I’m glad Bryan Clark poked the candidates running for the GNOME Board about the Online Desktop question. The best part was that he took the time to sift through all the answers and derive a nice chart of what he understood from the answers and what he felt needed some further explanation. So, to answer his call…

When I said

I believe that it is not up to the Board to decide on the implementation or even which tools/languages to use, but serve as a facilitator and guiding light to make sure that the project stays on track and focused…

I was stating like many of the other candidates that the Board should be considered a bastion for the GNOME community, developers, contributors and users. Working in unison as much as possible, it should provide the support necessary to make sure ideas and projects come to fruition. I repeat myself when I say that it should not get tangled up in the intricacies of which languages to use but it should have an understanding of the technologies in order to properly help delineate a plan of action.

There was another question asked in the mailing list where I also point out what the Board could do for the community:

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/

I am very excited about the Online Desktop project, as well as other technologies that will allow us to provide a smooth experience to our users such as PackageKit, and as a member of the Board I will strive to reach out to the developers (and community in general) to make sure that ideas can be expressed, discussed, and resources can be properly allocated. Since most of the candidates support the Online Desktop project, no matter who gets elected to the 7 positions, the project and the entire community can expect the Board to put its collective weight behind it!