Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Dec 3, 2007 3:16 PM, John (J5) Palmieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Would one of you guys like to put together a proposal including venue, > costs and dates? What do you say Adam? Are you in NC? Want to grab a cup of coffee and chat? Cheers, -- Og B. Maciel [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG Keys: D5CFC202 http://www.ogmaciel.com (en_US) http://blog.ogmaciel.com (pt_BR) ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 12:46 -0500, Adam Schreiber wrote: > On Dec 3, 2007 12:41 PM, Og Maciel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > How about North Carolina? We have a great place with big name > > companies, schools and exciting people. > > Seconded. > > Adam Schreiber > *cough*Clemson University, Clemson, SC*cough* Would one of you guys like to put together a proposal including venue, costs and dates? It might be too late for this year since I am pretty sure we can book the Stata Center in January but it would be nice to have people talking to other venues and getting estimates so we have backup plans and the ability to move fast when choosing a venue for the year after. Alternatively if you wanted to get your feet wet and start small you could organize a smaller event and apply for funding from the board. -- John (J5) Palmieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Dec 3, 2007 12:41 PM, Og Maciel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How about North Carolina? We have a great place with big name > companies, schools and exciting people. Seconded. Adam Schreiber *cough*Clemson University, Clemson, SC*cough* ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
How about North Carolina? We have a great place with big name companies, schools and exciting people. -- Og B. Maciel [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG Keys: D5CFC202 http://www.ogmaciel.com (en_US) http://blog.ogmaciel.com (pt_BR) ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
I think it would add value to spend more on marketing and on evangelical community building opportunities. For example, Windows and MacOS have flashy "Welcome to the desktop" presentations. Perhaps it is time for the GNOME community to find ways to better advertise itself. It would also be an opportunity to talk about freedom. This is a dimension where we have a superiority which Windows and MacOS don't even try to match; but not everyone is aware that the dimension even exists. ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Sun, 2007-12-02 at 14:53 +0100, Kjartan Maraas wrote: > > > Just a note... I can probably find some good space at the University of > > Toronto (Canada) if it was ever required. It is generally easier for > > folks in some countries (like China, and Russia) to get visas to come > > here, and it is a cheap flight for Bostonians. There is a Red Hat > > office here, not sure about other GNOMEy elements. > > > Sounds like a great idea to me. Do we have any numbers showing how many > non US attendants were there at the previous Boston summits? Don't think so. But I'm all in favor of Boston Summit in Toronto too. -- behdad http://behdad.org/ "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
on., 28.11.2007 kl. 16.00 -0500, skrev David Bolter: > Hi Jeff, all, > > Jeff Waugh wrote: > > > > > > > >> > >> > >> > >>> Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? Is it > >>> because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. > >>> > >> Because there's a critical mass of developers there -- most of both the > >> Red Hat and Novell desktop teams. > >> > > > > Dan Winship points out on IRC that while this was true when the Boston > > Summit was created, there aren't a lot of Novell desktop hackers left in > > Boston these days. Perhaps a roaming Columbus Day weekend conference (still > > in the USA) would be a good thing? > > > > Just a note... I can probably find some good space at the University of > Toronto (Canada) if it was ever required. It is generally easier for > folks in some countries (like China, and Russia) to get visas to come > here, and it is a cheap flight for Bostonians. There is a Red Hat > office here, not sure about other GNOMEy elements. > Sounds like a great idea to me. Do we have any numbers showing how many non US attendants were there at the previous Boston summits? Cheers Kjartan ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> About the hiring, it really depends. At first sight, I would prefer to > hire an executive director because it would have more impact on GNOME > Foundation actions (marketing, business partnerships, conferences, > etc). However, if we can't find a really good person for the position, > I would prefer to hire a sysadmin. Of course, one thing doesn't > necessarely exclude the other. In the long run I would hope an executive director would increase the income of GNOME to pay his/her salary. -- George (gk4) ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Thu, 2007-11-29 at 07:53 +1100, Jeff Waugh wrote: > Perhaps a roaming Columbus Day weekend conference (still > in the USA) would be a good thing? s/USA/North America/ Canada do exist. And in that case Columbus day is Thanksgiving in Canada so it might be wise to move the date a bit. Hub ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
Hi Jeff, all, Jeff Waugh wrote: > > > >> >> >> >>> Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? Is it >>> because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. >>> >> Because there's a critical mass of developers there -- most of both the >> Red Hat and Novell desktop teams. >> > > Dan Winship points out on IRC that while this was true when the Boston > Summit was created, there aren't a lot of Novell desktop hackers left in > Boston these days. Perhaps a roaming Columbus Day weekend conference (still > in the USA) would be a good thing? > Just a note... I can probably find some good space at the University of Toronto (Canada) if it was ever required. It is generally easier for folks in some countries (like China, and Russia) to get visas to come here, and it is a cheap flight for Bostonians. There is a Red Hat office here, not sure about other GNOMEy elements. cheers, David ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
> > > > Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? Is it > > because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. > > Because there's a critical mass of developers there -- most of both the > Red Hat and Novell desktop teams. Dan Winship points out on IRC that while this was true when the Boston Summit was created, there aren't a lot of Novell desktop hackers left in Boston these days. Perhaps a roaming Columbus Day weekend conference (still in the USA) would be a good thing? - Jeff -- linux.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australiahttp://lca2008.linux.org.au/ "The only people still using Microsoft IIS are those who don't even know it's there." - Larry Ellison ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
> Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? Is it > because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. Because there's a critical mass of developers there -- most of both the Red Hat and Novell desktop teams. - Jeff -- GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008 "The FFF policy: File a bug, Fix it, or F*ck off." - pwhysall on gnomedesktop.org ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Wed, 2007-11-28 at 17:44 +, Ghee Teo wrote: > > Part of the issue is the Boston Summit is always in Boston where as > > GUADEC can always get fresh enthusiastic teams to help out. This is > > because in order to become a host city for GUADEC you already have to > > have a team assembled to make and sell a bid. This is helped by the > > fact that host cities and organizers often see prestige in hosting > > GUADEC. > > > Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? > Is it because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. > Is it still true now? Are there other locations that substantial number of > hackers are around? > > Just some thoughts :) It is called the "Boston" Summit. All joking asside cost is the main issue. The Boston Summit is supposed to be a more informal and efficient gathering where GUADEC is the big bang go all out conference so budgets are handled accordingly. Having it in one city allows us to theoretically keep costs down and make sure the quality is still there. There is also historically a large contingent of GNOME hackers in Boston. We did have it in New York one year. In fact that was the first year I went since being in NY meant I just had to hop a couple of trains to get there. The venue was, shall we say, less than desirable, though it worked out for me. So there are always pros and cons to the equation. Right now I think the pros still outweigh the cons in keeping it in Boston but who knows what the future brings. If someone wanted to organize in some other city and could put together a detailed proposal there is nothing stopping the board from considering it. -- John (J5) Palmieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
> Part of the issue is the Boston Summit is always in Boston where as > GUADEC can always get fresh enthusiastic teams to help out. This is > because in order to become a host city for GUADEC you already have to > have a team assembled to make and sell a bid. This is helped by the > fact that host cities and organizers often see prestige in hosting > GUADEC. > Have the board paused and thought why the Summit has to be Boston? Is it because most hackers work around Boston? May be it was the case. Is it still true now? Are there other locations that substantial number of hackers are around? Just some thoughts :) -Ghee ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Wed, 2007-11-28 at 05:57 -0500, Behdad Esfahbod wrote: > On Mon, 2007-11-26 at 12:46 -0500, John (J5) Palmieri wrote: > > Even if not elected I am an available Boston resident and would > > be more than happy to help out. > > I'm sure you do, and you alredy showed that by organizing the poub night > this year. Thanks for that. But if you look, I asked for help about > Boston Summit on the boston-social list as early as June: > > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/boston-social/2007-June/msg0.html > > and got no reply. I mailed at least three Boston residents directly and > got no reply either. And I gave up and Jeff ended up doing it all the > way from Australia. It was going well until the *reserved venue* got > canceled... > > The point being, while most of our community is willing to help, more > often than not the very people that can help most are already overbusy > with their own schedules and rightfully don't volunteer for new work. > Many of them do accept it though when asked directly. That's what we've > started doing on the board: pick someone we know can do the job and ask > just him/her. > > That has an inherent limitation though, that we end up getting help from > those people we know closely. This is where the main problem with > delegation in the board is. Asking on mailing list has its own problems > too. Sometimes the cost of delegation ends up exceeding the cost of > Just Doing It! I think you have identified why mailing lists just don't work for these types of tasks - at least without first having critical mass. It also shows why the board needs to have a more direct relationship with members. Mailing lists are great for topics which have a constant relevance to the reader but if it is a once or few times a year thing people often forget to check. Compound this with all the other mailing lists and the ability to hold a readers attention just dwindles. What needs to happen is active lobbying of people at the summits and gatherings. Let them know what to look for and people will help out. Look at GUADEC. The past years GUADECs have been masterfully managed. There were hiccups here and there but when we look at it compared to the Boston Summits we can see the difference. Part of the issue is the Boston Summit is always in Boston where as GUADEC can always get fresh enthusiastic teams to help out. This is because in order to become a host city for GUADEC you already have to have a team assembled to make and sell a bid. This is helped by the fact that host cities and organizers often see prestige in hosting GUADEC. However there is an advantage in having a summit in one place every year. It allows us to build relationships with venues and people in the area who might not necessarily be part of the GNOME community but could be helpful none the less. We need to start doing that and booking venues way in advance so that we can announce a definite date at GUADEC. We also need to bring the prestige back into helping out. Sometimes that is a simple thank you or different colored shirts to distinguish those who went above and beyond the call of duty. I know for me, organizing the Beer Summit it was simply the ability to throw a party that allowed me to overlook the stress of having to do it in a week. Everyone has their motivations whether it be money, a pat on the back or recognition from their peers. We need to figure out what motivates individuals and excite them to lend a hand. So to summarize: 1) Advertise in every medium you've got - mailing lists, blogs, conferences or even cold calling. 