Re: A few questions for the candidates

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Tue, 2010-06-01 at 23:30 +0200, Vincent Untz wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I originally wanted to have some questions included in the list of
> questions sent by the membership committee, but I feel like waiting for
> Friday while the voting period is already opened is waiting a long time
> and I'm not being patient here :-)
> 
> I apologize because some of those questions are most likely a bit easier
> to answer for people who are already on the board...
> 
> 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?

It's mostly the responsabilities associated with the position (insert
Spiderman quote). When in contact with corporation, I usually list my
credentials (GNOME developer, developer at Red Hat), even when
contacting companies on behalf of my GNOME projects.

The reason is simple, it adds more weight to my arguments.

I would probably be able to get to the same type of answers from the
people I discuss with, but would also be able to present them more
readily "on behalf of the Foundation".

> 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)

Helped in the organisation of the GUADEC in Birmingham (wettest GUADEC
ever, and it poured for 4 days when we were in Sevilla), and organising
the FreeFA tournament on a couple of occasions.

> 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 wasn't too fond of the "clique" aspect at GCDS, but if commitments are
already made, then we'll make sure it happens. We'd still need to
discuss the repercussions (financial, social and technical) from GCDS
before diving into another co-hosting in the future.

> 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 would expect to be able to give it "a day" of work a 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 :-))

I don't think you have to be on the board to do that (thanks Ross!), and
I hope it won't be necessary for my case. And I really don't mind people
implementing my ideas for me. Delegating is what a maintainer should
do :)

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

I already have ideas on who I'd like to be president, if we are both
elected. And accounting isn't my forte :)

> 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)

As I mentioned in my candidacy, I think we have margin for growth
through partnerships with other companies (that might not even have Free
Software, or GNOME relations).

I did not look at the breakdown of the budget beyond that.

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

See 7), and my candidacy.

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

Yes. I wanted to make a joke about visiting the museum of torture on the
Sunday, but realised it was an Amsterdam attraction :)

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

"Allez les Bleus!" :)

Cheers