I'm dissapointed to find that your platform seems to be entirely based on effectively re-hashing the failed no-confidence vote. My views on that matter are not only well documented, but the vote failed, so it seems a peculiar decision to run primarily on the same topic.

I am disappointed, too, that you pick a single point and pretend this would be all I base my campaign on - though that is absolutely untrue. If you had taken the time to read more carefully you had seen that I also plan to support the foundation plans as well as strengthen the community and the team spirit within. And just to clarify the point why I mention the vote and had to base part of my campaign onto it: As the person who initiated the vote I had to refer to that, especially because the vote wasn't successful, as the problems that made me initiate the vote in the first place are still true and present and unsolved. Additionally we should shed another light on the vote than you do. If I recall correctly - correct me if not - the vote ended with 11% of the members voting for a complete re-election. Regarding the fact that only 20% were needed to be successful the vote reached more than 50% of the needed votes. And I am quiet certain that the vote had been successful if I had decided to campaign more and if others, like you, hadn't painted darkest pictures about openSUSE and its community falling apart in case the vote is successful, presenting it as a given fact thought it was not much more than wild assumptions.

I was really hoping for some insights into how you'd operate as a Board member once given the responsibilities of the office.

I'd operate as a selected representative of the community, speaking in behave of those uncomfortable with the happenings of the last few month, and even more important: I will do so with all my passion for openSUSE as a community and a distribution.

In that veign, I'd like you to answer the following questions which are similar to those I asked Stasiek:

- How do you make yourself available for contact by community members?

I already am available for contact to every member of the community. After calling for a Non-Confidence-Vote I was open for everyone to explain my motives and did so in e-mails and in a lengthy video call with Gerald - and I will continue to do so. Whoever wants to get in touch: write an e-mail, write to me on Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon or in IRC (when I am online) and if you want, we can arrange an appointment for a video call, too.

- How much time do you engage with community members every week?

Hard to tell, it varies a lot. But I am there whenever you need me and ask for me.

- What is your view on conflict resolution?

There are many strategies towards conflict resolution. But two of them I value the most: Compromising and Collaboration Conflict resolution is about finding a compromise between two points of view. You need both sides to be able and willing to make a compromise. In rare situations, where either one side or both are not able or willing to collaborate to find a compromise, the next higher instance is needed to trigger a resolution in the best interest of both parties. But lets cut the long story short: We are a community and have one big thing in common; our passion for openSUSE. Therefore I am very optimistic that, though we cannot always be of one single opinion, we will still find a way to make a compromise in the very best interest of the community, openSUSE and therefore in our very own interest.

- Does everyone always deserve a second chance?

Yes, as we all are human beings, making mistakes or sometimes misbehaving out of various reasons. But nonetheless I want to limit that answer to one important requirement: The misbehavior must not be intentionally harmful.

- Are there some lines which deserve immediate sanction?

This is a bit general and therefore hard to answer. Sometimes it really does not only depend on the severity of the action or breach, but on the circumstances that led to the action or breach. At least we can surely agree, that any action that would be of legal relevance, deserves immediate sanction.

- What's the most severe action you feel the Board should take to resolve a conflict?

Any temporary sanction. Final and permanent sanctions should need a second instance validating that the permanent sanction is appropriate and the accusations which led to the sanction are confirmed and proven.

- How do you make sure that you dont step on the toes of others when pushing your agenda and contributions in an area where existing contributors could be present but struggling?

A decent amount of respect for any contributor and their efforts and accomplishments for openSUSE and its community as well as being able, willing and always open for communication and making compromises in the best interest of the contributors, the community and the projects.

- The Board's role includes "Facilitate decision making processes where needed."; should the Board decide when "when needed" applies, or should the Board only involve themselves when invited by community members who wish their help in decision making processes?

The openSUSE board consists of openSUSE members and therefore, as a normal member, they should be able to suggest where help might be needed - especially if those help might be needed in areas where they contribute.

- Should the Board set the direction for the Project or should the direction be set by contributions?

As before, the openSUSE board consists of openSUSE members and any member can make contributions, that is true to those being members of the board, too. Therefore I think the board should be able to set directions, but should not do so in case they are against the community's will and wishes. As well as in cases where those directions result in radical changes to the community structure or to the community's projects the community should have a saying about whether they want those directions set or not. As a do-o-cracy this already does apply in some ways automatically, where there are no contributors to drive the direction forward we'd come to a standstill. In cases where there are opposing contributions setting opposing directions the board should be able to help in the "decision making process".

- What is your opinion of the Project's key sponsor (SUSE)?

I doubt this is a relevant point that says anything about how much I am willing and capable of working in the community interests when elected to the openSUSE board, but let me share a short anecdote: I was once asked by a professor that the HTW Berlin which company I'd love to work for after finishing my studies - I answered SUSE. Although that maybe says it all, I'd want to stress the fact that I value SUSEs contributions to openSUSE to the highest. That though does not change my mind about the foundation plans which I want to support and push forward.

- How do you intend to communicate and collaborate with SUSE in an official capacity? What are the first things you're going to ask for?

Given the community elected me to work in their interests in the openSUSE board, I'd be looking forward to work with the SUSE representatives. With one of them I already had the honor to have a lengthy video call and it was a very informative and fruitful conversation for both sides. As a openSUSE board member I'd love to continue that good conversation and collaboration. What I'd be asking for in detail will highly depend on where I see SUSE could be a valuable partner to reach goals of the community and openSUSE.

Thanks in advance for the insights.

You are welcome. If some answers are not satisfactory because of lacking detail, please reach out to me - I really mean it - via e-mail (pb@crowbyte.org), Twitter (@crowbyte), Facebook, or Mastodon (@crowbyte@fosstodon.org). Kind regards Pierre -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org

Am 11.08.20 um 16:09 schrieb Richard Brown: Hi Richard,

...