2) Get commitments early 3) Organize specific tasks 4) Reward all those who helped out 5) Figure out what worked and what didn't and apply them to the next event making sure to accept and analyze constructive criticism -- John (J5) Palmieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
> But if you look, I asked for help about Boston Summit on the boston-social > list as early as June: > > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/boston-social/2007-June/msg0.html > > and got no reply. I mailed at least three Boston residents directly and > got no reply either. And I gave up and Jeff ended up doing it all the way > from Australia. It was going well until the *reserved venue* got > canceled... Thanks for pointing that out - but I do want to stress again that Zana and Owen saved the day when all else failed, and we should be very grateful to them (not that you're forgetting them, I just wanted to say thanks again). We have to wait until January to book the usual venue at MIT, so I hope J5 (elected or not - formalities, formalities) can adopt that task and pursue it vigorously! :-) - Jeff -- GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008 "On Tuesday I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with Zack and two ladies whom I presume are gracious." - Seth Schoen ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
On Boston Summit organization and delegation [was Re: A question to candidates]
On Mon, 2007-11-26 at 12:46 -0500, John (J5) Palmieri wrote: > Even if not elected I am an available Boston resident and would > be more than happy to help out. I'm sure you do, and you alredy showed that by organizing the poub night this year. Thanks for that. But if you look, I asked for help about Boston Summit on the boston-social list as early as June: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/boston-social/2007-June/msg0.html and got no reply. I mailed at least three Boston residents directly and got no reply either. And I gave up and Jeff ended up doing it all the way from Australia. It was going well until the *reserved venue* got canceled... The point being, while most of our community is willing to help, more often than not the very people that can help most are already overbusy with their own schedules and rightfully don't volunteer for new work. Many of them do accept it though when asked directly. That's what we've started doing on the board: pick someone we know can do the job and ask just him/her. That has an inherent limitation though, that we end up getting help from those people we know closely. This is where the main problem with delegation in the board is. Asking on mailing list has its own problems too. Sometimes the cost of delegation ends up exceeding the cost of Just Doing It! Cheers, -- behdad http://behdad.org/ "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Questions have been asked from a few people. I will respond to them in one email rather than clutter your mailbox... ### Dave Neary asks: > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of > hiring, do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? > What other priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside > of our usual cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? Since GNOME is a volunteer community, I think that someone would need to have very specific and needed skills to bring to the table to warrant a salary. I think it would add value to spend more on marketing and on evangelical community building opportunities. For example, Windows and MacOS have flashy "Welcome to the desktop" presentations. Perhaps it is time for the GNOME community to find ways to better advertise itself. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak > points of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those > weak points? I think it is a real challenge to bring together all the players who are invested in the GNOME desktop and get them to work together. I think it is important for the board to be more proactive about reaching out to the players, and find creative new ways to get them to better work together and share resources. ### Anne Østergaard asks: > Will you apply for the position as new Executive Director for GNOME? Unlikely. > Will you apply for any paid position within GNOME while serving as > board member? I am not planning to. > Will you attend at least 90% of the board calls? Yes. Not a problem. > Can you accept competing official ISO standards? Yes. I think a more important and interesting question is whether our users can accept competing official standards. I think the Foundation should be driven by the needs of our users, not the other way around. > What is your position towards official standards that do not meet the > gennerally accepted definition of a free and open standard. Such as > Microsoft OOXML? I believe poorly designed standards fail of their own accord. If a standard is strong enough for a community to build around it, then it will succeed. The Foundation should create a healthy atmosphere where standards have a fair chance to succeed based on their own merit. ### Richard Stallman asks: > 1. Would you change anything in the GNOME Foundation statement about > OOXML? As others have stated, I think the response should have been more timely. I'm not sure the "Background" information really adds much to the position. I think it would be better to more simply say that we will wait and see which ODF format gets traction in the free software community. I don't think calling Microsoft an abusive monopolist adds value to a long-term resolution, or helps to encourage better behavior from Microsoft. > 2. How do you think the GNOME Foundation should