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.
When deciding who you should vote for, please carefully consider the various tasks the Board of Directors must perform. This overview 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 elections details can be found on the GNOME Foundation Web Site.
If you have any questions, please send them to either foundation-list@gnome.org or to us at elections@gnome.org.
1. Brian Cameron
Affiliation: Sun Microsystems
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00011.html
I am running for the Board because I believe I can help make the GNOME foundation and community successful. The community needs to further outreach to meet the free desktop needs for all people, regardless of income, location, gender, or (dis)ability level. Much progress has been made in making the GNOME the free desktop choice for ISV's, yet I think more can be done to encourage its use as the premier free desktop integration choice.
2. Behdad Esfahbod
Affiliation: Red Hat
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00012.html
I'm running for the Board again because I believe I've learned a lot being on the board this year and have just started to be productive and useful as a board member. I believe that the work the board has to do, while not as fun as hacking, is of extreme importance to the well functioning of GNOME, and I'm willing to put my time where my mouth is.
3. George Kraft
Affiliation: IBM
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00002.html
I think the GNOME desktop is great, and I'm an advocate of the project. I believe that simplicity and ease of use is important for the desktop; however, with my recent GNOME accessibility experience I've learned that usability is multifaceted. I'm not a "rock star" programmer; however, I would like to offer my leader experience as a former LSB chairman. I believe it's important for the board to facilitate the talents of its project members.
4. Og Maciel
Affiliation: rPath
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00004.html
The GNOME Project has allowed me to take my first steps into the world of collaborative projects and long nights of translation sprints. Due to my open minded attitude, I have been able to get involved in many different projects and work with a great number of interesting people.5. John (J5) Palmieri
I am running for the board because I believe GNOME needs to reach out and get more people involved, not just in development of code. We are already really good at that and though there is always room for improvement there are areas that need a bit more push to get going. Areas such as marketing, art and outreach, while having been growing recently, need to be brought up and given more visibility within the community.
6. Lucas Rocha
Affiliation: Nokia
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00008.html
I've been an active GNOME contributor since 2005. Since then I got involved in a bunch of different (technical and non-technical) activities inside the project by maintaining (Eye of GNOME and zenity) and contributing to some of our software modules, co-coordinating projects (Google Summer of Code in GNOME, GNOME Journal, GNOME Roadmap, GNOME Brasil, ...), side-contributing to some teams (Web, Marketing, ...), organizing events, and other misc stuff.
7. Vincent Untz
Affiliation: Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00003.html
I found my way in GNOME five years ago and I never left: I love the project and I love the community. And of course, I care about both too. While my contributions were technical ones at first, I've found out that I enjoy doing non-technical stuff. I believe I understand quite well our community and I can help the Foundation continue to do the right thing for the project.
8. Diego Escalante Urrelo
Affiliation: None
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00007.html
I'm running for the Board because I want to help GNOME in areas where I haven't yet helped, but I feel capable of doing it. I'm totally devoted to GNOME as a project and as a group, I've met wonderful friends thanks to GNOME and learned lots of incredible things. I'm confident that my skills and experience working with people and doing administrative tasks will be useful to the Board.
9. Luis Villa
Affiliation: None
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00010.html
I'll be running again for the Board this year. This will be an unusual candidacy. I will not be running to do various and sundry board tasks; I'll be running to do exactly one thing:
* legal work- a vote for me is a vote that says 'Luis should be the coordinator of all GNOME-related legal issues.'
10. Jeff Waugh
Affiliation: Waugh Partners
Full statement at http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2007-November/msg00001.html
I love GNOME. I am passionate, motivated, and dedicated to building our success, both outwardly - a foot on every desktop; and inwardly - making sure our developer and user communities are rocking all the time. I believe I've earned the trust of the GNOME community to represent it, both as a communicator outside the project, and as a mediator and leader within our community. I am here to help GNOME rock.
Ballots will be sent out via e-mail to everyone who's registered to vote on Sunday, November 25th, 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 as soon as possible. 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 9th.
Also, keep in mind that there is a 2-person maximum on the number of people affiliated with any one company that can be on the board: if more than 2 persons from one company get elected, only the top 2 vote getters will get on. You will be able to vote for up to 7 candidates of your choice, with no restrictions, except that you cannot vote more than once for the same candidate.