Below you will find a list of candidates who are running for the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors. A short summary statement from each candidate and a link to their full candidacy announcement is provided to help you learn more about them. We encourage all voters to read the full candidacy statements and related discussions on foundation-list@gnome.org (http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/).

When deciding who you should vote for, please carefully consider the various tasks the Board of Directors must perform. This overview (http://foundation.gnome.org/overview.html) may be helpful. Keep in mind that the board will make a number of important decisions and will also have to perform many tasks which require a significant amount of time and effort and the ability to work and communicate with other people, companies, and the media. The board of directors will represent GNOME to companies and the world in a very real way. It is a good idea to strive for a well-balanced board consisting of people with various backgrounds, skills, and perspectives.

Additional election details can be found at the end of this message and on http://foundation.gnome.org (where you can also find this document).

If you have any questions, please send them to either foundation-list@gnome.org or to us at elections@gnome.org.

The elections committee.

CANDIDATES FOR THE GNOME FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

1. MARTIN SEVIOR
" Now that the push for corporate desktop is on in earnest I believe I can help the GNOME community of volunteer hackers feel empowered by providing a genuinely independent voice on the Board. I can do this because I have no financial stake in any company. I contribute to AbiWord and GNOME for the love of hacking and the desire to be part of the project to make the World's best desktop. "
Affiliation: University of Melbourne.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-October/msg00006.html

2. RICHARD STALLMAN
" I've been working for GNOME since years before there was a GNOME. In 1983, while formulating plans for the GNU operating system, I decided it should include a window system. After two desktop initiatives that didn't pan out, I found Miguel, who launched our third desktop project--GNOME.
As president of the Free Software Foundation and Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project, I have had years of experience working with contributors both individual and corporate. "
Affiliation: Free Software Foundation.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-October/msg00007.html

3. MIGUEL DE ICAZA
" Have been an active contributor to the free software movement since 1992.
Started the GNOME project when various freedom issues arised that would threaten the future of a fully free system.
I am one of the founders of Ximian, one of the GNOME companies, where we employ around 40 GNOME hackers that develop free software.
Have been actively involved for the past year in the development of Mono and the Gtk bindings for C#. "
Affiliation: Ximian.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-October/msg00008.html

4. BILL HANEMAN
" I am active not only in the accessibility project work, but also am actively working with the groups doing Mozilla, OpenOffice, and Java integration with GNOME. My goals for GNOME: a great developer platform, a complete user desktop environment that is not only free but fully accessible to everyone. I am a also Sun Microsystems employee, but would serve as an "individual contributor" and always keep the "big picture" for GNOME paramount. "
Affiliation: Sun Microsystems.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00000.html

5. MIKE NEWMAN
" I'm standing as an independant, experienced committee worker with the international and democratic interests of GNOME as my prime concerns, along with transparent and accessible board activity. Having been involved in GNOME for two years working with the membership committee, and with a great deal of experience in similar roles I feel I have a wide view of GNOME's goals and the capabilities and time to serve as an effective board member. "
Affiliation: None.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00001.html

6. GLYNN FOSTER
" I do GNOME hacking at Sun. I don't do celery. I do motivation and energy. I don't do philosophy, politics or vegemite. I do random documentation. I don't do cucumber. I do weekly release team meetings. I don't do toilet cleaning. I do climbing and beer. I don't do chewing gum. I do opinions, sleep and campus boards. I don't do veruccas. I do mobile phones badly. I don't do cocktails and hard liquor. "
Affiliation: Sun Microsystems.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00002.html

7. BASTIEN NOCERA
" I've been a GNOME developer for more than 2 years now, starting as an independant application developer, and finding myself more and more involved in work on the core desktop.
I have never before been part of such a board, but I understand the requisites for such a position, and will do everything to represent the people voting for me. "
Affiliation: Red Hat.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00003.html

8. MALCOLM TREDINNICK
" Have done a reasonable amount of API documentation, along with writing a few standalone documents aimed at helping developers use GNOME more easily. I am interested in seeing GNOME be pitched as viable desktop platform to developers and would like to see more events such as Sun's developer courses and the tutorials planned for next year's GUADEC. Experience serving on committees both at state and national level. "
Affiliation: None.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00004.html

9. MICHAEL MEEKS
" - Pushing for closer integration with other parts of the desktop; OpenOffice particularly.
- Ensuring that Gnome stays a Meritocracy
- Keeping our vision wider than a file manager and control panel, and on a complete Free software desktop.
- Ensuring the hackers make the coding / code inclusion decisions, the artists make the art / art inclusion decisions, the UI team decide the UI, the i18n team in charge of i18n, and the release team co-ordinating releases. "
Affiliation: Ximian.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00005.html

10. DANIEL VEILLARD
" I am French, long time Gnomer and Linux addict, maintainer of libxml, libxslt and rpmfind. I served on the Gnome Board for two years and I am used to non-profit organizations and the negociations needed to reach consensus in a group. I will focuse on the reuse of standards, internationalization and keeping trust relationship at an individual level. I think those are needed to keep hacking on Gnome fun and getting acceptance in new communities. Growing the foundation to get acceptance by program developpers is the next challenge of the Board. "
Affiliation: Red Hat.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00006.html

11. JAMES HENSTRIDGE
" I am an Australian GNOME hacker. I have been working on the project since 1998, focussing on language bindings (I am maintainer of the Python bindings) and the platofrm libraries (I maintain libglade). I am currently serving on the 2002 board. "
Affiliation: None.
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2002-November/msg00007.html

Ballots will be sent out via e-mail to everyone who's registered to vote on Monday, November 25, to the address provided with registration. If you need to change the address to which you want your ballot sent, please contact elections@gnome.org ASAP. People will vote by returning the ballot via e-mail. A public archive of the ballot returns will be available after the elections end on December 2.

Also, keep in mind that there is a 4-person maximum on the number of people affiliated with any one company that can be on the board: if more than 4 persons from one company get elected, only the top 4 vote getters will get on. You will be able to vote for up to 11 candidates of your choice, with no restrictions, except that you cannot vote more than once for the same candidate.

Additional election-related materials are available at http://foundation.gnome.org.