A lot of people have been joking about me being the "top dog" or "big boss" so I thought I’d point out that I work for the Board of Directors – 7 volunteer, part time directors who are doing a great job of running the GNOME Foundation. My job is to make them and the GNOME Foundation even more successful.
(And I could get 7 new bosses every year …)
I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m a big fan of open source software. I think the GNOME desktop is great and changing the way people interact with technology for the better. But here’s the secret: I really joined the GNOME Foundation because I love the GNOME community.
GNOME is full of passionate people who care not just about technology but about the people that use it and the world they live in. Yesterday I had many conversations about GNOME, current projects, grand ideas for new ones, and technologies. I also had a discussions about saffron, Thailand, how a country becomes a member of the European Union, human rights, banking systems, … all with people that were extremely knowledgeable, had good ideas and wanted to learn more. (I certainly learned lots!)
Here’s a specific example of something I like about the GNOME community. It’s important to them that things be "beautiful." I put beautiful in quotes because I think the GNOME community means much more than pretty when they say "beautiful." I think they mean:
GNOME folks, agree, disagree?