Hi board candidates,
All the very best to everyone competing in the board election.
Personally, this election has a lot of candidates who are too close to
me.
I have a few very simple questions for the candidates. Please answer
them with a soft-limit of 750 characters, per answer. Thanks.
0) Board and Foundation: Will board members be controlling the
foundation too ? What roles do you see board members performing in the
foundation ? will there be dedicated personnel [from/outside] the
board for specific roles in the foundation ? I know that these have
been asked in the foundation-list earlier but I am interested in
knowing what your idea on this. Will you be interested in nominating
yourself for any specific position, say Treasurer, Lawyer, Firefighter
?
1) Financial Transparency: Assuming that the foundation will be setup
soon, what aspects do you think that the financial processes of the
foundation should have ? What level of openness do you propose ?
Should everything be in black and white or there can be costs which
are not shared public ? How often should a reporting be made in terms
of the financial status ? Should we follow some other open source
projects here ? Say GNOME/KDE ?
2) Software Freedom in the era of cloud: Earlier people were locked
into proprietary data formats (like doc, ppt) (before OOXML) but now
people voluntarily lock their data (mails, photos) into cloud storage.
Some feel paranoid about this. Some feel that this fear is much
similar to the fear that people had when Banks were introduced to
store people's money. Do you think that it is okay to trade a little
freedom for a little free online storage, for some home users at least
?
3) openSUSE Hosted Solutions: Do you think openSUSE should enter into
hosting things and providing online services for users (like
ubuntuone, gmail, dropbox etc.) ? We can charge users a small fee and
promise to not spy/sell their data.
4) Hypothetical Scenario: If Microsoft offers us a few thousand
dollars as part of Bing marketing for making Bing the default search
engine and homepage on openSUSE, will you accept it ? If no, Why not ?
5) vim or emacs ? (Just trolling here. You can avoid. You'll get +10
points if you answer both)
Listmates, Please avoid arguing over any of the responses. These are
just personal opinions and we should respect all of them. We can
disagree with them when they are proposed as a board item. Now it is
just a campaign response.
Thanks a lot and All the best :-)
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Sankar P
http://psankar.blogspot.com
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>I too have a couple of questions that I would like to see answered
>before I vote.
>
>1. What do you think the board is really doing? We all know the boards
> duties and goals as stated in the guiding principles but what do
> the board members do to fulfill and reach those? Please name as many
> tasks as you can and what they involve specifically.
What is the board really doing? I think they're having meetings regularly in IRC and the occasional face to face.
They seem to be fielding issues as they're brought to their attention, discussing them, then deciding a course of action which usually results in a board member following up the issue with the people involved or leading the initative to solve the issue.
Board members are also often the ones to identify and raise those issues for the board to discuss and work on as above.
I think they're doing more behind the scenes, listening directly to feedback from users and community members. This 'soft' feedback probably (and should) inform their own opinions which come out when they regularly interact with contributors.
A quiet word or gentle suggestion can often be more effective and productive than a dictitorial edict, which of course would go against the duties and goals of the board.
>2. What do you think is the most important thing that you personally as
> a Board member have to do? I'm not so much interested in goals you
> want to reach in the future but more in what you think is the most
> important part in your "job description".
If I'm elected, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be listening to problems, issues, and new ideas for the board to deal with and discuss. I'm going to have to share my opinions and ideas with the board, and I expect I'll often be stuck either finding other people in the community to help out with the issues, finding compromises, or 'just do it' and get my hands dirty trying to fix it myself.
In a word, I expect to act as a 'troubleshooter', helping answer the questions no one else wants to answer, and helping to fix the problems no one else wants to fix.
>3. Please describe your view of openSUSE as a project. Which
> people/groups/functions are there and how do they work together? I'm
> looking for a structured list, a short text or an org-chart :)
Speaking very generally (so there are many individuals who don't fit into any of the descriptions below, sorry)
Starting with our contributors, we have folks contributing code, packages, and ideas
They're loosely organised in teams working on specific areas (eg Artwork, GNOME, OBS). These teams largely organise themselves, working on improving their specific part of the project. They have their own wiki pages, mailinglists and IRC channels to help them along and to make it easier for others to get in touch with the teams (Mailing-list crossposting isn't always bad :))
This approach and our tools do seem to leave much information 'siloed' in the teams, but luckily individuals often involve themselves in more than one team and this can lead to very healthy cross-pollination and should be encoraged.
