On 01/12/2011 10:23 AM, Vincent Untz wrote:
Hi,
I read the platforms of all candidates, and I have a few questions :-) I'd appreciate if you could take some time to answer them; it'll help me vote in an informed way.
1) You described various issues you'd like to get fixed and goals you want to achieve. Will you still work on (or help with) those tasks if you're not on the board, or do you think you really need to be on the board for some of those tasks?
Surely... As I mentioned in my platform, my experience in setting up the Foundation will be relevant and even then, I have many colleagues in the FOSS world who can provide expert knowledge beyond what I know.
2) How much time per week can you secure (approximately) for the board? (I know it will be 0% of your time for some weeks, and much more for some other weeks; I'm interested in the average)
I can participate up to 30 hours a week when needed and travel worldwide without much restriction.
3) Did you attend IRC board meetings already?
Yes, probably a majority where I am mostly lurking.. mostly to not disrupt the flow.
4) It's interesting that I see nearly no note about budget/money in platforms. When (not if ;-)) we'll have the Foundation, the board will have to work on a budget. So a few questions about this...
4a) Have you experience with creating/dealing with a budget?
Extensive, in both business as someone with profit and loss responsibility, as well as budgeting for OSS projects and other non-profit organizations.
4b) Where will we find money for the Foundation?
We should first search within those interested in the Open Source ecosystem. Hardware manufacturers, Internet companies, as well as our own efforts via merchandising, pledge campaigns etc. We should seek to have as broad a source of funding as possible. We have run successfully pledgie campaigns for LGM http://libregraphicsmeeting.org generating 10's of thousands of dollars to enable developers and presenters to participate in LGM from all over the world. Last year we brought people from Asia who are new, but really excited about FOSS.
4c) What should we use the money for?
Marketing and promotional efforts, along with some support for developer/participant travel for events. I can vouch for the effectiveness from the very first LGM getting the Scribus, Inkscape, GIMP and Krita teams all together face to face. We solved issues in one weekend which would have taken 6 months over IRC and mail. That cooperation continues with even more projects participating. LGM has had a lot to do with the quick maturity of the open source graphics applications and the healthy way each project cooperates. One small example, one of the Scribus developers reverse engineered the Photoshop file format and we were able to transmit that directly to the GIMP resulting in a vastly improved PSD importer. I would love to encourage mini openSUSE conferences around the world, to build local communities and increase our outreach.
5) I do think it'd be useful to have some board-related meeting at FOSDEM. That should help the newly-elected board members to know faster what's happening, and how things work. Will you come to FOSDEM? (I know some people, and that's most probably true for the non-European, will likely not be able to attend; that's not an issue)
I think it would be a benefit and I am already booked for FOSDEM. That said, not having one I do not think would be prevent me from getting up to speed quickly. I think it most important to get together on a personal level, so you can see the face with the IRC nick. I've briefly met some of the board members at Linuxtag last year.
7) Do you care more about Free Software or Open Source? Just to be clear: there's no wrong answer. But it helps understand why you contribute to projects like openSUSE.
I am a strong supporter of Open Source and have a long track record of contributing in a number of areas from docs, packaging, bug triaging, as well as bringing developers and users together. More importantly, one of the side benefits of Open Source participation is meeting people from around the world, as well as diverse backgrounds and professions. I greatly care about the freedom of users to be unencumbered with the use and distribution of software, as well as the developer's right to borrow, extend and re-use code of others. It is much like academics where one builds on the ideas of others.
Questions to specific candidates, related to their platform:
Chuck: where do you think we could lead, instead of copying?
Sebas: what needs to be more transparent in openSUSE?
Kostas: do you have examples of "motives" we can give to people so they participate in the project?
Peter: leaving you some more time for your platform :-)
Henne: not really a question related to your platform, but to your experience on the board. What could be improved in the way the board works as of today? (btw, it's not a way for me to try to get the current board blamed in any way: we all know things can always get improved, and time usually helps with that) Also, can I get a dodo?
Sankar: some of your long-term tasks are partly technical (make openSUSE an attractive development platform, make the distro accessibility-friendly). How do you think the board can help with that?
Nelson: can you develop a bit more on the 'anti burnout' campaign? What would it consist of?
I wish you all the best for the election :-)
Thanks,
Vincent
Please feel free to ask for clarification if I have not been clear or not complete enough. Cheers, Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org