support the Free > Software Movement in general? I think closer relationships between the GNOME Foundation and the Free Software Movement in general would be a good thing to strive towards, even if it sometimes makes people unhappy or uncomfortable. Brian ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> Well one week point is the board seems almost foreign to the every day > GNOME contributor. People vote and pretty much forget about the inner > workings until Slashdot gets a hold on some sensationalized story and a > press release is put out and still to the outside world the role of the > foundation is unclear. It is hard to figure out weak points because it is > hard to see exactly what the foundation does. I would fix this by > communicating any decision, from the mundane to the sensational, in an > easy to digest format on my blog. Meeting minutes and press releases are > just not enough. Active engagement of the community is a must. I created a Foundation blog on blogo, but only the other day, so I figured I should wait for the new Board to come in to bless it as an official voice of the Foundation. I think this would be really cool, and not only because the manually updated news feed on foundation.gnome.org is so boring (it really only contains major announcements anyway). :-) - Jeff -- GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008 "PHP, when it first came out, didn't really have any merits, and many claim it still doesn't, but it filled a void where a simple tool to perform a simple task was needed." - Rasmus Lerdorf ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
On Thu, 2007-11-22 at 18:11 +0100, Dave Neary wrote: > Hi, > > I did send these to the membership committee, but voting's nearly open, > and I think they're important, so I guess I'll just ask... > > The foundation's role is essentially to facilitate the enthusiasm of the > GNOME project, as Andrew Cowie blogged earlier [1]. This consists of two > major elements - managing/improving the finances that the foundation > has, and identifying areas where those finances can help remove > roadblocks or encourage productive contribution. > > After two years without a full-time employee, the foundation's finances > are in a decent state, with $150K cash and $50K receivables [2]. > > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of hiring, > do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? What other > priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside of our usual > cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? This money should be used for micro meeting of not just GNOME specific events but also industry wide events such as the upcoming Desktop Plumbers meeting or KDE/GNOME face to faces. Many of these events sets the tone for uptake of base infrastructure which are key to the building blocks of GNOME. In many cases we can get funding from the organizers themselves for a few key people but having a larger presence makes these meeting more productive. It also should be used to foster conferences in areas such Asia both by direct funding and by funding leaders within those communities to travel to conferences such as Linux World, GUADEC and the Boston Summit so that they can learn how to run their own events. As for hiring I think we need an executive director first to get our ship in order. Then we can think about using or securing funding for other full time jobs we may need doing. The last thing I would say the funding could be used for is spicing up the GNOME booths at trade shows. We did an excellent job of getting the event boxes together thanks to some leaders within our community. Still our booths are usually bare of the simple but detailed touches which would make our booth more approachable. Logo'ed table cloths go a long way. Bringing back the swag initiative would also be important here. It could be a loss leader at first but selling stylish t-shirts and plush mascots could also bring in more funding as well as provide decoration for the booth. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? Well one week point is the board seems almost foreign to the every day GNOME contributor. People vote and pretty much forget about the inner workings until Slashdot gets a hold on some sensationalized story and a press release is put out and still to the outside world the role of the foundation is unclear. It is hard to figure out weak points because it is hard to see exactly what the foundation does. I would fix this by communicating any decision, from the mundane to the sensational, in an easy to digest format on my blog. Meeting minutes and press releases are just not enough. Active engagement of the community is a must. One other weak point was the organization of the Boston Summit this year. While it was salvaged at the last minute it was done in a less than ideal way. The next board will have to make sure this years Boston Summit is no less than amazing so that it doesn't die out as a result of dissatisfaction. If elected to the board I would like to take on that role. Even if not elected I am an available Boston resident and would be more than happy to help out. -- John (J5) Palmieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
On Nov 22, 2007 12:11 PM, Dave Neary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of hiring, > do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? What other > priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside of our usual > cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? I think a lot of the other candidates have had good answers here with regards to non-hiring spending; in particular I've long thought travel and micro-meetings (especially geographically distributed ones like the newly proposed GNOME Asia Summit, and the various meetings in Latin America), and I proposed such spending at my very first board meeting (though it didn't happen, for understandable reasons.) I'd love to have a pro-active system administrator on staff, but I think a good ED would be a better first hire- they should be able to increase revenue, allowing us to hire a sysadmin later, which wouldn't be true in reverse. I've not been privy to the current ongoing job search, so I'm not sure why we haven't hired a post-Tim exec yet (bad job description? bad search policy? just lack of good candidates? etc.?) but obviously understanding that would be one of the first priorities of a new board, I'd think. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? It is hard for me to speak in specifics, given that I've been fairly out of the loop with the current board. As I've discussed on this list before, I do think that communication and delegation could be improved, but those are ongoing issues that must constantly be worked on, whether or not they are problems or strengths. Luis ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi, 2007/11/23, Vincent Untz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Le vendredi 23 novembre 2007, à 14:42 +0100, Murray Cumming a écrit : > > On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 01:18 +0100, Vincent Untz wrote: > > [snip] > > > Taking too much time to decide: it sometimes happen that we wait for a > > > meeting or for another event to take a decision, while the decision is > > > pretty trivial. It might be related to my first item, since pinging > > > people so they say +1/-1 could be enough. > > [snip] > > > > This is generally caused by the habit of only making decisions in > > meetings, instead of making decisions on the mailing list. And a > > tendency to think that all decisions must be unanimous. > > > > It works like this. Something is discussed. It becomes an unstructured > > debate and the meeting runs out of time. Someone says "Well, let's make > > a decision at the next meeting". But everyone knows that nothing will be > > done in the meantime to make that more likely, and half the meetings are > > postponed (or don't have the relevant people attending). > > As Jeff mentioned, this year, we had quite a lot of decisions on the > mailing list. But while it could have been done in 1-2 days, it > sometimes take one week. This is what we can improve. Thanks Vincent and Jeff for clarifying this (saved me the time to write an explanation). That's exactly what I meant. :-) --lucasr ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi, Jeff Waugh wrote: > > >> This is generally caused by the habit of only making decisions in >> meetings, instead of making decisions on the mailing list. And a tendency >> to think that all decisions must be unanimous. > > A majority of the decisions this year were made on the mailing list, with a > quorum consensus rather than majority. Plenty slipped through, and tougher > decisions were deferred to meetings or ultimately not made, but largely due > to team coherency issues more than anything else. There were *very* few > times that the Board suffered from consensus gridlock this year, which is a > good sign. Backing Jeff up here - in the two years since you were on the board, we made major steps forward in making decisions on the mailing list. I think this is one of the most positive aspects of the reduced board size I encouraged, mixed with a semi-formal mailing list voting policy we brought in while I was chairman. Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary GNOME Foundation member [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Le vendredi 23 novembre 2007, à 14:42 +0100, Murray Cumming a écrit : > On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 01:18 +0100, Vincent Untz wrote: > [snip] > > Taking too much time to decide: it sometimes happen that we wait for a > > meeting or for another event to take a decision, while the decision is > > pretty trivial. It might be related to my first item, since pinging > > people so they say +1/-1 could be enough. > [snip] > > This is generally caused by the habit of only making decisions in > meetings, instead of making decisions on the mailing list. And a > tendency to think that all decisions must be unanimous. > > It works like this. Something is discussed. It becomes an unstructured > debate and the meeting runs out of time. Someone says "Well, let's make > a decision at the next meeting". But everyone knows that nothing will be > done in the meantime to make that more likely, and half the meetings are > postponed (or don't have the relevant people attending). As Jeff mentioned, this year, we had quite a lot of decisions on the mailing list. But while it could have been done in 1-2 days, it sometimes take one week. This is what we can improve. Vincent -- Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of hiring, > do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? What other > priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside of our usual > cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? As many of the other candidates, I also believe that we should spend money by promoting smaller events, specially the type of meetings that would bring a group of people who share the same interests and can tackle a determined task. The first of such meetings should be a board of directors meeting, so that we can nail thing down, bond and do some team building. Also, I believe that some of the money could and should be spent with a strong marketing campaign to help promote and attract new users, volunteers, and partners. As far as hiring, it is fairly hard to answer it without having a little bit of background of the roles and tasks to be performed, as well as the issues that led to the decision of hiring theses positions. Sure I can infer some of the needs and tasks to be performed by the titles, but as I have learned long ago, titles don't always mean anything. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? It seems to me that that current board had the best intentions and were prepared to accommodate and support user led events with financial support. However, one thing that came to my attention was that the information about this "fund" wasn't made as public and transparent as it should have. Also, it is my oppinion that like good investors, the board should be always in the look out for opportunities to promote the Foundation and augment out user base. Remember, our users are our best asset! There are some great markets to explore in South America, South and East Asia, to name a few. And if we cannot financially (or for whatever reason) make it to such places, we should seek out and tap on our contacts, helping them establish a plan of action to hold events. We should be the ones seeking for these opportunities and not assume that everyone knows about this possible financial resource and wait for them to come to us. Also, I