In addition to contributors we have a community of 'supporters' who, while not contributors in the "code, packages, ideas" sense, help out in the forums and IRC to sort out users with day to day problems. In my opinion there is often less interaction between 'supporters' and contributors than there could be, which can lead to end user problems remaining hidden and unresolved for longer than ideal. I'd like to see these IRC and Forum supporters more able/willing to file bugs and engage with contributors, and visa versa.
We have our Users. They use openSUSE. When they hit problems they normally turn to the forums and IRC and end up speakign to either supporters or contributors. When we're able to help, I think we help them very well, but I dont think we give these end users a very consistent experience which can make our project seem rather indimidating to a beginner. When users have ideas or want to give back to the project, I don't think many realise just how easy and open we are to them pitching in. We are an incredibly open distribution we just need to make more people realise that.
And then there are the 'outsiders', other FOSS projects, other organisations, journalists and bloggers. Without an obvious point of contact with the project all this miscellaneous lot bump into the other groups outlined above and often base their opinion of our project on their feedback. It's means we often don't give a consistent image of ourselves to these 'outsiders', but arguably it is at least very honest. I think we could do some work making it easier for these outsiders to work with us, establish better links, make it easier for them to get in touch with us.
>4. How would you describe openSUSE's relationship to its sponsors? What
> do we get from our sponsors and how? What do the sponsors get from
> us and how?
I only know of currently two sponsors who seem to have a relationship with us - SUSE and B1
SUSE's relationship as our primary sponsor is obviously the most important one. Many of our most important & active contributors are SUSE employees, and SUSE provide much of the infrastructure we need for the project.
Previously, I believe there was a strong feeling of unease and distrust between a large part of 'the community' and SUSE/Novell.
I don't think those feelings were warranted, but with the changes at the top as part of the Attachmate buyout SUSE seems very keen to emphesies the importance of openSUSE to them, while simultaniously stressing our independance and supporting the idea of the foundation.
If this message continues to get out I think a lot of those old feelings will drift away.
So from SUSE, we get the core resources we need to build openSUSE, the project and the distrubtion, which in return give SUSE the platform and ideas they need to build their commercial products and services from.
I heard someone suggest to Nils Brauckmann that SUSE need to support openSUSE because the things we're 'playing with' today are the things SUSE will need as products when the market 'catches up'.
Looking at our work with ARM, KDE, GNOME3, etc I can't think of a better way to put it.
B1's interactions with us I know much less about, but from what I've seen, they seem to be a very close partner, speaking authorativly about advanced technical aspects of openSUSE/SUSE and contributing to the project. As a consultancy firm who probably make their money supporting SUSE/openSUSE in the field, I assume the biggest thing they in return is constant up to date knowledge about the products they work heavily with, and very close ties to potential customers who might need their services
I think we're treated well by our sponsors, and in return give a good deal back - I'd just like to see more of them, which goes back to my earlier point of making better links with those outside the project.
>Thanks in advance for answering those and helping me to decide between
>so many fine candidates :)
It was a pleasure, now please vote for me! :)
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>>> Sankar P 12/01/11 8:01 PM >>>
> Hi board candidates,
Hi!
>0) Board and Foundation: Will board members be controlling the
>foundation too ? What roles do you see board members performing in the
>foundation ? will there be dedicated personnel [from/outside] the
>board for specific roles in the foundation ? I know that these have
>been asked in the foundation-list earlier but I am interested in
>knowing what your idea on this. Will you be interested in nominating
>yourself for any specific position, say Treasurer, Lawyer, Firefighter
>?
As I covered in my platform page, I'm not opposed to the idea of a foundation but I question the need for one. I feel our project needs to be seen to be independant, and I really think we need to strengthen that, forming a foundation is one way, but is it the best?
Assuming a foundation is formed, I would think a logical option would be to have the board transferring from being 'the project board' to being 'the foundation board', serving a similar role under the new structure.
Just as we already have volenteers who step up and take roles in the project, I expect that will be needed in the foundation. Given the importance of some of those roles (eg Treasurer) I think the board should be involved in the selection in some way, but I do not think it should be entirely controlled by the board nor necessarily a board member.
>1) Financial Transparency: Assuming that the foundation will be setup
>soon, what aspects do you think that the financial processes of the
>foundation should have ? What level of openness do you propose ?
