Re: Candidacy: Lionel Dricot

[Lionel Dricot <lionel dricot lanedo com>]

Le dimanche 22 mai 2011 à 22:23 +0200, Olav Vitters a écrit :
> On Sun, May 22, 2011 at 11:00:45AM +0200, Lionel Dricot wrote:
> > I want to achieve to make obvious to anybody that all the GNOME
> > technologies (including GTK+) are technologies adapted to a commercial
> > product and that high quality commercial support exist for them. I hope
> > this will help GNOME to become a flourishing market and a source of job
> > opportunities for many hackers. 
> 
> Just wondering: Do you think there is something lacking in the current
> board? Or is running for the board more about that having a contact in
> the board is better to ensure the current state (option for commercial
> support + importance of small companies) is more obvious?

At Lanedo, we have been surprised a few times by people who were
thinking that there was no commercial support available for GTK+. We
have heard of companies switching to Qt because Qt was guaranteed by a
company.

Things like that clearly show a lack of communication and a problem of
"image".

Is it the GNOME foundation job to address this kind of issue? I think
yes.

My opinion is that the GNOME foundation could be a good place to develop
even more the business ecosystem around GNOME, that there is a market
and that there is a lack of communication regarding the existing
companies. If you want support for GNOME related technologies, there's
no easy place to go to have an idea on the current situation. Thus,
people jump to the conclusion: "there's no commercial support for GNOME
technologies".

Is the current board doing its job wrong? Not at all! It was simply not
part of the board mission. A lot of board members come from big
companies that *use* GNOME. They never promised to work for small GNOME
companies. It is not really in their interest.

It would have been easy to criticize, to say loudly that the board
should improve the situation without moving a single finger. But I think
that, if you want something to happen, you have to make it yourself. I
think that the GNOME companies should be represented on the board
permanently. That's why I took the decision to stand for election.

So, the answer is "yes, something is currently lacking on the board" but
"no, it's not the board fault."

Did I answer your question?

Lionel