Re: Question for candidates

[Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me>]

On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Max <sakanamax gmail com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Thanks for run the board.
> This is the most busy time for GNOME.Asia summit(4 days to go).
> GNOME.Asia team and Beijing team are busy for the summit.
>
> My question to all of you:
>
> * What's your plan for "Promote / Growth GNOME in Asia"
> -- GNOME.Asia summit ?
> ---- Central event management system for both GUADEC and GNOME.Asia?(  I saw
> it last GUADEC but not start to use)
> ---- Other idea?

Growth in Asia has been a bit of a puzzle for me.  But let's think
strategically on how we could promote and grow in asia.  Now, I think
there are a couple of things that we can do in terms of promotion.
Let's first talk about Tizen.  Tizen stack is the basis of the mobile
phone stack which interestingly enough contains many pieces of GNOME
technologies.  So by extension people who use Tizen use GNOME
technologies and there is a wealth of companies specifically in Asia
that are using Tizen for IVI, Mobile, and IOT.  There is probably some
fundraising opportunities there and a way to get our name out.

How about partnering with Asian based distros and make sure that we
have a specific asian experience on GNOME?  Recruiting folks who might
be interesting to do this?

Most of these ideas require a stable platform to do volunteer
recruitiment.  So while they maybe good ideas, you need to make sure
that we put in an infrastrucutre in place that immediately makes them
useful.


> -- Google Summer of code / Outreach Program for Women
> ---- What's your plan for GsoC and OPW in Asia?

Should there be a plan?  We should take applicants who are interesterd
regardless of race, creed, or color.  In general, we seem to have good
representation from Asia in tehse programs.

> ---- How many country get GsoC / OPW in Asia? What's your plan for promote
> it with more country in Asia?

I think the same thing applies as above.  Now, if you're talking about
highlighting the program in Asia, the best place to start is to put
posters in universities or popular cultural events.  For instance, in
SXSW, we put a lot of posters out there talking about teh next round
of OPW.  We even had some responses of that.  Having presentations
from GNOME OPW students in Asia is another good way to do this.  At
Linuxcon, there are a number of OPW kernel who are doing BOF and
presentation and they are coming as a group to talk about the work
tehy are doing.  We did something similar at GUADEC last year, but we
should really expand that to other areas.

While tech conferences and universities are a good place, don't be
afraid to go to places that are unusual.  Open air markets for
instance might be interesting.  Pay a kid to walk around handling
fliers to out to people outside a store? Or maybe do it yourself.

> -- GNOME Foundation member in Asia?
> ---- How do we know our other member in Asia?( I suggest tobi last year, if
> they want to fill their country when foundation member renew or new )
> ---- How do we get these member / resource together?

This isn't something the board itself can solve.  This is really
something that you want the engagement team to be working on.  The
board can help fund, and provide logistical support.  But ultimately,
we want to get enthusiastic people recruit others.  Sometimes that is
really easy.  For instance, I knwo at least two people we brougiht
into the foundation simply because we noticed that they were
doingpro-bono support on #gnome.  Sending them a t-shirt and
sponsoring their inclusion into GNOME Foundation is a great way to
reward people like them.


> -- Are you interesting to involve Asia event? and how do you involve?

I would love to be involved, but my opportunities to travel is quite
small due to job constraints and time constraints.  But I would love
to help logistically if I can.  In fact, I encouraged at least one
person in the foundation to help GNOME Asia with the conference
logistics as an event planner.


Max, it's unfortunate you did not run for the board this year.  I hope
you or Emily Chen will consider running next year.