feel that a little bit of public recognition to our past and current collaborators could do everyone a great deal of good! Sure, everyone who has ever helped in any way, shape or form has done it without the expectations of fame and success. But if I can point out the latest post by Olav[1] titled "Stats" as an example, it is a great example of some public recognition to those who spend a great deal of time down in the trenches. Take Daniel Nylander for instance. This guy has been atop the commit list, bug triage and translations for pretty much as far as I can remember. And he is only ONE of MANY doing some great work for GNOME. You know those mugs I just recently heard of that have been used as gifts to our partners? How about some type of recognition plaque for those who are doing some outstanding work for us? Or for those who are showing potential as a means to fuel their drive? Remember, our users (and obviously our collaborators and developers ARE our users too) are our biggest and most important asset! [1] http://blogs.gnome.org/ovitters/2007/11/21/stats/ Cheers, -- Og B. Maciel [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG Keys: D5CFC202 http://www.ogmaciel.com (en_US) http://blog.ogmaciel.com (pt_BR) ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> This is generally caused by the habit of only making decisions in > meetings, instead of making decisions on the mailing list. And a tendency > to think that all decisions must be unanimous. A majority of the decisions this year were made on the mailing list, with a quorum consensus rather than majority. Plenty slipped through, and tougher decisions were deferred to meetings or ultimately not made, but largely due to team coherency issues more than anything else. There were *very* few times that the Board suffered from consensus gridlock this year, which is a good sign. - Jeff -- linux.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australiahttp://lca2008.linux.org.au/ "If your life was a movie, would you pay to see it? Would you pay to see an advertisement for it?" - James Morris ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 01:18 +0100, Vincent Untz wrote: [snip] > Taking too much time to decide: it sometimes happen that we wait for a > meeting or for another event to take a decision, while the decision is > pretty trivial. It might be related to my first item, since pinging > people so they say +1/-1 could be enough. [snip] This is generally caused by the habit of only making decisions in meetings, instead of making decisions on the mailing list. And a tendency to think that all decisions must be unanimous. It works like this. Something is discussed. It becomes an unstructured debate and the meeting runs out of time. Someone says "Well, let's make a decision at the next meeting". But everyone knows that nothing will be done in the meantime to make that more likely, and half the meetings are postponed (or don't have the relevant people attending). So the result is that the decision waits for 4 weeks or more, and then probably waits again. By this time, anyone outside the board has probably given up, so the board just lets it drop. Nobody takes the blame for this at the moment, so it's easy to do. A firm chairman needs to stop this from happening. This doesn't happen all the time, but it happens a lot of the time. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.murrayc.com www.openismus.com ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> (also I'm not sure why you mention GTK+ developers never requested a GTK+ > summit: it seems to me they did) It's sort of in the middle -- they wanted to do one, but never really came to the Board for support. We've always been 100% behind helping though! I'm going to spend some time putting together a GNOME Mobile summit, which I hope will be an appropriate venue for a GTK+ development meeting too. - Jeff -- GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008 "If I can't be near you I would rather be adrift in space." - Neil Finn, Try Whistling This ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Le vendredi 23 novembre 2007, à 11:58 +0100, Dave Neary a écrit : > For example, the board has included in the published budget a grant for > a GTK+ summit, which GTK+ developers have never requested. Perhaps > people expect the board to organise the thing as well as spend the > money? Similarly, there are grants for an ISD meeting, an Accessibility > summit. There are many more of these - but of $18000 budgeted for small > team meetings, we haven't spent any. That's why we explicitly asked people if there are some face-to-face meetings they'd like to have next year and gave some examples. If nobody proposes such meetings, the current board already has many ideas of what we could do so we could ask the relevant people if they're interested (ie, be more proactive). (also I'm not sure why you mention GTK+ developers never requested a GTK+ summit: it seems to me they did) Vincent -- Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi, Lucas Rocha wrote: >> After two years without a full-time employee, the foundation's finances >> are in a decent state, with $150K cash and $50K receivables [2]. ... > I think the best way to spend this money in 2008/2009 is: > - To support (presential) activities that will facilitate contributors > to move the desktop and platform forward. > - To support activities that will streghten the local user groups > around the world. It's worth noting that this is our money in the bank - the foundation will have revenue again next year from the advisory board, GUADEC, perhaps a little merchandising and other fundraising. In the past, it's been difficult to spend this money for a few reasons - people tend to not ask, or ask late, for funding, which makes it hard to budget and give a prompt response to requests, but also because not having an executive employee, the board tends to be a roadblock. For example, the board has included in the published budget a grant for a GTK+ summit, which GTK+ developers have never requested. Perhaps people expect the board to organise the thing as well as spend the money? Similarly, there are grants for an ISD meeting, an Accessibility summit. There are many more of these - but of $18000 budgeted for small team meetings, we haven't spent any. We also don't have big capital needs - we don't pay for