New subject: Why I am stepping down from SqF board and some ramblings (longish)

4 Jan 2006


      Hi guys!
I said I was going to post and explain why I am stepping down, so this
is it. :)
The SqF board is actually functioning pretty good today. The number of
people involved seems about right and it is getting better and better
organized I would say. But of course, we can always do better - there
are plenty of things we intended to do, but simply haven't gotten around
to yet or failed to do.
My reason for stepping down and not going for re-election is simply that
I don't feel I have enough time to spend and that I can spend the little
time I have much better on other things now that the board is in a
"working state".
It is also based on the fact that we *need* to rotate - I am the
"oldest" trying to guide/lead/coordinate (note the emphasis on *trying*,
I don't claim that I ever did a very good job, but I tried) since SqC
and I don't want to be perceived as a "power hungry <insert choice of
word here>" as some have painted me to be.
All the way from the start I have only had good intentions behind trying
to get this community working, and I have had no personal benefits of
any kind through this work (AFAICT).
When the SqF was trying to form and in my view failed miserably (the
closed list was suddenly discussing the website instead of how to
actually form the SqF - and only half hearted at that) I and Cees took
the initiative to "grab" the rudder (the
Castaways/Islanders/Coordinators "coup" or whatever you want to call it)
and I *don't regret it at all* because we actually succeeded:
- We got the Team model in place which seems to be working quite well
despite some team's lack of progress. Personally I find that to be a big
enabler, and I take a little bit of personal pride in it. :)
- We have created a lot of infrastructure (box1 and now box2, website,
file area, domain hosting, source.squeakfoundation.org yaddayadda) which
currently is controlled by our community. This is hard work, believe me,
and Cees, Ken, Bruce, Jason and everyone else involved should have a
great applause for that.
- We have a paypal account with money on it that is used to support that
infrastructure. In other words the community is running itself. And we
have more funds coming into place through the more recent efforts by
especially Stephane Ducasse.
- We have a formal relationship with www.softwarefreedom.org to work on
license issues, currently there is an ongoing effort concerning
cryptography stuff. This is a really good thing.
- We have a real formal entity through ESUG. Sure, in the long run we
should be standing on our own feet. but it is still a great step
forward. Thanks to especially Stephane.
- We have a functioning board today. That is a fact.
...and much more that I am probably forgetting.
But enough of that. What is happening now then? Well, we are keeping our
promise and are stepping down in order to get a more "democratic
footing" in the community. Exactly how this election is going to work is
in the hands of the Election team, but I trust them to come up with a
good solution.
Hopefully we get two new brave souls stepping forward and joining the
current 5 that are working quite hard - yes, I don't deny that I
personally am hoping for the current 5 to be re-elected because they are
still hungry and have already proven that they are doing a good job. But
we will see. :)
Back to my personal focus - I am trying to focus my efforts and having
stepped off the SqF board and also handed over the leadership of the
Network team (now joined with File team and renamed to I/O Team :)) to
Cees, this means I can put my effort in:
- Participation in teams. Website and I/O mainly.
- Maintenance of packages. Especially SqueakMap, KomHttpServer and
Httpview2.
And I will also try to work, simply as a member of our community, on all
the issues listed here:
    http://swiki.krampe.se/castaways/2
That list is still very much valid and a bit forgotten IMHO.
regards, Göran