Re: A few questions for the candidates

[Og Maciel <ogmaciel gnome org>]

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 5:30 PM, Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org> wrote:
> 1) I've read with interest the mails from the candidates announcing
>   they're running, and most (if not all -- I didn't double-check)
>   include some motivations with examples of what they'd be interested
>   in working on.
>   Why are those tasks/ideas things you cannot work on while not being
>   on the board?

I guess it's one of those scenarios where if you're not fully
committed to an idea/project then it is hard for you to make it a
priority. I mean, anyone should be able to lend a helping hand to the
Board, but when people have other things happening in their lives, no
matter how well intentioned they may be, things they are not directly
involved with sort fall by the way side. I feel that once I'm 100%
involved with the Board duties, I will be able to work on the those
ideas and get feedback from the other Board members.

> 2) What are your non-usual (ie, not code, not translations, not
>   documentation, etc.) contributions as a GNOME Foundation member?
>   (organizing events, pushing people to do things, finding sponsors,
>   etc. are all possible answers)

In my case it would be advocacy. I happen to live in an area with a
very rich open source environment, with lots of companies (Red Hat,
rPath, to name a few) doing some direct work to bring this technology
to the world. There are several local user groups covering pretty much
all the popular environments and programming languages, who meet at
regular dates throughout the year. I try to attend some of them and
when I do, I always make sure to wear my GNOME hat. So I get to talk
to a lot of people and tell them about the GNOME project, what it
stands for, and point them to the area that they may be interested in
helping, etc.

> 3) What is your opinion on the co-location of Akademy and GUADEC in
>   2011? And if you think it was not the best choice, will you still be
>   able to help it happen?

I was there when the first one took place and I felt that it was a
great step toward bring the 2 communities closer together! I feel that
we have so much to offer to one another and by holding co-located
events we can shorten the gap between us. I'd also love to see Xfce
and LXDE people join us and maybe have a series of discussion boards
where we could hear what other developers/hackers are working on and
see if there's anything in common that we can work together and avoid
redundancy. Obviously, there's a balance that we have to keep in mind
so that community specific sessions are scheduled to avoid making a
co-located event too generic. After all, one of the main points of
Akademy and GUADEC is to present and have discussions about the future
of each project.

> 4) How much free time per week do you think you will be able to allocate
>   for the board? (I'm very well aware that this could be 0 for some
>   weeks, and 100% of your time for other weeks; I'm just asking in
>   general)

I should be able to spend an average of 12-14 hours/week

> 5) Are you okay giving up some of your current GNOME
>   responsabilities/activities to join the board? (give up a maintainer
>   hat, or hack less, or participate less in a specific team) Or do you
>   think it won't be necessary and why?
>   (I know it's a bit related to the previous question :-))

When I decided to run for the board I made a commitment to the GNOME
community. If I am elected I will most definitely pass the torch of
some of the other projects I'm currently involved with so that I can
completely focus on being a good member and do a good job together
with my fellow Board members. Short answer: yes, I am ok with passing
on some of my responsibilities to join the board!

> 6) Will you be interested in being treasurer, president or secretary if
>   elected? If yes, which role and why?

I would be very interested in serving as the secretary. I feel that
this role allows for a very clear and complete view of how the board
operates! Some people may see some of the tasks as tedious (taking
notes, writing minutes, etc) but I see it as a great opportunity to
learn the ins and outs of how the Board and the entire community
works!

> 7) What do you think of the current GNOME Foundation budget? Had you
>   read it at least once before reading this mail?
>   (it's okay if you didn't look at it before, btw)

I have read the last 2 budgets and the first thing I have to say is
that it is a very clear and well documented piece of document, so I
tip my hat to the treasurer for a great job! One thing that comes to
mind is: couldn't we have sponsored more local hackfests? Would it be
possible to have more of them in different parts of the globe? It is
my goal to learn everything about out budget so that I can better
understand the overall financial situation of the entire project and
hopefully be able to contribute with any insight I may come across to
the marketing team!

> 8) What do you think our next fundraising campaign should be about?
>   (I'd love to not read 11 times the same answer, thanks :-))

I like the idea of asking people to show their support through the
Friends of GNOME... I think we may be able to get more people to chip
in by creating a new type of post where we mention the name of those
who contributed money for a given week. It would be a "Friends of
GNOME" post! I also thought about "bounties" where people would donate
money to see if their pet peeves could get fixed. Sort of, "please fix
the annoying issue with package FOO and here's a little incentive!"

> 9) Will you be at GUADEC this year? (there's a board meeting and an
>   advisory board meeting there)

I'm still working out the financial aspect of this trip but as of
right now there is a 50% chance I may make it.

> 10) Make or break question: what's your favorite french expression?

"le chat est chaud et savoureux", translates to: "The cat is hot and
tasty". What, you don't use that expression? :P

Cheers,
-- 
Og B. Maciel

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ogmaciel gnome org
ogmaciel ubuntu com

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