Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2010/01/26/gnome-foundation.html
I suppose that I should have applied years ago to be
a member of
the GNOME Foundation. I have served since 2001 as
the Free Software Foundation‘s
representative on
the GNOME
Advisory Board, and have worked hard the last nine years to maintain
a good relationship between the FSF and the GNOME Foundation. Indeed, I
was very glad and willing when FSF asked me to continue to serve in this
role as a volunteer after I left employment of the FSF in 2005.
Regarding actual GNOME Foundation membership, though, I suppose that I
previously felt under-qualified to apply since (a) my personal avoidance
of all things GUI is widely known, and (b) obviously I haven’t
contributed any code or even documentation to GNOME. The most I’ve done
on the development side is the occasional bug report over the years.
Yet, ever since I was finally able to switch the non-technical users in
my life over to GNU/Linux, I’ve been very grateful and supportive for
GNOME and its mission to create a Free Software desktop that everyone
— not just computer geeks — can use effectively.
Meanwhile, Leslie
Hawthorn reminded me recently to stop perpetuating the false
belief that the only useful FLOSS contribution is code and
documentation. I think that it was her point that encouraged me to
apply for GNOME Foundation membership. I was excited to receive my
acceptance this morning.
Many people in the GNOME community already know that I’m a good contact
person if you have any issues that relate to the relationship between
GNOME and GNU or between FSF and GNOME Foundation (these are, BTW, two
clear and distinct sets of relationships). I’ll take this opportunity to
remind everyone that if you ever have a concern related to these
relationships, I am always glad to assist in my diplomatic role between
the two organizations (and projects).
And, of course, as I have for years, I remain available to the GNOME
community for the occasional licensing policy questions and/or GPL
enforcement assistance.
I very much hope to go
to GUADEC this
year, as I have not been in six years! However, I’m a bit worried
about the tight scheduling between it and OSCON (which would mean at
least two and a half weeks away in a row!), but I’ll strive to be
there.