Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 4:25 PM, Frederic Peters fpet...@gnome.org wrote: I believe it is clear, from past board actions (e.g. the snowy hackfest) that such services are something we want to encourage, with our money and brand, but it seems we only have few developers engaging with the web, do you think the GNOME foundation should reach out to other communities (Mozilla? Apache? Midguard?) to foster developments in this area? (I am particularly interested in Stormy answer, as a Mozilla insider). (and what do you think the board can do wrt this?) Pretty ping? I think that web services are very important (as I've said before.) I also think we have more people than we think working on them. What we need is an expanded vision for GNOME (or clarified version of what a desktop means) so that everyone can work towards the same vision and we can communicate it to potential partners. I think without an expanded definition/vision, it's very hard to reach out to other communities or companies who might work with us. Stormy ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
I wrote : Bastien Nocera wrote: I'm not sure that administration, hardware, or the likes are the major blockers for this sort of problem. What's really missing is the cloud services themselves. When we do get a cloud service worth offering for the whole of our community, we'll find a way to get past the financial hurdles. Of course we cannot do everything by ourselves, but it has been repeated many times that when something needs to be fixed, no matter the layer, we'll get to fix it properly, this has been notably true when going to layers down the desktop, for example you didn't wait for a kernel hacker to fix the bluetooth stack. I believe it is clear, from past board actions (e.g. the snowy hackfest) that such services are something we want to encourage, with our money and brand, but it seems we only have few developers engaging with the web, do you think the GNOME foundation should reach out to other communities (Mozilla? Apache? Midguard?) to foster developments in this area? (I am particularly interested in Stormy answer, as a Mozilla insider). (and what do you think the board can do wrt this?) Pretty ping? Fred ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
On Fri, 2011-05-27 at 00:27 +0200, Gil Forcada wrote: Everyday more and more services are offered on the cloud and there's also initiatives powered by Free Software (tomboy on-line...). One of the main problems for Free Software projects providing cloud services is the hardware/administration/connection expenses which are mostly a no-go for a Free Software project without any backing from a big corporation. As a member of a the future board will you look for ways to promote and look for resources to offer these free software cloud services? Maybe part of a funding campaign (be a Friend of GNOME and have a Tomboy on-line account for free). I don't have a strong opinion on GNOME's take on this (hence also my late answer). :) GNOME could recommend using free (as in speech) services but must not exclude users from using popular closed services either. A (naive?) idea could be to highlight those services being free in online service account creation dialogs that exist in GNOME. With regard to hosting services ourselves we might miss developers (as fredp pointed out), and input from the infrastructure team is required on potential hardware limitations that we might run into by providing more services ourselves. While a service provided by GNOME should be free (as in both speech and beer) it could still create some revenue by either advertising Friends of GNOME and values of freedom, or also by providing additional paid services (but that's rather up to its developers and maintainers IMO). andre -- mailto:ak...@gmx.net | failed http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper | http://www.openismus.com ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
Le jeudi 26 mai 2011 à 21:02 -0400, Shaun McCance a écrit : I think Tomboy Online is awesome. I think we should provide more online services ourselves. I also think there's nothing wrong with charging money for providing a service. Maybe the foundation can't do it as a non-profit. Maybe we need to have a commercial front as well. I don't know. But it's something we should all talk about. (Speaking as a complete newbie as regards US law about nonprofits.) I don't think being a nonprofit is an issue here. You can charge users for the service you provide, and even use potential benefits in other areas of your activities (hackfests, employees...). But of course you can't get that money out of the foundation (members are not shareholders). So I'd say there's no problem with setting up online services that users would pay for (or only some of them, e.g. above a certain amount of GB used). But I guess the current directors can give more details about the law aspect of it. Regards ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
On Fri, 2011-05-27 at 00:27 +0200, Gil Forcada wrote: Hi members, Everyday more and more services are offered on the cloud and there's also initiatives powered by Free Software (tomboy on-line...). One of the main problems for Free Software projects providing cloud services is the hardware/administration/connection expenses which are mostly a no-go for a Free Software project without any backing from a big corporation. As a member of a the future board will you look for ways to promote and look for resources to offer these free software cloud services? Maybe part of a funding campaign (be a Friend of GNOME and have a Tomboy on-line account for free). I'm not sure that administration, hardware, or the likes are the major blockers for this sort of problem. What's really missing is the cloud services themselves. When we do get a cloud service worth offering for the whole of our community, we'll find a way to get past the financial hurdles. Cheers ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
