Questions for the candidate

[Jonathan Blandford <jrb redhat com>]

[ A little late, but hopefully timely enough that it will convince some
  people to vote for me. ]

Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu clai net> writes:

> 1. Judging from the comments posted here (gnomdesktop.org comments
> area), it seems as though most people are confused about the purpose of
> the GNOME Foundation and its board. How will you, as a member of the
> board, try to clear up confusion and outline a clear direction and
> purpose for the Foundation?

I think the scope of the foundation and board is well defined, and has
been successful for us.  I do not see any need to change that.  

As for confusion about our scope, I don't think it's necessarily a bad
thing, it's more a sign that we need to continue to emphasize what the
board does, and what the community does.

> 2. What do you see as the most important thing that the board
> accomplishes, and what do you think is the area of the board's activity
> where you could improve things?

The board currently performs two important tasks.  It provides a point
of contact for outside parties, and it coordinates events (GUADEC,
Boston Summit, LinuxWorld, etc).  We've been effective at these two
things, but we can be more so.  

Additionally, I'd like to see us be able to provide more support to
regional groups, either through coordination, swag (CDs, stickers), or
even just moral support.

> 3. What is the number one priority for the GNOME project now, in your
> opinion? What do you think you can do as a board member to work towards
> that goal?

Avoiding complacency.  We have had a lot of hard-earned successes as a
project, but we cannot afford to rest on them.

> 4. What do you think is the most important market for GNOME over the
> next year or two, and what do you feel you can do to help get GNOME
> better penetrated into that market?

The 'international' (or local) market is the most important to GNOME.
We need to continue getting GNOME adopted by people regionally,
particularly in places where a localized desktop is an afterthought by
Windows.  If we're able to do a good job of supporting the local GNOME
groups, we can continue bringing passionate people into the GNOME
community.

> 5. What unique aspect will you bring to the job?

I have been on two boards already, and have been a part of the GNOME
community for longer.  I will bring continuity and experience to the
board.  Additionally, I am physically located in the Boston area, and
can meet with Tim.

> 6. How would you feel about moving to a system of Preferential Voting?

No strong opinion.  However I don't feel the current voting system is a
pressing problem with the GNOME Foundation.

> 7. How do you think you could motivate the rest of the board, if and
> when the other directors have other time pressures? 

This has been a bit of a problem this year, and it's hard to get a
meeting going when you can't even get a quorum.  The best way to
motivate the board is to do the work yourself.

> 8. What one problem could you hope to solve this year?

I want to finally nail budgeting transparently.

> 9. What would you do to increase community participation in the GNOME
> community and GNOME elections?

This should come naturally out of our successes.  The board can
cheerlead as much as it wants, but the interest comes from the
excitement that the GNOME project builds.

> 10. Should Gnome be marketed as a separate component ? Or should it be
> actively promoted as a part of the offerings in a commercial software
> stack ?
> (Separate component in the sense *a DE in its own way and with its own
> ecosystem*)

This is tricky!  One of the appeals of GNOME to distributors is that it
is relatively 'unbranded', and is easy to brand itself.  I don't see us
going the Firefox route of pushing the GNOME brand heavily, but I think
that we can do a better job of getting major distributors to promote
awareness of the desktop.

-Jonathan