Re: Q4 Updates Due

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Updated to reflect comments.  How's this look?

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Board Report
By: Brian Cameron

First of all, the GNOME Foundation board of directors would like to
express a huge thank you to all you volunteers who help to make the
GNOME community possible.  To all those who use the GNOME desktop
and understand the value of free software on the desktop, it is you
that makes the GNOME community both rich and rewarding.  Thank you
also to our advisory board members and sponsors for providing much
valued direction for the community.

The GNOME 3.0 release is planned for April 6, 2010.  Find a release
party near you to attend!  There are GNOME 3 Launch events being
planned aroudn the world.  Emily Chen and the GNOME.Asia team are
organizing providing GNOME t-shirts and other goodies to those who
can organize launch events in their area.  The GNOME Launch event
in Bangalore will also be GNOME.Asia 2011.

  http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero/LaunchParty
  http://gnome.asia/press/2011/Bangalore/

The GNOME Foundation is seeking to hire an Executive Director and is
currently reviewing applicants.  Refer here:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2010-November/msg00019.html

Last November, Stormy Peters stepped down from her position as
Executive Director of The GNOME Foundation.  The board would like to
thank Stormy for all of her great work helping to make The GNOME
Foundation a more effective and better resourced organization.  We
all wish her the best with her future endeavors!

As you can imagine, the board has been busy keeping up with the work
with Stormy leaving, and the most following important work continued to
be the most pressing over the past quarter.

 * Released the Annual Report.  Thanks to Paul and Daniel Galleguillos.

   http://foundation.gnome.org/reports/gnome-annual-report-2009.pdf

   Is it not awesome?  The GNOME Marketing team needs more help putting
   together things like this.

 * GNOME T-Shirt contest:

    * http://www.gnome.org/contest/

 * Womens Outreach Program proving successful!

   http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2010-11-women-outreach-interns.html

 * Germán Póo-Caamaño, doing a great job as GNOME Foundation treasurer,
   released our planned 2011 budget for GNOME Foundation community
   review.


http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2010-December/msg00057.html

 * The GNOME Foundation is now selling GNOME branded merchandise through
   FreeWear.  Check it out:

   http://www.freewear.org/?org=GNOMEFoundation

 * The Friends of GNOME revamp is making good progress, though is behind
   schedule.  Og Maciel, Paul Cutler, Andreas Nilsson and the GNOME
   marketing team have been working on this.  Any feedback on the
   following alpha would be helpful.

   http://www.andreasn.se/diverse/temp/friends-of-gnome-2.0/

 * The bidding process for the MeeGo GTK+ work closed and the
   applications have been reviewed.  The chosen bid will soon be
   announced.  Thanks to Bastien Nocera for doing much of the
   organizing.

 * GNOME a11y project received significant funding:

   http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2010-10-accessibility-grant.html

 * The GNOME Foundation is making arrangements to use the Egencia
   Business Travel service affiliated with expedia.com to make it
   easier to handle the volume of travel subsidies handled by the
   Foundation.

 * Announced an interest to hire contract work to assist with GNOME 3
   marketing efforts, with a current budget of $5,000 allocated.  Made
   a call for project ideas and resumes on the GNOME Marketing list.

Those are just some highlights, so lots of good work is getting done.
Please help GNOME 3 be a success.  Get involved, join us at a GNOME 3
launch event or at one of the hackfests currently being organized.

Events:

 * The Boston Summit was held over November 6-8 and proved to be a
   great opportunity for collaboration.  The GNOME Marketing team
   made good progress on video projects and a great deal of work was
   focused on the upcoming GNOME 3.0 release and accessibility.
   Thanks J5!

 * The GNOME Foundation and KDE e.V. board of directors announce
   the Desktop Summit 2011:


http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2010-10-desktop-summit-2011-berlin.html

   Thanks to Andreas Nilsson, Dave Neary and Ekaterina Gerasimova for
   all the help!  Would be good to get more local GNOME volunteers
   involved.  Organizers are planning a face-to-face meeting at FOSDEM,
   probably on Saturday during lunch.

 * Organized the following GNOME hackfests in the past quarter:
   - Accessibility at AEGIS conference in Seville (Spain), October,
     2010.
   - GTK+ Hackfest in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain), October 18-22, 2010.
   - Snowy aka Tomboy Online Hackfest held during The Boston Summit.
   - Development Documentation and Tools Hackfest in Berlin (Germany),
     December 2-5, 2010.
   - WebKitGTK+ Hackfest in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain), December 5-12,
     2010.

 * Python Bindings Hackfest in Prague, CZ, (January 17-21, 2011)
 * GNOME Asia Hackfest in Bangalore, IN, (March 30 - April 3, 2011)
 * ATK Hackfest in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) (May 2011)

These events happen when GNOME community members recognize the need and
propose them.  If you have an idea or need for a GNOME event, please
let the board know.

The GNOME Foundation board of directors very much appreciates when you
email board-list gnome org to let us know if there is anything The GNOME
Foundation can do to help or if there are any opportunities that you
think The GNOME Foundation should know about.  Many different skill
sets are needed to help GNOME's mission. If you are willing to help,
there is a diverse set of interesting tasks to choose from. We need you.

Please also consider becoming a Friend of GNOME.  Your donations really
do help the GNOME Foundation continue provide support and services
which help the success of the GNOME project.

  http://www.gnome.org/friends/

Brian Cameron
GNOME Foundation Secretary