think
it would detract from my current involvements in any significant way.

Now that I am sharing GDM maintainership duties with William Jon McCann,
I am expecting to have more free time to invest with the GNOME community
in general.

> [2] Online Desktop and Services are being talked about as the next
> large step in GNOME - what is your vision for Online Desktop and
> Services and how would you measure them ?

I think the GNOME Online Desktop is an important initiative, but
one of many.  I think it needs to be balanced against other important
projects.  But I do think that it adds value to the GNOME desktop
experience to have an easy interface for using online tools.

I agree with Jeff Waugh that it is a good goal for the GNOME Foundation
to provide online services which can be used with the client
applications that the GNOME community is intending to provide.

I also think it would be valuable to outreach to other popular
online desktop tools and develop partnerships, if possible, to
make the GNOME Online Desktop a premier and supported interface for
accessing their tools from the GNOME desktop.

> [3] What are the SMART goals that you desire to set for yourself
> should you be elected to the Board ?

I think the most important goal is to make myself available to get
the tasks presented to the board completed in a timely fashion, and
to take responsibility for enough tasks that my contributions adds
value to the process.

Other goals include

- My goal would be to foster a stronger community of volunteers to
  help with making GNOME the best desktop for users with accessibility
  needs and to better encourage new people to get involved with the
  community via gnome-love.
- Ensure that the Foundation provides the services needed for the
  GNOME Online Desktop project to add value to the community.
- I have been involved with the roadmap project, and plan to take on
  more roadmap responsibilities and work over the next year.
- I plan to be involved with making next year's GUADEC successful.  I
  was previously involved with helping to make the Dublin GUADEC happen,
  so I have some experience with this.
- I would like to get more involved with legal topics surrounding GNOME,
  especially in the media arena.
- Getting the Foundation more focused on process improvement so that we
  deliver the highest quality desktop with minimal effort.

> [4] If you are a candidate for the first time, what are the areas that
> you think you can do better ?

I have a great deal of experience with interface stability,
accessibility, with multimedia legal issues, and with the GNOME
community in general, which I bring to the table.

> [5] Do you think it is important to mentor and coach potential leaders
> in the GNOME community ? If yes, what do you think the role of the
> Board be in this task ? If no, what are your thoughts on this ?

I agree that delegation is important for organizations to work
effectively, and mentorship is a part of delegation.

I think it is an important part of the Foundation to encourage new
people to get involved with volunteer aspects of the community.  I
would like to encourage more participation from communities that
are not so well represented today.  For example, users with 
accessibility needs.  I think having someone on the board with
accessibility experience is important to foster these sorts of
things.

I mentioned as a part of my goals an interest to invest time making
gnome-love a more successful avenue for getting people involved with
the GNOME project.  I believe that the Google Summer of Code also
offers opportunities for the Foundation to get involved with encouraging
mentorship within the community.

> [6] Some of the tasks of a Board Member are mundane administrative
> tasks, are you comfortable taking on such tasks as opposed to being
> always involved in strategic and visionary thinking ?

I am effective at getting mundane, but necessary, tasks completed.
Within Sun, I have been effective working with processes like
providing documentation for the Sun Architectural Review Committee
(ARC).  I am picky about good documentation and have done much of
the documentation efforts for GDM and Solaris GNOME manpages.  I'd
like to be more involved with doing such tasks that benefit
the GNOME community in general.

> [7] What or which according to you, is the one "tipping point" move
> for GNOME in the coming year ?

Section 508 Accessibility requirements are a big selling point for
the GNOME desktop.  I think that when this is appropriately appreciated
by end-users (especially those who must meet Section 508 requirements),
that GNOME will be in a great position to take advantage of the
opportunities that will present themselves.  I think that, with
encouragement, this tipping point could happen in the next year.

> [8] 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
> in that aspect ?

The most important item is to keep the momentum building, to improve
things incrementally.  To leave the Foundation in better shape than we
find it.

> [9] What is your positioning with respect to the issue of OOXML?

It is unfortunate that there is so much controversy around this
project.

I think that if there is enough need within our community to support
OOXML, that this will eventually be done regardless of what the
Foundation thinks or does.

I believe the Foundation should be engaged as a cool-headed player
so that the needs of GNOME users are well represented, and to help
facilitate getting those things done which really benefit our users.
I think it's still too early to tell whether OOXML is something our
users will really need, though.

> [10] Why do you think we need a GNOME Foundation ?

To manage the necessary relationships between the GNOME community, it's
partners, and its users.  This includes legal, financial, marketing,
event planning, and evangelistic tasks (among others).

Brian