> 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak  
> during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?

I work with Squeak full-time, on OLPC-Etoys, sponsored by VPRI. On  
top of that I usually find a few hours a week to work  in the Squeak  
community, mostly doing email and sometimes even IRC. And I attended  
most board meetings last year :)

> 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not  
> necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year?

Release management, licensing, and incorporating.

> 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected  
> money should be dealt with?

Making Squeak attractive for professional use is necessary to raise  
funding. In turn, the money should primarily be used to sponsor  
developers improving the core and tools.

> 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making  
> SqueakFoundation a not-for-profit legal entity?

It's going slower than we (or I) hoped. Still, I think the Software  
Freedom Conservancy is our best option because we lack the man power  
to incorporate independently. Finishing this requires a fully  
relicensed release.

> 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organising our  
> efforts or should we come up with something else?

The "non-developer" teams like the box admins or the news teams work  
great. For development itself and for the release it has not worked  
out so well. OTOH I cannot think of a better model so I'd attribute  
the shortcomings simply to a lack of time.

> 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the  
> Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite  
> communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc),  
> also referred to as "stakeholder communities"?

Having a stable core release would benefit these communities - so  
that's what we need to focus on. Communication does happen through  
individuals from these communities here on squeak-dev, and for the  
time being I do not see the need for a more formal approach.

> 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you  
> see it evolving over the next few years?

It needs to become more modular. We need a stable core that other  
projects can rely on, which should be evolved with caution (we need  
to establish a decision process for that). And a core release should  
come with (gasp!) documentation.

> 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort?

It is sad that we even have to deal with that - or does anyone  
seriously believe there is code in the image that was not intended to  
be free? Unfortunately, we have to be afraid of malicious lawyers, so  
we have to see this through whatever it takes. I'll be glad when it's  
done.

> 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source  
> world in year 2012?

It should be known as an easy-to-learn yet very powerful programming  
environment.

> 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board?

It should coordinate and lead the community, as well as represent the  
community to the outside.

> 11. What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment  
> for professional software development?

Again, having a rock-solid core for professional development will  
attract developers, and the resulting projects will attract more.

- Bert -