bandwidth, hardware or hosting (thanks to the sponsorship of RedHat, Canonical, OSU OSL, Sun Microsystems, Intel, HP and others who contribute material and infrastructure). Our travel budget, outside GUADEC, is in the region of $20,000 per year. Just pointing out that on current trends, this kind of supporting activities and funding miniconfs isn't going to happen on its own. > About the hiring, it really depends. At first sight, I would prefer to > hire an executive director because it would have more impact on GNOME > Foundation actions (marketing, business partnerships, conferences, > etc). However, if we can't find a really good person for the position, > I would prefer to hire a sysadmin. Of course, one thing doesn't > necessarely exclude the other. I no longer believe that the board will be able to find and hire a satisfactory candidate (at our price point) on its own. I believe the next board should consider funding a head-hunter to get us pre-interview candidates. > - We could be more pro-active on proposing actions to the community. > You solve this by proposing actions. :-P I'm planning to propose some > small developers summits to some maintainers. Sometimes little things like this are all that's needed - good idea. Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi Dave, > I did send these to the membership committee, but voting's nearly open, > and I think they're important, so I guess I'll just ask... Ok. > The foundation's role is essentially to facilitate the enthusiasm of the > GNOME project, as Andrew Cowie blogged earlier [1]. This consists of two > major elements - managing/improving the finances that the foundation > has, and identifying areas where those finances can help remove > roadblocks or encourage productive contribution. > > After two years without a full-time employee, the foundation's finances > are in a decent state, with $150K cash and $50K receivables [2]. > > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of hiring, > do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? What other > priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside of our usual > cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? I think the best way to spend this money in 2008/2009 is: - To support (presential) activities that will facilitate contributors to move the desktop and platform forward. - To support activities that will streghten the local user groups around the world. About the hiring, it really depends. At first sight, I would prefer to hire an executive director because it would have more impact on GNOME Foundation actions (marketing, business partnerships, conferences, etc). However, if we can't find a really good person for the position, I would prefer to hire a sysadmin. Of course, one thing doesn't necessarely exclude the other. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? Weak points: - Sometimes certain things get stalled because we (Board) don't get enough feedback (+1's or -1's) among us. We should have more effective ways of making those daily micro-decisions and getting things done more quickly. - We could delegate more often. When delegation is possible, the Board should have some sort of list of potential volunteers for certain types of actions. For example: business partnerships (Dave, Quim, Jonathan, ...), Artwork (Andreas, Jakub, Vinicius, ...), user group contacts, etc. Actually, I think I'll start doing this straight away. :-) - We could be more pro-active on proposing actions to the community. You solve this by proposing actions. :-P I'm planning to propose some small developers summits to some maintainers. Cheers! --lucasr ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 02:10 -0300, Germán Poó-Caamaño wrote: > > This is new to me. I thought this was the way the board was trying to > delegate. Well, more recently it has been. But for most things that are brought up to board, it's either not possible or not feasible to ask for help publicly. The issues eventually become public and go in the meetings. So what we've been doing has been to think of one or two community members that we think can handle it and email them. Most of the times this works, so that's a great thing. -- behdad http://behdad.org/ "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 01:18 +0100, Vincent Untz wrote: > Le jeudi 22 novembre 2007, à 18:11 +0100, Dave Neary a écrit : > [...] > > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? > > [it's probably a hard question for candidates that weren't on the board > this year] > > Keeping track of everything: I've already written about this in my > reply to the 10 questions. It's just need to be a task taken seriously, > with a good tool. And someone to do it. > > Difficulties to delegate: known issue again. I think sending private > mails to one or two people instead of waiting for people to propose to > help is the way to go. This is new to me. I thought this was the way the board was trying to delegate. I don't remember many times that help has been requested. Regards, -- Germán Poó Caamaño Concepción - Chile ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi, Le jeudi 22 novembre 2007, à 18:11 +0100, Dave Neary a écrit : > Hi, > > I did send these to the membership committee, but voting's nearly open, > and I think they're important, so I guess I'll just ask... > > The foundation's role is essentially to facilitate the enthusiasm of the > GNOME project, as Andrew Cowie blogged earlier [1]. This consists of two > major elements - managing/improving the finances that the foundation > has, and identifying areas where those finances can help remove > roadblocks or encourage productive contribution. > > After two years without a full-time employee, the foundation's finances > are in a decent state, with $150K cash and $50K receivables [2]. > > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? We've started sponsoring small face-to-face meetings, and this will continue. This is probably one of the best way to spend this money. Hiring is also important (see below). > In terms of hiring, do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive > director? Can I cheat and say "both"? :-) There has been issues with our infrastructre too frequently in the past few months (bugzilla being unresponsive for quite a long time, eg). We can't blame our current infrastructure team since they're