>Should everything be in black and white or there can be costs which
>are not shared public ? How often should a reporting be made in terms
>of the financial status ? Should we follow some other open source
>projects here ? Say GNOME/KDE ?
As open and as transparent as humanly possible. I feel reporting should be at least quarterly if continunous 'live' reporting isn't a possibility. As a foundation we'd be a non-for-profit independant organisation so I struggle to see the benefit of keeping anything hidden. Looking into how other projects do it would go without saying, no point making the same mistakes as those who have done this before us.
>2) Software Freedom in the era of cloud: Earlier people were locked
>into proprietary data formats (like doc, ppt) (before OOXML) but now
>people voluntarily lock their data (mails, photos) into cloud storage.
>Some feel paranoid about this. Some feel that this fear is much
>similar to the fear that people had when Banks were introduced to
>store people's money. Do you think that it is okay to trade a little
>freedom for a little free online storage, for some home users at least
>?
I believe people should be in control of their information. To me this means control of their devices, their operating system, as well as the data contained within. I think it is okay for people to use 'cloud' services, such as online storage, but I think people need to be made more aware of the risks and large amounts of trust they're putting into these companies. Personally I use cloud services as a backup and convinenece, never as a primary system or the only place for my data.
>3) openSUSE Hosted Solutions: Do you think openSUSE should enter into
>hosting things and providing online services for users (like
>ubuntuone, gmail, dropbox etc.) ? We can charge users a small fee and
>promise to not spy/sell their data.
I feel we already have some 'hosted' solutions - OBS for individuals package repositories, our own pastebin, stuff like that. I like the idea of openSUSE expanding the range of ancillary services we can offer our community, when they compliment our core project and products. I'm not sure I see the benefit of having an openSUSE specific cloud storage option, the Dropbox's and Spideroak's are already out there, what unique benefits would our own bring to our users?
>4) Hypothetical Scenario: If Microsoft offers us a few thousand
>dollars as part of Bing marketing for making Bing the default search
>engine and homepage on openSUSE, will you accept it ? If no, Why not ?
Philisophiscally speaking - I would accept it, assuming the money was worthwhile. If software companies with a primarily proprietary portfolio want to help an open source project like ours I think we should accept it and use it as an opportunity to bring them more into the fold and work with us in other more practical ways (like code!)
Practically/technically speaking - Hell no, Bing is a terrible search engine and I think we need to give the best as our default to our users.
so ultimately, on the practical grounds, I'd vote no, even though philisophiscally I'm not opposed to the hypothethical example.
>5) vim or emacs ? (Just trolling here. You can avoid. You'll get +10
>points if you answer both)
v
im, but only because I can't look emacs in the eye after watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sXuHnf_lo
>Thanks a lot and All the best :-)
Thank you, great questions!
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Guys,
This is a quick note. I could not complete my platform. I am on the
way to the hospital with my wife. Our little girl is coming, by
tonight or this time I will have new litte Payne in my life. I like to
wish all good luck.
A real quick, why am I runing. I want to run because I love openSUSE.
I know that not good enough for a lot of people. But I want to give
back. I have always been a worker. My real life job is as a System
Admin. I take care of two data center.
I wish I could say more. If I don't make, I just want to wish everyone
good luck. I am not running for power, but to give back. openSUSE is
a major part of my life and always will be.
A vote for me is vote outside, out of box, black sheep thinking. I
promise if I do get on the board I will give 120%.
Chuck "PUP" Payne
a.k.a Terrorpup
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Hi All,
This is my platform for the upcoming elections
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election_2011_platform_template_manug…
If you have anything to ask, please feel free to do so.
Thanks
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Manu Gupta
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On 2011-12-01 12:19:09 (+0100), Henne Vogelsang <hvogel(a)opensuse.org> wrote:
> On 01.12.2011 00:07, Richard Brown wrote:
> > I'm volunteering to co-ordinate an openSUSE stand at FOSDEM this February
> Cool :)
>
> > Even if you're not coming this year, I especially welcome advice and
> > guidance from FOSDEM veterans. What worked in previous years?
> * Bring the Touchsmarts, people like to grope things.
> * Bring 12.1 DVDs, stickers and folders, people like to snatch things.
> * Bring Beer and T-Shirts, sell them for 1€ and give the proceeds to
> the university. They will love you. (Pascal knows whom to give it to)
> * Have 2 guys, you can rely on at any time, to be on the booth. People
> like to wander off into the awesome program. One minute it might seem
> that you have a gazillion people on the booth and the next one it's
> deserted because RMS speaks.