...

I was really hoping for some insights into how you'd operate as a Board member once given the responsibilities of the office.

I'd operate as a selected representative of the community, speaking in behave of those uncomfortable with the happenings of the last few month, and even more important: I will do so with all my passion for openSUSE as a community and a distribution.

If you are elected, do you not feel that you would have a responsibility to act on behalf of ALL of the openSUSE community, not just a minority of your own chosing?

You talk about the board position as if it was the leadership of the federation commanding a fleet of ... No, it is not. The board is just a bunch of guys who should help people to have fun with openSUSE under the big umbrella of a huge company, and try to steer against if somebody goes wild. Please stop to put that much of emphasis on "the board". It is important, yes, but other things are more important, which we are heavily neglecting on this list, also because of discussions like this. That should change.

...

At least we can surely agree, that any action that would be of legal relevance, deserves immediate sanction.

On that I wholeheartedly agree, and I can speak from experience that the Board has had issues of such relevance in the past.

And I apologise for such a vague and general question, but I assume you can understand that any issue of potentially legal relevance needs some discretion when talking about on a public forum.

This is - sorry - completely irrelevant, and I consider especially the last paragraph poisonous for our community, because it transports nothing but FUD. We do not need that! Of course there are legal implications, of course you need to deal with it (being on a board or not), of course that is nasty. Why wonder? It does not play a role if you are serving on as a chairman of the Kaninchenzüchterverein or on the great openSUSE board, you have a fair chance to get in touch with nasty stuff. Everybody who worked on a random non profit or, more specifically, a board of an open source project (and there are boards with far more responsibility than openSUSEs, ie. in the financial area) knows that. If one is running, he/she should be very aware of that.

We've also had Board members overeach their position and (intentionally or not) effectively bully other contributors into accepting their desired way as the only acceptable way.

I wouldn't want to see Pierre the Board Member fall fate to either such confusion.

How will you work to avoid such confusion if you are elected?

Oh man... I wished we had asked you these kind of questions when you were running... there is no answer to this kind of q's, and you know that. Pierre brings energy and a different angle to the table, which I think is great. We should appreciate that and be happy that he stood up to represent alternative opinions. And if he convinces enough members to be elected, we owe him a chance to do things, with the tiny extra that the board role gives him over a "normal" contributor. After all, we ask him to do a lot of nasty work behind the curtain for us ;-) It is great to ask the candidate questions, but we should stay reasonable and fair. IMHO. regards, Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org

On Thu 2020-08-13, Per Jessen wrote:

ISTR that Richard never ran for election ?

He did; cf. https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_history which links to https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2013-03/msg00020.html . Gerald -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org

Thank you, Klaas. I can only only give you a big +1 Quoting Klaas Freitag :

Am 11.08.20 um 16:09 schrieb Richard Brown:

Hi Richard,

...

...

...

I was really hoping for some insights into how you'd operate as a Board member once given the responsibilities of the office.

I'd operate as a selected representative of the community, speaking in behave of those uncomfortable with the happenings of the last few month, and even more important: I will do so with all my passion for openSUSE as a community and a distribution.

If you are elected, do you not feel that you would have a responsibility to act on behalf of ALL of the openSUSE community, not just a minority of your own chosing?

You talk about the board position as if it was the leadership of the federation commanding a fleet of ... No, it is not. The board is just a bunch of guys who should help people to have fun with openSUSE under the big umbrella of a huge company, and try to steer against if somebody goes wild.

Please stop to put that much of emphasis on "the board". It is important, yes, but other things are more important, which we are heavily neglecting on this list, also because of discussions like this. That should change.

...

...

At least we can surely agree, that any action that would be of legal relevance, deserves immediate sanction.

On that I wholeheartedly agree, and I can speak from experience that the Board has had issues of such relevance in the past.

And I apologise for such a vague and general question, but I assume you can understand that any issue of potentially legal relevance needs some discretion when talking about on a public forum.

This is - sorry - completely irrelevant, and I consider especially the last paragraph poisonous for our community, because it transports nothing but FUD. We do not need that!

Of course there are legal implications, of course you need to deal with it (being on a board or not), of course that is nasty. Why wonder?

It does not play a role if you are serving on as a chairman of the Kaninchenzüchterverein or on the great openSUSE board, you have a fair chance to get in touch with nasty stuff. Everybody who worked on a random non profit or, more specifically, a board of an open source project (and there are boards with far more responsibility than openSUSEs, ie. in the financial area) knows that. If one is running, he/she should be very aware of that.

...

We've also had Board members overeach their position and (intentionally or not) effectively bully other contributors into accepting their desired way as the only acceptable way.

I wouldn't want to see Pierre the Board Member fall fate to either such confusion.

How will you work to avoid such confusion if you are elected?

Oh man... I wished we had asked you these kind of questions when you were running... there is no answer to this kind of q's, and you know that.

Pierre brings energy and a different angle to the table, which I think is great. We should appreciate that and be happy that he stood up to represent alternative opinions. And if he convinces enough members to be elected, we owe him a chance to do things, with the tiny extra that the board role gives him over a "normal" contributor. After all, we ask him to do a lot of nasty work behind the curtain for us ;-)

It is great to ask the candidate questions, but we should stay reasonable and fair. IMHO.

regards,

Klaas

-- Mit freundlichen Gruessen,   Andreas Vetter Stellv. IT-Bereichsmanager Fakultaet fuer Physik und Astronomie Tel.: +49 (0)931 31-82264 Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik Tel: +49 (0)931 31-85890 iuk@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org