already doing a great job. It's just that we have quite some infrastructure and making everything work (and adding new services or upgrading some others) is time-consuming. So it seems to me that we need a sysadmin. We also clearly need an "executive director" (using quotes here since we've tried to avoid this term when posting the job description) so the Foundation can grow a bit, get more funding, have someone working on getting new perspectives, etc. We've seen this year that hiring an "executive director" is hard, very hard. I'm hopeful that hiring a sysadmin would be (comparatively) easier. And I'm also hopeful that we can get some funding to hire the sysadmin. So my plan is to hire a sysadmin using part of what he have in our back account now and using some new funding, and keep enough cash so that we can hire an "executive director" too. It might sound too ambitious, but I think it's doable and that it's the best way to go. > What other priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside > of our usual cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? Face-to-face meetings on specific topics. Replying positively to requests from local groups (as long as they're reasonable ;-)). > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? [it's probably a hard question for candidates that weren't on the board this year] Keeping track of everything: I've already written about this in my reply to the 10 questions. It's just need to be a task taken seriously, with a good tool. And someone to do it. Difficulties to delegate: known issue again. I think sending private mails to one or two people instead of waiting for people to propose to help is the way to go. Taking too much time to decide: it sometimes happen that we wait for a meeting or for another event to take a decision, while the decision is pretty trivial. It might be related to my first item, since pinging people so they say +1/-1 could be enough. There are probably other weak points... Can't think of them right now, though. Vincent -- Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
> What do you see as the best way to spend this money? Getting GNOME contributors together, face-to-face, to nut out the difficult problems that are tough to solve in a distributed fashion. > In terms of hiring, do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive > director? We must have a full time staff member to manage any further hires, as there is no way our part time administrator should have to deal with any duties related to management. So, of the two, I'd prefer a full time, management capable hire before a sysadmin hire. Alternatively, we can contract for the sysadmin position. (I would not describe my priority for the first full time hire as an "executive director", either -- GNOME is not an art gallery.) > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points of > the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? The biggest weak point is that we were unable to function as a coherent team for much of the past two, perhaps three, years. The major reason for this is not going to be a problem next year (and is thus not worth discussing), the secondary issue will be solved for the 2009-2010 Board (GUADEC at the start of the year), and I intend to focus on team-building and goal-setting for the first six months of the year, to get everyone focused and *ROCKING* for the rest of the 18 month term. - Jeff -- GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008 100% Pure Slashdot Wisdom: "Source code gives a whole new meaning to free software." ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: A question to candidates
Hi, On 11/22/07, Dave Neary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi, > > I did send these to the membership committee, but voting's nearly open, > and I think they're important, so I guess I'll just ask... > > The foundation's role is essentially to facilitate the enthusiasm of the > GNOME project, as Andrew Cowie blogged earlier [1]. This consists of two > major elements - managing/improving the finances that the foundation > has, and identifying areas where those finances can help remove > roadblocks or encourage productive contribution. > I agree with Andrew's post. The Linux Australia idea sounds quite cool to me: facilitate the enthusiasm. I see the Board exactly as that, the group of people in charge of deploying the Foundation resources to facilitate initiatives, events, meetings, etc. > After two years without a full-time employee, the foundation's finances > are in a decent state, with $150K cash and $50K receivables [2]. > > What do you see as the best way to spend this money? In terms of hiring, > do you prefer hiring a sysadmin, or an executive director? What other > priorities do you have for expenditure this year, outside of our usual > cost centers (GUADEC + salaries + travel sponsorship)? > If it's really critical to have more manpower for doing sysadmin tasks, that should be the priority I think, after all we are supposed to give good and enough infrastructure for the projects. Besides usual things like GUADEC, I would like to see some money passed to local groups for marketing things and events. In particular for my dear side of the world (Latin America) where stuff is mega cheap to do. I would support expending money on supporting initiatives that can produce new users and developers in places where we don't have much of them. > A second question to all candidates: what do you see as the weak points > of the current board, and how do you propose addressing those weak points? > Improvement, mmm, as I mentioned earlier I would like to continue making the Board work more transparent so people know not only the outcome but the process, this would be positive to prospective candidates I think. Another thing I feel I could help with is in communication with people, as I said on earlier emails I think my age and personality makes people see me as someone quite accesible and open, this -I think- would help me be a good entry point for people trying to communicate but still a bit shy to do it by other means like mailing the entire Board, of course the idea would be to destroy that shyness and make quite clear that the Board is happy to receive comments and ideas no matter how silly they can sound. greetings Diego ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
