Re: Questions for the candidates

[Diego Escalante Urrelo <diegoe gnome org>]

Hey,

On Fri, 2009-05-29 at 18:17 +0100, Susana Pereira wrote:
> 
> Questions
> -------------
> 
>  1. For outgoing board members: what have been the upsides/good things
> from your previous stint at the Board which you would  like to see
> carried forward into this term ?
> 

I would like to keep seeing more participation, enabling current
contributors to get more involved, such is the case of the refresh in
the membership committee and the new travel committee. Also, keeping
good communication with a broader public (yes, I'm thinking Latin
America here).

>  2. If you are a new candidate: what specific SMART
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_(project_management)) goals would
> you like to put for yourself? Or, in other words, how would you like
> to measure yourself and, let others know how you are doing ?
> 
>  3. What part of being a board member do you think will be most
> difficult for you? How do you plan to compensate for that?
> 

Trying to get more involved with the Board without losing focus in
stuff, I constantly try to sit down and think about what I'm currently
doing in my life in general to be aware of how much free time and focus
I have to offer for new tasks or current ones.

>  4. Do you have any experience on management teams or boards at
> non-profits? If so, can you give an example of a change you affected
> in that role? If not, what makes you think that you will be a good
> board member? What single change do you want to affect during your
> term?
> 

I've been working with local groups, had a chance to resurrect a local
lug in 2006 and until 2008 were I stopped actively coordinating activies
there, and of course my Board work for the last 6 months.
I think I'll be a good member because I have the time needed (based on
my experience so far), I trust my communication skills and feel that now
that I had the last 6 months as 'training' I can do a great job from day
1.
A concrete thing to affect could be enabling more people to get more
involved with the Foundation or with the Project itself.

>  5. What are the specific areas of the Foundation's focus and strategy
> where you think you can contribute as a change agent ?
> 

I don't feel like I'm a specialized agent and hence could revolutionize
a concrete area, but I have interest for this period (like I said in my
Candidacy mail) in marketing, fundraising, working with committees (and
enabling new contribution oportunities) and trying to get out a second
GNOME LA Tour.

>  6. Do you think we need to make the being a member of the Foundation
> feel more valuable, and how do you think we should do that? What would
> you change about the Foundation to make it more useful to members.

I think we can try to make our communication channels more evident, so
people can feel more confident to approach the Foundation to try to get
sponsorship (in money or just institutional backup) for activities.

Like Germán said, local groups around here usually feel a lot distant
from the most visible people in our community, language barrier and
other stuff usually discourages them to try to get closer. Although we
all know most of us are quite friendly, this is something we just find
out after having been together for a certain time.

>  7. Do you have any plans on how can the board help bring the GNOME
> platform and desktop in the top of opensource desktop and mobile
> application development?
> 

Helping define our set of offers for such markets would be a key factor
for that. Also, trying to get our software to run and being more
hackable in more platforms (yes, I mean Windows) will inevitably get us
more developers and spotlight than just being limited to unix systems.
This has been key to Python, Django, etc and I think we should start
thinking on that also.

>  8. Do you think the GNOME Foundation and the GNOME projects get
> enough representation at events? If not, how would you fix that?
> 

I don't know too many big conferences, but where I have been to
(EncuentroLinux in Chile, Latinoware in Brasil) there has been a good
number of people working as a local GNOME group.
I think this is linked somewhat with the previous question, I can
imagine local GNOME groups being more agressive in their promotion of
the project if they could offer something to Windows developers or
users. For example promoting Evince as a good PDF reader for Windows or
gEdit.

>  9. What, in your view, are the top 5 requirements (from a strategic
> perspective) for the GNOME communities world-wide ?
> 

I'm reading this as communities (hence user groups or promotion groups
not development of/or business), I think most of us could agree that we
could use more of:
 1. defining our offer of products more precisely (software, solutions);
 2. having more 'instant deliverables' for users and developers, for
example downloading a .exe of Evince or a .exe of the complete PyGTK
bundle to show your Windows friend how cool and good our software is;
 3. promoting get-together local events, where people can start to know
each other and create friendships that is what keeps groups together at
the end.
 4. Trying to get new sponsors that perhaps are not big enough to be
advisory board members but interested enough to contribute N dollars for
a GNOME event in their city.
 5. Getting our user groups to approach universities and institutes to
get talks with their students where we can show them GNOME and what they
can do with it. A formal relationship can help a lot in getting frequent
events and access to a broad audience.

I would insist that this varies from place to place, and most
cities/countries have different chances and hence different requirements
to local gnome domination™.

Thanks!