Re: Questions for the candidates

[Srinivasa Ragavan <sragavan novell com>]

Hello guys,

On Fri, 2009-05-29 at 18:17 +0100, Susana Pereira wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Here is the updated list of questions. Hopefully, this one will let us
> discuss important issues without taking too much time from our
> candidates.
> 
> You can find the list of candidates for the upcoming elections here:
> 
> http://foundation.gnome.org/elections/2009/candidates.html
> 
> 
> 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 ?
>  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 ?
> 

Transparency in board my activities. It could be minutes,
communications, decisions. Just be clear and transparent to the
community on the happenings of the board by blogs, mails, announcements.
Stormy writes in the foundation blog about the weekly activities. That
is a good initiative and a nice way to share things. I would like to
speak the board's voice, happenings etc in a similar fashion.

>  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?
> 

This probably would be my first non-programming related role that I'm
talking. This would be a bit different that what I'm used to do. But
usually I'm dedicated to what I do. So I'm sure that I would be able to
get past this, in a few weeks in the new role.

>  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 don't have experience in managing non-profit boards. I have some
experience handling the Novell Bounties, few years back, working with
the foundation and other hackers. I have good experience in managing
evolution project in the community. One of the changes I made which I
feel good is, sharing project responsibilities across other community
members who are great contributors to the project. One of my goal then
was to increase community contribution and one found weak area as lack
of patch reviewing and took specific focus there. I would give more
focus to spread GNOME and gain more developer focus to GNOME. Being in
India, which has lot of potential contributors, I surely give my
attention to see how to convert the potential people to contributors.

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

GNOME 3 is coming up in a great way. I would give more emphasis on
Marketing. Now there is lot of happenings on the marketing list, I would
concentrate and like to facilitate for the marketing teams/needs and
spread GNOME.

>  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 certainly feel that the boards should create more opportunities for
every body to contribute. Foundation should work more closely with the
local groups, help/ organize local events. Lot of our foundation would
be part of their local groups. Giving focus here, would help increase
their contribution, make then feel valuable and surely helps GNOME.

>  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?
> 

GNOME on the desktop front is doing great technically. Release team has
schedule for GNOME3 and tracking it actively. Marketing more for GNOME3
and working closely with distributions would help GNOME a lot. I some
how feel that though GNOME Mobile is doing well, its not well heard as
the desktop is. Maemo, OpenMoko, Moblin, all has(d) a GNOME stack, but
there is lot of room for improvement to make it a great success. Focused
mobile release team, mobile specific stack releases, and much more could
be worked out. 

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

I feel that GNOME/projects has good presence in events in America &
Europe. But its way poor in Asia. GNOME Asia was a great success last
year. More such events, and more participation in other FOSS events
would help a lot.

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

      * All local groups, focus more on GNOME-local and other FOSS
        events. Approach the foundation/board when there are
        opportunities, as they may not have a complete picture of the
        entire world :-).
      * Find ways, and help people contribute to GNOME. Translation is
        one area, where local groups can/help contribute a lot. 
      * Work closely with the marketing teams and spread similar theme
        and promote GNOME to schools, governments, etc.
      * Share, communicate ideas, forums  and other local happenings
        with other groups, it helps to build a stronger GNOME.
      * Be part/help make a localized GNOME and spread it more. It can
        reach much faster to all kind of people.

  In short, be part of GNOME, help GNOME rock!!!


-Srini.