Re: Questions to the candidates

[Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>]

On Thu, 2007-11-22 at 23:52 +0100, Anne Østergaard wrote:
> Questions to the candidates:
> 
> Will you apply for the position as new Executive Director for GNOME?

I don't expect to change job during next term of the board.


> Will you apply for any paid position within GNOME while serving as board
> member?

I don't expect to change job during next term of the board.


> Will you attend at least 90% of the board calls?

I don't expect to miss more than three or four of the board calls a year
(do the math).

That said, I think a member that attends 100% of the board calls but is
totally silent in between conf calls on the board list is most probably
less effective than an otherwise active umember that attens only 50% of
the calls.


> Can you accept competing official ISO standards?

So many levels I can answer (or not) this.  I'll give a few a try:

  - Yes, I accepted all of Fortran (ISO 1539), Ada (ISO 8652), C (ISO
9899), BASIC (ISO 10279), C++ (ISO 14882), C# (ISO 23270) as standard
and competing programming languages in my Programming Languages course
back in college.  I welcome accepting more in the future, Python, Java,
and JavaScript particularly.

  - ISO is irrelevant.  Governments or companies are not mandated to use
its standards.  National standardization bodies on the other hand matter
for governmental requirements.  It's true that most national bodies copy
ISO standards, but its by no means the only way to give a spec the
Standard stamp.

  - How are we as an industry are going to move on if we are bound by
obsolete "official ISO standards" without adding competing (and
superior) ones?


> What is your position towards official standards that do not meet the
> gennerally accepted definition of a free and open standard. Such as
> Microsoft OOXML?

Mild.


> Kind regards
> 
> Anne

-- 
behdad
http://behdad.org/

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
 Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
        -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759