Gil: On 05/26/11 17:27, Gil Forcada wrote: Hi members, Everyday more and more services are offered on the cloud and there's also initiatives powered by Free Software (tomboy on-line...). One of the main problems for Free Software projects providing cloud services is the hardware/administration/connection expenses which are mostly a no-go for a Free Software project without any backing from a big corporation. Thanks for the great question. The GNOME community already provides a lot of great on-line services ranging from source code control systems, a CRM system, and a significant web presence. So, I think it is important to recognize that this is not something completely new. The main development is that such services seem to be more end-user focused rather than developer focused. I helped in these efforts by helping to push the Tomboy Online hackfest in the past year. One challenge that has been hampering efforts in this vein has been the fact that GNOME's server hardware has been aging. Over the past couple of years, the board has been working with the community to address these issues, but there is more to do. As a member of a the future board will you look for ways to promote and look for resources to offer these free software cloud services? Maybe part of a funding campaign (be a Friend of GNOME and have a Tomboy on-line account for free). Most specific decisions on how to run Friends of GNOME and do such promotion is handled by GNOME Marketing Team. Many board members are a part of the Marketing Team, so there is some overlap. I am supportive of any campaign to improve the presence of GNOME and free software online services. Brian ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
Bastien Nocera wrote: I'm not sure that administration, hardware, or the likes are the major blockers for this sort of problem. What's really missing is the cloud services themselves. When we do get a cloud service worth offering for the whole of our community, we'll find a way to get past the financial hurdles. Of course we cannot do everything by ourselves, but it has been repeated many times that when something needs to be fixed, no matter the layer, we'll get to fix it properly, this has been notably true when going to layers down the desktop, for example you didn't wait for a kernel hacker to fix the bluetooth stack. I believe it is clear, from past board actions (e.g. the snowy hackfest) that such services are something we want to encourage, with our money and brand, but it seems we only have few developers engaging with the web, do you think the GNOME foundation should reach out to other communities (Mozilla? Apache? Midguard?) to foster developments in this area? (I am particularly interested in Stormy answer, as a Mozilla insider). Thanks, Fred ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
Cloud computing actually represents the future of innovation, Let's not be so quick to proclaim a future that we might want to avoid. Cloud computing is a nebulous term; it means using Internet servers. There are many ways to use servers; some pose ethical problems and some don't. Even if the server is running all free software, it might do various bad things to its users -- or it might not. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html for a discussion of one issue that applies to some network services. There are other issues too. People should think carefully before using an Internet service, and should consult their consciences before developing one. So it would be wise to avoid terms such as cloud computing that encourage making a blanket decision, without considering the issues of each case. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/ ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: Question to candidates: on-line services
On Fri, 2011-05-27 at 00:27 +0200, Gil Forcada wrote: Hi members, Everyday more and more services are offered on the cloud and there's also initiatives powered by Free Software (tomboy on-line...). One of the main problems for Free Software projects providing cloud services is the hardware/administration/connection expenses which are mostly a no-go for a Free Software project without any backing from a big corporation. As a member of a the future board will you look for ways to promote and look for resources to offer these free software cloud services? Maybe part of a funding campaign (be a Friend of GNOME and have a Tomboy on-line account for free). Yes. :) I think we all recognize that we need to integrate with more online services. We don't need to provide them all, but we should provide some. For things we don't provide, I think we should do what we can to pressure service providers to respect users. At the very least, users need to own their own data, and be able to get it without restriction. We don't have to do this alone. I think Tomboy Online is awesome. I think we should provide more online services ourselves. I also think there's nothing wrong with charging money for providing a service. Maybe the foundation can't do it as a non-profit. Maybe we need to have a commercial front as well. I don't know. But it's something we should all talk about. -- Shaun ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