True, but I'd even plan a bit more than 2 people if possible.
Thing is, there will probably be around 400 sessions during the
weekend, with more than 20 in parallel at all times and, hence,
it's very likely that people will want to see a few talks as
well. Ideally, have people check the schedule once it's
available, find their "must see" talks, and make a schedule.
Only gotcha: the schedule will be published really late (that's
inherent to the way FOSDEM works, projects arrange their own
schedule for the devrooms).
Henne, as you won't be able to be there (*sad* :(), will someone
else take care of travelling with the openSUSE stand and
touchsmarts and stuff from Nürnberg to Brussels, as usual ?
Are you coordinating on the Nürnberg side of things, or is
someone else ? If so, whom ? :)
> * Try as hard as possible to avoid that people leave their shit on
> the booth. The corridors are narrow, the boths are small, there are
> more and more people each year. If they all leave their Jackets,
> laptops and bags on your booth there is no room to operate anymore.
Well actually, we (FOSDEM) will move the stands to a different
location, into a new building, which means that the corridors
won't be narrow :)
It won't be a lonely spot either, as there are several
interesting devrooms in that building, as well as one of the
main track rooms.
> > what do I need to know?
>
> * You get two tables and a couple of chairs in a windy corridor
No windy corridor :)
> * It's friggn cold and drafty
Not any more :)
> * Don't try to plan anything, it's chaotic.
Yeah, it's definitely a *very* busy place, with insane amounts
of people going around, and most of them will be people who
already contribute to FOSS projects, so they're more likely to
ask what's specific about openSUSE as compared to others, how the
community is working/like, about OBS, openQA, etc... -- rather
than "oh, what's this Linux thing ?" ;)
> * Have Pascals number on speed dial. He's the man.
I'll broadcast it around to a few people who will go to FOSDEM
in due time. Generally speaking, exchange phone numbers before
going there, because you don't just randomly run into the people
you want to see, it's too much crowd for that :)
> * Get drunk as early as possible :-)
Be *very* careful at the beer event on Friday, or with belgian
beer in general, and I'm not kidding, it's really strong stuff.
Actually, I rather had in mind that we (openSUSE people going to
FOSDEM) will coordinate to go some place for food on Friday
evening, before going to the beer event and then possibly some
quieter place too. I can take care of arranging things, but I
will need to know how many people will show up.
And we'll prolly do the same for Saturday evening too.
(No one is forced to, just a proposal :))
I'll send an email to the project list in due time (mid
January).
> > what do I need to avoid?
> * Belgian "Beer". At any cost.
Well, definitely consume with great care, it's not the kind of
coloured water they sell in Germany ;)
I recommend Tripel Karmeliet, Delirium Tremens, Kwak, ... :D
Oh, and if you haven't booked a hotel yet, definitely do that
ASAP. Due to the large amount of people, and Brussels being a
tourist and business hot spot anyway, several hotels are already
booked out.
For low budgets, one option that works surprisingly well is
couch surfing: http://couchsurfing.org
As of which hotel to pick, it's not that important as the venue
is a little bit off the historic center and you'll have to
travel by public transport or cab anyway (not an issue,
explained at http://fosdem.org/2012/transportation)
If there are any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with
me, by email or on IRC (I'm "yaloki" there).
cheers
--
-o) Pascal Bleser
/\\ http://opensuse.org -- we haz green
_\_v http://fosdem.org -- we haz conf
Finally got to fill out the missing bits on my election platform
page:
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election_2011_platform_template_yaloki
(yes, it's long, but that way, at least, rest assured you're not
buying a cat in a bag ;)))
Would be cool if the other candidates would also announce here
when they're done with their respective platform page :)
Good luck to each of the candidates, it's already a win because
we have so many candidates, and great people too :)
cheers
--
-o) Pascal Bleser
/\\ http://opensuse.org -- we haz green
_\_v http://fosdem.org -- we haz conf
Each candidate's company affiliation has been added to the wiki list at
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election#Candidates
as well as a note that only one SUSE employee may be elected.
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James Mason
SUSE Studio Developer
openSUSE Ambassador
2925 Roeder Ave Ste 300
Bellingham, WA 98225-2065
+1 360 752 6707
james.mason(a)suse.com
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SUSE
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