Re: Questions for candidates
Hi Richard, I echo what Allan said. I remark: I would like GNOME to positively influence other projects both propriety and Free Software ones. In my opinion the best way is make GNOME a good example to be, make it reach more people, and promote GNOME as a good solution for the users, being one of its strongest points being a free software platform, but without restricting the users on their software election. Cheers, Carlos Soriano - Original Message - | I'd like to ask the candidates, how do you think GNOME should | contribute more to the advance of free software and users' freedom in | general (in addition to being useful free software). | | -- | Dr Richard Stallman | President, Free Software Foundation | 51 Franklin St | Boston MA 02110 | USA | www.fsf.org www.gnu.org | Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html. | | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to the candidates.
Hi Erick, This is a little difficult to answer, since is a very wide question that resembles "how can we make GNOME better?" which is what all of we try to do, and I'm not sure most part of it is directly fixable by the board, but instead indirectly. Said that, as we know by the nature of GNOME being open source works like that, people works on what they want to work, on something that is fun to work, that's why i.e. Nautilus doesn't have lot of contributors, because it's not a fun app (for me it is fun though =D) to work with, because is old code and it's not new. Then on the other hand, companies pay to work on some GNOME modules, and people work on that even if they are not fun to work with, and that fixes part of the problem. So now I guess the question is, what to do with those specific issues that makes GNOME not "complete" and that free time contributors doesn't work on them because it's not fun, and companies doesn't pay people to work on them? In my candidacy email I stated some of those ideas, the more prominent and known is BountySource, which seems sometimes works, sometimes not (there is a 1000$ bounty for GtkSourceView for a few years now), so that makes me think that BountySource doesn't work for big issues. But then I had the idea of the "GNOME excellency program", inspired on GSOC, which makes a person work on something big and that we consider top priority, paying a little more than GSOC and selecting candidates only if they provide a strong background to complete the task (since as we know GSOC rate of fully completion of tasks are rather small...). In this way we can fix specific long standing issues that could help a lot to reach the "complete" desktop solution we all want. Cheers, Carlos Soriano - Original Message - | Hi: | | First, thanks to all of you for running as directors. | | Currently, GNOME is a strong platform for development, but it's lacking | integration and features to be a complete, fully integrated desktop | environment like Mac OS X, for instance. My question is: | | "What plans do you have to make GNOME a more complete, fully working solution | as desktop environment." | | Cheers, and good luck! | | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question on community to the candidates.
Hi Sri, I think you already know my opinion on this, I completely agree with you, and I think is a serious issue not being able to reach those hobbyist and beginners people that can make the difference in GNOME to stay competitive or vanish. Because now, in my vision, most of new people that wants to participate in a community requires and wants a different set of things than 10 years ago, and if we don't reach those people, GNOME will remain relying on "only" paid people, who were the brave enough at some point to not give up contributing to GNOME, but the usage of GNOME also depends on how hobbyist are attracted to participate and how good our community is, and we need to evolution GNOME contribution platform and community to reach them. The ideas I have in mind to improve the situation are stated in my candidacy email, since as you could observe it is, and has been, a top goal for me. Cheers, Carlos Soriano - Original Message - | It is my impression (and I state impression because I am providing no | data) that GNOME has more reliance on people paid to work on GNOME | than community. I do not question the passion and dedication to those | who are paid on GNOME, I know that they would do it as a community | even if they were not paid. | | If you agree with my impression, what actions do you think would help | increase participation in GNOME? Participation in the core parts of | GNOME is not trivial, and requires an enormous amount of time and | dedication to get to become familiar with the huge codebase that we | have, as well as gain the trust of the maintainer of the module you | are interested in. | | If you disagree with my impression, what makes you believe that it is | not the case? How would you change my mind? I did not bring any data | points, so you don't have to either. I'm more interested in giving | you a biased opinion and I want to know how you would react to it. | | sri | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: Best use of Trademark Fundraiser money?
