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

[George Kraft <gk4 cactus org>]

> [1] How much impact would being a member of the GNOME Foundation Board
> have on your current contributions to GNOME ?
 
This past summer my job changed and I'm not directly contributing to
GNOME accessibility, so participating on the board should not be a
conflict.

> [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 ?
 
In the 90s the world wide web, the Netscape browser, and Java was  the
death of UNIX's new Common Desktop Environment.  Many started to say
"the network is the desktop", then some of the consortium members lost
interest in CDE.  We need to make sure the Online Desktop does not
fragment the GNOME community.  

Personally, I would not mind it if GNOME were more compatible with web
services; however, I would not want a desktop which is dependent on
them.  A danger of an online desktop would be the dependency on non
libre software services where we are not invited to make changes.

In short, I think an online desktop makes more sense for  a mobile
device or network computer, but not for my laptop or desktop  which have
a hard drive. ;-)

> [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 ?
 
It is important to mentor potential leaders and developers because the
community needs to be able to evolve.

> [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 ?

Handling these mundane administrative tasks is fine for now, but should
there be an executive director and staff to handle some of this work?

> [7] What or which according to you, is the one "tipping point" move
> for GNOME in the coming year ?
 
There are important topics like the Online Desktop and OOXML which  many
are interested in; however, I would like to bring to everyone's
attention that GNOME accessibility could be positioned as a clear winner
over Windows's MSAA and KDE accessibility, but instead GNOME's
accessibility  is on the defensive.  From an accessibility perspective,
GNOME could be winning the hearts and minds of corporations and
government agencies; however, GNOME accessibility is being threatened by
the deprecation of Orbit2 & its migration to DBus, and the migration of
Microsoft's UIA to GNU/Linux.  Why regress and/or re-engineer when we
can beat the competition now?

> [9] What is your positioning with respect to the issue of OOXML?
 
I like the idea of GNOME going on the record of opposing the
standardization of OOXML. We should then back that up by only providing
a oneway OOXML to ODF converter.

> [10] Why do you think we need a GNOME Foundation ?
 
The GNOME community needs to have a legal entity to handle its money and
protect its interests.

George (gk4)