Re: 11 Questions to answer

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

I'll attempt to be brief.

On Wed, Nov 06, 2002 at 06:48:53PM +0000, Ghee Seng Teo wrote:
> 
> 1) Why are you running for Board of Directors?
I'll skip the nebulous 'I think I have something to contribute' and
reiterate
    - Find common elements with other projects.  Sharing protocols
      and formats ala the xdg lists is a good start, but for higher
      level applications I'd really like to see more truly shared
      development despite platform differences.
    - Continue to be an advocate for GNOME Office.  We may not be
      terribly integrated, but it seems important for GNOME as a
      platform to be pushed by large scale native applications.
 
> 2) Do you have leadership and committee experience?
Yes at various levels in GNOME (Board & Release team).
Random areas in real life (eg C++ standardisation)
 
> 3) How familiar are you with the day-to-day happenings of GNOME?  How much
> do you follow and participate in the main GNOME mailing lists?
While I do monitor many of the lists to stay current technically for
both personal and release team purposes,  I don't think the technical
side of GNOME should be a focus for the board.  The GNOME foundation
board is, by design, not supposed to meddle in technology.  There are
a great many skilled contributors focusing on that.  The board's
place is to provide a focus for external communication and if
necessary address potential internal problems.
 
> 4) Do you feel you would be good at ...
> and finding ways that GNOME can collaborate with other companies and
> organizations to benefit both groups and their users?
I'm Canadian :-)
More seriously, I'd like to think that my focus on the needs of
applications can indicate lots of fertile ground for collaboration.

> 5) What do you believe are the current weak points of GNOME as an
> organization, and if you were able to, how would you change the GNOME
> organization?
Let me say up-front that attempting to forcibly change GNOME is not
useful IMO.  This is an organisation of volunteers that do not take
force well.  There are little nudges here or there that might
improve things but as always it is the people that drive things.
As an example, communication has long been difficult between the far
flung elements of the project.  However, as the various groups
gain experience things improve.

> 6) Are you good at working with others, who sometimes have very
> differing opinions than you do, to reach consensus and agree on actions?
Differences of opinion can generally be massaged into consensus if
all parties make good faith efforts to do so.  On the other hand,
I'd rather see differences of ideology identified, and _avoided_ in
an effort to get work done.

> 7 Please name three or more areas which you feel are important
> for the Board to address over the next year
Tim has been doing a tremendous job ensuring the procedural aspects
of the foundation run smoothly.  The big ticket items this year are
likely to be related to fund raising.  Providing things like travel
support for Guadec without selling our souls.

> 8) Do you consider yourself diplomatic?
I am a strict adherent to the rule
    "don't send a flame until 24 hours have past"
Actually that would make a nice feature in evolution
    "That message was a bit over the top.  I'll delay it, go smell
    the flowers for a little while"

> 9) Will you represent the interests of GNOME and the GNOME Foundation over
> all other personal or corporate interests you may represent?
That is a given.
 
> 10) Will you be willing and have the available time to take on and
> complete various tasks that the Board needs accomplished?
Also a given.
 
> 11) How would you propose to promote new membership, and encourage
> commitment of existing membership to make the GNOME desktop the
> desktop of choice?

a) new membership will arrive as long as thing are approachable and
enjoyable.  Things like bug days, and decent developer docs are a
big help.

b) GNOME is well on its way already towards becoming the desktop of
   choice.  By focusing on providing solid applications to users