Hi Andreas, One of the things is an ED, I think everyone agrees here... On the other hand, I have specific items in mind, but I really don't know the drawbacks of them, since I don't know why we didn't do it before. So it needs discussion. I think we have to fix the "where is the money I gave to the foundation went? Did it achieve the goals? How does it affect me directly?" One thing that I had in mind is, show the community that their money is spend in something that directly affects them (and not only long-time developers, like spending the money on GUADEC or so). I really think we have to show that to those people. For example allocating some money for bountysource or so, in this way we can choose some bugs that we think are priority to fix, and we can say "part of your money was spend in this specific thing that will affect directly to you". Another thing I had in mind is a "GNOME excellency program". Read as, a GSOC for one person and directly paid by GNOME. The problem with GSOC is that is only for students. And the "issue" with Outreachy is that is only for women. So the way I imagine it is, one important specific project that people has to "compete" to be elected to do it, and we offer a little bigger amount than GSOC to promote it. In this way we can achieve a specific goal, independent of the person, so here the goal is not to gain new people, but to achieve the goal of the project. In this way we can also say to the community "part of your money was spend in a very great developer, to fix this long-standing issue that directly affects you". I think spending 10% of the money in those initiatives are not that much, and send a message to the community and improves the image of GNOME towards them. But I also believe we need to have a little war chest and I understand big part of the money goes to hackfests, etc. Cheers, Carlos Soriano - Original Message - | Dear candidates. Thank you all for running! | | As part of the GNOME Trademark Fundraiser [1], the Foundation raised | $102 608 USD. | Since the trademark claims from the other part in the issue was | withdrawn, it was never taken to court and the money was never spent on | that. | What, in your mind, is the best use of these funds now? Kept as a War | Chest [2] or spent on something specific? | | 1. https://www.gnome.org/groupon/ | 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_chest | - Andreas | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question for candidates: transparency and accountability
Hi Fabiana, - Original Message - | | | Hi everyone, | | I'd like to hear your thoughts on implementing transparency and | accountability on the Board. | | How transparent the work of the Board should be to Foundation members? What I think the transparency should be complete. Since GNOME relies on money from the community. | should be communicated and when? Do you think we have been transparent | enough in the last term? If not, how can we improve things and how high in I think it should be communicated when something big happens (ED contracted, Hackfests, programs like outreachy, etc.) and then after a fiscal year or so. | your priorities would be to do so? I think the last year in GUADEC GNOME showed a very detailed graphic on expenses, actually it was too complex to understanding it at first in my humble opinion =) I think a good way is a simple graphic with the income/outcome/balance and the important items where the outcome went and if it accomplished the expected result. I could understand that the income can need some privacy (companies that doesn't want to show its name or so?) | | In terms of accountability, it's been unclear to me since joining the | Foundation how much different Board members contribute to the Board's goals | and tasks. Do you think the meeting notes provide enough visibility and | context to the work being done? By the end of a term, how can the Foundation | have a fair understanding of one's contributions to the Board? I think this needs improvement, and I don't have a clear solution without putting more work on the board right now. | | Thanks, | Fabiana | | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | Cheers, Carlos Soriano ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: code of conduct question for Board candidates
Hi Marina, I think we all agree we want a welcome community, and that means searching for the commune divisor and not allowing anything outside that. As far as I saw, all the previous answer from the candidates share the same opinion. I would actually like to have a code of conduct for every part of GNOME, like IRC, Bugzilla, events, etc. And I always though this one https://wiki.gnome.org/Foundation/CodeOfConduct is not enough. But it's true that even if I take seriously any inappropriate language or discrimination, I felt uncomfortable reading the code of conduct of GUADEC 2014, and I think we don't have to substitute law forces, because we are not. I'm thinking something more concise and shorter than the one at GUADEC 2014, with a more friendly language, but expressing a strong position and applicable to all parts of GNOME. I have in mind something like: --- In GNOME we want a friendly community and we require these points from every person involved: - Friendly and polite language. - No discrimination, and respect towards believes, race or gender. - Not inappropriate jokes, images or comments. - In doubt, be always cautious, don't assume the other person thinks like you. Always ask firsts. If you think someone misbehave on the points above described or you feel uncomfortable for any reason, even in something different than those points, don't hesitate to contact the GNOME code of conduct support team or people in charge, we will glad to talk and help you =) Any misbehavior could cause to take any actions from the GNOME code of conduct support team or the people in charge. --- Which also includes taking actions on IRC and Bugzilla towards the people that insult or shows an unfriendly behavior. I think anything else relies in the law authorities (we can't do more than just expel and ban the person, but some actions could require more), and we have to delegate to them everything that surpasses those points... A detailed code of conduct could for one part, suffer the TLDR as Alexander said, and on the other part, limit the actions GNOME can take towards misbehavior that was not thought when the code of conduct was written. i.e. The misbehaving person can say: It's written like this, so you can't take a different action than what is written. Cheers, Carlos Soriano - Original Message - | Hi, | | Thanks to all the candidates for stepping up to run for the board and for all | the work you already do for the Foundation! | | Many free software organizations have adopted codes of conduct for their | events [1] and some for their communities [2]. Detailed codes of conduct | with specific enforcement guidelines signal to newcomers that the community | has high standards of behavior. They give participants who observe or are | subject to inappropriate behavior something to point to that shows that such | behavior is outside of what is expected and guidelines on how to proceed in | getting it addressed. | | What do you think about adopting a detailed code of conduct, similar to the | one used for GUADEC 2014 [3], for all GNOME events and creating a similarly | detailed code of conduct for the GNOME community? | | Thanks, | Marina | | [1] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Adoption | [2] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community_anti-harassment/Adoption | [3] https://2014.guadec.org/conduct/ | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi Karen, - Original Message - | I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has | been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board | have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to | answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few | people on the board have some background in these areas... | | Have you ever done any fundraising? No | | Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I think it would be challenging for me, given that I never did it. | | Have you ever been in a manager role? No | | Do you have any experience talking to reporters? No | | Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is | important? Only socially, like I guess most of us sometime did :) | | karen | | | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | As you can see, I wouldn't be the best in this role on the board, although I like to learn and improve my skills and I would like to try this as well. Cheers, Carlos Soriano ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Board of Directors Elections 2015 - Candidacy - Carlos Soriano
- Original Message - | Hello Carlos, Hello Sebastien | | On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 12:13:10AM +0200, Carlos Soriano Sánchez wrote: | > - New developers (aka newcomers): How many people do you think are | > searching for nice projects to be involved with, live new experiences and | > learn at the same time? | > We need to reach those people (I was one of them), and the first step is | > lowing the barrier to contribution and understanding of the platform. Some | > of the most important projects I want to push here are GnomeLove initiative | > and gnome-builder as a developer tool for Gnome. | | Good initiative. Thanks :) | | But why do you need to be on the Foundation board to achieve that goal? Not necessarily need, I'm already doing it. But being in the board you have a stronger voice an you can make the board take some decisions to improve this as well. But of course, I could just send an email to the board saying "hey, can you take into account this?". But I think that could apply for everything. | | > - Platform "reaproachment": I think the current platform around Gnome is a | > little hidden and difficult to contributors. Initiatives like a Github | > mirror have been taken, but they are only partly good or not enough. We | > need to think about how to be more approachable by the people who are | > already used to other workflows from other open source projects that are | > using famous tools like Github for code, issues, and contribution or | > Wikimedia for the wiki, toolkits like Node.js, etc. without giving up on | > Gnome vision and goals. | | Ditto. Same answer as before. | | > - Focus: We need to focus more and more on the important issues that can | > make Gnome have a bigger impact. Luckily, what I saw on the last years, is | > that Gnome is focused and we are doing well here. But I think there is room | > for improvement, taking some decisions to encourage people to do certain | > things or for example using more projects from outside Gnome with well | > established maintenance and community around it. | | Seems like a good job for the Engagement team. Not all of what I have in mind, but yeah, most part could be delegated to teams, and hope we can help from the board as well taking some decisions on those points. | | > - Community: They want to be listen. They want communication. They want to | > know how we take decisions. We need to improve that communication while | > being focused and loyal to Gnome goals and vision. Example of specific | > solutions I have in mind are: | >*Encouraging maintainers to create short blog posts communicating | > important changes. | | You can write a blog post or start a thread on the desktop-devel list to | try to convince other maintainers. Yep, in my previous blog post on planet Gnome I tried to do that, but hope we can have an agreement on the board for a "maintainer guideline recommendations" for a wider approach, that could help us to improve this issue. It will be more to answer maintainers questions like "How should I communicate this? If I do this change, should I do something to not make the community or users unhappy on the next release? It's okay answer an user like this?", questions that I had myself and I failed to do them the first time, and I already received the backslash... so I hope that developers take them into account to have a better experience with the community and avoid the bad after-feel. | | >*Reach an agreement and explain the way we take decisions both in the | > projects and in the foundation. | | For the Foundation, I think everything is well explained in the bylaws: | https://www.gnome.org/foundation/governance/attachment/bylaws-2/ I was thinking on something more approachable that could answer some specific questions like: - How do you decide to spend the money? - Why you don't spend money on developers? How the board take those kind of decisions and why. | | >*Reach an agreement and explain how to have a voice on Gnome decisions | > in the projects and foundation as well. | | To have a voice for the Foundation, discussions can happen on the | foundation-list, every member can run for the elections to have a much | stronger voice during one year. Or discuss things at conferences and | other places (blog, IRC, …). Does it need more explanation? Or does it | need to be changed? for example the Foundation members currently only | vote for candidates, why not also vote for some of the decisions? Is it | that kind of things that you would like to improve? I discussed this in #engamement, and probably I didn't explain well here. My intention is reach an agreement on how decisions are taken for our projects and what to expect from them. A few examples: explain if the designers has a strong voice and maintainers are expected to take them into account, or how we decide when there is a decision that clash between distros or with other DE's, explain to users how they can be
Re: Question to GNOME Foundation Board candidates
Hi Max, - Original Message - | Hello all, | | First, thanks to all candidates for volunteering to the Foundation Board. | Max come from GNOME.Asia team and thanks GNOME and board support Asia. | | I have 2 questions to all candidates | | 1) How many hours per week do you expect you will be able to dedicate to | working on the board on a regular basis? | In my case I don't know how much time the board will require, and it's a little difficult to say specific hours, since part of what I want to do is part of what I was already doing in my free time. On the other hand I'm flexible on time requirements, and I'm more the kind of person that spend the necessary time to get the job done. | | 2) What's your plan and view with GNOME in Asia? How do you think | about grow GNOME in Asia?( ecosystem / contribute / sponsor / | volunteer ... ) I think the market in Asia is the one that Linux fits more, and there Gnome can be the big player to achieve the adoption by people in Asia. Said that, it is a different culture than mine and what we need is people from there to work with us to achieve more adoption. On the board side what we can do is making sure those people are listen and we fulfill the needs of them (hackfest, sponsorship, etc.) Cheers, Carlos Soriano ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
