I'm not going to quote the emails about company control and Red Hat's
contributions in particular as I think it's gotten fairly heated and my
thoughts are more easily generally expressed.
I think we need both to be successful - companies that are invested in
GNOME technologies who are users and contributors and who care about it
because it is useful to their business and individual contributors who
are here because they are jazzed about our awesome mission.
We need to work on both now to try to figure out how to get wider
adoption of GNOME and how to show that we're an important project that
is worth a hobbyist's time and is fun to be a part of.
As Emily and Sri have mentioned, we really need to put a premium on
encouraging people when they first show an interest, something I think
we've gotten better at but still need a lot of improvement on. We need
to go out of our way to take an interest and to be advocates for GNOME
to new individuals and new companies. I've been scratching my head over
this for a while. Speaking at conferences and being present where people
meet and talk about important technologies have been the approaches I've
pursued but I think there's a lot more that can be done. A lot of it
involves promoting culture that is welcoming, which I think we were
leaders of once upon a time and have gotten much better with more
recently. We definitely want to make the companies already invested in
our space feel good about their contributions while making sure the
infrastructure is in place for no corporate control.
I'd love it if we could do something like put together a team of
volunteers who are ready to help companies adopt GNOME, whether it's to
go and talk to decision makers or to go and give an occasional demo or
training session. I recognize that this is a lot of work and nontrivial
to organize (we have to make sure the right people are representing us)
but it's part of what I think GNOME has been missing. With the right
enthusiasm from the membership this is something that can be done.
I also will say that the boards and foundation memberships that I've
worked with have been more productive when everyone has a positive
attitude. Being critical of the way things are and what other people say
is necessary for insightful discussion and change but finding the core
of what someone is saying and helping to find positive ideas for that
change is essential. In general positive communicators are more
persuasive and create a better collaborative environment. I've been a
bit dismayed about the negative tone of a lot of the emails regarding
candidacy, not just this thread. I want to be on a board that has
differing views but can communicate in a way that inspires cooperation.
karen
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