Re: Board of Directors Elections 2014 - Candidacy - Emily Gonyer

[Emily Gonyer <emilyyrose gmail com>]

On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 11:04 AM, Ekaterina Gerasimova
<kittykat3756 gmail com> wrote:
> Hi Emily,
>
> On 17 May 2014 19:42, Emily Gonyer <emilyyrose gmail com> wrote:
> > Name: Emily Gonyer
> > Email: emilyyrose gmail com
> > Affiliation: None
> >
> > Dear Foundation,
> >
> > I'm interested in serving on GNOME's board of directors for the first
> > time, in order to help steer GNOME in a more open and community led
> > direction. It is my opinion that GNOME has strode too far towards a
> > corporate-driven project and away from its community-led roots. As of
> > now, GNOME is, in my opinion too beholden to a small handful of large
> > corporations which forces the project to ignore large swaths of our
> > users in preference to them. The end result being that GNOME has lost
> > a tremendous portion of its respect and goodwill in the wider free
> > software community. As a member of the GNOME board of directors I will
> > actively work against this tide and towards the more open,
> > community-driven project that GNOME once was and I hope will be again.
>
> I understand your concerns with regards to corporate involvement in
> the project direction.
>
> Based on the available financial information, the corporate
> sponsorship enables the Foundation to employ an executive director and
> an administrative assistant. Without this sponsorship, much of the
> administrative work would need to be taken over by the Foundation
> membership and the current board is already facing the challenges
> resulting from having only one employee at this time.
>
> How do you aim to achieve your goals without alienating the companies
> that enable the Foundation to have employees to do the administrative
> work and offer financial support to our membership?
>
> GNOME is Free software, with a broad base of unpaid and paid
> contributors. It seems that you wish to change the proportions of
> GNOME contributors from the two backgrounds, how do you aim to achieve
> this?

I think we need to take a good, hard look at what we're spending money
on and evaluate what is truly needed vs wanted. Once we figure out how
much money we need to be spending, we can evaluate our current funds,
where they are coming from and how to raise more.

Donating to GNOME as an individual is not as easy as it could, indeed
should, be. We don't currently have a specific 'campaign' going on,
and as a result, a cursory glance at the website reveals no obvious
way to donate to GNOME's general fund (as far as I can tell the only
way to do so is to find the tiny 'Support GNOME' link at the very
bottom of the page). Additionally, I still don't understand why the
only way to donate to GNOME is through PayPal. Why don't we allow
people to donate via google or amazon? Why not accept bitcoins? Why
not encourage people to support GNOME via AmazonSmile and similar
programs?

These are just the first handful of ideas for alternative, and largely
untapped funding options that occur to me at first glance. I'm sure
there are myriad other funding options which we have not investigated
fully, and which do not include asking for corporate sponsorship.

Finally, I believe the board needs to be far more transparent than it
has been of late as to its activities & finances. The board in the
past has been resistant to allowing non-board members to 'sit in' on
meetings - even as a means for Engagement team members to take notes
and report minutes. As I understand it, the board represents and works
on behalf of the membership and their meetings ought to be public.

Emily Gonyer

> > I have been a long time user of GNOME since the 1.x days, and an
> > active contributor for the last 2+ years, primarily in
> > Marketing/Engagement with limited development and design
> > contributions. I actively promote free
> > software whenever and wherever I can, and feel strongly that it is
> > only through free software that we will be able to keep the freedoms
> > that we all cherish both online and off. Those freedoms are being
> > actively obstructed and eroded by corporations and governments around
> > the world. As a member of the board of directors I will actively work
> > against these forces, in order to ensure a free and open internet for
> > everyone.
> >
> > Good luck to all!
> >
> > --
> > Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius,
> > power and magic in it. -  Goethe
> >
> > Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't
> > matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr.Seuss
> >
> > Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that
> > counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein
> > _______________________________________________
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> > foundation-announce gnome org
> > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-announce
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-- 
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius,
power and magic in it. -  Goethe

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't
matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr.Seuss

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that
counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein