Name: Robert McQueen E-Mail: ra...@gnome.org Corporate Affiliation: Endless IRC, Twitter, etc: ramcq
Dear Foundation members, I would like to put my name forward as a candidate to serve as a director on the GNOME Board in 2018/19. I’ve been a GNOME and freedesktop.org technical contributor in one form or another for around 13 years. Most recently I've become the main sysadmin behind the Flathub "app store" and build service for distro- agnostic Linux desktop software. I believe Flatpak is the most promising and commercially-agnostic technology to allow the free desktop to provide a stable target for both FOSS and commercial app developers, without harming our ability as a community to innovate on the core OS and desktop. Professionally, I have worked on the commercial adoption of GNOME and our technologies for almost as long. Originally as the founder and CTO of Collabora, and currently as the VP of Deployment at Endless, I've worked on 8 (at least!) different commercial platforms based on the GNOME stack, across a range of desktop, mobile and other embedded industry segments. I sat on the GNOME Advisory Board for several years while I was at Collabora, and have appeared there on behalf of Endless on a few occasions. I think the combination of my professional background and direct technical contributions gives me a great perspective on what makes for successful cooperation between Free Software projects and commercial entities from both sides. I would like to use my experience as a manager and a company executive to contribute to the project in non- technical ways. I believe I can help the GNOME Board adopt a more supervisory role, while the GNOME Foundation can take advantage of its recently-pledged donation, experienced ED, and initiatives such as the GNOME Internships to get more actively involved in both project activities and fundraising programmes than was previously possible. In terms of my agenda, I would like to see the Foundation use its resources to continue to pushing for the important software freedom priorities that brought the project together. For example, GNOME should produce a desktop which is a first-class home for developers and other creators, without corporate restrictions on what can be built or for whom. It’s more important than ever that the GNOME project gets support to provide a desktop for all, which respects users privacy and allows people to control their data without undue corporate influence or intrusion. Some of this work is best addressed in a non-profit context to ensure the individual user freedom remains paramount. That said, as well the importance of remaining true to its goals, I believe that a Free Software project needs a diversity of users and contributors to stay healthy and impactful. I would love to see the GNOME Foundation continue to build on and expand the commercial partnerships that it has, to ensure that there are many robust partnerships which help to further GNOME’s mission and reach as many people as possible with our free desktop. Thanks for your time considering my candidacy, and I hope to have the opportunity to serve the Foundation members as a director on the Board. Many Thanks, Rob _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list