[Squeakfoundation]Some organizational structure ideas

Paul Fernhout squeakfoundation@lists.squeakfoundation.org
Sun, 27 May 2001 17:03:14 -0400


== some organizational structure ideas ===

How about an organizational structure with "chairs" for representing the
following interests (derived from the previous post on community focus):

* education squeakers (Alan Kay?)
* individual-empowerment squeakers (Dan Ingalls?)
* group-empowerment squeakers (Bob Arning?)
* shippable squeakers (Dave Thomas?)
* embedded squeakers (Tim Rowledge?)
* web-services squeakers (Cees de Groot?)
* in-house squeakers (John Sarkela?)
* frontier squeakers (Jecel Assumpcao Jr?)
* singularity squeakers (Paul Fernhout?)
and let me add:
* microbot squeakers (Jon Hylands?)
* intellectual-capital-appreciation squeakers (Jim Spohrer?)
* music squeakers (Danny Oppenheim?)
* AI squeakers (Sam Adams?)
* digital-library squeakers (Les Tyrrell?)

I just tried to fill in slots with an example person off the top of my
head who might be interested -- if you want to play a role or not,
please chime in! In practice, things will be shaped by whoever
participates.

No doubt more "chairs" might be needed in the future to represent the
interests of other subcommunities. Also, there wouldn't have to be a
one-to-one correspondence of board positions to chairs, since these
(overlapping) sub-populations might need different levels of
representation (akin to U.S. House vs. Senate representation). Certainly
education squeakers, individual-empowerment squeakers, and frontier
squeakers are more heavily represented on the Squeak list right now,
although proportional representation might just lock in that demographic
as opposed to support a diverse evolution of the overall Squeak user
population (since the Squeak list so far has been self-selecting for
those groups since those activities are what Squeak is most useful for
right now).

This is just a suggestion to get people talking. Obviously we might
prefer to divide things along other lines (fundraising, education,
technology) or have some sort of matrix. 

The interests and people listed above might end up more as committee
chairs than board members. Like in most organizations, the actual board
might be selected (or emerge) in practice more for experience,
trustworthiness, vision, community visibility, fund-raising ability, and
an iron stomach for cocktail party schmoozing. :-)  
 
-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software 
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com